I think modern journalism - especially in sports - has been more about hot takes and personalities to drive ratings, clicks and downloads. The job of a traditional sports writer has evolved more into what a columnist traditionally did, not only cover the event and tell stories but also interject their opinion into the storytelling.
IMO the driver of this is the metrics used to evaluate online content. Specific work can now be quantified and obviously you’ll get more engagement with an extreme opinion than a more moderate one.