The Sports Blogosphere and Today’s Latest News

By: D.K. Wilson

And finally, as a tie-into relevant headlines of today, what’s really wrong with the sports blogosphere…

Because it, like the mainstream sportswriting landscape is filled with and run by far, far too many utterly soulless white people.

Because you - the utterly soulless ones - demand that everyone think and perceive just like you.

Because there are too many black people who acquiesce to your perceptions.

Because you know they mimic you and therefore look like aping buffoons.

Because - Jason Whitlock - Brady Quinn’s Wonderlic score was 28.

Because people like you gleefully misreported Chris Leak’s Wonderlic score.

Because Leak actually answered 8 out of 12 questions correctly on a practice test.

Because Chris Leak graduated early from the University of Florida.

Because “hip-hop” does not celebrate murder, ignorance, and incarceration.

Because the owners of the major record companies tell young black men that this is the way to make millions while “keeping it real.”

Because money means more than self-worth and maintaining a sense of honor.

Because Whitlock stated that, “A white guy showed me how to do it [write about race].”

Because Michael Wilbon said he modeled his career after the same white columnist.

Because there were few mainstream black sportswriters for them to read when they were young.

Because they forgot.

Because that’s the easiest way to succeed.

Because complex thinking is a threat to your way of life.

Because you in the blogosphere are actually the mainstream - the mainstream without a face.

Because too many of you know little of what you watch.

Because of the misnomer that “anyone” can write - or write sports.

Because you fail to understand that because of the takeover of newspapers by the corporate world, the bottom line is more important than the news itself - and that includes sports.

Because you fail to comprehend that when corporate news happens people like you become “journalists.”

Because that means inexperienced people are thrust into writing positions of meaning before they are ready.

Because they fail to understand that “J-school” is just learning another trade and is part and parcel of “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” (buy the book, assholes, you might just learn why you’re so fucking brainwashed and don’t realize that you are…)

Because I know you probably won’t buy the book.

Because, after all, I just offended your sensibilities and over-inflated sense of self.

Because my use of profane language means you have a built-in excuse not to listen to the message tied to it.

Because who am I to invade your safe little cocoon and suggest that you are being “dumbed down” by people who seek to exert control over every aspect of your life?

Because your sense of entitlement is tied to that narrow worldview to which you hold so dearly.

Because to make people read about an event that potentially millions of them watched the day or night before and do it well requires that you have some life experience beyond a degree in journalism.

Because one day there will be diplomas for football and basketball and baseball if we’re not careful.

Because sportswriting should reflect the amalgamation of your experiences not the number of credits it took to graduate with a b.s. B of A.

Because spinning a yarn out of the fabric that is the game demands that you can cull from your life experiences to knit the game’s pieces together.

Because watching a game is like watching people live life right before your very eyes.

Because it really does take living to understand that there really is an explanation for every action.

Because that means you must truly understand what it means to win - and especially to lose.

Because that means there must be a time when not everyone gets a trophy just for participating.

Because humor is used to augment a story, not become the story, or become an excuse to obscure the fact that you really have no idea how to explain what you just witnessed.

Because it takes more than snark to ask the right questions and to truly understand that athletes are human.

Because there are so many black athletes and secretly you hate that they make more money than you do despite your degree.

Because those same athletes and the ones growing up are afforded too many of the privileges you thought were just meant for you.

Because some of those black athletes demand the right to be assholes and still be respected for what they do.

Because that’s the privilege you have being white and growing up with more creature comforts than they ever knew existed - except the extravagant amenities they see that you have when they watch you on their rented televisions.

Because there’s more than just Driving While Black.

Because there’s Shopping While Black, Eating While Black, and Walking While Black.

Because you demean us for Talking While Black.

Because your sense of privilege is an affront to everyone not you.

Because blogging, for you, is an exercise in self-indulgence not an exploration of self or a sharing of perceptions and ideas.

—————–

Because the government will wrongly attack steroids and HGH but not examine Tim Donaghy’s ties to organized crime.

Because steroids and HGH do have a place in sports – and society.

Because Tim Donaghy is tied to organized crime.

Because he was not placing his bets in Las Vegas.

Because that might lead to a reality we do not want to discuss – in the NBA, sports in general, and especially not in government.

Because that makes Arlen Specter’s futile pursuit of the machinations behind “Spygate” a necessary obfuscation.

Because China is a Communist country.

Because we would never participate in an Olympics held in Cuba.

