When I was 13 I got the chicken pox. They say the older you get the worse it is for you, and after that experience, I’d assume it would have killed me at the age of 25. It was hell.

I barely had the strength to make it to the bathroom. It took me about 10 minutes to walk eight feet down the hall. Had my dad offered me a bedpan I probably would have accepted. I was so weak, I didn’t shower once in that two-week span. I was stuck in a bed, TV my source of entertainment. MTV was my only solace from the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. when absolutely nothing is on. I watched countless videos inter-spliced with timeless episodes of “Beavis and Butt-head.” Ten years ago MTV was as much a staple in my daily viewing as ESPN.

Had someone told me back then, “Hey, MTV is coming out with a new channel that plays NOTHING but videos,” I would have said “Uh, yeah, it’s called MTV.” MTV was MUSIC television back then, now it has become a network of second-rate dating shows, bad reality TV, and Wilmer Valderrama. I can honestly say I don’t even know what channel MTV is on anymore.

But I digress. You may ask, why wasn’t I watching ESPN during my stint on the DL with the pox? Simple. That was the week the ESPN was showing the National Spelling Bee.

Like MTV, ESPN was an experiment of a network. Would people really watch a whole station devoted to sports? They did, and it worked. And now ESPN is moving from what made it so successful in the first place. As MTV abandoned music, slowly ESPN is following course with sports.

ESPN still broadcasts “The Bee,” as well as other non-sports such as poker, billiards, even darts. It’s like some ESPN execs went to a pub the night before a big meeting and, while intoxicated, said, “It would be pretty cool to show this stuff on the air.”

Another growing trend is ESPN parading minors on national TV. It really started with LeBron James a few years ago, but recently they went so far as showing the high school softball championship. Really? Unless Jose Conseco’s daughter is on one of the teams, I don’t see the national appeal in that.