Still a fan for all seasons, but never "hater season"

No doubt you heard about a certain undeniably popular bottom-feeder planning to launch a site dedicated to sports news, so-called. Sports On My Mind went to town with a takedown piece:

" ... there are plenty of male crackers – and the minorities who yearn to be them – out there who eat up this particular acquired taste ... on a daily basis. They love leering at the images of fake women, scanning the sites virtual pages for the latest who’s – insert Black athlete here – fucking who – insert White woman here, or the latest which – insert Black athlete here – dude got busted where – insert NBA, NFL city here.

Yum, yum. I can see the minds melting away as scads of fools e-mail, SMS, and Tweet each other about their most recent barely post-pubescent fantasies ...

"It is now officially 'hater season' and every athlete better believe a bushel full of the mainstream boys and girls will feel the pressure from their editors and producers after TMZ ... scoops them on some juicy gossip shit and start playing follow the bleeder."

The Tiger Woods situation — which scandalized no one whose BS detector is in good working condition — was just the tip of the iceberg. Jason Whitlock noted last week on Twitter, "(The m)edia created breed of humans called "celebrities" who have no rights. People justifying this sound no different from previous discrimination." (By the way, now it is coming out that people knew better. Get the "Alfredsson rips Tiger" headlines ready here in Ottawa.)

It would be nice to believe that was intuited two years ago during an otherwise unfortunate episode of howling at the moon:

"Then there are those Perez Hilton-genre sites and their assorted ilk that pander to the worst in human beings, which further serve to ruin the blogging form. A lot of the major sports blogs are just thinly veiled soft-porn sites with lightweight commentary sprinkled in between the bikini pics of the plastic-looking silicone sisters. So much for being firmly for the separation of sports talk and spankbank material." — Dec. 17, 2007

Two years later, that sentiment has at least evolved. TMZ having a dedicated site for athlete transgression is like a cow patty on the roadside. You see it, you smell it, but you do not have to go near it with a 10-foot pole. It will be a hit, no doubt. Music, TV and movie people do stupid things, but a small percentage of pro athletes up the ante by doing stupid things and getting into fights into public and clashes with cops who might get their steroids from the same people who furnished them to all those baseball players. (That is neither here nor there, of course.)

One bit of advice: The easy way out is to think it is great fun to turn someone into a punchline for a few weeks or months. In 2007, it was Michael Vick. In early 2009, it was Alex Rodríguez. In late 2009, Tiger Woods. It's zero-sum, it does sweet FA for anyone except for people who need to hate in order to transfer their own feelings of inadequacy.

Anyway, some free advice is to realize needing sports in your life means having to abide the crazy bastards and talented idiots who are needed to fill out a professional roster. Read William C. Rhoden's Forty Million Dollar Slaves. Realize Tiger Woods exemplifies the "dilemma of inclusion without power" (oh, and if Elin Nordegren Woods was a visible minority instead of very blond, no one would care.)

Meantime, sports blogging ain't dead, but cheap heat doesn't warm the heart or mind. Merry Christmas.

Related:
The Sports Blogosphere's Underbelly is About to Get Seedier (Dan Levy, The Sporting Blog)
Think Sports Media is In Trouble Now? Just Wait… Until TMZSports.com Drops (and you read Sports by Brooks’ defense of them (Sports On My Mind)