Jake Scott piece

Sorry. Just re-read your post. You weren't telling me it would have made a big fucking difference. You were telling me my difference would not only have been big, but it also would have fucked. I didn't notice the comma.

 

Hyde: now there's an original f'n stud.

been doing great work since his days at the Miami Herald, in the Hollywood office.

Terrific guy, too.

 

Re.:, Shit-kicking white safeties, Chuck Cecil isn't in those guys' class, but he could lay the lumber.

 

This is a great post for many reasons, not the least of which being this story was a damn fine read that I went back and RE-READ a half-hour later. That's how interesting and enjoyable it was for someone who saw Jake Scott play at the dawn of my football awareness. The description of the bar stools and who sat where was priceless. Great touch.

But back to the point of this post. There need to be more folks in the Dave Hyde/Mark Whicker/Gary Peterson class that SF so lucidly and accurately described above and less folks in the Mike Lupica/Mitch Albom/Jay Mariotti class we keep getting beaten over the head by.

 

Blondebomber - you have pretty much unmasked yourself as only having surface knowledge of the NFL. You obviously are the type of writer that loses their reader in the first sentence of their story when they realize you have little knowledge of the topic.

Here is a few more for the list of stud safeties all in the Jake Scott vein.

Larry Wilson
Rick Volk
Nolan Cromwell
John Robinson
Jim Hudson
Terry Hoage

 

I bet if you asked Terry Hoage what players influenced him the most that Jake Scott would be on the list. Both GA Bulldogs.

 

I don't want it to seem like I'm being a contrarian here, because I'm not. Let me say up front that I liked this piece very much, and think Hyde is awfully good.

However, I felt like the beginning could have been a little better if it preserved some of the "mystery of Jake Scott" to it. Was Hyde going to find him? Would Scott talk? I think, especially since we weren't going to get a picture of him, it would have been interesting if we wondered, if even for just a little bit longer, if Hyde might have come all this way for nothing. If there were a little suspense. For all the talk about how Scott was really difficult and didn't do interviews, he seemed pretty accommodating and willing to talk.

Again, I don't want to seem like I'm pissing on this story just to piss on it. It was great. And maybe I'm wrong, in that Scott's story, the reason he doesn't talk and the reason why he and Shula won't speak, is more important than the journey of finding him and getting him to talk. But I think you could have done both. Still, a very good story by Hyde.

 

You name a few more guys and now my original post is errant? Don't think so. My statement still stands.

You were trying to let somebody know what type of player Jake Scott was and you proceeded to compare him to a bunch of safeties, some strong, some free, two pairs playing on the same team. But whatever. They were all white and fit nicely. And nevermind that almost none of them were kick or punt returners, which was a HUGE part of Scott's game (I know Harris returned kickoffs briefly before Butch Johnson, but I don't recall any of the others). But whatever. They were all white and fit nicely. And nevermind that most of them were in their primes in the 70s, defeating the purpose of enlightenment because the guy you were trying to help probably never saw them play either. But whatever ...

You were trapped by the same dull-witted practice as those who so often call a white basketball prospect the next Larry Bird, or in the future will be calling every upcoming black golfer the next Tiger Woods.

You want to talk about how I lose my readers? I'm sure they would love a guy who's into racial profiling as a convenient way to make a point.

 

This one went off the cliff into Invectivetown in a hurry.

 

Hey blondy as you keep writing you soung even more clueless.

 

great piece. i have no memory of jake scott as a player because i'm not old enough but to me, it made no difference at all.