ESPN Legal

I'm starting to think that ESPN needs it's own legal or court TV type of extension channel. Over the last year, think about all the legal cases or issues that have been covered (extensively) by ESPN and diluting SportsCenter. This morning alone, there was a story on the Indiana Basketball coach violating recruiting procedures that conveniently followed highlights from last night's Indiana/Wisconsin match up. All I wanted to see were highlights (or lowlights depending on who you ask) from the Florida/LSU game I missed (thankfully, I never did).

Maybe it was just this year with events like the NBA referee scandal, Michael Vick, "Spygate," the Mitchell report and of course Roger Clemens gets a mention of his own, that warrant the need for a ESPN legal channel. Then again, with technology making it easier to document illegal actions, maybe this is the growing trend that we will see more of this, ruining the PR image sports have spent years fostering.

I once facilitated a media interview with Boomer Esiason, who commented on today's NFL players very public arrests (Chris Henry). He said, (and I paraphrase) a lot of professional athletes have always found a way to get into trouble, it was just harder for people to find out. Today, someone can snap video on their cell phone and you're on the Internet an hour later.

On, that note, this is on the Internet...a second later.