Bill Simmons smites Scoop about the head...

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

excellent point.

though, we could trek to poland or ireland or england and go to a soccer game and see our share of stab wounds at the pitch.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

it's actually the opposite over there ... the soccer hoodlums are crazy making the gangbangers in Vegas look tame, they come to games with homemade bombs, spiked bats and whatnot, look at what happened in Italy a few weeks ago ... and the European soccer fans might be the most racist sports fans in the world, this isn't just an American problem ... I commend you Jason for having the balls to write what you did but I will say this, it would be much more ballsy for a white sportswriter to write a column about the NBA's "thug" problem for fear of being called a racist just like it would be considered that way if a black sportswriter wrote about the craziness that goes on by mostly white people at European soccer games ...

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

I was in Vegas this weekend and talked to a bunch of cabbies/dealers, etc. The response, to a man, was it was the worst weekend they could ever remember, with one person saying it "was the worst weekend in 34 years."

Two cabbies confirmed there were 5 shootings on or near the Strip itself.

One of those cabbies said he had 6 skipped fares over the weekend, where he usually gets 1-2 on a normal weekend.

Numbers of arrests in Vegas, or at any major event pretty muchs means Nothing. Those numbers can be manipulated at several different levels.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

I thought there were other columns about this. I was listening to WFAN when they referenced Jason's column and I thought talked about at least one other. The next three callers were all people that had been in Vegas and said it was absolutely crazy. One guy left a day into his weeklong vacation because he didn't feel safe.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

Ta da
http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/jason_whitlock_had_a_great_tim.php

I think that is a fair point. Whitlock had one column for the Star that said one thing and the AOL column said something completely different.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

Here's someone else weighing in on the topic: Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telander/273082,CST-SPT-rick26.article

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....


If the Columbia Journalism Review does attack Whitlock, I bet he takes about a dozen down with him. I doubt any of those pencil necks know how to fight.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

You have to be completely out of your gourd to make a genralization like that about soccer fans.

To say that people show up to matches with homemade bombs or baseball bats with nails through the end is preposterous. There are issues in Spain and Italy with racism in the general population which manifests itself at soccer games. It has caused those countries federations to look for help from England, which has almost completely eradicated the hooligan element by policing and hi-tech security systems that track known troublemakers and don't allow them out of the country or near a stadium.

As an Englishman who grew up during the epidemic of hooliganism in the 1980's, I am proud of my country for the stand it has taken. Sadly, we are still tarred with the same brush for incidents that happened nearly 20 years ago because people like to throw out generalizations about things they know nothing of.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

first of all, I wasn't attacking all soccer fans, I was attacking soccer "hooligans" ... big difference, and just because England is doing things to correct problems doesn't mean there aren't problems ... as far as the violence, how do you explain a policeman in Italy being killed by a bomb thrown in his car after riots starting IN A SOCCER STADIUM and spilled out into the streets, you don't see that as a problem, I didn't attack England so you can get off your goddamn pedestal and open you eyes Hack

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

jay, re-read the kcstar column. please.

elliotte, you do realize there's a wide disparity between what really transpired on the wfan radio show and what was reported by some guy intent on making a point about me?