ESPN Game Day will NOT go to the best game of the day on Sept. 1. That contest is in Berkeley between Tennessee and Cal.
Instead, the show will originate from Blacksburg for the East Carolina-Virginia Tech game.
I disagree with this decision.
Look, what happened last April 16 at Va. Tech was obviously horrific.
But this is a tragedy that has been–and will continue to be–covered quite ably by the regular news media.
There is no need for us to see a bunch of boiler-plate sob pieces before a Saturday of college football. The Va. Tech tragedy had nothing to do with the sport and the prospect of seeing Kirk Herbstreit and others weighing in is, to me, not especially appealing.
Now, I understand ESPN is in a sticky situation. To NOT do anything could be construed as being insensitive. But there are plenty of opportunities to comment about Virginia Tech during the season. Will it mean anything to the families of the dead that Game Day is going to be on location? I’m not so sure it will.
This is to me part of a disturbing trend in sports media. It’s no longer enough to cover the sport. Instead, we are assaulted on a daily basis with everything BUT sports. The subject of Michael Vick’s dog fighting has no bearing on what he does on the field. Who cares about Pac Man Jones and whatever it is he does in his private life? Until it affects his play, I sure don’t. Barry Bonds probably did steroids, but he’s still playing baseball and should be covered as such. Until he’s kicked out of the game, he’s doing his job.
Leave the investigations and the celebrity gossip to Katie Couric and the tabloids. Maybe if that happened, the sports media would actually start talking about sports again.
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