Two Updates: One Definite Death in Sports, One Probable One

(And, no, I do not wish the juxtaposition of the two to denigrate or diminish the first.)

• Tray Walker is dead from the motorcycle crash. (Deadspin)

RIP.  The sports world has dodged a lot of bullets in this regard (and, thankfully, the reports on the possible witnessing/involvement of a Patriots player have not apparently come to pass), but they could not dodge this one.

• And that might be one of the last Deadspin pieces I link to, or the clock has seriously started thereto.  Deadspin's parent Gawker Media has to pay Hulk Hogan $115,000,000 for the damage to his career, etc. from the sex tape.  (Cageside Seats)  That, and the manner in which Gawker and Deadspin do business, is probably going to represent the end of Deadspin and of Gawker Media.

This could have a serious chilling effect on all alternative media -- including TMZ.

Hell, including this blog!!!

I'm of two very serious minds on this.

First, I get why Hogan sued.  This certainly is the kind of salacious journalism that certainly, at the very least, treads on the line.

The problem is coming where that salacious journalism is the only thing which can pierce the mainstream curtain and show the men (or women) behind it that we are not supposed to mind, in the name of The Great and Powerful Oz.

It was TMZ, after all, that basically blew the whistle on Ray Rice.

The question now, frankly, if you believe that, is why stop at $115,000,000?  Word from one source is that they won't.  It was, according to one reporter:  $55,000,000 for pure economic and $60,000,000 for emotional.  According to Yardbarker, the punitives come Monday.  I could easily see that enough to slam the door on Gawker Media Monday.  (I'm thinking a couple hundred million at least.)

But for Gawker Media to even appeal and survive this, they have to come up with over  FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS -- effectively NOW.  (Florida (in which this was contested) requires the losing party to post a bond of how much the damages are -- capped at the aforementioned $50,000,000.)

Gawker's done.  Deadspin is done.  No way around it.

You can't go end-around on a lot of the sports machine in this country with that kind of noose around your neck.  Even if Gawker can come up with the funds to survive this, I can't see Gawker staying afloat that much longer.

One commenter to the Cageside Seats article noted that Gawker only made $45,000,000 in 2014, according to Business Insider UK.