Cutting the cable, lets talk options and media setups

even if it wasn't cord cutting, that balloon was going to burst
culturally we're just hooked into that hype/crash cycle - it's tiring

Im won't argue against how tiring that is but this doesn't fall in that category I don't think. For all ESPN's crapTV (and there is plenty of it) they have also had a sizable chunk of the only good TV programming left in live sports and that is all that has kept most people subscribers. Otherwise this would just be another part of the E,TLC, etc..bundle. Cable has known for some time that live sports was the only thing making some people not cut.