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Reviewing the Decade – Top Boston Sports Media Episodes

December 16, 2009 By

I’m hoping to spend some time over the next couple of weeks reviewing the decade that was in the Boston sports media. These episodes aren’t neccesarily the biggest sports moments of the decade (though some are) but more about storylines that impacted the media, or times when the media completely blew something out of proportion.

The recent media blowups over Bill Belichick’s fourth-down decisions and about Randy Moss’ effort this past Sunday are just hiccups compared to some of the episodes we’ve seen this decade.

In addition to media swarms, we’ve seen mass movement of media types across platforms and employers, we’ve had promiment sports media members pass away this decade, and have seen a huge shift in the perspective from which local teams are covered.

Each weekdayhere on BSMW  until New Years Eve, we’ll be looking at some of the top storylines/episodes in the Boston sports media from 2000 through 2009.

Today’s will be posted in a little while.

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  • Tom

    Bruce,

    First, a good time of year to say thanks for your hard work on the site. It is appointment reading for a lot of us.

    When looking back at the decade in sports media, I know you will include it, but to me, ‘Spygate’ trumps all. By a mile.

    To me, it is the most blown-out-of-proportion story IN THE HISTORY OF SPORTS MEDIA. The way it was covered was both embarrassing and fascinating all at once. Documentary-worthy, in fact. You should just run that fantastic piece you wrote when it was all winding down about the time of Matt Walsh’s ‘film festival’ with Roger Goodell and the blood-thirsty media and pundits on ESPN. (Mark Shlareth and Chris Carter’s gameshow called “You Said Something Outrageous? I’ll Say Something MORE Outrageous!” was particularly cringe-worthy.

    Not good times.

    Happy holidays.

    • Tony

      Hear, hear Tom.

      Spygate was by far the most overblown story in the history of sports, and the Belichick-hating, sensationalistic media was driving it 100%.

      What really killed me was how whenever some former coach would come out and say it was no big deal, or that he did similar things, the story would get minor coverage for a day, and then be completely buried by the more sensational, “damning” accusations.(Strange how every former coach who was asked about the story basically yawned about it, because all of them know what they did when they coached, what other coaches did, and where all of the NFL’s skeletons are buried.)

      ESPN’s coverage, both over the air and online was the most embarrassing, of course.

      My favorite was the piece ESPN.com ran after Matt Walsh revealed his tapes–a piece that brokedown how the Patriots performance against the teams appearing in Walsh’s tapes after the tapes were made. Whenever their record or results were good, it was amplified with stats and dozens of words; whenever their results were not good, it merited one line, like “New England lost the next game to Team X, 21-17.” They wrote line after line after line about how the Pats dominated Buffalo in the six years after Walsh’s tapes of the 2001 game were released–never mind the fact that Buffalo’s coaches, and hence, their signals, had changed at least twice during that six-year period.

      Downright embarrassing.

      But then again, how can people with no shame (the media) feel any?

  • http://masshysteriasports.blogspot.com DaveR

    I agree with everything Tom said.

    And with everything Tony said.

  • Classless

    Spygate has gotta be it. I don’t know what’s more embarrassing: the media trolls who flew off the handle during that story or the casual sports fans from around the country who only associate the Patriots with “cheating” because they can’t form their own opinion.

    The same thing is happening with Tiger Woods. A generation of idiot fans are going to dismiss him based on the 24 media saturation that’s currently burying him.

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