IF WE AREN’T WATCHING SPORTS MEDIA, WHY BOTHER COVERING THE STORIES?

Pathetically, ESPN trots out regulars and Fox Sports 1 initiates new shows when the average ratings are so abysmal — America has 345 million people — that it makes me wonder why we pay any attention

     As a wise soul who knows the industry, Jim O’Donnell always warns me about too much media coverage. He won’t write about sportscasters who don’t deliver ratings. In a country of around 345 million humans, why write about a Chicago radio station that might deliver 20,000 a show? Or a national TV network that delivers 50,000?

     The math isn’t worth the bother. The math isn’t worth the programs, either.

     I asked him this week about Danny Parkins, a local talk-show host who has moved to New York with Fox Sports 1. He is borderline replacing Skip Bayless, who was on that 50,000 mark, which equals 0.000144927536232 of the U.S. populace. The Sun-Times reported he is considering a home in New Jersey, which is nice. And I wish him well with Craig Carton — who once served a year in prison for gambling-related securities fraud — and Mark Schlereth, who is 58 and won three Super Bowls in the 1990s.

     But.

     We are doing dirty work for the dirty, as the Daily Herald writer knows in suburban Chicago. This plague has reached the point where ESPN calls a press conference — why? — and introduces talents who evidently are keeping the network functioning before perilous direct-to-consumer service next year. I’m not sure any of them are worth leaning into devices and watching for a fee. Yet, there they were.

     Pat McAfee, whose ratings are slumbering while he appeals to podunk America.

     Scott Van Pelt, a gambling idiot who fatuously sucks up to interview topics.

     Stephen A. Smith, whose numbers were at least doubled by some of us on a better ESPN show, “Around The Horn,” back in the day.

     Mike Greenberg, who is well-known for adoring the New York Jets and exuberantly thanked commissioner Roger Goodell for letting him host the NFL draft.

     And Elle Duncan, who defended McAfee by saying: “I think it’s unfair sometimes that we sort of expect for him to conduct himself the same exact way that we would, you know, ask an Edward R. Murrow Award winner to conduct himself like … we have all types here, and that’s the beautiful part about ESPN.”

     All of whom aren’t being watched anymore.

     I am ashamed to have worked for the network for eight years. I was on the air about 1,700 times for “ATH,” not including “Pardon the Interruption” shows I co-hosted. ESPN didn’t like me when I was a daily critic, trying to perform some version of Edward R. Murrow’s work while covering the sports world — not promoting it, as they do now in cowardice — and helping our viewership rating that approached one million. Hasn’t it occurred to chairman Jimmy Pitaro and content president Burke Magnus what happens to their unseemly work for leagues? It leads to bad developments, such as UFC boss Dana White slapping his wife at a New Year’s Eve party.

     Yet they want us to watch McAfee and Smith. Both have red asses about the media, folks who’ve only helped them in the public eye. If we stop covering ESPN and FS1, as O’Donnell suggests, where would they be? Who would know they exist? Don’t tell McAfee, who verbally attacked The Athletic’s media reporter, Andrew Marchand, and other writers during this beautifully wacko event in Bristol, Conn.

     “Whenever people in here have tried to get me fired for taking clips out of context or quotes out of context — and misrepresenting everything that I’ve said and the human that I am — it’s like we know that we’re good, so you can try to fire us, you can try to kill us, you can do whatever you need to do,” McAfee said.

     OK. Then we will. He doesn’t deserve to be on the air beyond a radio station in Morgantown, or wherever he’s from. “And I just felt there was kind of a calculated attack seemingly taking place on me and my show because of how different we are, because of the journalistic standards we don’t adhere to,” McAfee said. “We have no journalism school people on staff. I did not do anything with an agent. I negotiated the deal myself. So those are two powerful groups that potentially were cut out of my operation completely. A lot of legitimate people I had a lot of respect for before this whole thing started kind of just made me look like a complete asshole.”

     Maybe because he is a complete asshole.

     Then he ripped a site called Awful Announcing, which isn’t worth being ripped or mentioned. “I don’t know who you are. But like, man, future earnings with, like, slander, libel, character assassination, stolen clips, all that shit,” McAfee said. “Like, if I wanted to ever deal with suits, which I don’t, and everybody knows that that could be a thing, like I can make that all the thing.”

     Never mind. We’ll focus on Smith, who is negotiating for a new contract worth $100 million and hasn’t received anywhere near it. Isn’t he aware of A.I., which Pitaro has embraced? Imagine a cloned Stephen A. Last year, his show averaged 451,000 viewers. Which equals 0.001307246376812 of the U.S. populace, meaning he bumped ahead of Bayless’ show. Big whoops. “How can I say this respectfully? We’ve dominated … for 12 years now and counting. So this notion that suddenly we’ve won and the competition has finally been defeated, and wow, it was such a long, arduous battle. It’s just not true,” Smith said. “You see folks having trouble in some way, shape, form or fashion, even losing their jobs or whatever. You got folks writing about how, ‘Hey, you know what? It’s so sad, it’s such a wrong thing to do.’ Why are they gone? Folks are not gone a lot of times because they lack talent … but they’re looking at numbers. And whoever’s not winning the numbers game, they’re going to make changes.”

     Our numbers on “ATH” were twice as good as Smith’s. Did it matter? No longer does that show have any media prominence, just sailing away with lowball afternoon ratings. None of the panelists are paid much. And as Magnus claims the show might have life, after the New York Post reported it will end next year, I would urge the producer and director to help a terribly lost cause. It needs strong anchors, who are on every day, the way things once were. Don’t keep putting 20-25 people on the air throughout the year for whatever reason.

     Try Joe Fortenbaugh. Try Richard Jefferson. Jesus, try Nick Saban. Try anyone but Woody Paige and Tim Cowlishaw and many others, who are laughed at and tuned out. The host, Tony Reali, has allowed ratings to drift into the East River.

     But why do I care? No one watches. I was on the air when it mattered. All you need to know about ESPN is that hockey star Johnny Gaudreau, who was killed on a bicycle by a drunk driver Thursday night, no longer was anywhere near the lead story on the news website.

     The University of Pittsburgh’s leading rusher was No. 1, after he was declared ineligible. Frances Tiafoe beating Ben Shelton at the U.S. Open was No. 2. Ivica Zubac signing a $58.6 million extension with the Los Angeles Clippers was No. 3. Marquise Brown was No. 4 because he’ll miss the Kansas City Chiefs’ season opener.

     Why? The first four stories relate to gambling.

     A tragic death does not.

     ###

     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.