Mike Felger Sucks and Traditional Sports Media is Dying

Over the past few years, it has become the new hot thing to blame millenials for “killing” certain industries. Mayonnaise, alcohol, starter homes, engagement rings, you name it. One of these industries is print media and, more broadly, traditional sports media. While I agree that this is a dying industry, the culprit is not the consumer. Rather, unlike Jeffrey Epstein, traditional sports media is killing itself.

Who is to Blame Specifically?

While it is a broad statement to say traditional sports media is dying by its own hand, there are not a handful of people to blame. However, there are certain types of people to blame in the industry, and in Boston media can be summed up in a few words. “Boring, stupid, and pessimistic.”

I understand I was born in the Golden Age of Boston Sports, but it is certainly the dark ages for Boston sports media. Many of these people saw losing season after losing season, and still have that mindset. Their hottest takes all come from a similar place as “Yeah, the Patriots are 9-1, but did you see that one play from the other night? This team will be lucky to finish 9-7.” There are two writers I want to highlight, whose flaws can be attributed to all of Boston Media: Dan Shaughnessy and Mike Felger.

Dan Shaughnessy: The Dumbest Person In Boston

While I cannot say anything new about good ole Dan, I can summarize it in six simple words: Dan Shaughnessy is a fucking idiot. Ranging from takes as bad as ending the Winter Classic to saying that Serena Williams was assessed fair penalties “because his niece said so.” My all time favorite take, however, is this one.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT DAN?!?!?! What on earth does the renaming of a street have to do with the team’s play? Even funnier is the Red Sox won 108 games that year and won the World Series. Does that mean the team played better because they took that awful racist Tom Yawkey’s name off the street? No, it’s a street name. Not many people actually cared except for those clinging to the past. This is the biggest issue with traditional sports media in Boston: they cling to the past. It isn’t 1986 anymore guys, not every team will have a Bill Buckner situation and blow games in spectacular fashion. While Dan Shaughnessy is guilty of this, scarily, he isn’t even the worst.

Mike Felger: Just Simply the Worst

Everything I just said about Shaughnessy can be attributed to Mike Felger but a little different. Felger, while still an idiot, is a little smarter but a lot more pessimistic. Saying he is a little smarter doesn’t make him smart, as Felger has so little going on in his head that he thinks constantly saying New England teams suck is a “hot take,” even though it just pisses people off. Sometimes in Boston sports, however, there isn’t much to complain about, or Felger goes in on the one thing he can complain about. Sometimes, there is so little to moan about, Felger miraculously has enough brainpower left to comment on other things, which is even worse than his pessimism.

When Felger runs out of things to bitch about, he shoots for controversy and just says ridiculous things. This season it was Kyle Van Noy, commenting on how he has sucked in the past. Felger let his real feelings known by saying, “I’ve never met him, but every time he opens his mouth I’m like, ‘You are a tool!’ You are an ass. Every time I hear him talk I’m like, ‘Where did that attitude come from?’ You suck. And if it wasn’t for this team you’d be covering punts in Detroit.” Yes, the man who won the 2019 Ron Burton Community Service Award, he has a horrible attitude and is a “tool.” This is a minor incident, as he was suspended by NBC Sports Boston in 2017 for comments on Roy Halladay’s death.

If you do not have time to listen to that, I recommend you find the time. With comments ranging from saying Halladay “got what he deserved,” to asking, “Who was it, Dale Earnhardt, the race car driver who died? I root for the wall!”

Is Boston Sports Media Dead?

This is why traditional sports media in Boston is dying. People, especially like Felger, have absolutely nothing interesting going on in their heads, so they have to say something controversial merely to get people to pay attention. I am not against hot takes, but saying a guy “deserved to die” because he enjoyed flying a plane is ridiculous. I’m sorry that you’ve never enjoyed anything in your life and hate fun.

While traditional sports media in Boston is dying, not all sports media in Boston is dead. In terms of actually covering the games, Boston has some great color commentators for games. Jack Edwards for the Bruins, Scott Zolak for the Patriots, and Tommy Heinsohn for the Celtics all love the teams they’re covering and have fun doing it. In terms of covering games, you have guys like Jared Carrabis for the Red Sox over at Barstool, or our very own Jackson Temple covering the Bruins who both realize it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but still recognize when things are going well. These guys are the future of Boston sports media, not idiots like Mike Felger and Dan Shaughnessy.