Would you pay $30 a month for ESPN?

People who don't like sports are irritated with the cost ESPN adds to their pay-TV bills. But according to this story, ESPN would cost people $30 per month were it sold separately only to those who wanted to watch it.

My question for you is already in the headline of this post. Would you pay $30 a month for ESPN? (You won't need to worry about it, but this is summer filler, so play along.)

Let me break that down. Would pay $30 a month for ESPN in addition to your pay-TV package, or would you drop a premium network like HBO or Showtime to defray the cost of ESPN?

If you're a sports fan, I think it would be a lot harder to get off the ESPN pipe than you might guess. You're talking about Monday night NFL football, a slew of college football regular-season games and almost every bowl game, an avalanche of college basketball, a lot of NBA, the U.S. Open golf tournament's first two rounds, Pardon the Interruption, SportsCenter, and, of course, the World Series of Poker.

But I'd quit it, anyhow. On Bravo's "Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis," a woman who was addicted to cats. She had seven of them, though it was sort of wrecking her family's existence. Finally, she gave in and sent three of the cats off to the Humane Society. Oops! I should have said SPOILER ALERT. But you surely saw the episode already, anyhow.

Anyway, I figure ditching ESPN would be a way to clear up all sorts of room in the cerebrum, cerebellum and medulla for more-important things. Like what, I have no idea. Maybe you do.

Ah, I'd probably pay it and write it off on my taxes. How can I adequately do my job if I can't see Big Ten teams playing in the Pinstripe Bowl?