Worthwhile Will Leitch essay on Bill Simmons

Eh, I figure 36,739 of them were of the "Who would win in a fight - original Karate Kid or the new one?" variety.

 

The Emperor has no clothes.

 

He might get downgraded.

 

At the WWL, it is.

 

Very much enjoyed this Deadspin comment:

Seriously, this is almost the equivalent of saying that Mike Vick understands the struggles of John Lewis.

 

Agrees:

 

Charlie Pierce should be ashamed.
Picking on a fifth-grader like that.
Ali showed more mercy to Cleveland Williams.

Simmons is right while being incomprehensibly stupid. Tiger's comeback will be more difficult but for none of the reasons Simmons cites. It wil be more difficult because Tiger is a coward and Ali was a man. Life goes easier for those with courage and integrity.

Tiger has run from his own immorality into hiding. Ali stood tall -- in public, traveling, speaking whenever and wherever anyone wanted him. He stood fast on moral principles against every opponent of those principles, including the combined power of the FBI, the Justice Department, and the U.S. Supreme Court, which is, last time I checked, a force even more powerful than Simmons's imagined mob of Paparazzi, Blogosphere, and Other Creeps.

Ali never had anything to "come back" from; he was always Ali, willing to go to prison for 5 years because he believed in something greater than himself. Tiger has to come back from the hypocrisy practiced by a man who believed in nothing but his own pleasure, and that is a long, long trip.

And who gives a flying eff if Tiger's any good at a silly stick-and-ball game after this? Ali became a global icon in sport's most frightening competition while being half the fighter of his youth. Whatever Tiger does from here on, he's a global joke.

 

Always get a chuckle from Dan Jenkins quote that Pierce referenced:
"Being wrong upon further reflection is still being wrong. I won't be going shot-by shot through the full nine here. (I am reminded of the great Dan Jenkins's squelch of someone who was boring them with an account of that day's round -- "Stud, if I'm goin' all 18, I'm gonna need caddy fees.") "

 

Simmons fits nicely into Pierce's "Idiot America"

 

Nicely said.