ESPN not immune

No idea, but I just saw those Kobe and LeBron puppets from Nike's new commercials anchoring SportsCenter so that may be one area.

 

I'm just glad we found an opening for another thread to bash Reilly! Seriously, I think there are numerous overpaid/unnecessary folks on the ESPN payroll, and I'd be pissed if I got laid off because they were blowing their money hiring every reporter and fired coach who came down the pike.

 

Yeah, didn't mean for that to happen. I honestly was wondering what happened with Reilly, or if you guys had any insight to that. It's just weird seeing a guy as talented as Reilly put out stuff like he has been lately.

 

It's been discussed here ad nauseum, and many of us agree that he's simply mailing it in.

 

That's unfortunate.

 

If I were ESPN I'd have Reilly on Dancing With The Stars, and I'd have him at their basketball games, maybe sitting next to Nicholson in L.A. interviewing him during timeouts, sitting with Elway in Denver, make him an on-course reporter hanging out in the gallery during golf.
Have him do an Andy Rooney commentary at the end of E:60.

 

This is not meant as an endorsement of Reilly, as I do not read him regularly enough to give a fair assessment of his work. In fairness, however, please name me one long-term columnist who has not phoned it in for even a short stretch over his/her illustrious career.

My career is far from illustrious but I do find my column the most enjoyable part of my job and I definitely have gone through some very dry spells as well. It happens to the best and worst of us. One month you're off and the next you're on like nothing ever happened.

 

Whicker, I'd bet. Probably Simers, knowing his work ethic, but I don't read him enough to say for sure.

 

I couldn't tell if you were being sarcastic or not, but I actually kind of liked most of those ideas. It sounds like stuff that fits him.

This is what I was looking for, to hear stuff like this. I'm a young guy, so I'm all "bust-your-tail" all day every day and all that good stuff, but it makes sense to me that something like what you described here could happen. Thanks for sharing that. I mean, I'd try to avoid that personally, but I don't really judge anyone who does. It's understandable. It's like any other jobs some weeks and months, I'm sure.

 

I was serious. Reilly is great at channelling the fan. The "Walter Mitty" stuff, the small-town human-interest stuff. I'd like to know if Nicholson feels he has to censor himself when he's at Lakers games because he knows there are cameras on him and he's close to the court, I'd like to know if the families of NBA refs attend playoff games, I'd like to know what its like for hockey players who have beaten the hell out of each other in a series when they have to shake the hand of a guy who bloodied their nose or gave them stitches, I'd like to know who invented those stupid "ThunderStix", I'd like to know why golf fans follow certain golfers on the course or why they stake out a certain hole. I'd even like to know what kind of training the crew of the Boomer Schooner does before a season. It's the one area of sports coverage I'd like to see MORE of.

 

"Did you ever wonder why the sports sections of newspapers have a 'Page 2?' It's not really Page 2, it's more like page 40 or 50."

 

Well I mean it's not like I go out of my way to write a bad column or a few in a row that come off uninspired. It just happens sometimes. But I'd like to think I hit far more often than I miss.

Any columnist can bitch day in and day in. It's when you start going for funny or positive or heartwarming that you're going to strike out on occasion. Learn from it and try again.