Sign of the Apocalypse? Bill Belichick's Alleged Affair and The Boston Herald's Front Page

It might seem peculiar for someone who contributes to a sports law blog to question a major regional daily devoting nearly its entire front page to a sports and the law issue. But I ask that you to take a look at the front page of yesterday's Boston Herald:

Yes, Patriots coach Bill Belichick has been named as the dreaded "other man" in a messy New Jersey divorce case involving Sharon Shenocca, who worked as a receptionist for the Giants while Belichick was the team's defensive coordinator. According to Vincent Shenocca, his wife and Belichick have had a long-term extra-marital relationship, with Belichick buying her many gifts, including "expensive clothing, pocketbooks, watches, a treadmill and maid service” and he also allegedly flew her to be with him at Super Bowl XXXVIII, which the Patriots won. Vincent asserts that he has pleaded with Sharon to break-up with Bill (who separated from his wife Debbie last year), but she won't. So now Vincent wants to divorce Sharon, who might soon be spending more time with Bill.

I'm not sure that the late and great Aaron Spelling could have scripted a better story. And it's so interesting because it mixes a hugely successful sports figure with a soap opera scandal. I know I read the story--which was a Herald scoop--with great interest (I am a lifelong Patriots fan after-all).

But did this story warrant nearly the entire front page, especially at a time when there's a major crisis occurring in the Middle East with many people dying and, more locally, Boston is embroiled in the Big Dig Disaster? Even if the Boston Herald believes that its readers want to read this story, and even if the paper is a tabloid daily, did it have a journalistic duty to treat its editorial decisions with more gravity? And as you can see, the paper even used the top of the same front page to tell readers about Josh Beckett's contract extension!

So is the Herald's front page a sign that sports now attract too much attention? A critic might say no--readers want a break from all of the bad news going on (although a couple's divorce is also bad news, if not quite so terrible), and if they want to read about more depressing things, they can go buy a Boston Globe, turn on a TV, or go on the Internet. What do you think?

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