Jeff Pearlman finds Sports by Brooks, scraps article

He's back.

Sports by Brooks - Sports by Brooks

 

This thing escalated quickly.

Full disclosure: I’m a big Pearlman fan. Dude works hard, has a ton of talent and he might be brilliant.

The problem with some brilliant people is they think they’re right about everything. He’s not.

 

Judging from that tweet, he really must not be a fan of Philip Rivers.

 

I don't consider it brilliant to take popular, big-picture subjects and write books that offer nothing new.
The guy wrote a blog entry about his stools once- he is utterly self-contained.

 

He’s an astonishing ass on Twitter. It’s really something to behold.

But he’s not the only sportswriter who is, by any means, bad on Twitter.

And here’s the thing: Pearlman isn’t innately cruel. Honestly, I don’t think he’s smart enough or secure enough for intellectual cruelty. This is a guy who just has no real filter and is a classic wealthy liberal cynic.

 

I never signed up for twitter. And yes that is a stupid tweet. I enjoy his blog. He comes across as a naive at times, but he is honest and unafraid to call out things like religion for the bulshit they are.

 

I've read two of Jeff's books and a number of his longer stories. He's a heck of a reporter. In his books and in his news articles, he has clearly researched the subject exhaustively—made the extra phone call, and then another and another.

I regret that he doesn't apply the same rigor and thoughtfulness to his social media posts.

 

Brilliant? That's a big stretch. I enjoy his books, including the USFL one, which I just finished. But he's smart enough to let the subjects tell their tales. He doesn't apply some wizard-like social commentary on subjects like Walter Payton, the 1990 Cowboys, or the 1986 Mets. Hell, he made his name by letting John Rocker hoist himself by his own pitard. He's smart enough to shut up -- except on Twitter.

He's a great reporter, but he's not a good columnist. Too often writers conflate the two things and step out of their lanes.

 

Unless the subject of said interview says it's OK, IMO it takes someone with shitty character to do an interview and discuss — vaguely, loudly, in detail or anything else — someone's mental or physical health issues.

 

Pearlman sent me a Minnesota Hockey long-sleeve T-shirt for secret Santa one year. That’s all I got.

 

What did you send him?

 

Didn’t have him as a recipient. I think I had sxysptswrtr (sp) that year. Or maybe that was the year I sent a Testicle Festival T-shirt to my giftee.