Deford's confessions in SI

Frank Deford is a great guy and a great writer. Still.

I rest my case.

 

It's always good to see him at Saratoga.

 

My guess, the "confession" was getting his "Toughest Coach" story from a discarded newspaper he found during his trip to write about Bryant - he credited the original writer in the new SI story, then went on to discuss how he gave "acclaim" to this hereto unknown coach. Maybe that was "news," maybe it wasn't, because I don't go back quite that far. That's my guess, because the article was particularly vague in more ways than one. Still, I'll take bad Deford, mailed-in Deford, or sleep-induced Deford over 90-percent of the stuff out there.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I'm going back but I think that "discovery" of the Sullivan story was out there soon after publication.

o-<

 

That's been known about the Sullivan story since it was published in SI, and Deford's long acknowledged he saw it in the paper.

 

How much enterprise that's ever appeared in SI truly originated with one of their own staffers?

 

I'm sure there's some, but it's not like it's a discredit to a magazine piece if it first appeared in a newspaper or on TV or whatever, if the writer expands on it or simply writes it better.

It's not like it's unique to SI; what's really original? Countless classic stories started when someone saw it elsewhere. Capote saw the In Cold Blood killings in the New York Times. It's not like the book loses points simply because the idea didn't start with Capote getting a tip from a police officer in Kansas about some killings.

The tragedies of John Wideman's family were well-known, but Smith's piece on Jamila Wideman is still a classic. And on and on.

I am pretty sure that Plimpton didn't see the curious case of Sidd Finch in any newspaper before his SI story.

 

I would argue it would say something horrible about local journalism if national papers picked up major stories first on a consistent basis.

 

To me, rather than counting against the magazine writer, it says more about the originating reporter and what he or she didn't do with a story that was good enough to be pursued and opened up by a national magazine or Web site. I know local newspapers reporters are awfully busy, though, and may not have access to forums bigger than their daily papers.

But turning what we do into a comments-board game of "First!" achieves nothing.

 

Worry about getting it right, not getting it first.

Lessons we've been ignoring for a century or more.

 

Mr Williams,

I don't know that the fellah with the Scooba Dispatch could have got more than 20 inches for a Sullivan feature.

o-<

 

If Frank Deford had thrown in a Karate Kid reference, paralleled all his experience with a trip to Vegas, told us what type of latte he was drinking while doing all of it, and not used the word "I" so many times, why, he just might have been able to make something out of that article.