Because your shoes or clothes – or American flags - aren’t made in Cuba.

Because all of that and more is made in China.

Because you don’t give a damn as long as you can buy yours.

Because that’s just fine for you.

Because to you, Matt Walsh is right just because it’s post 9/11 and the accident of the Patriots coming out of the tunnel as a team that became hyperbolized into a metaphor for post-Twin Towers America - and all the people who were and continue to be sacrificed there - is long forgotten in your aspartame-riddled minds.

Because you have no clue as to how a professional football team is run.

Because in the tight hierarchy that makes up an NFL team, he would never, ever talk to coordinators about what he taped.

Because the third assistant can only speak with his boss, not the head coach or offensive coordinator or his assistant - or the quarterback.

Because in your fantasies Matt Walsh is you.

Because you hate the fact that Cedric Benson hasn’t “lived up” to your expectations and can buy a $147,000 boat.

Because he “should be” working out.

Because the policeman said he was being an uppity nigger.

Because Cedric Benson and his friends are friends and lovers with pretty white girls and not the policeman - and certainly not you.

Because nothing would please you more if Vince Young was gay.

Because it makes you feel more of a man to feel more of a man if you and your buddies can call Young a “fag.”

Because it makes him no longer a Superman.

Because you no longer have to wonder how Jeff Garcia can hook up with a Playmate.

Because it excuses all your drunken Bacchanalian acts.

Because you invested too much into Peyton Manning’s mere presence as being responsible for turning Marvin Harrison into a “white” black man.

Because Tony Dungy isn’t black, not really.

Because the real reason O. J. Mayo is in the position he is in is actually very simple.

Because it has nothing to with graft or greedy black agents or black “middlemen” or black “runners.”

Because O. J. Mayo came from less-than nothing.

Because O. J. Mayo has handled himself with more aplomb than he should have for a young, poor black youth.

Because aplomb is reserved for white boys.

Because - simply - six years ago there was no age limit rule.

Because you don’t know and wouldn’t want to believe if you knew that the original middleman, runner, influence peddler - the “Original Weed” - is Jim Goldstein, not William Wesley.

Because Bill Duffy is today taking heat for unspeakable acts committed by David Falk - over a decade ago.

Because you pray every day that Barry Bonds never plays baseball again.

——————-

Because the world is yours to the point where you can…

go from being a blogging postgraduate student whose sole stated want is to undergo self-examination, use basketball as a metaphor for that alleged self-check, be misperceived as someone who actually understands the game of hoops, and have your Internet friends hire you so that, after the game is done, you can steal from broadcasters and embellish that thieving with what amounts to a gross mischaracterization of the team you are describing:

“This Lakers’ win was perhaps the biggest statement of this year’s postseason. It sets them apart from all the other teams (potentially) headed to the conference finals — even Detroit, which was clearly superior to Orlando. More importantly, the Lakers have size, experience, athleticism and energy, meaning they match up well with either the Spurs or Hornets,”

and, like your cohort, have the oldest mainstream sports publication in the U.S. call it “exclusive analysis” - and get paid for doing it.

Because instead of seeking to improve upon what already exists from the worst – and the best – of mainstream sports media, you have largely twisted the genre into something grotesque and nearly unrecognizable to a public that will follow anything perceived as new.

Because a lie can make it halfway around the world before the truth gets out of bed.

Because that is what is wrong with the sports blogosphere.

Tags: Arlen Specter, Cedric Benson, Chris Leak, Jason Whitlock, Jeff Garcia, Matt Walsh, Michael Wilbon, OJ Mayo, Sporting News, sports blogoshpere, Tim Donaghy, Tony Dungy, Vince Young

D.K. Wilson is a freelance sports writer. He is better known on the internet as "DWil," and writes for Sports On My Mind.

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2 Comments

1. If you want to keep a healthy and fit body then you should practice some exercise daily.

   Thanks

   Comment by elliptical trainers on May 23, 2008

2. Ah, the angry half-edumacated black man. Twists don’t get no fresher.

   Because ESPN says NBA rosters are now 18% European, up from 7%.

   Because American niggers got mad unskillz.

   Because it’s more fun to watch Whites with actual skills. You know - people who can hit 3s, FTs and open jumpers. Rather than tattooed “thugs” who are as soft as margin. Just flip the channel to 48 hours and see Iversons-sans-jumpers cry at the second pointed question.

   Comment by Alex Linder on May 30, 2008

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