The Death of ESPN?

I was, like many children of the 1990s and 2000s, a SportsCenter kid. Every weekday morning, no matter the season, I turned my parents’ TV to ESPN to watch highlights curated by a cavalcade of charismatic and quirky anchors. Stu Scott, Scott Van Pelt, Linda Cohn, and Kenny Mayne meant far more to me than any politician. Pardon the Interruption, for my father and I, was appointment viewing. Chris Berman was the NFL, Joe Morgan and John Miller were Major League Baseball, and Bill Simmons’ ESPN.com column was professional basketball. I was a willing guinea pig for failed experiments like Cold Pizza. I took Dream Job much more seriously than American Idol. When ESPN spent an entire year, in 2004, in an orgy of self-congratulation for its 25th anniversary, I joyously consumed every last ounce of televised content. I was a young ESPN foot solider, built for their glorious future.