The Sunshine Empire

For most sporting fans like myself this is the doldrums of the year. Although I count myself as a Marlins fan I am not a huge fan of the baseball. I have to go to a game to get into it and I live four hours away from the closest Major League ballpark, and it’s Tropicana Field at that. Yet the sports news of the day all has to do with dirty sexual items. Fellow University of Florida grad and ESPN reporter Erin Andrews has been caught up in the peep-hole scandal and she understandably feels violated. Now I knew of Erin Andrews before this unfortunate and reprehensible incident, but not many beyond hardened sports fans knew of her. Howard Stern pointed out yesterday that the one silver lining to this is the exposure. I know that Andrews was not a party to this but sadly in today’s media environment a sex tape is the instant way to stardom. Why do we know of Paris Hilton at all if not for her skanky sex tape? She also benefits from the fact that she’s an aggrieved party in all this and innocent. I just hope they are able to find the pervert that taped her and stop this in the future.

The other sad incident is the accusations of sexual assault by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Now professional athletes are accused of sexual misconduct on a regular basis sadly, but what was interesting about this was the internecine battle between the various members of the sporting press. Listening to Dan Patrick’s show the former ESPN anchor was discussing the idea that the worldwide leader in sports was purposely not cover the story of the allegations because it did not wish to rock the relationship that they have with the NFL. Now the National Football League is the big daddy of the sporting world and a cash cow for ESPN. But now it seems that police are declining to investigate him as a suspect. Was ESPN right to avoid the needless publicity of what could end up an unfounded allegation? Or did they luck out while sucking up to the NFL? I’d love to know.