RIP The Sports Reporters

I have no interest in listening to any of the people now, with the exception of Ryan. I had interest in listening to the panel members in the early days, and "The Sports Writers on TV," even more so.

 

Sure that wasn't Bill Swerski and the Super Fans?

 

You could definitely make that parallel. But man, Jauss, Gleason, Telander and the others had some great discussions.

 

Sports Writers on TV was a tremendous show. It was even better to me because of its Chicago focus, as those were the dead days when it was hard to get out of town sports perspectives.

 

Found "Sports Reporters" while flipping channels yesterday morning and it appeared to be the same people who were on it when I watched regularly two decades ago. I kept flipping.

 

From my days as a Boston colleague of Ryan's, I can tell you that the primary quality they looked for in the guests was the ability to be in the New York studio at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday to do the filming. This limited their options as to participants.

 

And that's what killed the franchise. Save for The Sporting News, when they'd pick up columnists from across the country, "The Sports Reporters" originally was the only place you would see such a meeting of the minds (and, yeah, I'm counting Loopy). Now you've got First Take, PTI, Around The Horn. It became an antique.

 

A feces-covered antique.

 

It was decent under Dick Schapp Sportswriters on TV was excellent.

 

The thing about Sportswriters on TV that still sticks out to me is that Telander was the young one ...

They all were characters, especially Gleason and Bentley. Bentley was one of those guys who did everything it seemed, including promoting fights. When Bentley retired/left the show, it lost a lot.

Add: Just found this piece on Bentley that I found interesting Going A Few Rounds With Ben Bentley