As if sports, as an entity or industry, wasn't insignificant enough already, it appears sports journalism has turned into a cesspool of sensationalism and petty arguments between people who play games for a living and people who watch games for a living.

I'm tired of hearing about Pacman, another Cincinnati Bengal arrest, the NBA All-Star shootout, feuds between Kobe and Shaq, Jeter and Rodriguez and now bloody f'n socks!

Here's what I really don't get. Anyone who calls himself a real "sportsfan" doesn't give a crap about the off-field shenanigans of overpaid, whiny assletes. So why the hell does ESPN cater to the lowest denominator?

ESPN might as well drop the S-P-N and add an exclamation point because that's exactly what it's become... E!. Pretty soon, Ryan Seacrest and Brooke Burke will be hosting Sportscenter; dishing the latest on who's dating who in the sports world. Oh wait, they already tried that--with C-List celebs (no offense, Slater). Come on!

I don't know who in the hell is running things at that Mickey Mouse (literally) operation, but someone needs to tear it down and start over. Sportscenter has become such a frickin' mess with the damn sponsors and the obnoxious graphics and sound effects, the ridiculous crosstalk segments and god forbid the panelists (ahem... NFL Countdown) listen to each other instead of playing a game of shoutsies.

I'm predicting the downfall of ESPN within 5 years.

A serious all sports channel will creep up and infiltrate the market that ESPN has a stranglehold on. They'll do it with serious journalists and analysts, not caracitures. They'll focus on the game not the games. They'll be discrete, but transparent with the advertising and when there's nothing good to show, the screen will be black with a message in white text that says, "Life is more than sports. Go read a book or something."  Of course the text will move around so people's TVs won't burn in.