J-Speaks: The Conclusion of "The Sports Reporters"

It seems like today you can turn on your television or go to your mobile device today and you can catch many sports shows where you see broadcast sports journalist to those that are part of the print media, or today the digital media talk and discuss sports topics from many different angles and from many different opinions. There was a time when this was not a prevalent. If it were not for a flagship show that began on ESPN in 1988 and brought to the public mainstream names of beat writers from some of the most well-known news publications across the nation. That show will be concluding in the middle of the spring.

A report from Sports Illustrated.com Richard Deitsch said that ESPN announced at the beginning of the week that it is cancelling “The Sports Reporters,” which airs Sunday mornings at 9:30 a.m. on ESPN. It will conclude on May 7 just shy of its 30 years on the air.

Retired Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, a longtime regular on the show and who is a regular on ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” which airs weekdays at 5 p.m. and fills in for either Tony Kornheiser or Michael Wilbon on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” on ESPN confirmed the news via his twitter account.

“Yes it’s true. Final “Sports Reporters” May 7,” Ryan said @GlobeBobRyan on Monday afternoon. “It changed my life 28 years ago. I’m very grateful to Joe Valerio for including me.”

“The Sports Reporters” was the trail blazing show that created a plethora of debate-centric roundtable shows that occurred both on national sports networks as well as regional ones where members of print, digital and broadcast media who debate, discuss, and bloviate the news and issues going on during the week and during the season of collegiate and pro sports.

What set this show apart from many that air today was that only two host that gave the show the vibrato that kept viewers coming back for more in Dick Schaap, who hosted the program from 1989-2001 and the late John Saunders, the show’s host from 2001 until his passing in 2016.

The original host of the show was longtime baseball and NHL play-y-play announcer Gary Thorne, who was replaced by Schaap.

“Best thing about the “Sports Reporters” experience is I can say I worked with Dick Schaap and John Saunders, each 1^st ballot Broadcast HofF,” Ryan tweeted.

“The Sports Reporters” will be replaced after May 7 by an hour-long version of E:60, ESPN’s long-running sports journalism magazine show. One of ESPN’s other programs “Outside the Lines,” is expected to have a role in the show as host Bob Ley and Jeremy Schaap, the son of Dick will be prominently featured.

“The Sports Reporters” as mentioned earlier was a show that consisted of a who’s who of the print media, who would gather around a roundtable each Sunday morning to discuss topics going on in the sports world and no one appeared on the show more than Mike Lupica, who is now serving as the shows current host.

Along with Lupica and Ryan, other regulars on the show included Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom; Bob Ryan; former New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden; Mike Downy; the late Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; former reporter for the Kansas City Star and currently co-host the daily sports show “Speak For Yourself” on Fox Sports 1 alongside Colin Cowherd Jason Whitlock; Michael Smith, who host “His and Hers,” which airs weekdays on ESPN 2; author and former columnist for The Washington Post, Sporting News  and Golf Digest John Feinstein and the previously mentioned co-host of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” which airs weekdays at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN in Kornheiser and Wilbon.

“All of us owe a great debt of gratitude to this show and all the shows we are on like the ‘PTI’ show, owes a great debt to ‘The Sports Reporters,’” Kornheiser said at the end of the Tuesday’s edition of “Pardon the Interruption.

Wilbon, Kornheiser’s co-pilot of “PTI” since the show started on Oct. 22, 2001 concurred by saying, “Isn’t just make us sad, it makes us angry because back when Bristol [ESPN’s main headquarters] was afraid to say anything critical about anything, this necessary commentary was outsourced to sports writers and we are thankful and grateful to have been on that show as many times over the years as we were and it’s too bad it’s going away.”

For years, the “Sports Reporters” did not feature regular female panelists, that did change over the last couple with appearances by Jackie MacMullan, who appears regular on “Around the Horn;” the co-pilot of “His and Hers” alongside Smith weekdays on ESPN 2 Jemele Hill and sports columnist for USA Today, radio and television commentator and author, who has made several appearances on the likes of ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” and HBO’s “Real Sports,” with Bryant Gumbel.

Last year, the show featured an all-female edition, which had Hill and fellow ESPN journalists Sarah Spain, Jane McManus, and Kate Fagan, who previously covered the Philadelphia 76ers for The Inquirer and is also a regular on “Around the Horn.”

The best part of “The Sports Reporters,” to me was at the end of each show was “The Parting Shots” segment where each panelist and the moderator would give their take on an athlete, team, sporting event, or member of the sports organization. I learned from watching those segments how putting together strong and precise words and how they can bring to life the meaning of what that player or event can mean to that team, the city and community they represent and how that victory or defeat can inspire and bring people together or how their triumph or setback can teach of those that watch in person or from our television a valuable and life changing lesson.

 “The Sports Reporters” was a ground breaking, trail blazing show that was one of a kind and allowed others shows where columnist and beat writers give us the view the latest scoop of what is going on in the world of sports. It was great to watch every Sunday morning on ESPN and it will be missed.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 1/23/17 www.philly.com article “ESPN Is Ending ‘The Sports Reporters,’ One of the Longest-running Shows,” by Staff Writer Rob Tornoe; 1/23/17 www.si.com article “ESPN Canceling The Sports Reporters After Nearly 30 Years On Air,” by Richard Deitsch; 1/24/17 5:30 p.m. edition of “Pardon the Interruption,” on ESPN with Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Feinstein; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Brennan; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_the_Interruption and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Whitlock.