Case Study #1: Chris Mottram is Lazy in Tampa

Hello, sports blog fans. You don't know me, but you know my brothers, Jamie and Chris. I've decided to dispose of my anonymity because I feel I may be the only one capable of saving the world from my brothers and their brand of unentertaining and lazy sports writing.

I'll use this blog to highlight bad sports blogging. To be fair, there are a LOT of bad sports blogs, and most of them are unaffiliated with my brothers. But theirs are usually not good. And to be clear, I'm a big fan of sports blogging in general. But there's too much high-profile crap out there for the genre to really be taken seriously as a whole. I'm hoping that shedding some light on the bad will create even more appreciation for the good.

Here's case study #1 -- Chris's take on his visit to the EA party in Tampa last night. Chris, on a trip to Tampa that was no doubt paid for by his employers at the Sporting News after Chris convinced them that the kids would love his work, managed to report on exactly nothing of substance that he experienced at a VIP event that he was given the unique opportunity to attend. His shtick is "fly on the wall observerism." He'll tell you that the story he wrote about the event was boring because the event itself was boring. But the reality is that he's the boring one. He was surrounded by pro athletes and had a media credential, yet he apparently didn't even have the sack to talk to a single player, except to ask Santana Moss for a photo. He didn't engage Chad Johnson in a conversation about his insane glasses. He didn't ask T.O. how it felt to be at the same party as Donovan McNabb. He didn't ask Edge how fast he's managed to drive the new Labmo since he bought it. He didn't even chat up a waitress!

In theory Chris represents the new breed of sports writer... at least that's what I have to assume was the gist of what he told Scott Van Pelt:

11:22. I introduce myself to Scott Van Pelt, who is apparently somewhat familiar with my bloggish ways. This leads to a 20-minute conversation about blogs vs. the mainstream media, what sucks about ESPN, which sites give sports blogging a bad image, and who Maryland is going to hire if they fire Gary Williams.... He says he wants me to be on his radio show.

I wonder what Van Pelt was really thinking. Maybe something similar to the point I'm making here: sports blogs can be great, and they can suck. I just wish Chris had tried harder not to suck.