Many many years ago there was debate over whether sports coverage should be the responsibility of the advertising or editorial department. Editorial "won". The problem is that the vast majority of sports "journalists" are so dependent on the teams or players that they won't write anything that might offend them. They are more part of the publicity machine than reporters. You only have to look at the state of Scotland's international football team to see what happens when sports coverage comes from "fans with typewriters" . But it's bigger than that. Match fixing, doping and sexual abuse are the rule rather than the exception in most professional sports these days. Journalistic laziness, stupidity or something more sinister? Or maybe just the nature of the game.