It’s not difficult to see that a new day is upon us when it comes to the way sports are covered. The Internet is no longer only offering a minor dissenting opinion to mass media, but is now the primary place where major sports news stories are reported, and now more often, created. Not long ago, to find out information about your favorite team, or any specific sport in general, you had only three options: Radio, TV and Print. You would be able to get in-depth information about your local teams, but only vague news about the rest of the teams in their respective leagues. Nowadays, everything is accessible. Want to follow Greg Oden? Just go to Jason Quick’s “Behind the Blazers Beat” blog for the most up to the minute information. Curious about Terrell Owens exit in Dallas? Cowboys Blog has you covered. And those are just some of the blogs sponsored by major newspapers. You can now get a much wider swath of coverage from the major mainstream sports blogs, including the Deadspin’s and Big Lead’s of the world.
In changing how sports is reported, the internet has also changed what is reported. As a professional athlete or professional sports franchise, you are under watch 24/7. Twenty years ago, the games were the only story, but now almost everything is fair game. There are no pictures of Mickey Mantle with beer funnels and co-eds, but Matt Leinart set the Internet ablaze last year with his infamous photos. Athletes are now under constant scrutiny in their everyday lives. Anyone with a camera phone or Twitter account can put an athlete’s exploits live online in a matter of seconds.
This also extends to the franchises. Most team’s day-to-day moves are covered ad nauseum now, with every misstep being scrutinized to the minutest detail. For example, take the recent story of former Philadelphia Eagles employee Dan Leone. A lifelong fan, he was a game-day employee for the team for the past six years. Frustrated with one of the recent moves the team had made, he did what many fans do -- he vented. However, he happened to vent his frustration into a public forum. On this occasion it was a Facebook status update. Within two weeks of the post, without having a chance to defend himself, Mr. Leone was fired. Before the advent of the Internet, there would have been no Facebook or any other platform for his ill-fated rant. Essentially, unless someone overheard a personal conversation or phone call, his opinions never would become a story. Even if it was overheard, it might have been news in Philadelphia for a few days, and then would have gone by the wayside, with the rest of us none the wiser.
However, now the story has been picked up by every mainstream sports blog and numerous online editions for newspapers across the country. Twitterers and message boards nationwide have been buzzing about it. Mr. Leone received more interview requests than he could keep up with. Both he and the Eagles have been thrust into the national media spotlight in less than 24 hours. It’s a prime example of a sports franchise not understanding how their actions can affect their public perception.
Full disclosure: I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan. However, whether or not I relish in their front office foibles is beside the point. Had the Eagles handled the issue more deftly (read: internal reprimand) the story almost certainly could have been controlled, and probably never even reached the national media. They’ve even mishandled the aftermath, by barely acknowledging that Mr. Leone even worked for them. Certainly Mr. Leone’s reaction warranted some type of response by the team. But the Eagles have committed misstep after misstep, from overreacting to an innocuous status update, to firing the employee and then stonewalling after the reports came out. All serving to prove the sheer force of the Internet and what it’s done to the landscape of sports news.