TalkSports

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TalkSports is a user-generated sports site run by Rapid Spiral Development that has attracted controversy because of gossip and photos contributed by users about the private lives of professional athletes. [1] [2] The web site contains forums for every major sport athlete where fans can discuss, post pictures and links. "We get a lot of comments about players cheating or whether he has a big or small you-know-what," site publisher Randy Charles Morin told The Globe and Mail. [1] The website was featured in the Washington Post [3] and Canoe.ca [4] websites.

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Morin began the site after a blog post he wrote about hockey player Sidney Crosby in 2005 received a comment from a female asking whether Crosby had a girlfriend. He said in an interview with Drama Scene Live Radio, "Google immediately picked up that new comment and within a few days that page was getting 1,000 hits per day. And I thought, I've got an idea ..." [5]

A 2014 profile of the site in ESPN the Magazine called its visual design "anachronistic, like an Angelfire page that was never snuffed out." [2]

TalkSports is often the target of legal challenges by sports athletes and their agents, with Morin telling ESPN he's received lawsuit threats "several hundred times." [2] Some of the threats include:

Morin said he has given hundreds of athletes free site memberships that allow them to delete comments. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 The Globe & Mail (2008-01-10). "Gossipmongers going online for the real thing". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mina Kimes (October 14, 2014). "Athletes' dating lives are big business". ESPN. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  3. Washington Post. "Brooks Laich Ladies Man". The Washington Post.
  4. Canoe.ca. "It's party time on net for Staals". Archived from the original on January 15, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. "Let's talk sports ... it's not what you know but what you can prove". Drama Scene Live Radio. Aug 11, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2014.
  6. "Warrick Dunn v TalkSports".
  7. "Shaun Phillips v TalkSports".