TMZ to Launch TMZsports.com

Sports By Brooks is reporting that TMZ, smut monger to the stars, will launch TMZsports.com in a few months.  From Brooks:

So why is

Levin

is starting TMZSports.com? If you have to ask that question, this must be your first visit to SbB.

Look at ESPN. With the majority of our only truly national sports network’s revenue derived from contractual agreements to broadcast NFL, MLB, NBA and NCAA hoops and football games, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that ESPN’s news reporting operation could be compromised by those financial arrangements. Add in the fact that ESPN has no major national sports media competitor and now tell me what incentive ESPN has to report negative news about anything involving those league partners? Of course, you already know all that if you visit me regularly. You see the stories that we produce daily that in many cases have every right to be reported nationally. Say a sports blog breaks an original story that portrays one of ESPN’s league partners in an unflattering light. Because ESPN doesn’t have to fear another national network competitor widely distributing that blog’s story - because no such competitor exists - why would ESPN acknowledge the story? (Happens every single day, friends.)

Wow.  Where to begin... If there is one industry that does not need a brighter light shown upon it, it's the sports industry.  Think about the stories that ESPN

has

to report because they're too big: Tiger Woods, the felon of the week from the NFL, Jayson Williams, Michael Strahan's divorce a few years ago, Plaxico Buress.  These are just the guys that had

court dates.

What if a site like TMZ decides that following baseball players around Toronto is fun?  Do we really want to see pictures of ballplayers hanging around with strippers? Maybe some people do.  I won't stand on a soap box and claim that ESPN has some moral obligation to report stories about Pete Carrol or anyone else who might be associated with a big-time sport they are currently in contract with.  For a long time, up until very recently, the private lives of sports figures were rarely shared through the media, unless Billy Martin punched someone at the Copa.  No cops, no stories, Jim Bouton or no Jim Bouton. That approach makes the most sense in my eyes.  We follow baseball players because they play baseball.  It's not reasonable to hold them up to impossible moral standards because they play a game and get paid ridiculously for it. Likewise with Tiger.  If he hadn't gotten into that car accident on Christmas night and decided to stay home and take his beating like a man instead, this story probably wouldn't have blown up.  I personally don't care about Tiger cheating on his wife.  I don't condone it but it's none of my business.  If the man wanted to chase that many women, he shouldn't have gotten married in the first place. TMZsports.com will make it everyone's business and like a car accident on the side of the highway, everyone is going to have to stop and take a look.  You may not seek it out personally but the blogosphere will run amok with whatever smut happens to cross the feed that day. Yanks playing the Red Sox this weekend?  Here's a pic of Kevin Youklis doing shots off a strippers derriere.  LeBron James doesn't want to sign with the Knicks?  Here's a time lapse shot of his limousine shaking in a Las Vegas parking lot. Those are obviously fake but you get the idea. This can't be a good thing for baseball or for any sport.  People living their lives, which they have every right to do, will be splashed all over the web because TMZ can.  For some, it'll be fun and funny. But think about this: what would Derek Jeter's image be right now if TMZsports.com started in 1995?  Jeter's a single man allowed to partake in the life that a single starting shortstop for the New York Yankees is allowed to partake in.  Would people think of highly as Jeter after seeing pictures of him from across 1st Avenue with a blond on each arm heading up to his apartment every other week? Maybe.  Maybe not.  It's his right and it's our right to judge.  But like most stories involving celebrities and sports figures, we rarely judge in the positive.