04/22/2026
Easier said than done to not fall for the all-hype headline season
By Steven Bortstein
FARMINGTON – There’s a downtime to every year in how media types cover and promote high-profile sports.
The gap in time is short, but it never fails that somewhere between the conclusion of the Masters and the NFL Draft, there’s a lull in the way national and local media cover the frenetic world of professional and college sports.
These past few weeks have been no different. It shows in the way national media conglomerates like ESPN have embraced the spectacle of reality television called WrestleMania.
As a consumer of sports news and a passionate reader of all things that one would consider newsworthy, I admit I’ve been fascinated and maybe more than a little nauseated at wall-to-wall coverage of the so-called scandal involving sports reporter Dianna Russini and New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.
There’s been no shortage of insight and ahem, analysis, on where photos of the lovebirds was taken as well as the status of their respective marriages.
And as if that weren’t enough, we were treated to more expert commentary from someone named Crissy Froyd, another sports reporter who called out Russini for her alleged indiscretions. Both Froyd and Russini are now unemployed, while Vrabel remains at New England.
Let’s face it. The Patriots have withstood a lot more controversy inside and outside their team facilities over the past decade. A little adult indiscretion seems like a speed bump.
In case that wasn’t enough, sports fans were given the opportunity to chime in on such noteworthy topics as to why the WNBA’s Dallas Wings selected Azzi Fudd with the No. 1 pick in the 2026 Draft. Fudd will now be reunited on the basketball court with former UConn teammate and current partner Paige Bueckers.
During the press conference introducing Fudd to the national media, a reporter asked Fudd about the relationship with Bueckers. The reporter didn’t ask Fudd what she felt she’d bring to the team chemistry or about being the league’s top pick in the draft.
The reporter went right for the clickbait.
This, among many valid and not-so valid reasons, is why national sports media coverage gets the well-deserved eye roll.
The selection of Fudd then took another bizarre turn when it was suggested in an online platform that the real scapegoat in coverage of this so-called story was that other forms of “legitimate” sports media refused to cover the relationship betweeen Bueckers and Fudd.
Several stories about the draft avoided the romantic storyline, national reporter Jeff Pearlman noted.
“Fudd and Bueckers are in a long-term relationship, and nobody’s mentioning it. And the WNBA clearly has asked people not to mention it. And it’s very journalistically confusing to me,” Pearlman wrote in an online commentary.
Never mind that last year Fudd was named the NCAA tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after she recorded 24 points in the national championship game win over South Carolina and posted 19 points in a Final Four victory over UCLA. Let’s just focus on your confusion.
“It is fascinating that these two people who have been dating for a long time, dating back to college, would be the starting backcourt for a team,” Pearlman continued. “To me, that is actually the No. 1 piece of this story.”
Of course it is. Because statistics and game analysis or actual team commentary have little to do with sports coverage anymore. Let’s lower the bar a little more.
This time will pass. Soon, we’ll have the NFL Draft, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Final and the MLB All-Star Game.
In the meantime, I’ll do my part to ignore the noise of what isn’t really sports coverage and is intended only to distract and raise the unnecessary rhetoric.
That’s all.
Steven Bortstein
Tri-City Record
