A look back at the very worst of sports media 2007.
First, the runners up:
Joe Theismann: Theismann certainly did not handle his dismissal from Monday Night Football with much grace or class. Throughout 2007, Theismann criticized MNF, and in particular, Tony Kornheiser, to the point where it stopped being criticism and started being unprofessional.
Theismann called Kornheiser “neurotic”, referred to MNF as a “three hour Tony Kornheiser show”, and called him a “fish out of water.” His criticisms may have been valid, but considering the source, they also became the whinings of someone who pretends he’s fine with being kicked out of the club, but desperately wants back in.
Don Imus: Everyone remembers the racial aspect of Don Imus’ immature and generally loathsome comments about the Rutgers’ women’s college basketball team. However, what may be worse is the fact that there was little outrage over the sexist nature of the comments.
In regards to women’s sports, it has become all too common to reduce the athletes playing to their looks, or in some cases, lack thereof. This is the case even off the playing field; a critique of broadcasters such as Erin Andrews or Pam Ward centers less on their broadcasting ability and more on how they look.
Imus not only referred to the women on the Rutgers’ team as “nappy headed whores”, but his henchmen likened them to the Toronto Raptors — the implication obviously being that they were manly. Never mind their athletic ability, their only importance comes down to whether a bunch of middle aged men find them attractive. The fact that very few even paid attention to this aspect of the Imus controversy shows that this perspective of female athletes has become widely accepted.
Mike Celizic: The MSNBC.com columnist penned two notable overly simplified, stereotype-laden columns in 2007. In January, he tied the shooting death of Broncos’ CB Darrent Williams to hip-hop, with no evidence of any link. As if that article were not insulting enough to one’s intelligence, Celizic saw fit to tie dogfighting to hip hop culture during the Michael Vick controversy.
The two pieces by Celizic underscore the tendency in the sports media to view black America — and young, black America in particular — not as individuals, but as one. Hence, the actions of Michael Vick are somehow a reflection on everyone. Celizic’s second-hand knowledge of hip hop culture, complete with stereotypes and outdated slang, is just one of many examples of people of a certain age in sports media being hypercritical of a culture of which they know very little.
Leonard Shapiro: The generally respected Washington Post writer shamed himself in the aftermath of the Sean Taylor murder. In a piece that simply did not have to be written — especially so soon after Taylor’s death — Shapiro blamed the former NFL safety, who was shot in his home next to his wife and daughter, on the basis of his “[embracing] the thug image on and off the field.”
Because Taylor had legal issues in the past, and because he was “a thoroughly undisciplined player” who at times disrespected his coach, it made sense that he would be executed in his own home. Shapiro went as far as to ask “Could anyone honestly say they never saw this coming?“
John Amaechi and ESPN Books: The former NBA player came out of the closet earlier this year, and, with the aid of ESPN, created a controversy. Amaechi wrote a book called Man in the Middle, detailing his life as a homosexual in the NBA, which was released in mid-February. While the book was publicly said to have been released for Valentine’s Day, it is fairly obvious its release was meant to coincide with the NBA All Star Game.
ESPN was not a very objective partner in the reporting of this story, as its ESPN Books division was the publisher. With that in mind, ESPN kept the story going for as long as it possibly could, and it was an ESPN contributor, Dan Le Batard, who conducted an infamous interview with former Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway — in which Hardaway made some of the most laughably ignorant comments since Michael Richards hit The Laugh Factory.
ESPN clearly had an agenda throughout its coverage of the Amaechi controversy, and that agenda was to sell books. During an ESPNews interview with Amaechi, the network even put up a graphic reading: “Man in the Middle … Chronicles Amaechi’s journey from awkward, overweight English lad to NBA star … A moving story of adversity and diversity; a testament to the power of one man’s convictions.” ESPN has done some ethically dubious things in the past, but helping to create a controversy in the interests of selling a book is fairly low, even for the Worldwide Leader.
Ken Levine: The former sportscaster and television writer wrote comments that can only be described as purely racist, following the John Amaechi controversy. In a Huffington Post blog, Levine wrote, among other things, that NBA players are “prison inmates … [who] often come off sounding like Pogo.”
Here’s what the average sports fan sees when he comes across an NBA game: mean, arrogant, scary looking, tattooed, prison inmates. Not exactly All-American role models unless you’re a gang member or skinhead. In interviews these players often come off sounding like Pogo. So when Tim Hardaway says a spectacularly idiotic thing the league may feign shock and outrage but the truth is – what do they expect?
The only thing worse than racism may be cowardly racism. Levine removed the post from his personal blog after receiving complaints on his comments section. The post still remains on The Huffington Post.
