Heat Index

I thought of that, too, but decided the "sportswriter" part didn't really apply to Rashad. Besides, he's got his eyes on another career - with the Vikings bringing back Randy Moss, Rashad can't be far behind.

 

I cannot ever see anything like Cosell and Ali happening again.

 

As a Clevelander with a home subscription to The Plain Dealer and every book written by Terry Pluto during the last 15 years signed and tucked on a shelf in my office, this rips me up inside. I wish Windhorst would hang around for a while longer, that we could read a great reporter every day ... but his thoughts on the Cleveland Scene blog show thought and consideration. (Whether The NYT or Yahoo actually offered him a position is another question, but he at least interviewed with them and hung around Cleveland.) And as a writer, I can't fault him for taking advantage of what seems like a great opportunity.

But ...

How many people will read the Heat Index day in and day out? A lot of us will read it in October and November, some in December, a few in January ... but what happens during the second half of the season until the playoffs start? There has to be offseason coverage, right? Who's going to read that? And who's going to read PRACTICE coverage (Practice? Practice? We talkin' 'bout practice!) on a regular basis?

This seems like a good financial decision by ESPN -- pour in somewhere between $1 million and $2 million per season into five writers and expenses ... and get five or 10 stories a day, maybe some OTL narratives, good TV analysis and maybe a nice photo/text book about every season (which will rake in $19.955 per copy). But the overkill. There will be readers, but the overkill ... interest will wane.

And I'm gonna miss reading Windhorst every day. Sigh.

 

Not to piss anybody off, but I get tired of people on this board sounding like old fogies. That attitude is the same thing that killed newspapers. Magic would never have done that! Bird would never have done that! American (sic) Online? You mean those chat rooms perverts hang out in? Don't worry about that. Let's just concentrate on putting out a damn good newspaper.

 

How many "Damn good newspapers" are left? Maybe 10?

 

Come on, Mizzou.

It's perfectly logical for someone to write about an attitude "that killed newspapers" then say that we should "concentrate on putting out a damn good newspaper."

Fight the good fight, Cigar56. If newspapers can just keep putting out Damn Good Stories, with Damn Good Writing (and when necessary, Damn Good Editing), then they will be Damn Good Newspapers.

And damn, readers will notice.

 

Attitude didn't kill the abacus, attitude didn't kill vinyl records, and attitude didn't kill newspapers.

 

For the first time in my life, I'm rooting for Kobe.

 

Ditto.

 

I'm rooting for Eddy Curry. I think this is the year he will dominate.