The Simmons Site

I'd ask someone to explain the 'burger' analogy further. I'm not understanding it.

 

So sports writing should aim no higher than a McDLT?

 

In my opinion, and I'm not speaking for HH or 21, the burger is the meat of it. All the flowery words and the navelgazing and the overwritten tripe? That's watermelon foam on a foie gras sundae. People want to read stories with meat. Not necessarily boring, or play-by-play, but the story, without having to wade through a bunch of meaningless things just so the writer can feel like he/she did some work.

 

It's bankrolled by ESPN.

 

Please tell it was "Roustabout." That Barbra Stanwyck was soooo hot ...

 

Do you have adblocker, Frank? There's a Subway (or Klondike) animation right in the middle of the home page.

 

Having an ad blocker shows a lack of social conscience. Nothing is free in life. These nice sponsors deserve to be seen.

 

Obviously, there are a lot of ways Grantland can go wrong. It could certainly play into the worst tendencies of its founder, for instance. But there's an ambition here that I'm rooting for.

For all the criticism Simmons gets (and I've dished out plenty), he thinks big. And lots of people do that, but his first big thought - 30 For 30 - was a big success, at least in my book. I hope this venture has the same success, because if they do what they say they're going to do, it's going to be stuff that I want to read.

And TSP, it's funny you mention that you've never read Eggers. For me, he's the one out of the four that I mentioned that can make a case that he's on the Wiley/Halberstam/Thompson level (no disrespect to Jones).

 

Bingo.