I think the main difference is (or at maybe was) that ESPN shows lots of live games. You can't just binge watch at your leisure like with Netflix.

I'm a huge football fan and while I still watch live games on ESPN and the major networks, I find most of my analysis and commentary online. At the moment a substantial percentage of that is from ESPN, but more and more I'm getting it from Reddit, sports-specific web sites like Pro Football Talk, and -- the channel most ready for the future -- NFL Network.