JAG’s Sports Blog

ESPN is as responsible for the good and bad we see in sports today as any source out there because of the focus they emphasize with the spectacular over solid play. ESPN is making the stars and influencing who the fans shouldn’t like as opposed to fans deciding who the stars will be and who they don’t like. ESPN has hit a tape measure home run with their “My Wish” series that is connected to the Make-a-Wish organization for seriously and a lot of times terminally ill children. They grant wishes for these kids and this series involves professional teams doing their parts to help the community.

With the expansion of information in the world today, we get a lot of good and bad with that reporting. 30 years ago, sports news was limited to local news and regional coverage in sports with the big game being Saturday and Monday night baseball and football games with ABC’s Wide World of Sports carrying heavy juice in the sports world. Sports was merely reported and the personal lives of athletes was almost never delved into and that as much as anything is why we have this larger than life image of these players as compared to today. Along came ESPN and nothing has ever really been the same in the world of sports. ESPN is the 24-hour sports news source and with that comes the obligation to fill the network with some type of sports news, which leads to a lot of negative reporting on athletes as much as positive or just reporting the news.

Every possible fact you could expect comes from ESPN on a player and their personalities come into play as much as their prowess on the field as the norm in days gone by before ESPN appeared on the scene. Charles Barkley once said “I ain’t no role model”, and he was certainly right and wrong. Athletes shouldn’t be role models, but when you see all of their spectacular plays shown 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it’s hard not to view them as the models of what you’d like to be when you get older. Like it or not, every basket, touchdown or home run they hit is what people judge them by along with every DUI, DWI, fight and argument they have with a teammate.

ESPN truly hit a home run when they connected up with the “Make-A-Wish organization and recorded the wishes of seriously ill children being fulfilled by professional sports teams. I viewed the wish of Charlie Pena to be a coach for his favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles and was just blown away with my eyes misting up and a grin on my face the whole segment. Pena has sickle cell anemia and takes a massive amount of varied medications to help him live everyday and the chance to just meet the Philadelphia Eagles was obviously a dream come true.

ESPN ran a Sportscenter special report that had coach Andy Reid announcing that Pena would be brought on as an offensive coach. The family and Charlie could obviously be seen floating on air with that report. They were driven in to the practice facility by a team bus and a lighted billboard welcomed Charlie to the team. Pena’s wish was probably already made with all of this preparation to his arrival, but it was only just beginning. Everything came as a surprise to Charlie as he knew a story was being done, but ESPN clearly spared no expense in making this a great wish come true.

Pena met Reid in his office and was given an agenda on what would happen and then he nervously waited outside as the players began to pass by and introduce themselves to him. He first met and shook Brian Westbrook’s hand and Todd Pinkston gave him his gloves. Pena finally met Donovan McNabb and wound up playing catch with him. Reid gave Pena a sheet of events and he followed Reid around helping to call plays and actually looking like he was feeling more comfortable as the day went on. Pena finished off the day as he stood in the middle of the team huddle and led the chant 1-2-3 WIN!!

Pena was given a personalized jersey from owner Jeffrey Lurie that anyone would remember forever and actually having the players genuinely acknowledge him, had to be a thrill. You could tell his confidence and spirits were lifted by this experience and they said that he now calls all the plays when he’s out on the playground playing football. This was great viewing because he started out as a kid that was so miserable from his suffering that he wanted to die rather than continue on. No one can possibly want to see any kid suffer to this extent and your heart just goes out to him.

ESPN scored big with me because they gave fans a chance to see how athletes serve their community and did it with an open heart. There was no pretense to this act and everyone was acting natural. There’s nothing that says you have to slam players at every turn and try to bring them down a notch to put them in their place. This is a 10-part series and I can’t wait to watch the next episode with Katie from Oregon. Her wish is to spend time with the Seattle Mariners and it appears to be another nice episode in watching her wish come true.

ESPN is using their influence in the sports world with this series to judge the sports world for the good they can produce rather than all the negative news that seems to spew out. Quietly bashing people and trying to negatively influence others is getting very old to me. In the end, it’s all only a game and money isn’t a reason to present only the bad we perceive to see in athletes. ESPN has definitely produced a winner with the “My Wish” series and hopefully there’s a lot more to come from this experience.