First off, let me apologize in advance for my friends that live and/or grew up in Boston – you can’t help it; I still love you guys.
Anyway – after watching the umpteenth ESPN report on Bill Belichick and the New England Patriot I’ve finally had it. Actually I probably had it this past summer when the Yankees vs. Red Sox reduced the rest of the civilized world to afterthoughts; or maybe when the Minnesota Timberwolves decided to save Danny Ainge’s job. Yes the Boston sports teams are good, but do I have to hear about them every waking moment? It seems that we went from the Boston media whining about “The Curse” to being totally inundated with Boston is great sports stories 24/7. Yes, the adulation is deserved, their teams are on a run that is ridiculous, but the national media too often seems like national means New York and Boston and some other cities.
Take this weekend’s game versus the Jets. The Patriots are 3 touchdown plus favorites to win This is a game that no one should be paying attention to. But add a little spygate redux and the game is dominating the NFL coverage on ESPN. It’s a game that no one should care about, but ESPN tells us we should. Wait until the Patriots play the Dolphins – undefeated vs. winless – we’ll be hearing about that all week. It’s just too much.
I think part of the problem is that too many of the writers, editors, researchers, etc. come from the Boston area and are fans of the teams there. They have succeeded in making Boston the center of the known universe (or at least broadcasting their belief that that is so). So essentially we get incomplete sports coverage shoved down our throats. I remember when ESPN was actually good; when it wasn’t just slam dunk, “booya”, touchdown, “jacked up”, HR, “en fuego”. Now it’s just about creating stories and whoring products. And if the stories just happen to showcase a Boston team – then all the better.
Yes some of this is sour grapes. I live here in Philadelphia where our sports teams basically suck. We’re in a streak that makes the Red Sox curse a non-story . 25 years without one of 4 teams winning a championship – multiply that out and you get a 100 seasons of futility. Yet I don’t see Will Smith producing a documentary whining about it like Ben Afleck did.
Anyway, I guess it could be worse; the Bruins could win something.