Sports is one of the very few things people can totally devote themselves to without being threatened. You can talk about sports at work without worrying about getting fired. You can talk about sports at a party and not lose friends.

At least you used to be able to.

The more sports wanders from just sports into social, political, or even partisan issues, the less it is actually about sports.

Associating these other things with sports destroys the value. It makes it so sport is no longer an escape, but instead becomes yet another politicized venue.

Here's some other interesting theories as to why ESPN is having trouble.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/26/the-real-story-behind-es...