Growing up in Boston, I have been spoiled with how damn good the professional sports teams are here. There is no other city that can come close to the dominance displayed over the last 20 years than Boston.
However, people in this city, and across this country, muster up the courage to spout hot takes in order to garner a reaction. It is a high that media members are always chasing and are never satisfied with. And it is not just related to Boston teams. This is an epidemic across the country, covering every sport, with people far and wide giving us their not-so-real opinion. When did this start?
I was a devout believer in the church of ESPN. I watched every show when I was younger, from First Take to Sportsnation, home of the three biggest hot take artists in the world now, Skip, Stephen A, and Cowherd. And while they would boast their opinions and make their presence known, nothing was every overtly ridiculous. They had opinions that divided people, but were realistic in some sense. And this was circa 2013, only 6 years ago.
Nowadays you can find those three, with a dose of Kellerman and Shannon Sharpe sprinkled in, on national television making reactionary takes to get people either vehemently disagreeing with them, or appealing to a sect of people so devoid of common sense that they actually agree with them. I mean, Skip Bayless STILL thinks the Packers somehow manipulated a ball in mid air to go through the uprights. Kellerman has bemoaned Brady and said he was done every day for the last 6 years. I imagine an off-screen conversation with him nowadays goes something like this:
“Hey Max did you see the new Game of Thrones Trailer?”
Kellerman: “Tom Brady COULD NOT STOP THE NIGHT KING.”
The same can be said about 90% of local Boston media. So when and why did journalism and sports reporting resort to trolling? Why cant we just cover sports and give rational opinions that not everyone has to believe, but at least can be credited.
Bowles' Blog 