Joe Posnanski gets his own "longform" website

joe pos and paterno is the closest the story of a sportswriter will ever get to greek tragedy. he built his name on writing -- incredibly well -- about love: his love of sports, his love of athletes, his love of the deep and too often unspoken connection between fan and game. it wasn't simmons' oh-so-hip, look-at-me and my stoner/pop culture insights parade; in an insanely cynical age, pos tapped into a need by fans and, yes, sportswriters, to have their intense devotion to a frivolous set of human deeds certified, given permission. the steroids age almost killed that. people embraced joe for helping them to remember why they came to sports in the first place.

so he goes to happy valley to write an adoring portrait of an american hero. that is what he does -- and well. and it turns out instead to be a monster/death beast -- the worst, most disgusting scandal in college football history. and what is his strength -- love -- turns out to be his achilles heel. he can't report well on the seamy side of this thing, because that's not joe, not his soul, not his toolbox.

and that is all revealed, suddenly, to anyone paying attention. the story flipped on him, went from needing a prose-poet to some combination of sy hersh, kitty kelley and hunter thompson. and joe went from being the perfect writer for the subject to the absolute worst.

and then his publisher, i'm sure, is still demanding the book. idiots. he had the last interview with paterno; he should've held them off -- maybe even given back the money -- and published two years later. include all the sandusky horror shit and place paterno in a new context. he could've explained, if nothing else, the paterno loyalists still lying -- to this day -- in wait for their moment of redemption. it could've been a great book. instead, his publisher -- and joe himself, i suspect -- did joe a huge disservice.

i've never seen anything like it. reilly's second act at espn? bissinger's bizarre twitter/fashion meltdown? both are astounding drops. but posnanski's? it's like the gods of writing said, 'this is what you do so well. now you're going to be tortured for it....'

 

Strong analysis and I tend to agree.

 

Joe Posnanski is a first-rate sports reporter. I got to know him well during my years in Kansas City when he was a columnist for the KC Star. He's a great journalist.

 

Aside from Posnanski, who are the writers on this site? I can't say I have heard of any of them.

 

AD just nailed it.

 

" ... went from needing a prose-poet to some combination of sy hersh, kitty kelley and hunter thompson."

I'd like to see that combination manifest itself.

 

One of the greatest threads in SportsJournalists.com history was the one about that Paterno book. It got extremely heated at times, but also some tremendous discussion about journalism generally and Posnanski's brand of journalism specifically.

 

T.C. Boyle and Tom Perrotta are two that come to mind that keep me turning the pages.

 

Not really. It mostly was redundant dickishness.

 

My posts on it were really good.

 

Posnanski on Bill James.
http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/bill-james-statistical-revolution/

 

AD bringing the Double Down. Bravo!