Selena Roberts back page debut for SI (new column on Pg. 2)

I have been a Selena fan but I thought her later stuff at the Times was a bit strained, as if she were trying too hard and reaching too far. I feel the same about this piece.

Then, there was this preposterous sentence:

Only those who operate on the same plane of genius as Belichick understand how lonely life as a virtuoso can be

Can we please get over this inane concept of Bill Belichick as a genius. He is nothing more than a fucking football coach. He is not now and never will be a genius.
His contribution to the overall good of the world is absolutely fucking ZERO.
If he disappeared tomorrow, nobody outside the NFL would miss him.

 

Where are you seeing her mug? It ain't on the link posted.

 

That was unreadable.

That is the subject choice of her leadoff column? My Christ!

Clint Eastwood, as he often does, said it best: Man has to know his limitations

 

I wonder what percentage of SI readers have any idea who Selena Roberts is.

I bet its pretty low- 30 % maybe?

 

<18%, easily.

 

In the magazine.

I just don't get what she's going for in this space....it's one of the few great print showcases, and these columns have been so flat. Surprising and disappointing.

 

That hurts because she has very limited cred with readers of SI. RR already had street cred with readers when he started column. Because of that he always got the benifit of the doubt when he wrote a clunker

 

Same ol' Selena. A few clever turns of phrase (the description of Manning was particularly good -- perpetual bed head, backpack, etc.), a few catty remarks aimed at a perceived villain (Belichick) and, in the end, no compelling story -- just a series of disjointed thoughts. She's obviously talented but I think she's in over her head and needs to learn to write a well-constructed column. She's no Lisa Olson.

 

I await word from subscribers to the paper product of their thoughts on Dan Patrick's new presence up front.

 

You mean he wasn't a genius in Cleveland?

 

When SI hired her, they should have built a package deal, hiring a personal ideas editor to hone and focus what she was aiming at, and a personal copy editor to throw half of the hyperbole and metaphors overboard. Selena is terrifically talented, but she got too quickly to the kid-glove level where, from all appearances, no one massages her angles or her words nearly enough.

This seems to me another example of APSE hospitality-room inbreeding, a handful of SEs deciding and reinforcing each other's views as to which half dozen scribes really are good. Becomes self-perpetuating. And it so often is completely lost on readers.

 

Cleveland has so many geniuses (genii?) that it's hard to stand out.