Sports are pretty great. In today’s society, it’s easy to forget just how amazing it is that we have so many channels dedicated to just sports. The ESPN bottom line was first introduced in 1995. The world was a much different place then. Cell phones barely worked and were the size of an actual brick, Forrest Gump won best picture at the Academy Awards and Earthbound was released for the Super Nintendo. That being said, I absolutely hate the bottom line. It is unattractive, not helpful and no longer fills a need for the television viewer.

It’s obsolete

We all wanna around with a device in our pockets that seemed like science fiction in 1995. We have access to whatever scores and news we want in multiple ways on our phones. I can ask a virtual assistant for a score update, go to a website or even gander at social media. I’m never watching the bottom line hoping to see a score update for my favorite team. Only to exhaust this point further, when I am paying attention to the bottom line it usually cuts to commercials right before the score I want to see and it is gone when the broadcast returns.

Niche Scores

Nobody cares about Women’s MAAC basketball except for local markets. I really don’t ever want to see a score update for Iona’s women’s basketball. Heck, their local community barely cares. Their average attendance in the 2018-19 season was 716. Based on my understanding of how attendance is calculated that likely includes season ticket sales for the men’s games. Most mid-major conferences throw in the women’s season tickets as an incentive for the men’s games.

Wasted space

Based on my rough measurements, the bottom line takes up about 1/9th of the screen. Why are we wasting this with ACC Lacrosse scores instead of creating a more immersive experience for the viewer? Watching a sporting event on tv is a unique live experience. Don’t take away from that by giving me women’s hockey exhibition game news. I really don’t care and if I did I’d give it a quick “goog” as the youngsters are saying these days.

Now it could be said that maybe degenerate sports gamblers in the late 90s got a rush out of the bottom line, but it’s time to get grandpa a cellphone and a decent WiFi router so he can check scores like a civilized man nowadays. Somethings are meant to last forever. In fact, most probably aren’t. You’ve had a nice 25 year run bottom line, step aside.



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