Last month Bryan Tann, host of The Tanndemonium Sports Show here at Vendetta Sports Media, called out every writer. We failed to cover the MLB officially designating the Negro Leagues as Major League. I know nothing about baseball and knew it was a big deal so how every baseball writer in our company missed it baffles me.
However, now it’s time for Bryan to look himself in the mirror. Heed his own advice if you will. I say this because where was that same vigor when it was announced the Boston Bruins would finally be retiring Willie O’Ree’s jersey?
Now I know it was covered in the recent Three Majors and a Minor article published at Vendetta Sports Media so there’s that. However in that op-ed mentioned above Bryan spoke about how he is not a writer, he’s a talking head. A podcast host if you will. He should be talking up our already written articles on the weekly show.
Again he’s right.
So imagine my surprise when I tune in to this week’s show and hear nothing… NOTHING… in regards to Willie O’Ree or his Jersey retirement. Instead, I hear multiple times about a not so good Steelers losing to the Browns. Which is more important!?! A bad team who were lucky to be 11-0 losing at the first postseason hurdle!?! Or the recognition of a pioneer who paved the way for hockey players of color!?!
I know what I’m choosing.
O’Ree was the hockey equivalent of Jackie Robinson, who if memory serves was name dropped by Bryan in his op-ed. The first black player to ever play in the NHL, O’Ree had to hide the fact he was blind in one eye to achieve his dream and overcame constant abuse from fans and opposition players. The fact the Bruins waited so long is a travesty, as I said in my piece. The fact we didn’t cover it on a show like Tanndemonium is at the same level of travesty.
Maybe Bryan and Jackson aren’t NHL fans and didn’t know what to say. Kind of like me with the MLB announcement. But that’s not going to fly because in case you haven’t noticed we have a growing Hockey culture here at Vendetta. I’ve even been promised by Trey we are getting our own tag soon. They could have asked any of us and I’m sure we would have happily shared a few minutes of our time.
WE HAVE OPTIONS
They could have also asked Andrew McGuinness. If you haven’t read any of Andrew’s work here at Vendetta you are sorely missing out. I have subscribed to paid content in the past and not gotten the insight I have from reading Andrew’s FREE work. His coverage of the Philadelphia Flyers in particular has been top notch.
So the resources were there. I can’t speak for Andrew but I know I received no invitation from either Bryan or Jackson to come on the show. If they did reach out to Andrew I’ll stand corrected, but I think it would have been a topic of conversation in the chat.
Speaking of the Vendetta chat… neither Jackson Law or Bryan Tann are in the NHL one, yet they host a Sports show? I heard nothing but NFL/Football in the last one and have never heard either talk about Soccer or Hockey in any past episodes. If they have and I’ve missed it I’ll stand corrected and apologize.
My idea of a sports show is that they should cover ALL sports, otherwise remove it from your name. Hockey and Soccer are sports just like Tennis, Rugby, and cricket which I’ve also never heard mentioned. I get it we want views and these sports aren’t exactly the big sellers in the United States, but there’s a whole world outside this country and we are completely missing the mark by limiting ourselves.
As Bryan himself said “For this company to succeed we have to cover everything.” Apparently, Bryan Tann is not heeding his own advice. Do better Bryan. Do better!
