Could We At Least Pretend?

You probably all have your favorite sports team. When I was in University, the team that everyone cared about was the Toronto Maple Leafs. In grad school, it was the Steelers. Back home, it's Penn State and the Phillies.

But even though those were The Teams to support, the news stations at least pretended that a) there are other teams and other sports out there, and b) that there are other things happening in the world that don't concern them. Like, oh I don't know...maybe an extreme weather situation, or a local crime, or some big festival going on, or a natural disaster.

The day the Eagles traded DM to the Skins, there was an earthquake in California, a local police officer was killed in the line of duty, and we were in the middle of a record-breaking heatwave. Moreover, the trade took place the day before OPENING DAY in the baseball season. But were ANY of those stories the ones the news broadcasters cared about at the top of the news hour? NO. All anyone cared about was this (apparently) shocking trade.

Mind you, this is also the same network (whom I shall not identify) who claimed that Abraham Lincoln was born in Illinois, but still. Come on, people. There is a time for sports stories in the newscast, and unless this story is so huge that it affects other parts of the news (Shawn Johnson's murder, for example), the very top of the news hour, overshadowing everything else going on in the world, is not it. And while I will admit that this was a big story, when there are other things going on in the world of other major league sports, like one sport's Opening Day, or the start of another sport's playoffs, it should not take up the whole amount of the time devoted to sports.

In addition to the Skins, there are five other professional major league sports teams in our area (at least. There may be more, but those are the ones I'm aware of). And for those of you who are not aware, of those five, guess how many made the playoffs for the 2009 or 2009-2010 season?

One.

That's right. One. Three others finished dead last, and the fifth finished somewhere in the middle. The Skins? I would say their performance was mediocre. They didn't make the playoffs either.

Now, any NFL team is certainly entitled to make whatever trade they wish, as long as it is within NFL guidelines. But you know, maybe if the local news stations pretended to care a little more about the other professional teams in our area, do you think those teams might, JUST MIGHT, perform a little better?

Just a thought.