ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports routinely attract tens of millions of unique visitors each month, but alternative websites that most sports fans have never heard of are quickly catching up.
Those alternative websites generally get grouped together in a diverse group of websites known as sports blogs. They range in terms of variety from sports news aggregators like Deadspin, a site that receives upwards of ten million unique hits each month, to humor sites with obscenity warnings like Kissing Suzy Kolber, a blog that makes fun of all things NFL.
The problem sports blogs face is they all share the same title: sports blog. Legitimate blogs suffer from the stereotype that all bloggers live in their mother’s basement in Albuquerque wearing only underwear.
“Deadspin and Kissing Suzy Kolber are sports blogs. What each of them are trying to accomplish is totally different from the other. Deadspin tries to maintain a semblance of accountability and truth-telling while KSK just wants to make you laugh and doesn't really care about the facts. So how can we truly apply the same rules and expectations to both of them?” says Sean Keeley who runs a Syracuse blog called “Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician.”
“Making that delineation is what the next step of sports blog acceptance is going to be about,” says Keeley. His site which garners 60,000 unique hits each month, is already gaining acceptance from one media member.
Brent Axe of Syracuse.com says he’s in frequent contact with Keeley and other SU bloggers, “I would define [our relationship] as very good. I communicate on a regular basis with a lot of Syracuse bloggers and am a big fan of [TNIAAM, 3 Idiots on Sports, Orange-44] and a few more.”
Other main streamers haven’t been so nice. A year ago, ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd asked his listeners to unleash a DNS attack on The Big Lead, a well known sports blog.
On top of Cowherd’s wrongful assault is the fact he asked his listeners to attack the wrong site. Deadspin criticized him for something he said, not TBL which shut down for several days while TBL’s technical staff fixed the server.
ESPN’s ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber criticized Cowherd’s actions and said future events like Cowherd’s will come with a stiff penalty. She agreed with readers who wrote to her calling Cowherd, “immature, irresponsible, arrogant, malicious, destructive, and dumb.”
While many main streamers continue to criticize sports blogs, the continuous war between blogs and the main stream media has died down in Philadelphia.
Several sites have landed interviews with Philadelphia 76ers’ GM Ed Stefanski. One of those sites, The 700 Level is the most visible alternative sports site in Philadelphia.
Co-editor of the site Matt Pesotski says the response the site has received fro
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2 months ago
Very good read Jameson. I hadn't heard about the Cowherd incident. I think I'd have to pay him a visit...
Nice work!
from 2 months ago
Yeah it was very disgusting to me what Cowherd did. I enjoy the fact that sports blogs refer to him as a Schrutebag.
about 1 month ago
Great to hear that BR is moving more mainstream, and has the plans to be able to have BR writers covering sporting events. Fans do want to hear about the "fan perspective" and that is one thing that Bleacher Report is accomplishing with its site and content.
Great story!
from about 1 month ago
Yeah its great to see writers are having success here sitting in the press box and turning out fantastic stories to read. I hope in the near future I can grab a pass for a college basketball event or too.
B/R's relationship with Fox Sports is great too. It allows writers to get great exposure and relationships.
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