Mobile
Monday, October 11, 2010
Boomer with Attitude / News Hey, media! Less Panthers, more baseball!
Posted By John Grooms on Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 1:44 PM
Do you know someone who watched the entire Panthers vs. Bears game yesterday? If so, please be nice to that person today; they’ve suffered enough. In today’s daily paper, sports writer Scott Fowler, after a few weeks of pretending otherwise, states the obvious: this year’s Panthers are the worst team in the NFL. Some fans could argue that Buffalo deserves the award, but I disagree. The Bills are one sorry specimen, but even they would be hard-pressed to seem more incompetent or, let’s just say it, more hopeless, than the Panthers did yesterday.
There are two crucial questions that need to be asked here:
1. Will this year’s Panthers wind up as the worst team in NFL history? It’s too soon to tell, but it’s not looking good. It will take a substantial improvement on the Panthers’ part if they want to avoid joining the league’s “worst-ever” hall of shame, along with the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the 1980 Saints (the season when their fans started wearing bags over their heads), the early-'70s Houston Oilers, the 1991 Colts (still record holders for fewest points and touchdowns in a 16-game season) or, lest we forget, the utterly dismal 2001 Panthers. I say go for the fame — what a delightful memory to share with friends and family in the future: "Remember, Billy, when the Panthers bookended the decade with two “worst-ever” teams in just a 10-year period? Ah, those were the days."
2. Now let’s be serious. If the Panthers are so completely abysmal this season — and that's not really up for discussion — why does the local media keep yammering on and on about them, as if there was someone left who gives a damn? OK, sports radio I can understand, since that’s a good venting outlet for disgusted fans. But really, why does the Observer continue to devote nearly four full pages every autumn Monday to a team that everyone makes fun of, shakes their heads over, or otherwise disrespects to the max? It has to be a matter of ads having been sold to accompany the stories on “Panther Mondays.” (Please tell me that no one in Charlotte is so bored that they actually take the time to read every little detail, on all four pages, about the previous day’s Panther slaughter.) If the excessive coverage is all about sold ads, then the paper’s sports writers have been turned into employees of the ads’ buyers, which, needless to say, isn’t journalism. But maybe it’s simply out of habit that they go on and on about a team everyone else has pretty much abandoned. If so, here’s a better idea: Break your habit, and wake up to the possibility of giving more coverage — including local writers’ commentary — to the major league baseball playoffs. They’ve been pretty exciting so far, with extra-inning games, upsets, dramatic homeruns, a no-hitter, and other stuff readers might care a wee bit more about than the latest story on some running back’s hangnail. It’s October, guys — how about more than just lip-service coverage of baseball's Fall Classic? Just because the Panthers are local, that doesn’t make them the better story — and certainly not four friggin’ pages’ worth.
Speaking of...
Comments
Showing 1-1 of 1
Latest in The CLog
More by John Grooms
-
5 Reasons To Buy Home Insurance Policy
-
Dumb criminal news
Trust us, lady, you'll have more room for your stolen foot cream if you leave your crack pipes at home.
-
Live review: Moogfest, Asheville 1
Five memorable performances from the weekend.
