Sports Journalism Tumblr: A Black self-insert character called Jabaal Abdul-Simmons

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > Sports Journalism Tumblr: A Black self-insert character called Jabaal Abdul-Simmons

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LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

MorningView posted:

For lot of people I think it was like what would happen if one of their friends got a national sports column, and there was something appealing about that.

Exactly this. People see Simmons as someone literally writing to them, as though in a letter or an e-mail.

It's almost like Simmons has woken up to the power he now holds in the past several years, and he has two books, a critically successful documentary project and a new sportswriting project on top of that. It's commendable, really.

# ¿ May 3, 2011 20:53

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 20:54

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Fag Boy Jim posted:

is there like a sub-genre of "let's compare things from The Wire to this set of things" articles on the internet because I've read a ton

I particularly liked the one about comparing characters from The Wire to beer (Prez is Newcastle)

Hahaha link this please tia

# ¿ May 5, 2011 01:21

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Fag Boy Jim posted:

Here
http://tinyurl.com/3katf58

Fantastic, thanks again. Audibly laughing at many of these.

# ¿ May 5, 2011 03:00

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Scott Raab gives legitimate journalists a terrible name; I don't know why writers like JoePos still flock to the guy for perspective on Cleveland.

# ¿ May 19, 2011 23:19

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

On that scale, pretty much a 10

# ¿ May 19, 2011 23:30

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Geno posted:

i know how much SAS hates Simmons but here's a great article from NYT about him

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/magazine/can-bill-simmons-win-the-big-one.html

Yeah, this was an awesome read. The part about what is private for him is a little interesting.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2011 22:38

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

I've stopped reading anything Daulerio does for Deadspin anymore. It's Funbags and features for me from now on.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2011 05:27

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Ribsauce posted:

Yea that Mike Silver twitter tantrum was horrible. It is almost like the Panthers are actually trying to accomplish improving in practice rather than be media buddies. They were only the worst team in the league last year, don't they know letting some douchebag from the Charlotte Observer interview them is more important than actually practicing.

Seriously, what a complaint. WAAAAA THE PLAYERS ARE TRYING TO GET BETTER INSTEAD OF PLAYING THE MEDIA GAME WHAAAAAAAAAA

I've gotta disagree. I read the piece again, and I think Mike Silver is absolutely in the right.

Not to get too much lockout talk into this thread, but the party that wins in the court of public opinion usually has an upper hand in these types of events, and while I'm sure that some players literally just want to go out and play football, that type of lip service would go a long way.

That article reeks of some frustration on Silver's part, but I think his point is valid.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2011 21:29

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

re: Grantland

The site looks very good so far, and I'm impressed by it. The piece on The National was literally one of the best things I've read in a very long time; the information about Deford and making GBS threads on Mike Lupica had me enthralled the whole time. I really enjoyed Klosterman's piece on the JC basketball game in North Dakota as well. The fact that they let Simmons curse himself a blue streak is also appealing.

I have not touched any of the pop culture stuff (except the HBO recycling piece, which was interesting but ultimately fluffy) because that does not interest me. I also thought Jay Caspian Kang's piece on Ichiro was a 5,000-word exercise in how to produce fascinating vignettes that do not tie together well at all.

So far, so good. Looking forward to reading more.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2011 20:34

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Not to detract from the Gawker/Deadspin hate parade but you should all read this story right now because this story owns.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 01:30

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Seeing Dan Shaughnessy's face beside a column entry is like the green light that lets me know to skip that story due to a lack of logic or non-Boston content.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2011 05:13

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Crazy Ted posted:

This loving beauty from the Indianapolis Star:

Haha this kind of blatant race-pandering is why people hate the NBA so much.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2011 07:32

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

I found a Tommy Craggs piece on former HS phenom and Mississippi State player Renardo Sidney from an old issue of New York Times' Play magazine. God, I wish that still existed.

BackInTheUSSR posted:

What's so bad about similes? He overuses them now and they're part of his schtick but in the pieces we linked to they're fine. I think you're getting too angry over nothing.

That Marge Schott story - which I had no idea existed, holy poo poo she was nuts - was well researched, extremely well sourced and had good bookends. That simile about the Rolex convention was really enough to convince you he's worthless? It's a literary device. I don't mean to get all "GET OUT OF YOUR PARENTS BASEMENT, NERD," but a lot of people like their writers to include color in their stories, rather than fact - quote - fact - quote.

