TalkSports

Last updated

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.

Contents

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tie Domi</span> Canadian-Albanian ice hockey player

Tahir "Tie" Domi is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Known as an enforcer, he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, and Winnipeg Jets over a 16-year NHL career. He is the Maple Leafs' all-time leader in penalty minutes, and he is third overall in penalty minutes in NHL history. He is also the player with the most fighting majors in NHL history, with 333.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leigh Steinberg</span> American sports agent (born 1949)

Leigh William Steinberg is an American sports agent, philanthropist, and author. During his 50-year career, Steinberg has represented over 300 professional athletes in football, baseball, basketball, boxing, and Olympic sports. He has represented the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft a record eight times. Steinberg is often credited as the real-life inspiration for the sports agent in Cameron Crowe's film Jerry Maguire in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaun White</span> American snowboarder and skateboarder (born 1986)

Shaun Roger White is an American former professional snowboarder and skateboarder. He is a five-time Olympian and a three-time Olympic gold medalist in half-pipe snowboarding. He holds the world record for the most X Games gold medals and most Olympic gold medals by a snowboarder. He has also won 10 ESPY Awards throughout his career in various categories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warrick Dunn</span> American football player (born 1975)

Warrick De'Mon Dunn is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 12th overall in the 1997 NFL draft, after playing college football for the Florida State Seminoles. Dunn was named AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1997 and earned three Pro Bowl selections in his career. After his playing career, Dunn took a minority stake in the Falcons' ownership group led by Arthur Blank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Simmons</span> American sports writer (born 1969)

William John Simmons III is an American podcaster, sportswriter, and cultural critic who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website The Ringer. Simmons first gained attention with his website as "The Boston Sports Guy" and was recruited by ESPN in 2001, where he eventually operated the website Grantland and worked until 2015. At ESPN, he wrote for ESPN.com, hosted his own podcast on ESPN.com titled The B.S. Report and was an analyst for two years on NBA Countdown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Milbury</span> American ice hockey player

Michael James Milbury is an American former professional ice hockey player and current sports announcer. He played for twelve seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), all for the Boston Bruins. He helped the Bruins reach the Stanley Cup Finals in 1977 and 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel Idonije</span> American football player (born 1980)

Israel Idonije is a Nigerian-Canadian former professional football defensive end in the National Football League and actor. Idonije played CIS football at the University of Manitoba. A draft pick of the now defunct Ottawa Renegades of the Canadian Football League, for whom he never played a game, Idonije signed with the Cleveland Browns of the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2003.

Deadspin is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media, Univision Communications and G/O Media, it was sold to Lineup Publishing in March 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shaun O'Hara</span> American football player (born 1977)

Shaun O'Hara is an American former professional football player who was a center for 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. He began his professional career by signing as an undrafted free agent with the Cleveland Browns, and spent the majority of his NFL career with the New York Giants. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection.

The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of a male athlete from the world of action sports. It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2004 after the non-gender-specific Best Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was presented the previous two years. The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award trophy, created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan, is presented to the male adjudged to be the best action sports athlete in a given calendar year. Balloting for the award is undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed of a panel of experts. It is conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months.

Randy Charles Morin is a Canadian web publisher and the former chairman of the RSS Advisory Board, a group that publishes the RSS 2.0 specification. Randy authored the RSS autodiscovery specification and contributed to the RSS profile. He also runs the TalkSports website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Republic</span> Internet forum for conservatives

Free Republic is a moderated Internet forum and chat site for self-described conservatives, primarily within the United States. It presents articles and comments posted pseudonymously by registered members, known as "Freepers", using screen names. The site is supported entirely by donations, with pledge drives known as "Freepathons" held each quarter.

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) are a subset of fantasy sport games. As with traditional fantasy sports games, players compete against others by building a team of professional athletes from a particular league or competition while remaining under a salary cap, and earn points based on the actual statistical performance of the players in real-world competitions. Daily fantasy sports are an accelerated variant of traditional fantasy sports that are conducted over short-term periods, such as a week or single day of competition, as opposed to those that are played across an entire season. Daily fantasy sports are typically structured in the form of paid competitions typically referred to as a "contest"; winners receive a share of a pre-determined pot funded by their entry fees. A portion of entry fee payments go to the provider as rake revenue.

The 2013 ESPY Awards were announced from the Nokia Theatre on the 17th of July 2013, and were live on ESPN. ESPY Award is an abbreviation for Excellence in Sports Performance.

Barstool Sports is an American blog website and digital media company headquartered in New York City that publishes sports journalism and pop culture-related content. It is owned by David Portnoy, who founded the company in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtis McGrath</span> Australian paracanoeist

Curtis Wain McGrath, is an Australian paracanoeist and former soldier. He took up canoeing competitively after both of his legs were amputated as a result of a mine blast while serving with the Australian Army in Afghanistan. McGrath won consecutive gold medals in the Men's KL2 at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, and has won ten gold medals and a silver at ICF Paracanoe World Championships between 2014 and 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CapGeek</span> Canadian hockey website

CapGeek was a Canadian hockey website, specializing on the business aspect of the NHL. The site featured explanations of the salary cap, the status of a players' contract, statistics, etc. Called revolutionary by hockey experts, CapGeek was launched in 2009 by Metro Halifax sports journalist Matthew Wuest. The site garnered commercial and critical success, becoming a top source for information on players' salaries and landed Wuest on The Hockey News' list of Top 100 Most Influential People in Hockey. While still an active operation, NHL teams themselves were known to have used CapGeek as a reliable source for league business affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HomeStars</span> Canadian company

HomeStars.com is a Canadian company which publishes reviews written by homeowners about home improvement professionals such as repairman, contractors, renovators, and retailers.

The Action Network is a sports media company featuring news and analysis focused on sports betting in the United States.

In ice hockey, a Michigan goal is a goal scored by an attacker starting behind the opposing net, lifting the puck onto their stick, quickly moving their stick around to a top corner of the net, and flinging the puck into the net at close range in a lacrosse-style shot.

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. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011.
  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".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.