March Media Madness 2015: The Lupica Region
By Ty Duffy
Bill Simmons has been chafing ahead of his long-awaited expiring contract. Seven figures and unprecedented autonomy probably does get old, eventually. Sports Twitter loved it some athlete fat photos this past year. Even when the athlete was demonstrably fat beforehand.
These folks have huge “social media presences,” dispense MUST READ reach-arounds, parrot memes and keep Twitter the orthodox, asinine, self-referential place we know and loathe. Bret Bielema’s hand twitch set Twitter alight. He also gave the foot fetish community the toe shot it had been waiting for on SEC GameDay.
An ESPN on ESPN battle.Jason Whitlock started a new website. Mike Golic took a shot at Bill Simmons and recreated the Kim Kardashian butt photo.
Katy Perry made a play for the football community. She appeared on GameDay and performed at halftime of the Super Bowl. She was also on the cover of ESPN the Magazine, which still can’t fit in your mailbox. Jurgen Klinsmann got the U.S. out of the Group of Death, but, nonetheless, has been grating people.
Chris Fowler’s move to play by play saw Brent Musburger exiled to the SEC Network. Three college football playoff games were played. He called none of them. Kacie McDonnell moved to Kansas City with Aaron Murray, got engaged to Aaron Murray, broke off an engagement with Aaron Murray and is now working for Sporting Kansas City.
Sports Illustrated broke into Athlete PR and is no longer illustrated. The little Sports TV network that could will have a movie made about it. Guessing the rug races don’t make it into the screenplay.
This is an early front-runner for best Twitter happening of March 2015. ESPN anchor Robert Flores zinged Iggy Azalea on Sportscenter. Swaggy P responded. Flores, while brushing the “controversy” aside, went back in off the top rope. So…about that ESPN late night show…
These phenomena are dominating journalism and withering in concert. Because telling is better than showing and my navel is fascinating. Because writing a lot of words is a self-contained end. Is it really journalism if graphics don’t fly at you to distract from the text?