ESPN Wants Your Sports Blogs

So, friends, here's a rather terrifying story from AdAge:

ESPN is hoping to become the MySpace of the sports world. In September, it will unveil as part of ESPN's Sports Nation property the tools for fans to create profiles, contribute to sports blogs, post opinions and link to favorite articles.

That's right, folks: You too can have you own ESPN sports blog. Make sure not to curse, and first one to sign up yourewithmeleather.espnblogs.com wins a backrub from us. Until they take it down, of course.

That's not all, though. ESPN.com is also expanding its Monday Night Football package, with a familiar face.

"Monday Night Surround" will feature scouting reports, news and games within a game, where fans from the opposing teams register and battle each other for fan supremacy through trivia, IQ contests, debates and betting contest created and hosted by Page Two columnist Bill Simmons.

We don't know what this will entail, but we're fairly certain "Rounders" will be mentioned.

ESPN Wants to Be MySpace For Fans [AdAge]

(It's a slow day today because only dopes like us are working, but be forewarned: We're going to be talking about this "ESPN wants to be MySpace" thing a lot. Just thought we'd introduce it to you, for now.)

(UPDATE: Simmons writes into us, clearly befuddled by this news: "I'm confused, I haven't agreed to do anything yet - maybe they've had me cloned?" Hmmm.