Wednesday, May 18, 2016

I'll take Clueless for $200, Alex

Look, I get it. Not everyone finds his or her way inside the sports bubble, even by accident.

But I'm watching "Jeopardy" last night (I'm pretty good at it, at least in the safety of  my own living room), and it's a special Media Celebrity edition. And so here are CNN's Anderson Cooper, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan and Michael Steele from MSNBC.

(Brief sidebar here: Why have I always thought the term "Media Celebrity" was an oxymoron? I don't know, maybe because media is supposed to be the chroniclers, not the center of attention?)

Anyway ... here they are, three big-time journalists, and here is Alex Trebek, giving his answer: "The Carolina Panther who was the first NFL rookie to pass for over 4,000 yards."

Blank stars from all three big-time journalists.

"We don't do sports," Logan finally said.

Yeah, but ... seriously?

I get that none of the three is a sports person; some things are on people's radar, and some things are not. But they are alleged journalists, with an alleged heightened sense of the wider world. Like most journalists of note, if they don't know a lot about a lot, they at least know a little about a lot.

Or should, in my estimation. Maybe it's different on the broadcast side, but it shouldn't be.

And so, I'm sorry, "we don't do sports" is not acceptable. Especially when the subject in question has been so much in the news the last year, considering he's the reigning MVP of one of the most inescapable corporate entities in America (the NFL), and was the quarterback for one of the teams in the Super Bowl, the most inescapable sporting event in America.  Even if you don't do sports, you know about the Super Bowl, because it's impossible to avoid. You're telling me that three Media Celebrities didn't have a clue, upon mention of the "Carolina Panthers," who Cam Newton was -- the single most recognized Carolina Panther?

Makes me wonder if any of the three could have named the two teams who played in the Super Bowl, let alone any of the players.

I'm not a betting man. But I might have laid down some coin that they couldn't have.

And that's just sad. 

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