1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Life of Reilly: The rise, fall and rise again

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by HanSenSE, Jun 12, 2019.

  1. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

  2. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Wrote some of my favorite longform pieces.

    Fundamentally, Reilly's humor and style just didn't carry over into the fierce Internet age we're in, and instead of sportswriters coming around the guy and holding up great work, they cut him down. I didn't know him so, perhaps, he wasn't/isn't that likable. But the industry took a big pound of flesh out of him and I still don't think, not really, he's over it. Reading that story, I didn't get the sense of that. It also seemed like ESPN shifted from underneath his feet from what it long was to a progressive media organization for 4-6 years. He was a bad fit for it.
     
  3. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    I'll always think of the "I had it first on Twitter!" ridiculousness in Pittsburgh with Reilly's ESPN career. He didn't do himself a lot of favors, but he sure made bank.

    Great point about his humor though. His SI stuff was great but if he had an occasional groaner of a line, so what? You couldn't blowtorch him on Twitter.
     
    gravehunter likes this.
  4. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Good writer - bad humorist. I remember at least one back pager for SI when he wrote about how hard it was to come up with 800 words a week (being the highest paid writer at the time). For all the great leads people sent him - he coasted for most of his time in the back of the mag.
     
    Alma likes this.
  5. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member


    stop
     
    PCLoadLetter likes this.
  6. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    He took the money. Worse people have done worse things. But in this industry especially, when you sell out, the knives are not only out but people have a venue to use them.
     
  7. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    Why exactly? To act like the WWL under Skipper wasn't under the stewardship of a social justice warrior would seem to be ignoring facts. From the Undefeated to Jemele and Michael on Sportscenter, it was a pretty progressive regime. Rob King basically had every job under the umbrella there; if you can show me his successes, I'll listen.
     
    Joe Williams likes this.
  8. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    He sold out who? Sports Illustrated?

    ESPN wasn’t a bunch of slaps bumbling around the yard when he joined it. And ESPN always overpaid for stuff in that era. Writers. TV rights. Everything.
     
  9. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    He sold out his freaking soul, like anyone else would have done. It's pretty baseline psychology and it's borne out in everything he did after joining the mothership. He flailed and failed. But he got paid, so kudos. Ya can't have everything.

    Now he's reborn as a Trump antagonist? Great fucking career move; nobody is working those boards...
     
  10. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    In what way did the "progressive regime" directly affect Rick Reilly's performance there?
     
  11. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    I didn't say it did. Alma's comment might have been tangential, but it doesn't make it wrong.
     
  12. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Alma implied that ESPN's "progressivism" was part of Reilly's problem there.

    It was not.

    Rick Reilly is simply not good at television.

    Not everything needs to be strained through Alma's colander of politics and culture.
     
    Fred siegle and HanSenSE like this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page