I was a young, innocent Freshman at Syracuse University when I sat down for my first class in film school. The failed writer/director, known as my professor, started class with this sickening statement:
“Film school will ruin your enjoyment of watching movies forever.”
I was horrified. The reason I went to film school was because I loved movies. And now it was going to be ruined? No, it couldn’t happen, it couldn’t- I thoroughly enjoyed going to the movies and, often times, movies really made me ponder such important themes like fate, fatherly love, or how a young hockey team that just won a championship against the entire world could now not even beat their high school’s Varsity team. And at this moment, I was apparently losing it all.
Well, after I had contemplated immediately jumping out the window and running to a nice and safe Poly-Sci degree, I stuck around for four years. And you know what, that professor was right. Now I watch movies and all I can think about is ‘why did they make that cut there? Did they have nothing else to cut away to?’ OR ‘Are we in the 3rd act now, where’s the all is lost moment?’ OR ‘Wow, they wasted two hundred grand putting this song in the movie’- it goes on and on. I rarely even go to the movies anymore. All I do is watch the Law and Order Franchises and laugh at the latest ADA Dick Wolf must be sleeping with.
But it wasn’t until just recently that I realized that another one of my true loves was being ruined as well. Film school had done the same thing to me with movies that the Mainstream Sports Media was doing to me with Sports.
Ever since Barry Bonds hit 73 Home Runs, the Mainstream Sports Media only seems to have one angle on every story: steroids. And everyone writes a performance enhancing drugs story, even if it isn’t warranted. 41-year-old Olympic Swimmer Dara Torres was accused of taking something illegal by almost everyone in the Mainstream Media. I couldn’t even enjoy a great story like that about someone who inspires people that I have nothing in common with- because all I’m thinking about are performance enhancing drugs. I can’t even go to a Dodger Game and enjoy a Home Run. Instead, I’m studying the player’s biceps and assuming he’s on something.
Frankly, I got sick and tired of baseball five years ago when ESPN led every Sportscenter with a BALCO story. I just couldn’t take it anymore. Dan Patrick’s radio show turned into him talking about how no one wanted to talk about Steroids anymore- by incessantly talking about it!
Baseball was my first love- I studied the backs of my Topps and Donruss Baseball Cards until I had figured out who had the most Home Runs in the 80’s or how many Yankees were born in January- I played catch with my father every night until I blamed my errors on the lack of light- I fell asleep every summer night listening to Phil Rizzuto not call the game in front of him, but talk about the nice old lady he met on his way to the ballpark that afternoon… But now Baseball is virtually ruined for me. The more I paid attention to the Mainstream Media’s coverage of sports, rightly so or not, the less enjoyment I got out of it.
And I’m not saying I want it back to the olden days where sports journalists kept Athletes’ dark sides hidden from the general public- I love the annual Matt Leinart story just as much as the next guy- but the main difference is that that story mainly makes its rounds on Sports Blogs, where Bloggers have no limitations and always have to try to find the next big story or give the next unique opinion. Sports Blogs are almost forced to forget about yesterdays headline and come up with new material constantly- or else they lose their readership and their good name.
There seems to be almost an infinite amount of interesting stories out there- but networks like ESPN and mainstream newspapers don’t ever seem to search for the next story- they just keep banging on what everyone else is covering until they’ve just straight up killed it and almost ruined sports for me. I turn on Sportscenter because I want to hear original analysis and I want to see highlights- I don’t want to listen to people talk about Brett Favre for the first 20 minutes of every show. And if I wanted a so-called “hard news” story like steroids, I’d turn on CNN or just watch Outside the Lines.
Maybe that’s why Will Leitch- or Jesus or whoever- invented Sports Blogs. Sports Blogs are for the guys who ESPN ruined. Guys like me.