Where are you Mackenzie McHale? ESPN needs you.

As each month passes, I feel like the content produced by ESPN edges closer to a skewed, rating-driven approach as compared to balanced sports coverage. You can see why this would be a problem for a station dubbed as the “Worldwide Leader in Sports”, no?

Perhaps there is some brazen American woman with a sexy accent (due to her British upbringing) who is concerned with actually providing sports news to sports fans, as opposed to much of what ESPN does on a daily basis.

It should be noted that this has little to do with ESPN’s hockey coverage. While their hunger for ratings is obviously what has kept the station away from acknowledging the sport even exists at the professional level, this isn’t just about that.

The continued employment and use of Skip Bayless, consistent coverage of a below-average quarterback who is expected to be a backup this season. Factor in the embarrassment that was “The Decision” and the laser focus given to singular players or teams as compared to the entire sport, and you see what ESPN has become.

They aren’t all bad, of course. Their ensemble analyst casts on College Gameday kills it every week, the NFL crew isn’t the worst setup of all the networks (see Sharpe, Shannon) and the other specific analysts do a phenomenal job. Whether you’re talking baseball, basketball or anything else. Factor in their new devotion to soccer and there is room for a winning recipe here.

It is the tabloid-level crap that needs to be scrubbed from existence. When Skip Bayless isn’t lying about his history as an athlete, he is drumming up arguments based less on fact and more on radical opinions. That, of course, is his job. But there isn’t much real sports talk occurring every time he pollutes the airwaves. Continue reading →