Everett Herald says sports columnist lifted passages from SI

I don't necessarily want to open up a new can of worms on Sleeper (know the guy, always got along with him at events), but I thought it only fair to share his farewell column with you folks.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080810/SPORTS/294921633&SearchID=73326476495457

His lede:

 

Hope he gets the help he seeks and can move on. The column he wrote is a first step to that, if he truly believes the words he typed.

 

Maybe that's the column he should have wrote instead of lifting work from SI.

Sorry, we all have "stress" and family problems. We all, at one point in our lives or another, sit in our apartment with the lights off and have crying jags.

Sorry, don't feel anything but disdain for someone, during this state of the business, to piss it all away because he was "stressed."

With that said, I do hope he gets the help he needs and I do hope he finds what he is looking for.

 

You said it more eloquently than I did. I agree wholeheartedly.

 

Agreed. Sounds like he needed a change.

 

Maybe someone has already posted this -- I'm not going through this whole thread again -- but does it qualify as irony that the first two words of the column's headline are "Trust me"?

 

Did anyone else read it?
Did anyone else notice (unless I missed it) that he didn't apologize? Or ask for forgiveness - other than "forgive myself?"
He acknowledged there were people he hurt, but he never said he was sorry.
It seemed to strange to me. Like one of thise typical non-apology apologies.

 

I was thinking the same thing Orville. No "sorry Rick" or "sorry, countless other people I may have borrowed from over the years."

I understand what can happen when life sucks. I am in no way passing judgement on the man's personal issues. Here's hoping he gets it together.

But dude. C'mon. That was lame. You're fucked up. We get that. You have to be to borrow from one of the most widely read columnists in the country.

If you wanted to be the guy in the back of the room, why did you ask to be the columnist. You want the role without the responsibility? Sorry, that's not how it works.

Well, unless you're Skip Bayless.

 

Exactly.
Maybe it wasn't an "apology" column.
If it was, it's like a game story, where you have to tell the reader the score. You have to have the words "I'm sorry" or "I apologize" in it. Preferably near the top.

 

To me this really hits home. I was in a similar situation about five years ago -- right before my son was born -- were all of life's accumulated debris pushed me to the edge. I remember I would sit doing interviews, same as I had done thousands of times before, and would contemplate running from the room. I just had to get out. I would start sweating and the idea of not getting out of the room at that moment scared the hell out of me. I never did run, but I wanted to so many times, and I was just a rank-and-file reporter ... not the face guy for a paper. I only missed one day of work and I spent that day laying in bed, staring at the ceiling trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me. Scariest time of my life and I look back on it and am thankful I had enough good people around me to make sure I didn't do anything that would have had long-term ramifications. It was the first time in my life I was able to understand how suicidal people must feel and it freaked me out. I still wouldn't do what Sleeper did, but it's kind of like Chris Rock said ... in a strange way, I understand.

 

Lester, as you probably know, that's one type of clinical depression. Good for you, soldiering through. While I understand very well the stuff you talked about, I still don't understand the guy who decided to steal stuff from Rick Reilly.
Nothing against Reilly, but if I could imagine doing this -- and frankly, I can't, because the shame and loss of esteem from possibly being caught would bother me way more than turning in a crappy column -- I would at least try for some vintage Leigh Montville or something.

 

Not sure I read it right, but did it sound like the paper offered him a 6-week suspension and he then chose to resign? Because I've known people to commit lesser sins and get canned immediately. Is his paper union and perhaps that's why?

Just asking...