Dear ESPN, i apologize.

i will try from this point on, to refrain from my nasty comments about your programming and announcers (well, maybe just an itty bit). i am, at 82, a true, bona fide, no fooling curmudgeon. i finally realized my whining is useless. You, nor the general public will agree with me. i should not disparage what i don’t understand. i will try to be better, to fit in…no, not fit in: i will always be a pocket of resistance, a seeker of truth, a believer in common sense.

You see, once upon a time, in a place faraway, i was a sports writer and then sports editor. Albeit a short time, i think it gave me a perspective most folks don’t have, and you certainly have not displayed my perception of “sports” since your inception in 1979 and the early days when you focused your athletic events on many off the beaten path — Man, i loved watching Australian football.

i wish i could start a sports journal or a sports section is a good local newspaper somewhere (are there any truly “local” papers anymore?). — Hah, what kind of punctuation is that? Oh, it’s jim jewell punctuation…if he doesn’t edit it out.

This sports section/journal would be about sports. There would be no discussion of the moral turpitude of the players or the coaches. It would contain no mention of contracts, money, politics, and most of all betting and the odds. It would not go into the opinions about officiating good or bad. It would not suggest changing the rules to attract audiences or fit into the money making schemes.

It wouldn’t address the greed that has changed sport. The change in games because of required commercials lasting three times longer or more while the athletes in every sport twiddle their thumbs or listen to their spout intricate tactics hardly ever quite executed as planned.

it wouldn’t chastise the sports moguls for extending seasons beyond the safe zone for the athletes in order to gain more money with more games. Today, Sunday, January 25th, there were two games played in the NFL. One the AFC championship game in Denver in a snow storm. It was stupid football. Had it been played in New England, it would have been worse.

It will not even chastise the interference and control of coaches in the contests rather than let the athletes…you know, the ones on the field actually “playing” to make decisions in the “game.”

This “Sports” section/journal would not spend time disecting the chicanery and bribery involved in the NCAA’s “Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and transfer portals. And it certainly wouldn’t include stories about youngsters as young as four or five being trained to be career athlete at the expense of having a childhood.

And on and on and on.

But this dream of mine would report upon the beauty of sports, all sports; the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat; the phenomenal plays, the incredible physical ability of the players

It’s just a dream, and like Bill Veeck knew, if it became a reality, it would be bankrupt in about two months.

After all, it’s now all about money; it is not about sport or sportsmanship. It’s entertainment.

i think i’m going back to play mumblety-peg.