ESPN Says Good-Bye to Its Voice of Reason

Yesterday marked the last column on espn.com for the WorldWide Leader’s OmbudsWOMAN Le Anne Schreiber. (It’s okay if you need to tear up. Here, have a tissue.)

In her farewell address, Schreiber attempted to sum up the majority of the fan complaints she has received the past two years.

“Accusations of arrogance were implicit in the many complaints I received about specific anchors who imposed their personalities on the news, announcers who elevated their own chatter over the game at hand, commentators who leapt to the absolute in a single shout, columnists who heaped scorn on minor sports or minor markets, and the relentless corporate “me, me, me” of multiplatform cross-promotion.”

Translated into more specific, sportsfan terms:

“Accusations of arrogance were implicit in the many complaints I received about specific anchors who imposed their personalities on the news (Stu Scott, Scott Van Pelt), announcers who elevated their own chatter over the game at hand (Mike Patrick, Dave O’Brien, Jon Miller, and Joe Morgan), commentators who leapt to the absolute in a single shout (Neil Everett, Stephen A Smith), columnists who heaped scorn on minor sports or minor markets (Gene Wojo, Steve Phillips - if Phillips knew how to write), and the relentless corporate “me, me, me” of multiplatform cross-promotion (ESPN being ESPN, Mike and Mike, ESPN being ESPN).”

Even though another person will replace Schreiber in the ombudsman role soon enough, it’s tough to imagine he or she will be as objective and blunt as Schreiber. It’s not that we’ve read all of her columns, but anyone who writes the following is an example of one who walks with head firmly out-of-ass:

“When a sports media empire repeatedly turns fans off some of sports’ most talented players, both established and emerging, something is wrong. And yet the message from fans that I have found hardest to impress upon ESPN’s executives and talent is this: The predictable day-after-day dominance on ESPN of certain marquee teams and players is making a lot of fans both heartsick and cynical.”

Thanks, Le Anne. We’ve been at that point for the majority of the decade - and ESPN never seems to hear us.###MORE###

1958 - The Dodgers announce they will not bring back world renowned circus performer and clown Emmett Kelly. For the life of us, we cannot believe the club would do such a thing.

1962 - Thomas Ian Griffith, the man who brought to life one of the great sports movie villains of all time - Terry Silver in Karate Kid III - is born.

1995 - Michael Jordan announces his return to the NBA after 17 months away from the game. Not surprisingly, the Bulls soon won three straight championships.

In honor of the arrival at the end of the road for ESPN’s Ombudswoman, we look back at a column looking at some of LeAnne Schreber’s fictional diary.

Diary of an Ombudsman
Josh Bacott - August 2007

“I couldn’t bring myself to say this in the column I posted, but Skip Bayless is a complete monkey.  Man, he was blabbing about something today on Cold Pizza that was so idiotic that I had to switch over to the Price is Right. They’re literally paying me to watch their network and I just can’t do it when Bayless is talking. “

Notre Dame center Luke Harangody / Buzz from Home Alone

The Media Circus celebrates March Madness with, what else? Crap that actually came from the mouths of ESPN’s finest college analysts.

Julie Adelsberger is able to resist the charms of a certain relief pitching playboy and instead induct him into the JSF Tool Shed.