ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber has posted her final column for the WWL.

In it she encapsulates the feelings of fans who wrote to her over her two year stint as ombudsman, focusing on their frustration with the excess that has become ESPN.  And as has been the case since her inaugural column, Schreiber again does a fantastic job in understanding and relating those frustrations to ESPN and her readers.

Schreiber points out that ESPN can learn to change some of their habits if they just go back to how they got to be the dominant sports media force they’ve become…

…I think the chances are pretty good. If you step back and take the long view, a perspective advanced years forces on me, you will realize ESPN did not become the phenomenal success it is by underestimating the intelligence of the sports fan

…It was ESPN that peeled back the layers for fans — revealing how players, teams, coaching staffs, front offices, leagues and conferences, their marketers and commissioners, agents and recruiters mesh. Knowledge once considered arcane is now elementary education for ESPN’s audience.

It is too late for ESPN to dial it back or dumb it down, too late to satisfy the savvy core audience it created with the thin gruel of sound bites, shouting heads and the celebrations of the obvious. If it wants to sustain its success, ESPN has no choice but to keep getting smarter. Its audience demands it.

We interviewed Le Anne last month.  You can find the podcast here.  ESPN has yet to announce a successor for Schreiber.  Let’s hope he or she builds upon the work Schreiber was able to on behalf of the fans of ESPN.