On the Golf home page on MSNBC Sports yesterday the list of articles was long, but about 95% of them were about Tiger. Yes he won the US Open and yes he announced that he’s out for the rest of the year after playing on a bum knee like an idiot. I would expect some articles on that, but how about covering the whole sport instead of just 1 guy? I’m not a huge golf fan, but I’m more likely to watch or follow if Tiger is NOT playing because of all the ridiculous pandering by the media. I don’t need to know what he ate for breakfast or what club he used on this hole 6 years ago. How about telling me what the other golfers are doing at that time, especially the ones who are beating or close to beating Tiger?
During the US Open I saw almost zero coverage on Mediate, but I got in depth computer generated analysis of Tiger’s swing and how it affects his knee. Maybe instead they could have talked about how a golfer who is older and not in the top 10 forced Tiger to a playoff? Maybe they could show some other amazing shots because the golden boy isn’t the only one who makes those ya know.
Overall I’m sick of hearing about him and sick of the media being unwilling to say anything disparaging even when it’s deserved (like “Tiger’s an idiot for playing on that knee”), but there is one other thing about him that is possibly the most disturbing of all. All my life people have made fun of anyone who drives a Buick because, well, they are really ugly cars for old people. Now Tiger wants to make it “cool” to drive a Buick? What if we couldn’t laugh at those people anymore?! I’m just kidding.. we’ll always laugh at Buicks 
Ask 100 people what constitutes a sport and you’ll probably get 100 different answers. There are the obvious, but watch ESPN for any length of time and you’ll see them stretch the definition of “sport” to include some really ridiculous things. One thing I do believe is a sport (one of the fastest growing in the nation) is disc golf. If you don’t know what I’m talking about check out pdga.com and discgolfersr.us for some more info or just google it.
As you could probably guess, PDGA stands for Professional Disc Golf Association. There are national and even worldwide tournaments that ESPN could cover, not to mention tons of regional and local tournaments that serve as qualifiers for the bigger events. So I thought I’d email ESPN and ask them why they don’t cover it and what could be done to change that. Part of the contact form (found here) has a category list where I chose ‘Sports Event Coverage’. That populates an Item list where you can select from all of the “sports” that ESPN covers.
That list includes such ridiculous things as Aerobics, Badminton, Cricket (not unless you live in the UK/London/England/Britain/Great Britain/Wales/Whatever the hell it’s called this month), Dominos, Lumberjack, Spelling Bees and Yachting. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching arrogant yacht owners compete to see which one is the biggest douche on a Sunday afternoon, but they’re telling me those are “sports”? Even worse, they think people really want to watch those more than an actual sport?
No worries though because if enough people contact ESPN and demand disc golf coverage then it’ll happen right? Apparently not. ESPN is such an arrogant company that they have a policy of not listening to their viewers.. you know, the viewers who made them who they are and allow them to continue to broadcast. From their FAQ page:
SUBMIT A PROGRAM PROPOSAL OR STORY IDEA TO ESPN
ESPN’s policy does not allow us to accept for review or consideration any ideas, suggestions, or creative materials not solicited by us or our subsidiaries.
Not only will they not listen to their customers (which makes me wonder why they have a contact form in the first place), but they refuse to accept any good ideas unless they thought of it themselves. Even the arrogant bastards on the yachts can tell there’s something wrong with that line of thinking. With Fox and others carrying most real sports ESPN had almost lost me anyways due to lack of anything decent to watch, but that arrogant attitude is the final straw. Even if I get a sudden urge to watch a fierce badminton competition, I definitely won’t be tuning to ESPN anymore. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go train for the lumberjacking finals next week.