Wilbon doesn't see why Pearlman wrote about Payton

The CTE excuse doesn't explain away his dismissal of his marriage. I was disappointed to see Payton's house of cards tumble...but I'm disappointed in Payton not in the writer who made it known. How careful we must be when our children are selecting role models, and how important it is that we are those role models at home.

 

Chicago should be ashamed in every possible way to its reaction to this book. Seriously. It has been absolutely shameful. Embarrassing. Small-time, without a doubt. That's what Chicago looks like, after this freak-out. Small-time.

 

I finally read the excerpt in SI yesterday. It was excellent. Why does it make people so crazy when individuals whom they rightly admire for positive actions are revealed to also have had some negative actions and situations in their lives? It's called being human.

 

The argument I keep hearing (or some variation):

(1) He is not alive "to defend himself."

(2) This is different than a biography about a political figure, because Walter Payton is "only" a football player, and should be judged by his accomplishments on the field.

I don't buy that, because fans constantly attribute positive personal characteristics to people because of their on-the-field attributes. That's one reason we want so badly to believe in "clutch," for example. It's a double-edged sword. If it is OK to correlate character with performance when it suits the narrative, it is certainly within bounds to rebut.

 

I am actually sort of surprised that Pearlman continues to express such deep admiration for Payton, particularly with the infidelities revelation.

I like Jeff's work - the reporting in particular - but he tends to do a bit of moralizing on his blog. A lot of moralizing, actually. It's interesting that he can accept that Walter Payton can be a good man who did some unsavory things. I cannot imagine him extending that same benefit of the doubt to, say, John Boehner or George W. Bush or even Anthony Weiner.

 

A blog is not a biography.

 

I don't understand your point.

 

That a writer brings to bear different standards of empathy and fairness and depth of reporting between the two forms?

You wouldn't confuse Robert Caro's diary with his biography of LBJ, right?

 

I wouldn't. But I also think that Pearlman's work on Payton should inform his blog, going forward. The next time he has an impulse to reactively judge a person - the person, not the act - based on a single action or even multiple reactions that he finds reprehensible, he might want to remember that people are complex.

Pearlman hasn't just noted that Payton is complex on his blog. He has gushed about his admiration for the man over the last few months.

 

Did all the stuff on Kirby Puckett come out before he died? I think it did...

 

Well, I think he was actually charged with a crime, right? Or sued?

 

Yes.