MLB, NBA & NFL: Fans Wake Up, Gossip Isn't News for America's Sports Pages

June 24, 2008: Sportscenter's lead story is a gossip Web sites' grainy video of Phoenix Suns C Shaquille O'Neal inside of a New York City club performing an "impromptu" rap.

April 1, 2008: Mike and Mike  discuss photos of Cardinals QB Matt Leinart with women in his personal residence enjoying beers.

May 15, 2008: The Sporting News Web site has commentary on photos of Titans QB Vince Young drinking tequila at a party shirtless.

The list of stories similar to these goes on ad nauseam. Just pick up the paper, turn on the computer or the television and everyday there are stories popping up centered around the private lives of athletes. Stories filled with questionable photos, disturbing revelations and extremely private information.

Athletes have become the most recent fodder for gossip with media shifting from not only covering events, games and sports information but also reporting on the off the field actions of American sports personalities.

ESPN, sports talk radio and even major newspapers are beginning to look more like TMZ, Perez Hilton and US Weekly than the true sports outlets that America needs. The "sports blogosphere" deals heavily in user submitted content and digging up dirt on the most popular personalities of the day.

In a day and age when people are playing more sports, knowledge is more readily available and more games can be watched than ever. It's incredibly comical and problematic that gossip is what permeates our news media.

This morning as the Shaq story was beamed into my bedroom I wondered, why was this news? Why was Scott Van Pelt telling me about this garbage? 

I want scores. I want highlights. I want quotes pertaining to the game and then during my rising anger I realized the bulk of today's casual fans aren't like me. 

Me pointing the finger at Van Pelt, ESPN, Fox Sports, TSN or the Blogs isn't the answer, it's not their fault that trash from grocery store gossip rags is their lead story. If ESPN, Deadspin or The Big Lead didn't report this information people would find out about it at The Dirty, Perez Hilton or some other celebrity gossip site.

Sports media is being forced to succumb to this sickening disease of hearsay by us, the consumers of sports media. As a collective group our power lies in the ability to dictate to media outlets which stories are important to us.

We have the power to greatly influence the products presented to us; America's sports providers put on what we want to see. That isn't an overstatement or a guess it's a fact obvious in the NHL, College Baseball, Soccer and Olympic sports getting such little run in major sports outlets.

TV shows, papers and sites get heavy traffic, do crazy numbers and sell a ton of advertising by putting the stories folks care about on their sites and in their pages. For a large portion of America what's important isn't the score of the game, the amazing play or the strategy associated with the game. 

No, for this group of fans the glamorization and destruction of athletes is what lures them to sports sites. They're looking to find something to idolize or something to chastise and it's up to ESPN, Deadspin and the like to provide the ammunition.

The sports sections has become yet another forum for people to read about who is dating who and who got a DUI. Media only reports what people want to hear and the fact that DUIs, trips to Mexico and athlete sightings are more important than zone defenses, coaching philosophies and depth charts, says a lot about the American athletic climate.

This stuff isn't sports news and the American infatuation with athletes' personalities off the field has, at times, reduced great media personnel such as Michael Wilbon, Dan Patrick and Mike Tirico to gossip peddlers. 

Articles such as Matt Leinart doing beer bongs, Vince Young drinking Patron or Shaq freestyling are not sports stories. The quicker sports fans stop salivating over press releases of their ilk, the quicker sports can get back to what it should be: competition, heart, toughness and determination and NOT celebrities, camera phone photos, police reports and rumors

Hopefully this happens sooner than later because right now it's sad. There are kids who can't read a box score, much less keep score of a baseball game but they can tell you who Tony Romo dates and where he went for vacation.

America's sports fans care more about the gossip than the games.