Updated: RIP T.J. Simers

My feelings were negative about him. As a beat writer, you spend a lot of time cultivating relationships with players, coaches and administrators. Then he showed up and blew it all apart. He transformed their attitudes into "fuck the media," so all of the groundwork we established was gone.

As a Night Editor at OCR, I had my shields up from the beginning. There was only one time we had an issue. I did the first read on his column and had to change something to conform to our style. It wasn't anything major, no big deal. I told him and he started arguing. I said that style is style, end of discussion. He said that according to the L.A. Times style guide that Bill Dwyre wrote, this is how it is supposed to be done. I said that we have a lot of smart, talented newspaper journalists here who wrote our style guide. If he wanted to bring in Dwyre to rewrite our style guide, he was free to do so.

I am sorry he has died. Fuck cancer. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. I hope he can Rest In Peace, which he apparently wasn't able to do when he was alive.

 

Obituary from The Daily News.
Former OC Register, L.A. Times sports columnist T.J. Simers dies at 73.