The Rookies

The very definition of punchable.

It’s one of the basic rules of being a sports fan that when you turn on SportsCenter or check your favorite sports blogs or (if you’re particularly exotic) open the morning sports section that you’re going to see the same stories come up over and over and over again. It’s just common sense. If a media outlet sees a story that they believe holds a large amount of interest for its audience, that outlet is going to try to get as much out of that story as possible, whether or not people are actually still interested by the time the story plays out. Still, at any given point in the year, you can usually find at least 10 stories that, regardless of who’s covering them or what angle they come up with for it, audiences would be perfectly happy never to hear about again.

Here are five (well, sort of) stories I could really do without having to follow right now.

Brett Favre

Since this is easily the most obvious outplayed story, I figured I would just get it out of the way right at the start. Well over a year into the Brett Favre Retirement Saga, I no longer really care about Favre damaging his legacy (he has), how it affects my favorite teams (now that he’s with the Vikings, zilch), whether he can still play (probably), whether he should play (probably not), or any other aspect of the story. It’s one thing for every major blog, TV show, radio show, magazine, and newspaper, along with their local counterparts, in sports to cover a story. But when they’ve been doing that for over a year and are set to continue doing so for the better part of another year, it’s time to stop covering all but the basics of the story because there’s nothing new you can add.

Well, this is a relief.

(Rock note: This is for the Vikings: Ha ha.)

Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong

It’s very nice that Lance has been trying to use his comeback to publicize the ongoing effort to improve cancer research. And to be fair, this story really only reached its saturation point during the last few stages of the Tour De France.

But now that it’s over, I really don’t need to hear anything more about how Alberto Contador hates Lance Armstrong, how Lance Armstrong hates Alberto Contador, how they couldn’t get along as teammates, or how either man plans to take revenge on his rival next year. It’s not saying anything that wasn’t ridiculously easy to figure out leading up to or during the race, and it’s not going to do anything for cancer awareness.

Tim Tebow

I have no problem with Clay Travis asking about the virginity of the Chosen One of College Football. I’m sure that the failure of Steve Spurrier to fill out his preseason SEC awards ballot is some kind of metaphor for what’s wrong with BCS voting in general.

I also do not even begin to remotely care what Tim Tebow does between now and the start of the season. If he hasn’t been saying anything stupid and the reason we’re all talking about him in the first place is because of his playing abilities, then I don’t really need to hear about him unless he’s actually playing.

Plaxico Burress



To be fair, this story is nowhere near coming to an end and continuing to cover it is perfectly understandable. And I’m sorry to see one of the greatest former players on one of my favorite teams in trouble for such a stupid crime. On the other hand, he’s probably not playing any time soon, there’s no real doubt as to whether he did it or not, and given how this story’s developed so far, no real likelihood of any lasting progress in the case. So until the charges have been dropped and he’s back on the playing field or he’s been convicted/sentenced, forgive me for suspending any interest in what happens to Plax for the time being.

T.O.



Yes, he’s good at drawing attention. Yes, he has a history of leaving his teams on a negative note. But right now, he doesn’t seem to be fighting with his teammates, the stuff he’s said about Michael Vick has been echoed by other players and sportswriters, and the season’s still over a month away.

I have no problem with people covering him as a player, but it’s probably time to stop covering the T.O. “controversy” for the moment if he’s not really causing one.