Remember the kid from your junior high algebra class that would say “you forgot to assign homework” to the teacher each Friday? I can’t say that kid in every school grew up to work in the sports media, but it seems a healthy number of them did.
Something happened on social media this weekend that made it clear to me that there are two different worlds in this profession. There are those of us that are there to report or comment on what we see happen. That group is loyal only to the fans, and so if something is interesting, controversial, or funny, the fan loyalists want to make sure the public at large knows about it.
Then there is a group that see themselves as “keepers of the game”. They are loyal to the power in the sport, be it coaches and athletic departments in college sports or owners and league offices in pro sports. Keepers of the game exist on every beat and their content is always as interesting as a lecture on the history of paper bags.
In my mind, the most famous keeper of the game incident came on January 9, 2005. That is the day that Randy Moss celebrated a touchdown in an NFC Wild Card game against the Green Bay Packers by pretending to moon the crowd at Lambeau Field. Joe Buck was on the call of the game and as Moss was daring to have even the slightest bit of fun in a rivalry that is downright nasty at times, Buck said “That is a disgusting act by Randy Moss and it’s unfortunate that we have that on our air live”.
Buck has since gone on the record saying that he stands by his original call. In fact, the FOX play-by-play man says that he received letters from fathers thanking him for making it easier to convince their sons that Randy Moss wasn’t someone to idolize.
Let’s cut the bullshit. The only people offended in that moment were Packer fans. They weren’t mad at Randy Moss’s celebration, which was just him playing a game of make believe. They were mad that the Vikings scored a touchdown. Buck went overboard to make sure the voice of the NFL was heard and he and FOX got their pats on the head from the commissioner’s office.
I want to be clear here. I like Joe Buck. I think he is really, really good at his job, and if you don’t agree that he is worthy of inclusion in the halls of fame for both football and baseball, that is a you problem.
The “disgusting act” comment is just a lowlight. That is all. Everyone has them. His just happened to inspire a column this week.
Now, let’s jump ahead in time to this past weekend. First though, you need some background.
When the Big Ten announced it would be cancelling the football season, no program was as vocal about its disagreement as the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Coach Scott Frost stomped his feet and demanded satisfaction. Athletic Director Dave Rimington openly threatened to pull the Cornhuskers out of the Big Ten.
The reaction was interesting because, well, Nebraska is AWFUL at football. It would be like if Andy Reid demanded to know why he wasn’t being considered for People’s “Sexiest Man Alive” issue.
So the Big Ten reneges on its decision, Nebraska gets it’s football season, and thus far it has gone exactly how you would expect. The Huskers are 1-3, including an absolute ass-whipping at the hands of Ohio State to open the year and an 18 point loss to Illinois this week, who’s only previous win came on a last second field goal against Rutgers.
Illinois’s social media department celebrated the win by dunking on Nebraska.
The tweet was a dumb, funny jab that fired up the Illinois fanbase and quickly went viral. That means the social media team did its job very, very well, right?
Well, that isn’t how Omaha World Herald reporter and self-appointed sportsmanship cop Sam McKewon saw it.
For the life of me, I cannot decipher what the goal is here. In his effort to keep the game of college football pure, he turned into the class tattletale.
“Mr. Whitman! The social media team is being mean to a thing I like!”
The @IlliniAthletics account eventually deleted the tweet and I assume Sam McKewon nodded in approval now that all was right and the Big Ten remained boring and joyless.
There are a long list of examples of keepers of the game sucking the fun out of the room and protecting the people at the very top in the way they cover sports. Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo will not stand for slander of Major League Baseball even if it means taking a dump on the players for making a reasonable demand for payment. Phil Mushnick has made a career out of complaining about any player showing any amount of personality on the field. Any reporter or commentator on the NFL Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, or any of the many conference networks should be taken with a grain of salt, because they are working for state-run TV. It’s in their best interests to take “keepers of the game” stances on every issue.
Look, teams and outcomes matter to fans, and that is great. It is the reason that we all have jobs.
But we are in the middle of a pandemic. We cannot be with our families for the holidays as Covid-19 makes a roaring comeback. The economy is on shaky ground and people are worried about their jobs. The democracy, that is the very foundation of this country, is under attack. Sports are just a fun, dumb distraction, right now. Why would any reporter or host waste their time being mad about people having dumb fun?
Call the keepers of the game types whatever you want: herbs, dorks, nerds. It is an attitude towards sports that is out of touch with audiences in a time when everyone has access to information on their handheld devices and can choose to consume just about any game they want virtually however they want.
The days of George Plimpton, Grantland Rice, and Red Smith are long gone. There is nothing special about us anymore. Anyone can start a blog or a podcast. Attention spans are so short that we are lucky to get someone to stay with our content for three minutes. If you’re using your platform to wax poetic about morality in sports or tisk-tisk someone for having too much fun, you’re wasting your audience’s time.
We all got into this business because we love sports and we love telling stories. You didn’t start writing or talking into a microphone because you were excited to see things play out the same way every time. You didn’t fall in love with a team or a player because they were purposefully boring.
Go back and read or listen to your content. Have you become a keeper of the game type, more interested in keeping the status quo than covering the weird characters and events that make sports fun? Forgive the frankness, but maybe you need to do us all a favor and consider a career change.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
