Do we like anybody?

[Michael_ Gee]

There wasn't a more pleasant celebrity in the world than OJ. All any journalist can do is try his or her best to find out the truth, then write the truth as they know it. Anybody who thought Belichick was a playa certainly had second sight (where he'd find a woman who got turned on by films of the '48 Chicago Cardinals?).
There have been plenty of athletes I liked as people and still criticized in print, and people I disliked I praised. That's not weird, that's life.
Nouveau riches are notoriously pompous, and athletes are no exception. This rubs many folks the wrong way, not just sportswriters.

 

[Songbird]

I love a good schadenfraude reference. And I agree with your post dooley.

What to do about it? No clue.

We can do the sour grapes thing ... [/Lisa Simpson]

 

[Tom Petty]

Why I prefer the college level to the pro level. Most of the athletes are OK. The douche bag factor is much lower, even with most coaches (though that's where most of the douche baggery lies).

amen brother moddy.

 

[broadway joe]

I'd say Tiger and LeBron are appreciated for their excellence without being bashed very much at all. So was Gretzky. There are a few out there, but it's true, the list is short.

As far as Tiger goes, people have been trying to knock him off his pegs for several years. If he looks at someone cross-eyed, you can count on scolding columns coast to coast.

I don't follow golf closely, but I haven't seen many rip jobs on Tiger, with the exception of the Charlie Pierce Esquire article. People in the business may rip him privately, but seems to me the guy gets overwhelmingly positive coverage in the press.

 

[Ralph Waldo Henderson]

I'd say Tiger and LeBron are appreciated for their excellence without being bashed very much at all. So was Gretzky. There are a few out there, but it's true, the list is short.

As far as Tiger goes, people have been trying to knock him off his pegs for several years. If he looks at someone cross-eyed, you can count on scolding columns coast to coast.

I don't follow golf closely, but I haven't seen many rip jobs on Tiger, with the exception of the Charlie Pierce Esquire article. People in the business may rip him privately, but seems to me the guy gets overwhelmingly positive coverage in the press.

For what it's worth, Gene Wojciechowski's ESPN.com column today (before the singles matches) ripped on Tiger, who was 2-2 in his team matches, and gives scant attention to Phil Mickelson, who went 0-3-1.

 

[DyePack]

Here's my answer:

It's fun. There's the capability to just rip someone a new asshole at will.

Sometimes that person flips out in response, and that's even more fun. The replays are shown over and over and over. They never get old.

Then eight years later, one can sit back and see someone like Ryan Leaf whose life was probably changed for the worse. That's some good stuff.

 

[RedSmithClone]

I don't know about rooting for anyone in particular, but I know for sure, anyone with the last name Manning wouldn't be on that list in my book. The whole family can rot in the depths of despair as they never win a Super Bowl title.
And if my boss sees this, I know I'll get grief for this one, but I'm sick of seeing all the Curt Schilling bashing. The guy put his career on the line to help the Red Sox win a World Series for the first time in 86 years, and hasn't been the same since. Yes he's a blowhard, who loves the spotlight, but he is also a very charitable man who opened his doors privately to a family from New Orleans after Katrina among other selfless acts away from the field and camera.
Sometimes we hate who people are, what they show us on a daily basis at the office or in this case the ballpark. The fact is, if that's who he is when he goes to work - a loudmouth, arrogant brick then whatever. He is who he is, at least a person isn't being fake in front of the camera or microphone to make us think he's something he's not. He tells it like he thinks it is and that's all there is to it. Who are we, as loudmouth, blowhards most of the time to condemn someone else for the same thing.

 

[Tom Petty]

ugggh, we don't root for people, dude.

 

[RedSmithClone]

ugggh, we don't root for people, dude.

I was responding to an earlier poster who said he does root for Manning among others.

As I said I don't root for anyone, but what I am sick of is people bashing people just for the sake of it.

 

[suburbanite]

The only journalist I like is Effin Stud.

BTW, Moddy is right. I like covering college guys, too, especially the ones who probably won't be drafted in the first round. They seem to have a little better perspective.

 

[Tom Petty]

ugggh, we don't root for people, dude.

I was responding to an earlier poster who said he does root for Manning among others.

As I said I don't root for anyone, but what I am sick of is people bashing people just for the sake of it.

what about writers who blow jocks just for the sake of suckage? ... like that never happens?

 

[Double J]

I'd say Tiger and LeBron are appreciated for their excellence without being bashed very much at all. So was Gretzky. There are a few out there, but it's true, the list is short.

As far as Tiger goes, people have been trying to knock him off his pegs for several years. If he looks at someone cross-eyed, you can count on scolding columns coast to coast.

I don't follow golf closely, but I haven't seen many rip jobs on Tiger, with the exception of the Charlie Pierce Esquire article. People in the business may rip him privately, but seems to me the guy gets overwhelmingly positive coverage in the press.

If you're a golf writer who does more than the one local PGA stop per year, there's no quicker route to being ostracized than by openly slamming He Who Must Not Be Criticized.

That's why I love reading a guy like Chris Jones who has the balls to publicly say that Tiger comes across to him as "close to subhuman."