Wash, Rinse, Repeat…

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I suppose ESPN’s Josina Anderson does not read her own company’s flagship weekly magazine.

If she did, she might have come across this story from the annual “Body Issue.”

Headline: “The team shower is a place of celebration, fellowship and naked dance-offs… What it’s not? A place hostile to Michael Sam.”

So on the one hand, ESPN the Magazine and author David Fleming were trying furiously to convince (someone?) that the ol’ “what about the gay dude in the shower?” argument is tired, hackneyed, and essentially null-and-void in 2014.

On the other hand, Ms. Anderson was breathlessly reporting that Sam’s ability to deftly elude other players shower schedules might be as important as his ability to shed blocks.

Geez. Get your agenda straight, Bristol.

Some think the Anderson report and the following blowback, helped take Sam’s chances to stick with the Rams from slim to absolute zero. I would concur. The concept of “distractions” is overblown in general, but not in one regard: ESPN.

If you have a single player who is enough for The Red Four-Letter Network in the Connecticut Woods to devote “firehose” coverage to, then your team is positively fucked. It’ll be non-stop mentions on the crawl, a dedicated left-hand rundown news item, on-site reporters, and constant hype. Like Tebow before. Or Manziel to come.

You’ll put up with that for a truly star player. Not for a marginal 7th rounder. Be he gay, straight, or somebody who swings both ways.

To put it bluntly: ESPN is not a force for good.

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Steve Czaban is a 25 year sports radio veteran, who hosts an afternoon drive show in Washington D.C. "Czabe" also writes and edits his own commentaries for www.czabe.com and other on-line and print publications. He can be reached at czabe@yahoo.com.

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