Jeff Pearlman on Walter Payton

You know what I mean, Packers douche! Stop spitting on Walter's grave!

 

I found the excerpt to be really interesting. Nothing wrong at all. Not sure why LTL is in such a lather over it.

Pearlman clearly did his homework. Though none of it should be too surprising, it's a very thorough book it seems. Can't wait to read.

 

I can recall Payton having to play QB briefly against the Packers when the Bears ran out of arms at the end of the '84 season.

 

If you are basing Pearlman's character by only having read the Barry Bonds book (a bad guy) and excerpts (I mean, what do you expect the publisher to give out - the most boring chapter), then you have no clue. Read Pearlman's website, read his Q&A linked about - the guy has the utmost respect for Payton. We all have flaws, believe it or not.

(Full disclosure - I read Pearlman's books on the Mets & Cowboys and liked them both. And I hate both teams. Have not read the Bonds & Clemens books.)

 

That was an incredible excerpt. The comp to Kitty Kelley is so ludicrous it borders on parody. It's a shame some people can't take off their fanboi glasses and want to believe the fiction we're usually fed about our favorite athletes instead of reading an excellent piece of journalism.

 

BYH, which of your biographies is coming out first, the one on Girardi or Scioscia?

 

Just read the excerpt...and wow the last page is brilliantly done. This is not a hatchet job. This is an honest portrait of a man.

 

Negative information about Bonds, Clemens, et.al., is easier to digest because we don't like them and will readily accept any information that confirms our beliefs. Seeing the warts on someone like Payton is a lot more difficult. That was a hard excerpt for me to read, and not because it wasn't well written. It was difficult to see Sweetness in anything other than a purely positive light.

 

Pearlman said on Twitter he had no control over what SI decided it wanted to use as the excerpt. It's a tough deal. If you write an exhaustive book, interview 678 people, and all if it's true and well-sourced and fair, and 95 percent of it is glowing, I'm not sure how it's some reflection of your character if 5 percent of your book contradicts the glowing narrative we've been fed about the subject for years.

Payton is one of the most significant and important athletes of this era, or any era. It seems clear there is a lot of glowing stuff about him in the book, but this is what driving the narrative at the moment.

I guess I just don't think your criticism of Pearlman is fair here, LTL. You don't like his writing, ok, fine. But to imply he's a miserable prick who hates athletes and wants to tear them down based on the books he's chose to write ... I think that goes too far.

Instead of comparing it to Hamlet, how about this: Should John Feinstein have left out the bad stuff about bad stuff about Bob Knight? the incident with the tampon in Daryl Thomas' locker? Who benefited from that, other than history?

 

I was going to suggest that one too, but figured I'd go with more realistic subjects.

 

It's going to be one of those flip books. Front cover is Girardi, back cover is Scioscia (or vice versa). I'm going to call it CATCHING HEAT.