From the bleachers – ESPN: Sprts news without highlights

By Ryan Kuhn
The Guardsman

One of my favorite things to do especially after a long day of school or work is to watch sports highlights. Whether it is sitting on the couch, laying in bed, or sitting at my desk while finishing up some work, I immediately grab my remote control and turn on ESPN.

After watching 10 minutes I realize I have seen a total of two highlights, heard about what the entire Boston Red Sox team ate for dinner and how they despise New York and also realize they have been talking about Week 9 of the National Football League for over two hours when the games happened almost a week ago!

If I wanted simple game scores and useless sports commentary I would watch the local news and wait for the sports report in lasts 10 minutes of the broadcast. Basically, ESPN, you have been replaced.

There are many things that have irritated me with this channel.

Perhaps the biggest and most popular of their programs is Sportscenter, a daily sports news show that has become their flagship. Since its creation in 1979 it has shown scores and highlights for football, baseball basketball, the Olympics and even some smaller sports but as the years progressed the amount of highlights have diminished significantly. One highlight per game and the score while Stewart Scott speaks nonsense is not informative.

I also don’t understand how this channel can talk about football all year long. Granted that the entire football season including preseason and up to the Superbowl is a total of seven months but I really don’t care what Bret Favre is doing in April, whether or not he is going to retire, or how fast Tim Tebow ran in training camp.

That because in April, baseball is getting underway and the network should be catered to its fans, not the athletes that pay for airtime like a two hour special press conference on what team Lebron James will sign with.. and then talking about his decision for the rest of his night.

For those who do not know, ESPN’s headquarters are in Bristol, Connecticut. Besides the headquarters nothing is in Bristol but because of its New England location the producers decided to adopt the Red Sox as their home team. They spend more time talking about the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry, and showing Sunday night baseball with Boston and New York, than I have ever seen. It’s like teams west of the Mississippi River do not exist.

With ESPN’s shows being biased and down right garbage I have found a solution. Local sports channels like Comcast Sports and also digital channels (for those who are fortunate to have them) like the MLB Network have been fine replacements. They have more highlights, hit local teams and most importantly are not biased!

So sports fans when you decide you need your daily fix of highlights and news, click over ESPN, unless you are a Red Sox fan.