NOTE: This article was written shortly after I began blogging about the Patriots in 2008. I look at this now as my mission statement as a blogger, so I’m reposting it.
As a sports blogger, I feel compelled to comment on the Costas Now segment in which Deadspin.com head honcho Will Leitch and Friday Night Lights author H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger went toe-to-toe over the value of sports blogging (while Braylon Edwards patiently twiddled his thumbs).
Buzz gets pretty fired up about the whole thing, as you can see here, but Leitch does a good job holding his own. Bissinger’s biggest complaint is that anyone can post anything and thus the quality of sports reporting is going down the tubes.
Earlier in the piece, Michael Schur, one ofThe Office’s writers and a blogger for Fire Joe Morgan, makes the argument that the presence of blogs account for complete transparency in journalism and, therefore, they are a beacon of democracy.
I don’t know if I would go that far, but I would say that blogs are the future and, while the writing style and skills necessary to be successful are different than traditional journalism, there are still basic tenets that anyone who consistently writes to a readership should follow.
I understand Bissinger’s argument. There are many blogs out there just looking to find dirt on people, and I believe Perez Hilton (purposely no link) is the ultimate example of everything Buzz hates.
It’s sad that a mean-spirited gossip site, without any other purpose than tearing people down and exposing unflattering pictures, can gain so much popularity. But the National Enquirer was around long before the Internet.
Like anything, you would hope that quality sports reporting will be respected and passed along, and those just looking to unjustly criticize athletes will fall by the wayside. Ultimately, I can only worry about what I post here and on my blog, and from the beginning I’ve avoided negative and obscene material.
I write about football, not about players taking rips from beer bongs on their days off.
Gone are the days of sports fans sitting down and reading the morning sports section for a well-crafted account of last night’s big game. Fans in 2008 want constant updates about everything their team is doing. Who’s practicing, who’s injured, and how bad is it; who’s looking good in preseason practice.
Most fans aren’t getting this news at home—they’re getting it at work while they scan the Internet, and the more updates a site can offer, the more hits it is going to get.
Though it may make professional writers like Bissinger upset, volume is trumping quality these days. Bloggers who can produce a high volume of quality material will be the most successful.
I love watching the Patriots. I root against the other teams, but there’s a bond between NFL fans.
This isn’t life or death, but it’s fun to pretend it is.
I may make fun of the Jets, Dolphins, and the rest of the NFL teams who get in the Pats’ way, but no more than I would expect in return. I’m not going to games looking to pick fights with fans from other teams (though some healthy trash-talking is always fun).
That’s the perspective from which I blog. Sports are meant to be fun, and the true fan’s voice is one that is never heard from traditional journalists. I find a fanatic’s account of a game or team to be often much more interesting that an impartial observer’s.
We are the ones who live and die with every touchdown, interception, and Super Bowl loss. And who are we kidding? There are no more impartial observers. Just ask “Judas” Tomase and the Boston Herald.