Look at this true post.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2011 06:50

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

This article was published in Texas Monthly 13 years ago, but I just discovered it and it really, really owns. The level of detail is strong.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2011 06:03

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Crazy Ted posted:

We could quite seriously devote an entire thread just to the tales of Mike Lupica's legendary assholishness.

And it still probably wouldn't be enough.

At least Mitch Albom has done some likable things, and for gently caress's sake he's working in Detroit. Lupica is just the worst of the worst of the worst.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2011 06:55

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

morestuff posted:

Wow, Daulerio. I'm not going to say this is a great idea, but it's certainly an interesting one.

I laughed pretty hard, so he has that going for him.

I hope he paid Craggs good money to watch that fiasco.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2011 21:09

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Stop bitching about Deadspin and read this: http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/201107/jerry-joseph-scandal-hs-basketball

Guarantee it's the best thing you read all week.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2011 12:03

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Mr. Funny Pants posted:

It has to be said that Simers long ago gave up any claim to being a real columnist. He's a print version of Skip Bayless, except his stuff is even more obviously meant to piss people off. Seriously, he barely tries to hide it.

True. But that does not stop him from being a) occasionally hilarious (see his USC and Lakers cheap shots) and b) occasionally correct. If that's not choking away a crucial game, I'd love to see what is. It's called the 2000 Western Conference Finals, and I never want to see it again. :smithicide:

The Kansas City Star went from having an All-Star writing lineup to being a shell of its former self. I can't speak to how the paper is doing financially but they've lost about every good writer they've had due to budget cuts. It's a real shame.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2011 07:55

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Rick Reilly sucks now lol and everything but his recent column had some great stuff.

quote:

9:44 a.m. Big crisis.

A prominent NFC player is freaking out. The NFL has dropped off a urine-testing kit at his house when he's clearly not -- how shall we say this? -- ready.

Apparently, the end of the lockout came as a surprise to him. Schaffer talks him off the ledge.

"Hold on, hold on (blank). They can't do that. They haven't finished the language on drug testing yet in the CBA. They can't test you if it's not in the contract. This is still America, right?"

Schaffer calls the players' union to check. A union lawyer gets on the line and Schaffer gets the player on the line.

"OK, listen carefully, (blank). We need you to have somebody videotape you putting the entire thing -- the test tubes, the instructions, everything -- into a clear, sealed bag. Then FedEx it to me immediately. Got it?"

"OK, OK," the player says.

Then, just as a precaution, Schaffer says, "Read me the directions, will you?"

The directions are all about allowable levels of chlorine and bromine.

Turns out it was from the guy's pool cleaner.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2011 07:48

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

So Rick Reilly has hit creative rock bottom.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 01:52

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Yahoo! Sports just published a story on NCAA violations within Miami (FL) football that is pretty much an early front-runner for the sports story of the 2010s.

Discussion here

# ¿ Aug 17, 2011 02:33

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Apparently Deadspin snuck Tommy Craggs into an ESPN State of the Union meeting and he was escorted from the premises by ESPN security.

:suspense:

# ¿ Aug 25, 2011 20:57

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

That was very well done. He basically took all of the "NCAA doesn't change anything, doesn't care about student athletes, we know all this but nothing will still get done" paradigm and gives it a basis in reality. We won't soon see anything more comprehensive as to why the NCAA works the way it does.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2011 10:55

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

R.D. Mangles posted:

Grantland has a preview of Get Out of My Face, the Onion's take on the PTI/ATH/sportswriters yelling at each other genre. It's pretty funny and it's probably only about 5% more over the top than the actual shows.

"Doc, say something stupid."

"The Brewers will win the World Series."

"How do you stay alive?"

GOOMF is one of the best things the Onion has come up with since going to video. Holy poo poo.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2011 21:16

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

We'd be hard-pressed to find a worse writer for a national publication than Shaughnessy, especially now that Mariotti's no longer in journalism.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2011 09:17

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

seiferguy posted:

This popped up on my google news and I clicked on it, ugh:

http://crosscut.com/2011/10/05/seattle-mariners/21379/Adrian-Beltre:-No-thanks-from-Seattle,-the-one-city-you-let-down/

Beltre hit 3 home runs in one playoff game, why didn't you do this for us, Adrian? You committed 10 errors one season at third!

Ugh, I dunno who Mike Henderson is, but he used to write for the Seattle PI, the Times and the Everett Herald. Good thing he's nowhere near one of those publications now.

