Words matter! Know your audience!

I am so pissed off about something utterly trivial. But I guess that is the point of the Blogosphere... so here I go.

ESPN can lick me from dirty crack to sweaty, syphilitic sack!

I am a regular watcher of PTI, Sportscenter and many other programs, but the laziness of their language, or just simple ignorance, gets to me more and more. I write this here because my anger is rugby related, or should I say related to the lack of respect towards our sport.

My exasperation focuses on one word: SCRUM.

Every time a loose ball falls to the ground, or a snap is fumbled or a train of synchronized swimmers fall into a mass of scissoring they use this word. Every time any unorganized rabble is doing anything they use this word.
This is bullshit of the highest order. But beyond that it is just poor journalism and, to be frank, borders on sports xenophobia.

A scrum is a highly organized, prepared, intricate set play in a game. It is the furthest thing from a fumbled snap.
For god's sake, if you want to know what a scrum is, ESPN, look at the snap on the football field, if that is not a (slightly-exploded) scrum, or at least ruck i don't know what is!

I understand that in a dictionary one of the definitions of scrum would be "A disorderly crowd" -- or words to that effects-- but these things are all about context.
ESPN does sports, so don't bastardize a perfectly useful sports-related word simply because it's easy and recognizable. Just try a little harder, get a fucking thesaurus if you need to.
And more importantly, don't abuse a word in this way that denigrates something else, especially not another sport.

The xenophobia comes in simply because rugby is not a big TV sport and so no one presenting on the big ESPN channels gives a flying fornication about my sport. Like soccer, rugby is laughed and and the names of players mispronounced because the anchors don't think it is relevant because it is foreign.

The fact is you can't call yourself the "Worldwide Leader" and not give a fuck about the second biggest sport in the world... or the first for that matter!

it's not tough, just find a different word and respect all sports.
We journalists are all about words, or we should be. Writing is the center of our craft.

Rant over.

i have apologies to my regular reader. I have been doing little real rugby related content. the fact is there is not much going on right now and I don't want to start talking about European club rugby because my core audience (both of them) will not care.
So, until the Olde Grey Season really kicks off I will be making fun of Chris "The Eternal Rookie" Henry, Matthew "if I buy you a drink will you touch it" Foxworthy and Todd!