The exact moment that Jason Whitlock stopped mattering

I've said this before about Simmons, but his real skill, and he has it in great measure, is what I call for lack of a better term, the big idea business. As a writer, his stuff always left me cold. As an entrepreneur, he has really made a lasting mark in sports journalism.

 

Money. The biggest thing. Some of the 30 for 30s are good, some aren't, most of Grantland was pretentious soufflé, The Ringer I don't really know, the HBO show I never saw, but the through line is, money. He grew up with money, was able to quit a newspaper job and bartend because there was obviously money to fall back on, and, once at ESPN, was given Disney money to spend on his ideas. Who doesn't like the person with a lot of money who wants to give it to writers and filmmakers? If you gave anyone a lot of money to go over to Japan and write "a journey through oblivion" about sumo wrestling that belongs in a literary journal, that anyone would like you.

The story of Whitlock's clashes with Undefeated staff at ESPN is much more interesting, in a sense. I wonder if he'd consider himself the same person since that Deadspin piece. I doubt it.

 

Simmons was the most popular sportswriter in America writing on Page 2. Maybe Grantland was a vanity project and wasn’t properly monetized, but he is an excellent talent evaluator and takes big swings (a lot of which missed). Whitlock was an interesting and unique voice who pissed his chances away and has become a sad joke.

 

Jason Whitlock is a classic example of the Peter Principal. The idea of the Peter Principal is that people are promoted to their level of incompetence. If someone is a good shoe salesman they are promoted to manager of the shoe department. If they suck at being a department manage they tend to stay in place in that job until they retire. If they are actually good shoe department managers they get promoted to managers of the whole store. If they are good shoe department managers they get promoted to store manager. If they suck at that there they stay. That is why most managers are incompetent in their jobs Jason Whitlock is an example of a good football writer who has been promoted to a general columnist and is in completely over his head.

FWIW, when I was considering a career in journalism my grandfather, who worked at seven newspapers, told me that in his experience the Peter Principal was widely prevalent among the management of newsrooms in the United States.

 

This describes two of my previous editors to a tee. One was way too stupid and arrogant to recognize how truly bad they were at their jobs.

 

lotta stuff between the lines the last few pages.

also think it's a good time for a #30for30 on Bill Simmons ... #Permafro ... done and directed by someone with zero ties to Simmons or ESPN.

 

I think there's some validity in that with respect to what used to be traditional print journalism sports departments, but with a big difference.

I don't think anyone gets into sports journalism to be a "boss" and do all that entails in running a good organization - not just administrative and budgetary matters, but things such as implementing a healthy culture, fostering teamwork, making everyone feel valued - all while putting out a good product.

How many threads on this board have there been about sports departments in which egos ran wild, people tried to undermine one another, me-firstism was rampant, etc., etc? I think much of that germinates because no one "in charge" wants to put a stop to it. I feel very fortunate to work in a place where leadership truly leads ... and I think back about some previous colleagues who, if they were current colleagues, would either have shaped up immediately or wouldn't have made it to a 30-day review meeting.

 

Also be a good time to change the name.

"30 for 30" wasn't a great name to begin with, but at least it made sense.

13 years and 157 films later, it makes no sense at all.

 

The Big Ten agrees.

 

I certainly saw the Peter Principal work in my professional career as an accountant.

Another thing I certainly saw was that when really competent professionals were promoted to managers who took great pleasure from the power. They acquired and did not know or care enough to realize good management is not just demonstrating power. I was a supervisor of anywhere from eight to 45 people and I admit it was an ego trip for people to kiss my ass. But getting your ass kissed has very little to do with being effective.

I suspect that si true of sports departments and virtually any other organization.

 

People working their way up in newspapers have no management training. You aren't taught that in college and almost every newbie in the newspaper world starts as a writer/reporter. Unless they spend half of their time observing, instead of looking for stories, they are clueless. One place I worked, the best reporter was promoted to City Editor. He was horrible. Instead of letting him go back to being a reporter, they fired him.

 

It’s a brand, it makes perfect sense to not rename it.