The week of Nov. 17, 2019 will always be remembered, in my mind at least, as the week when sports media got bored.
Sports media networks wasted their time covering the tryouts of potential backup NFL quarterbacks and washed up NBA superstars. The likes of ESPN, Bleacher Report and Fox Sports were sucked into the barrage of irrelevant sports news. That all began with Colin Kaepernick.
Last Wednesday, on Nov. 13, the 32-year-old quarterback was invited by the NFL to an open tryout at the Atlanta Falcon’s facilities, giving him a chance to show of his arm talent for NFL teams’ scouts in hopes of earning a contract.
Kaepernick has not seen NFL-game action since 2016, a season in which he led the 49ers to a 1-10 record while sustaining a quarterback rating 39.1 points below the league average, making Kaepernick a backup-caliber quarterback.
ESPN spent several 30-minute-long segments of its overly popular debate show “First Take” discussing the tryout Monday and Tuesday. This was followed up by Fox sports’ own debate show, “Undisputed,” debating the events that occurred at the future backup quarterback’s tryout. Media networks missed out on debating the NFL’s best storylines, such as the MVP debate raging between Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson and the heart-crushing loss the Los Angeles Chargers suffered on Monday night football. But instead, they focused their attention to the, at the moment, irrelevant Kaepernick quarterback tryout.
The Kaepernick news was quickly followed by washed up superstar Carmelo Anthony abruptly and confusingly grabbing ESPN and Fox’s headlines Monday as he officially signed a contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Anthony had not seen NBA-game action since Nov. 8, 2018, when he was averaging 13.4 points and 0.5 assists as a member of a sinking 4-6 Houston Rockets team. Anthony was cut before receiving a chance to play for the Trail Blazers.
The news of Anthony’s signing dominated social media, ESPN, Bleacher Report and the world over. ESPN and Bleacher Report’s social media accounts tweeted out highlights of Anthony’s past prime and unimportant information including what jersey number Anthony will wear and when he will make his debut. This was all the coverage sports media can muster in two days before the below NBA average shooting guard, Anthony, makes his return to the league.
ESPN and Fox sports tend to not make mistakes, or at the least, only commit a few each year. However, the week in sports was too great to waste precious airtime on a below average quarterbacks’ tryout to return to the NFL and a washed-up superstar playing in hopes of reliving former glory he once attained.
Since Nov. 16, the day of Kaepernick’s tryout, the NFL, NBA and NHL have combined to play 78 games. Seventy-eight games that will affect things like playoff races and MVP voting come January and April. But instead of covering the countless storylines college and professional sports produce, the likes of ESPN, Fox and CBS have spent their resources, time and effort on how many shots 35-year-old Anthony will take in his TrailBlazer debut.
So, sports media companies of the world, my advice to you, as a sophomore journalism major at St. Bonaventure University, think before you decide what news to cover because personally, I would rather wake up next week to find Steven A. Smith trying to strangle Max Kellerman over a debate of who is going to lead the NBA in scoring this season than what shoes Anthony is going to wear while sitting on the Trail Blazer’s bench.
By John Pullano, Sports Editor
pullanjj18@bonaventure.edu
