My main course in my sport media diet consists of the sports apps that I have on my phone. Having these apps on my phone is the most convenient way for me to consume sport media due to its easy accessibility or if I don’t have time to watch a game but want updates on my teams. The most important one for me is the ESPN app because I’m a fan of many different sports and my favorite teams are on there. It shows me the scores of my favorite teams as well as the times and channels of when they will compete live. On the ESPN homepage, it also shows short clips of ESPN analysts breaking down moments and top headlines from different sports all around the world. Since basketball and football are my favorite sports, I also have both the NBA and NFL app so I can closely follow the league, teams, and certain players during the season. I have had the ESPN Fantasy Football app since 2016 when I first played and I have played every year since then. Having to keep my roster healthy throughout the season and signing players off waivers gives me the feeling of what it’s like managing a team and helps me focus. My ESPN TC app is for making a bracket whenever NCAA March Madness comes around each year. I’m not really into sports betting but I have the bet365 app in case I’m feeling lucky. Sometimes if I’m with friends they may convince me of a bet, but I just can’t be the only one betting. I usually tend to bet on fights like boxing or UFC rather than team sports because I personally feel like having research statistics on a one-on-one fight is easier for me to analyze than to the many different factors that impact a team sport. I also have the ODU RecWell app and Home Workouts app for my own personal fitness use. Here is a picture of all my sports apps in the same place.

YouTube is another major part of my sport media consumption. I consistently watch NBA, NFL, and Champions League highlights on my free time. I occasionally watch NHL, MLB, MLS, and WNBA highlights since these are not my favorite sports but I still have teams that I support. If I feel like I didn’t watch them in a while then I might tune in live but my team must be doing really good or in the playoffs. However, sometimes there is just nothing else to watch because my favorite sports are in the off-season and I love to watch athletes in competition. Certain YouTubers play a part in my sport media as well and Flight Reacts is one of them. Flight has been making YouTube and sports content videos for years. The main content of his that I watch is him reacting to basketball and football highlights. He is funny to me because he is very biased and has outrageous takes all the time but I can also agree with him at times. For example, the last videos I watched of his were his reaction to the 2026 NFL Pro Bowl and the 2026 NBA All-Star game because I felt like its not the same as when I was little. Watching his videos is like watching a game with an entertaining friend of mine and is less time consuming for me compared to watching a full game. Here is a link to his reaction to this year’s Pro Bowl.

In the past, my sport media consumption mostly consisted of watching live football games on Sundays and morning sports talk shows on ESPN or FSI. Nowadays, everything is mobile so my sport media consumption increased as well as my access to team information. I rarely attend sports events in person so I hope to change that moving forward. If there was one change I could make in the sport communication landscape would be to allow players to truly be themselves and express how they feel. Athletes like Anthony Edwards and Marshawn Lynch tend to have no filter when it comes to sport media and they have to pay fines. Kyrie Irving also streams on his own Twitch platform to discuss topics that are important to him. Each player fanbase appreciates the unique personality of each player and the media shouldn’t suppress what makes them special.