Le Anne Schreiber Has a Posse

The rage is general all over the land of sport. Fans, not to mention coaches and athletes, are sick and tired of being subjected to a relentless media onslaught of opinion that is simultaneously overheated and half-baked. Unfortunately, in a kind of sports Stockholm syndrome, many of them have learned to imitate the rhetorical belligerence of the media masters they resent.

The quote above comes from ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber's most recent column, a wide-ranging excoriation of the Worldwide Leader's opinion-based shrillery, and by extension, of the entire American sporting community. For Gheorghe's money, Ms. Schreiber is the best observer of the modern sporting culture going at the moment. We might even have a little bit of a crush on her, if we weren't all exceedingly happily married.

As our mission statement...um...states, G:TB is dedicated to the premise that life would be better if we all took ourselves less seriously. We've been dismayed over the past several years to watch the sporting landscape devolve into a miasma of screaming matches between meathead ex-jocks and overcompensating "journalists" about the perceived and/or contrived peccadillos of overpaid nouveax gladiators. And, as Ms. Schreiber notes with perfect symbolism, we've watched our fellow fans get sucked into the morass to the point where the only way to be heard above the rush of the lemmings is to ratchet the snarky arrogance to jet-engine decibels. And we don't exempt ourselves from this number - even as we try hard to be more silly than cynical, we've failed on more occasions than we'd care to admit.

The most poisonous aspect of the current sporting environment is that the games themselves don't matter any more. Or, more accurately, they only serve as vehicles for whatever ratings-driven controversy ESPN and FOX and the rest choose to push this week. Look no further than this week's potentially terrific New England/Dallas contest. It's predictably become T.O. versus Randy Moss, stoked to be sure by the Dallas' wideout's pathology, but not without ESPN's willing complicity. And ours.

According to ESPN.com, Ms. Schreiber's tenure as Ombudsman is a two-year gig. A smart media outlet with a little bit of cash and a willingness to roll the dice and swim against the tide would snap her up the instant she became a free agent and give her free reign to design a new sports media model. As you may have noticed, G:TB's succumbed to the almighty dollar and begun accepting advertisements. Shouldn't take you too long to put two and two together.

You've got our number, Le Anne. We look forward to hearing from you. The music we make together could be beautiful.