Misguided? Sports Media and its Role in Sports

Too much attention for Tebow?

A 50 year-old former major league pitcher making headlines after a start in an independent league.  

A backup quarterback whose progress is tracked daily by major sports media organizations.  

These two situations, while holding little influence on the major developments in their respective sports, have nonetheless garnered a great deal of attention from the sports media in the past few weeks.  With such stories making front page news, one might wonder if sports media is transitioning into merely a source of entertainment for fans. 

Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens is an 11-time allstar and a seven-time Cy Young winner.  He has won over 300 games and struck out over 3000 batters in his illustrious career in the Major Leagues. Yet even Clemens is not immune to the effects of Father Time, now at the age of 50 and far from the days of his athletic prime.  But on September 7, 2012, after almost five years of retirement and some controversial legal struggles, Clemens was back on the mound pitching in an independent league.  He threw 4 and 2/3 scoreless innings in what was perhaps a personal triumph for Clemens, yet he was quoted as calling his outing just a chance "to play catch with [his] son," who caught him during the game.  Clearly this was not a kind of rehab start for Clemens to prepare for a Major League start in the coming days, but the media jumped on the story as fast as a Clemens fastball circa the early 1990s.  Questions were raised about Clemens' chances at making a comeback in the Majors as many sources noted the Houston Astros might be interested. 

For one thing, Clemens is 50 years old, a fraction of his former self.  Again, he's been out of professional baseball for five years and has perhaps spent as much time in a courtroom as he has on a baseball field in the recent past.  Not to mention, his prospective comeback would be with the Houston Astros, a team with a record, as of 9/10, of 44-97 and over 40 games out of first place in their division. 

So how does this story merit media attention? 

It clearly has little impact on the developing postseason race in the current MLB season.  Perhaps media felt fans would appreciate Clemens' "comeback" story, especially after his off the field problems.  Yet I personally feel a story like this, amid a heated playoff race in the middle of September in the MLB, holds little significance.

By now, any sports fan who has heard of the sport of football has heard the name "Tim Tebow."  He is arguably one of the best college football players of all time. He led the Denver Broncos to a playoff victory last season, and is a media ultra-magnet.  Yet in the 2012 offseason, Tebow was traded by Denver to clear room for Peyton Manning, finding himself on the New York Jets as a backup to Mark Sanchez.  As training camp got going, a Tebow segment was present in almost every episode of Sportscenter on ESPN.  He would make the front page of New York newspaper sports sections just for taking his shirt off during a practice.  And even though Jets coaches were adamant in calling Tebow a backup quarterback and a third down, short yardage option, the media could not stop following Tebow's every move.

In the Jets' week 1 victory over Buffalo, Tebow rushed five times for 11 yards and attempted zero passes.  He played little to no role in their win, perhaps a confusing fact given all the preseason attention he was given, and his role in the remainder of the Jets season may likely be just as small. 

So why was Tebow a constant in sports media for nearly a month? 

When was the last time a third down running back was given daily time on Sportscenter?  Perhaps Tebow, who has already developed a sort of cult following, heading to a media supercity such as New York was too much for the media to contain themselves.  It is somewhat of a shame, however, that so much attention was given to a player that registered only five plays in an entire game.

I feel like sports media has begun to place a larger focus on stories of interest rather than stories of importance. While stories of importance undoubtedly receive their fair share of attention, situations and players such as Tebow and Clemens receive perhaps too much attention simply because they appeal to sports fans.  After all, sports is an entertainment business, and articles that entertain fans may essentially be all that is expected from the sports media.