TBL talks to Karen Crouse

Here is Karen Crouse's farewell column from a few years back, when she left West Palm Beach for New York. It's edited very slightly (for length only) with poster's comments added. The point is that after reading this you can forget about calling her arrogant. I hope this example puts that bullshit to rest.

As usual, I had struck a nerve.
<she is so provocative that readers invariably react to her columns>

But this time it was different. The feedback wasn't from readers. It came from friends and fellow journalists.

The word had gotten out that I was vacating this space to cover the J-E-T-S for the New York Times.

I know, I know. Who in her right mind would move from South Florida to New York?

I understood why the move was confounding to some people. This space is a precious piece of real estate - the oceanfront property of the section, so to speak.

From here you have a panoramic view of sports. As far as your imagination can see, that's how far your boundaries stretch.

The latitude is amazing, the perks immense. You get to see the world and spread your opinions, too. I've traveled on assignment to the White House, Paris, L.A., London and Athens.

<No brag, just fact>

But enough about last year. <Great one-liner!>

You can see why people move into this space and never leave. I was acutely aware, always, of how many people would trade spaces with me in a South Beach minute.
<She has a great job in West Palm and is going to an even better job in Manhattan, but she still realizes she has been fortunate.>


So while I once dictated a column as I was running through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport to make a tight connection and wrote another from the back seat of a creeping car during a blinding snowstorm in Buffalo and filed too many others under duress, with deadline's hot breath scorching my neck, I never mailed it in.

<She never brings it up, but she is legendary among co-workers for her ability to write on deadline with grace and power. She makes deadline like nobody's business.>

Everything I threw at you, dear reader, was the best stuff I had that day.

<She reminds me of Katharine Hepburn in "Desk Set." Or Brett Favre.>

That said, one person's oceanfront property is another's island. It can be isolating when you're delegated to change people's opinions, and I don't mean about Ricky Williams' abrupt retirement or Augusta National's exclusionary policies. It comes with the territory, the attitude conveyed in myriad ways by a few enervated men that if you can't stand the heat, go back to the kitchen. It's the good ol' boys that have me worrying my pretty little head over there being one less woman columnist to stir the sports stew.

People would tell me I was gutsy for taking unpopular stands. I looked at it as the upside of being an outsider, fearlessness being another word for nothing fraternal to lose.

<Echoes of Janis Joplin, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...........">

I've heard from a lot of women who said, "I hate to see you give up your voice."

Believe me, I hate it more. It isn't easy leaving this space.

When trying to decide what to do, I took my cue from athletes.

I looked at quarterback Kyle Wright, who was the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year two years ago. He joined the University of Miami's venerable football program and paid his dues before getting the starting nod this year. Isn't it the way of the world in sports, competitors choosing the harder road, the better to challenge themselves?

<That's the lone problem with this column. The Kyle Wright reference doesn't stand the test of time>

I saw Ocean Ridge's Meg Mallon, the dearest person you'll ever meet, play the best golf of her life last year at the age of 41, and it inspired me not to let my 40s become a breeding ground for complacency.

<If this were a video for the Web site at my small paper, I would put the theme from "Rocky" in the background.>

I watched Carl Pavano leave the Marlins, with whom he enjoyed his best years and was quite comfortable, for the Yankees. I remembered him saying, "In the back of my head, if I didn't put a New York jersey on I would have disappointed myself."

<Pavano might have disappointed others, but it's a great analogy>

In the end, I followed my gut. I learned from hanging around Marlins manager Jack McKeon to play your hunches.

McKeon was one of the many people who made this job a joy. Andy Roddick was another. From McKeon and Roddick I learned that no matter how young or old people are, they can teach you something. <Again, the humility>

One of my few regrets is that I never got to dance with Roddick at the Wimbledon Ball. If he had beaten Roger Federer in the final last year, I would have gone to the gala as his guest. When Roddick found out his loss turned Cinderella back into a sportswriter, he apologized sincerely.
<That's sweet, isn't it?>

That's Roddick. He puts the ace in grace. <Sorry, but I'm going to steal this line>

Roddick once rode to my rescue when a journalist who treats female sportswriters more shabbily than anybody this side of Dave Kingman sneered, "That's a stupid question," after I had asked the part-time Boca Raton resident something in a pressroom gathering.

"That's not a stupid question," said Roddick, who went on to explain why.

<I'd like to know who the prick was who was being obnoxious to Karen>

Roddick will never know what a big deal that small act of kindness was.

