The biggest thing I've learned in the months that I've been looking for a job is that there is a big difference between being a fan and being a member of the media. Being a member of the media for almost eighteen years now, I had kind of forgotten what it was like to be a fan. Being a member of the media, I got caught up in my own BS - thinking that the scandals of the day were as serious as anything else going on in the world.
But, sitting these last nine months on the sideline, I have gotten the chance to be a fan again. I have been able to watch a ballgame - any game - no matter what the sport is - and enjoy it as it is. I haven't had to worry about how I was going to attack the game on my show the next day. I didn't have to worry that the game was going too long, and I wasn't going to get enough sleep. I could just sit back, relax, and watch the game. I've found that I had become jaded as a member of the sports media. The one thing that I have promised myself is that when I get that next job - whenever, or where ever that is - I am going to think more like a fan and less like a media guy.
That's why I don't get fazed by the steroid scandal in baseball. When other media guys were complaining that Manny Ramirez shouldn't have played in the minors before his suspension was up, I thought it was ridiculous. Why not give fans in cities that would otherwise never have a chance to see a player like Ramirez a chance to see him in person? When members of the media complained that the fans were giving Man Ram a break when he returned last week, I thought to myself that if I were sitting in the stands, I probably would have cheered too. Because baseball is more entertaining when Manny is playing. Is he a flake? Absolutely. But, it's also what makes him so endearing to fans.
The thing I've discovered in recent months is that the sports fan and the sports media guy don't think alike at all. The sports media guy takes everything too seriously. Here's another example. In Milwaukee, Ryan Braun complained a couple of weeks ago that playing day games at Miller Park was difficult because of the shadows that creep in. Listening to one of the two sports radio stations in town, you would have thought Braun committed a felony. But that was the guy on the radio. The fan didn't have a problem with it at all.
So, the next time I see Terrell Owens do something on the field like celebrate a touchdown - something that would have ticked me off a year ago - I am going to just let it go. You know why? Because T.O. is not just an athlete. He's an entertainer. In a sense, every pro athlete is an entertainer. When you think about it, fans who go to the games are paying good money for the right to watch. They want to be entertained. No one wants to part with money these days if they are going to be bored off their ass. So, let them be entertained.
These last nine months have been an enlightening experience for me. Has it been frustrating? Sure - it sucks not having a job. But, it also - in a weird way - got me to realize why I wanted to go into sports radio in the first place. And that's because I was a fan. The mistake many of us in the sports media business make is thinking that we are above the fans. Now I realize that we are no better than the average fan. We just happen to have the opportunity to talk into a mocrophone, type on a keyboard, or look at a television camera. What we do as sports media isn't really rocket science. I know that many of my friends in the media - and I won't name them - will probably blast me for saying it, but being out of work puts a lot of things into perspective.
All of that being said, the media has been up in arms over the last few months because of a phenomenon that has threatened the way the sports media has been doing their job. That phenomenon is Twitter.
If you're reading this right now, then you know what Twitter is. You probably even have a Twitter account (and a Facebook one too - like me). Twitter has crossed into the mainstream as well. Try watching a television show for more than fifteen minutes every once in a while. Everyone has a Twitter account. You can follow any show, actor, actress, or anchorman on Twitter. You can also follow your favorite athletes.
Shaquille O'Neal has a Twitter page. So do T.O., Nick Barnett of the Green Bay Packers, Charlie Villanueva of the Detroit Pistons, and Chad Ochocino of the Cincinnati Bengals. There are many other pro athletes who have Twitter accounts - all you have to do is search for them. These athletes are using their Twitter pages to get the stories out that they want to get out. Shaq Twittered on his trade to Cleveland long before he had his introductory press conference. Nick Barnett has Twittered on the state of the Packers and what he thought of his team's draft. It's gotten so prevalent that the writers that cover these athletes wind up following them on Twitter so they can get stories that others might miss.
It's got to be disheartening for your average beat writer to see how this is all unfolding. You see, there was a time when athletes needed the writer to help get their message out. They needed the writer to get their side of a story or controversy out there. With Twitter, the athlete doesn't need the writer or any other media member anymore. They can get their own stories out without anyone else's help. And trust me when I tell you that the athlete is happy to not have to depend on the media as much as they used to.
Twitter is easier than having your own website. It's instantaneous. It's short, sweet (or tweet) and to the point. It also makes the fan feel a little closer to the player, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Of course, the media doesn't appreciate that as much as the fan does. Charlie Villanueva, then of the Bucks, actually tweeted during halftime of a game last season. Ochocinco recently told a radio show in Houston that he was planning to tweet during games. And, predictably, the media reacted negatively. Villanueva was roundly taken to task by media types for not taking the game seriously. The less enlightened of the bunch would say "How dare he do that during halftime! He's got a game to try and win." The funny thing, though, is that I never heard one fan - NOT ONE - rip into Villanueva for doing what he did.
I actually asked a couple of my friends - die hard Bucks fans who live in my development - what they thought of Villanueva's halftime tweet. Both said it was cool. Both said it was nice to know what was going through a player's mind in the middle of the game. Both felt a little closer to the action, and less detached from the whole thing.
As I mentioned before, Ochocinco wants to Tweet during a game too. I wish he'd come up with something a little more original than that (since Villanueva was the first one to do it), but I digress. Predictably, media people took Ochocinco to the proverbial woodshed. They talked about how he'll never change. How it's always about him. I listened to this talk and came to this conclusion.
Ochocinco is just entertaining his fans. Which is what they want. I actually am a follower of his on Twitter (I also follow Shaq, T.O., Barnett, and Villanueva). Not for nothing, but I think it'd be kind of cool to get a tweet from Ochocinco after he scored a touchdown. Who wouldn't want to get a tweet from him talking about what Marvin Lewis told the team at halftime (especially if they were down by a couple of touchdowns)? All he and the other athletes are doing is letting the fans in to a place they have never been able to get to before.
The sports media - most of it, anyway - looks at Villanueva and Ochocinco and judges them as being flakes or clowns.
If they got off their high horse for a minute, and thought like a fan, they'd feel differently.
I - for one - wish they would.
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