And the crowd goes wild!!!

Dee Brown (right), former NBA player, shakes hands with current ESPN anchor Stuart Scott during an episode of Dream Job.
Source: ESPN.com

I can remember taking my younger brother to his sixth-grade basketball game as if it were yesterday. In the second half, he misses a wide-open, uncontested lay-up. Now, I'm thinking to myself, while sitting in the bleachers, that I could have easily made that shot. Other times while sitting at home, I've watched football on television, witnessing million dollar receivers drop passes thrown to them by the quarterback, thinking to myself, that I could have easily caught that pass.

Maybe pro sports should "crowdsource" to me and let me dominate the playing fields. It's too bad that reality does not exist for me. But the idea of "crowdsourcing" does exist and has surprisingly, worked at a pretty sufficient rate.

Jessica Golden points out that "crowdsourcing" leads to high amounts of participation from the public.

Just ask former NBA player Dee Brown. The Jacksonville, Florida, native got his chance to work as a studio analyst, winning a competition setup by the World Wide Leader in Sports, called ESPN Dream Job.

With no journalistic background or news related experience, Brown became an instant hit for ESPN's coverage of pro basketball. Its one thing if you're good, but I can barely understand Brown when he speaks on-air. And you would think I would show him more sympathy than that, since we both hail from the same high school (The Bolles School).

In 1984, ESPN took a gamble with its NFL draft coverage, hiring then 24-year-old Mel Kiper, Jr. Without any journalism experience or playing experience for that matter, Kiper emerged as one of the top draft experts in football. His annual first round predictions rank as one of the best in recent memory.

The bottom line is that Brown and Kiper add content and improve the vision of ESPN. The trend continues with ex-athletes who retire from their respective sports - (using the excuse of wanting to spend time with their families) – and consequently are picked up by the network as valuable sources for its content.

The idea of crowdsourcing diminishes the role of an education. But then again, who needs an education these days when you can just go out and make things happen.