Study: ESPN Is Rotting Your Brain

We're always kind of wary of academic studies on issues that happen out in the real world — grad students are always nitpicking at matters they don't have the guts to try themselves; they're like bloggers, except much ... slower ... — but we found this one irresistible, even if we have doubts that it actually means anything.

According to a grad student at the University of Missouri — a grad student who's about to have his name in The New York Times for the first and only time — ESPN has changed the sports jargon of sportswriting. More and more sportswriters are slipping in ESPN-esque catchphrases into their writing, particularly younger "reporters." The NYT story also goes on to point out how many sports reporters are using their newspaper jobs simply as springboards to on-screen careers for ESPN, but the Times is totally wrong. Except for William Rhoden. And Buster Olney. Hypothetically speaking.

ESPN Sports-Speak Is Increasingly Also Becoming Sports-Write [NYT]