Check out Michael Silver's pimpin' new mug and column name!

[Double Down]

3) Those anonymous alleged journalists who bravely take shots at me on a certain industry-insider Web site have a lot of credibility when they use words like "nausiating" and "charicature."

I'm not sure how using someone's own words against them, especially when that person works at the most prestigious sports magazine on the planet, is somehow cowardly and lacking credibility. If you were a prep writer, Mike, a college beat guy, or even an NFL writer at a major metro, I'd feel like an asshole, I suppose. Yet somehow, in this situation -- knowing that maybe some young writers might read this thread and realize that pop culture metaphors and similies (especially when used in excess) are tired -- I think perhaps this gutless, anonymous coward will sleep just fine. If we can't critique the stuff in SI, I'm not sure what IS fair game.

For what it's worth, I did say you were a talented writer and reporter, and that I probably couldn't do your job. But I guess you overlooked that part where I was sucking your deck and went straight to "nausiating." Apologies. You're right. Even if I had spelled it right, that was as cold as Bree Van DeKamp on Desperate Housewives, and about as funny as Dane Cooke's Tourgasm. Anyway, Kanye West and Natalie Maines will probably get invited to spend a weekend at Camp David before I ever write for SI, so my opinions are about as culturally relevant as an episode of Flava of Love. I can see how you'd be full of rage, not unlike CJ from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

So it goes.

 

[Hoo]

I must be missing all of this. I mean, the hedshot is a joke. But Silver is as good a reporter/feature writer as SI has. No one gets deeper with athletes than he does. No one else reports on when Bary Zito lost his virginity or what Peyton Manning's childhood home looks like.
Some of it is fluff. Of course, he only writes about successful athletes after they've won something or as they're about to win something. So it's all suck-upy stuff.
But behind all that, behind the "rolling with the athletes stuff," there is a ton of real work. Like, in the Manning article, for every bit of copy of how cool/quirky Peyton is, there is the chunk about how Eli had reading problems and wasn't allowed in his prep school until seventh grade. So of all the articles people have written about the Mannings, he's the first (I'm pretty sure) to report that.

Yeah, but how about writing all that good stuff without the look-at-me, "so i was in the club with Edge last weekend" crap and the nauseating -- because they DON'T WORK -- pop-culture references.

 

[suburbanite]

I was kickin' it with my posse while reading this thread, just chilling at an out of the way bistro, when I realized this subject is getting as tired as the 'Johnny Cakes' storyline on The Sopranos. So before it gets as out of control as Tommy Gavin after drinking a case of Red Bulls, I'll just go my own way, kinda like Dennis Farina leaving Law and Order.

[Yeah, I know the original L&O is not nearly hip enough to reference, which makes it even funnier, I think.]

 

[lantaur]

Not sure if this is worth mentioning or not, but it seems a little disingenuous on Silver's part ... He writes:

"I discussed this situation with a person who is extremely plugged into the Packers' organization, ..."

I have it on good authority Silver discussed Favre with a member of the media (who says he basically wrote the article for Silver) and that this "person who is extremely plugged into the Packers ..." is indeed that media person.

Technically, Silver is right. That person is probably plugged in. But he makes it sound like it's an executive or a scout or something.

I find Silver to be OK ... I find it funny he got his feathers ruffled by SportsJournalists.com and the above doesn't thrill me. Let's hope he does better next time, regardless of his photo.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Pop-culture references are awful. No one who uses them when writing will ever be successful.

Signed,
Stephen King
Jay McInerney
Nick Hornby
Dennis Miller
and Chris Ballard: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/chris_ballard/07/02/blog.0702/index.html

 

[goalmouth]

Wow, Silver really showed us. He should take a lesson from Peter King, who at least has shown the wisdom not to waste his readers' time clumsily trying to settle scores.

 

[HoopsMcCann]

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Hoops -
That's a rog, bro.

 

[Songbird]

I know I've said this a bajillion times, but pop culture references, particularly when employed as metaphors and analogies, are as hacky as the French dude in Slapshot.

I tend to agree, Jonesy, but coming from one of the best writers going today, that statement carries a lot of weight.

Does Slapshot count as a pop culture reference?