Is Simmons going too far?

I'm guessing you're what, 20-25? You and your friends probably don't read much beyond Deadspin, SportsbyBrooks and the such?
I started reading him in 1999 and have grown tired of his schtick. Try boning up on his older stuff. He basically regurgitates stuff he's already written. he hasn't had a new take since 2003. The pop culture references are tired because they are the same.
I do enjoy his podcasts and still read his stuff, but Simmons is a niche writer, which i think he is more than happy with.

 

Deadspin has no love for Simmons, I don't think. I don't even really know why you are comparing the two.

Now, I don't read Simmons for any sort of sports insight whatsoever. He simply entertains me every once in a while when I have nothing better to do. Mostly, I like his columns that are about general things rather than about specific Boston teams. For instance, the "Reggie Cleveland All-Stars" is still a hilarious feature. And the levels of losing are pretty good too. On the other hand, if I see anything involving the Celtics or Patriots on the little promo click-in, I stay faaar away. And yeah, it pisses me off mightily that he spends so much time talking about the NBA and NFL, doesn't watch/ talk about college sports, makes fun of people who do because the NBA is "better" (which is probably is, but that doesn't mean you don't not watch college hoops) and THEN thinks he's a fucking expert when it comes to draft day. That's irritating as well.

 

Bill started by writing about what frauds Boston writers and national writers were (especially including me, which I don't mind, because we're all flawed). This earned him an audience of people who felt disenfranchised.
Now, he has every flaw he accused me and my peers of having. Every one. Cliched. Thin-Skinned. You Name It.
This is a predictable human trajectory, but his enduring popularity has the seeds of its own destruction. Within 10 years, dads (there are no women Simmons fans) will feel awful when their sons (and hopefully daughters) ask them why they liked Simmons.
He's a wordsmith. BFD. What good is a bitter, unaware wordsmith? I used to be one. And I had such a wrong idea about my job and life, it's unimaginable to me now.

 

Like I said a while back on another Simmons thread, he was a great read. But the worst possible thing happened to him.

He became civilized.

 

And he made a lot of bleeping money in the process.

Wish I suffered such a horrible fate.

 

ESPN tries to ride both sides of the fence...and actually does it pretty well. They are "entertainment" most times, but still try to pull out the journalist tag when it benefits them.

 

Sorry for the delay in responding. I'm 33 and have read him since 1999 as well. I've never heard of deadspin or sportsbybrooks.

 

You are right. They sure do. I face that all the time.

 

This is where panicked editors and Web site producers reveal how flimsy their thinking and their values are. They will go along with almost anything that drives eyeballs, as if building the largest audience was the goal all along. No, it was getting your quality work -- whatever its mission (breaking news, explanatory journalism and so on) -- in front of as many eyeballs as possible. By shrugging that, well, the kids like crap as an excuse for offering up crap abdicates responsibility for the content. And it makes me wonder why people who started with loftier ambitions stick around, shoveling this bad stuff and rarely attending to what pulled them into the business in the first place.

 

it's always about you.