The Undefeated debuts

A former boss of mine is an editor there and I had high hopes once it got out from under Whitlock's thumb.
I pay attention to a lot of sports and culture sites and buzzy Twitter accounts and detect zero impact in the larger universe of news consumers.
I realize it's not really aimed at me, so maybe that's the disconnect.

 

Assuming what I think you're saying, shouldn't you be a part of the target audience? Otherwise, the audience for the site is going to be pretty limited.

 

It was a story and a bio that never should have seen the light of day

 

Well, I think it is limited. "Black Grantland" made more sense as a notion if there was a "Black Simmons" out front.

 

I think the vision has vastly changed. I suspect Whitlock would have wanted flashpoints, controversy, drama, conservative vs. liberal, stirring the pot.

The Undefeated now is more of an advocacy/promotional operation with some commentary.

Here's a piece:

Be wary of racism absolvers

The best way, I believe, to think of white supremacy is as a cultural practice to advantage whites over nonwhites. In the real world, it leads to wickedness — whites and their nonwhite collaborators disproportionately hoarding the economic fruits of American capitalism for whites while using the power of the state to promote whites’ interests and sanction people of color. Like all other pathological cultural practices, to expunge a culture of white supremacy from our midst requires first that it be identified. To do that, a societal scourge will need to be resisted and conquered — racism absolvers.

Racism absolvers exonerate whites against charges of racism even when prosecutors possess enough evidence to secure a conviction. Having launched themselves into prominence in the aftermath of the election, racism absolvers are peacocking around, parading their polluted plumage for all to peep. We must expose this flock for its heinousness.

Just as Grantland perplexingly allowed the literary journal conceit to creep into its early approach, The Undefeated is running something you'd find in the alt-weekly downtown? I happen to like alt-weeklies, and I didn't mind reading this piece. I agree with its central thesis. (It's not that profound when you get past the ten-dollar words.) I just don't know what reason - other than "why the hell not?" - it'd be on a site affiliated with ESPN. It's better suited for an academic journal.

 

Jesus Christ that gave me a headache. What the hell does any of that even mean. Was that from The Undefeated or a term paper for an Intro To African-American Studies class?

 

Reminded me of a columnist in Trenton.

 

They corrected the grammar in the headline (see my earlier rants in this thread). They haven't backed down from the claim that this dude was one of the first black doctors in California. This is of course bullslhit.

 

I totally missed Mike Wise writing a while ago about being a sexual abuse survivor in the context of the Sandusky/Paterno scandal. An incredibly powerful story.

Penn State doesn’t get to decide JoePa’s legacy: I know

 

It is powerful. Wise's conclusion - that Sandusky's victims alone decide Paterno's legacy - is understandable, given what Wise endured, but untenable and frankly unwise as an idea that could be applied to other crimes. I think Sue Paterno - the man's wife for however many decades - is granted some say in who her husband was, for goodness sakes. Dragging her into the column at the end is deeply inappropriate.

It speaks to the fuzzy thinking that permeates The Undefeated. Wise writes this great piece, and concludes it with something close to emotional tyranny and a weird dig at a 76-year-old woman. There had to be an editor who thought "OK, he's basically saying that Paterno's entire legacy - everything he ever was or could be about - is up to this group of men who couldn't possibly have an objective opinion about him." And apparently, nobody could tweak that ending so that it doesn't sound like Wise is shitting all over a widow, who's probably besotted with grief.

 

Wise writes from his experience of having his family members if not supporting, then not condemning, his uncle the child rapist. I can understand his bitterness toward JoPa's widow who rather than go away quietly, actively defended him, even though through inaction he enabled a child rapist over the decades. IMHO it is a reasonable viewpoint, whatever his skill as a football coach, that the legacy of Joe Paterno is he was an evil person whose defenders do not deserve respect or veneration, irrespective of their age or family ties.

 

Apparently there are 22 unresolved missing black and brown female juvenile cases in Washington D.C. My initial reaction, "that's all? that's getting a lot better"

That was not the take here:

When black girls go missing in Washington, D.C., too many questions, too few answers

"The entire situation leaves us with a very frustrating circuit of excuses. People blame the media for not reporting the cases. Police say they need help from the public. Meanwhile, the basic pillars of toxic masculinity, misogyny and racism that create these issues go unaddressed."

The Fox Sports folks who criticize Deadspin, Awful Announcing and ESPN(main) for a lack of common sense, should be consistent in condemning "The Undefeated" for tripe like the above.