Four years ago, I agonized over leaving the column I had in Southern California because, like Randy Newman, I love L.A.

The move drew a lot of arched eyebrows. Plenty of people acted as if I was making a mistake. In fact, next to marrying my husband it was the best leap I ever took.

I found out, as both the Marlins' Paul Lo Duca and the Heat's Shaquille O'Neal subsequently would, that there is life after L.A.

<And life after South Florida, as it turns out, for them and for Karen>

The Post is the hothouse where my writing blossomed.

<Triple Crown-winning paper gets the love from Karen, although she was a huge part of the paper's leap forward during her tenure>

There are a handful of editors to whom I'm indebted, one in particular.

Before he became The Post's deputy managing editor in January, Tim Burke was the Pat Riley of sports journalism. He built this section into a winner.

You know the immense regard and respect that Alonzo Mourning has for Riley? That's how I feel about Tim Burke.

<Thank God Tim has no kidney ailments>

He lured me here with the promise that I'd get to write good stories. Blessedly, he was true to his word.

The subjects changed from day to day but the themes developed in this space were fairly constant. Whether I was writing about athletes and depression or Dwyane Wade's ascending star, the goal was always to illuminate the common humanity of the people who play the games and the people who watch them.

<"Illuminating the common humanity" of the sports world. I love that sentiment>

A while ago I was dining at my favorite restaurant, Rhythm Cafe in West Palm Beach, when a lovely man stopped by my table to say he was a loyal visitor to this space.

<Even in sleepy West Palm her readers sought her out; she must be mobbed in New York City>


"I can't believe The New York Times hasn't snatched you up," he said.

I smiled, but inside I remember thinking, "Yeah, right. That'll happen. When the Red Sox win the World Series."

Yes. Well. There you go.

I'm outta here but I'm no runaway scribe. My leaving has everything to do with running to - not from - an awesome challenge. I leave this space better than I found it, hopefully, and far richer for the experience.

 

I have no dog in the arrogant/not arrogant discussion, but....


Jesus, nice.... damning... get, Matt.

 

OK, I like what I know of Karen's work, but that was really well done.
Matt, if you're this good at skewering the people you cover, you'll be famous soon. Or dead.

And by the way, it seems to me that "farewell" columns are almost always a bad idea, low-hanging fruit for this sort of treatment.

 

sorry, crouse lovers. she's a talented writer. but farewell columns by ANYONE suck. egotistical drivel, unless you're a dinosaur whose been at a paper, like, forever. crouse was at this paper, what, 2-3 years? boo-hoo. :'( :'( :'(

and how a premeditated column is proof that anyone is not capable -- under the right circumstance -- of acting in an arrogant, cold, unfriendly way is beyond me. then again, crouse lovers already think i'm an idiot so they won't find is surprising that i don't see this as a smoking gun.

karen was beloved by her adoring readers in florida and editors in florida. that is not necessarily evidence that she was charming in the jets press room, the discussion here. but if y'all want to believe that those she left behind in the jets press room are simply jealous neanderthals, so be it.

given the gig of "prime real estate" she was giving up in fla., is it at all conceivable that princess karen did not go into her "jets beat days" with the greatest mindset ever? that it was simply a means to an end for a very talented, very ambitious writer?

behaving arrogantly does not make someone arrogant, in general. maybe the situation brought it out in karen.

heaven forbid this even be worth considering. blasphemy! shame on me!

 

It does seem like either Karen or Tom Jolly was hell bent on reinventing football coverage as we know it. Neanderthal Jet fans and beat writers be damed. No one cares about Thomas Jones . Everyone wants to read about Woody Johnson's mom.

 

Dude, if you're serious, the shame is that you didn't quite get what Matt was doing here. Maybe you need to read it more slowly ...

 

And shockey has all the Jets' beat writers on speed dial, I feel sure. Why doesn't he just call them and ask?

 

my bad. sincere apologies here. chalk it up to springsteen-concert hangover. well done alerting me to my misread.

guess i'm too accustomed to fending off crouse's legion of cheerleaders.

 

rest assured, i have. which is only part of the reason i post on this subject with such conviction.

 

So you have your answer already; you're just seeking a public flogging. Stay classy.

 

nope. no public flogging required. just don't like to see my friends wronged on boards like this on behalf of princess karen.

 

Where, and in what way, have your friends been wronged - either by Crouse, or by those of us posting on this thread?