It comes off as very whiny but this could have been salvageable if the writer linked Beltre's lackluster offensive performance as a Mariner to the many other lovely acquisitions of hitters that never panned out. Scott Spiezio should be the start.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2011 05:54

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Go to the 8-minute mark and watch the magic happen.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2011 08:39

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

MorningView posted:

I don't think Schur was really going for "woe is me" or trying to make people feel sorry for the Red Sox. He was just pissed at the front office, fans, and media for overreacting to the end of the season collapse and running off a good GM and manager, which is a valid point that I don't think has been brought up enough in the mainstream media, even if it is kind of obvious.

This, this, and this some more.

I thought the piece was awesome. It was about, in three words: Curses don't exist. Schur has never stopped appealing to logical arguments over emotional ones and this piece does exactly that.

Grantland has become "must browse" as opposed to "must read" now that it's hitting a flow of content and I thought it was one of the better pieces over the past couple of weeks.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2011 08:19

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Okay, you all need to read Spencer Hall's recent editorial on Tim Tebow likerightnowyouguyscomeon

JohnWilkesGoonth posted:

I'm really looking forward to the Grantland Quarterly thing they're doing with McSweeney's. There are enough good pieces to make a quarterly compilation really nice, especially if the extras they're putting in end up being as nice as they sound. They're putting in "original fiction, new writing from editor-in-chief Bill Simmons, posters and pull-out sections, old-school baseball cards and mini-booklets", which is all cool sounding aside from the Simmons thing.

That's true, this could be a great deal. Certainly a collector's item.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2011 09:05

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Real Sports is an awesome show, though.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2011 08:12

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

I posted this in the Sandusky thread (which is quickly turning into a red giant of posting) but Bill Plaschke's take on the Joe Paterno/Penn State/Jerry Sandusky scandal should stand as definitive. Great piece.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2011 08:10

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Deadspin is right: JoePos' book on JoePa took a twist in a direction that came utterly out of left field for him. If he continues on with the book and produces what could be the best writing of his career, JoePos will come out of this looking better. His statements on the matter, however, are...troubling.

I liked Plaschke's piece because, boiled down to one line, it's not specifically about what's happening in State College. His thesis: If you don't think this sort of incident could be replicated at any other major college football program in the country, you are as naive as the Penn State administrators.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2011 22:46

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Stop writing about Skip Bayless and read this piece from Outside Magazine on the Livestrong Foundation and its charitable activities. This is some actual, legitimate reporting.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2012 22:33

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Lazy like a Fox posted:

This was really interesting, thank you for posting it. On top of the more overt shadiness, it raises a really interesting question about whether a foundation like livestrong should spend on research or on other "programs".

Yeah, it makes you wonder at the end of the day if Livestrong is really just another athlete charity in many ways (though, obviously, it gives out more money for those "programs" than a lot of charities do anyway). Certainly it has all kinds of public relations might behind it.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2012 05:02

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Rick Reilly hated Barry Bonds because he was an arrogant rear end in a top hat toward him and all other forms of media.

Rick Reilly like Joe Paterno because he gave reporters the time of day.

Not that hard to process, guys.

FWIW I thought Reilly's piece was well-done. The Taliaferro thing was huge in its day.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2012 03:14

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

So, if any of you haven't read the GQ piece on Terrell Owens, stop by TFF and educate yourselves. It's an insightful piece, if not the best you'll read all week.

Then, today, The Big Lead published a feature on Colin Cowherd that is, well, it'll take you through the gamut of emotions.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2012 20:08

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Athletes are publicly exposed as being pieces of poo poo all the time and are defended incessantly for it; I see no reason why decision makers can't be pieces of poo poo too.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2012 18:34

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Yeah, Jesus Christ himself could be resurrected in Lincoln Financial Field and Philly fans would boo and throw batteries at him.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2012 08:12

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Has all of Duff McKagan's writing for ESPN been this awful?

# ¿ Feb 22, 2012 21:45

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 20:54

LARGE THE HEAD: Sep 1, 2009; "Competitive greatness is when you play your best against the best."

"Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow."

--John Wooden

Duff McKagan also runs his own financial management firm. Based on his stance in that article his clients must all be going bankrupt.

# ¿ Feb 23, 2012 03:28

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > Sports Journalism Tumblr: A Black self-insert character called Jabaal Abdul-Simmons

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