The second page of King Kaufman’s column Friday talked about Tim Kawakami of the SJ Mercury-News trying to boycott ESPN just to see if he could for as long as he can. Why? Because ESPN is “the only game in sports-TV journalism and, like all monopolies, has gotten bloated and maddeningly self-absorbed.”

I’m sure the Fox Sports guys like hearing this. The rest of Kawakami’s column is a good read of the good and bad, in his opinion, of ESPN. I should add, at this point, that I work for ESPN.com as a lowly engineer but am speaking here for myself and not my employer (blah blah blah).

That out of the way, I have to say that I agree with some of what he says… the ESPN25 stuff is getting annoying, Around the Horn, while amusing at times is getting old, and I didn’t watch a minute of Dream Job. I never watch Cold Pizza anymore, and I think letting go of Aldridge is going to be a bad move. This is coming from a guy who has ESPN on the TV 75% of time I’m at home. It’s on right now.

The thing I think Kawakami is missing, of course, is that if he’s right, the moves that ESPN is making, like letting Aldridge go or straying too far afield with shows like Playmakers or Cold Pizza will ultimately unseat ESPN as the only game in town. Fox Sports is already trying and people around the network here are aware of them and other competitors. Let’s see what happens.