Little exchange between Staples, Litke

Well, that's kind of the point, isn't it? He's relatively benign, not a big tweeter, and yet this set him off a little bit.

 

I meant Litke's particular point of view, but what I wrote was unclear. So my mistake.

 

I know Andy well. The guy works his ass off.

 

Agreed. And for him to call out Andy Staples, who is a definite worker, is beyond ridiculous. Of course "student-athlete" should be used in parentheses. Of course college sports, with the possible exception of baseball and women's sports, is corrupt. We all know this. Nothing to see here. Move along.

 

Andy is just a good guy across the board. I don't know Litke at all.

 

I think Andy tweaked Litke, and Litke fired back. I don't even know if they know each other.

Moddy, yeah, in my heart of hearts, I prefer my writers wouldnt' get into this intramural bullshit, basically.

Debating issues/subjects, sure. When you start talking about each other's work/work ethic, I'm not a fan.

 

Little bit of a dick on Twitter.

 

Since no one is defending Litke, I will.

When I was a 24-year-old nobody sports editor at a small daily, my co-worker and I went to a seminar where Litke was one of the speakers. Among the stories he told was when he followed Bode Miller for two miles in ankle-deep snow before landing the immortal quote "But I partied an Olympic level." Then after the thing was done, he talked to me and my fresh-faced buddy for a good 20 minutes about how we could further our careers. Encouraged us to send him some stuff, which he critiqued and sent back pretty promptly.

Again, didn't know us from Joe Blow. Had no obligation to help. But he did.

I saw him at the Final Four, some six years later, as a 30-year-old nobody sports writer from a mid-sized daily. He somehow remembered me and was a gracious as ever, spending another 25 minutes or so to talk shop with me before finally realizing "Hey, I've got to go finish this up and file it!"

Anyway, he's maybe the best guy I've met in this industry in terms of willingness to help out a total stranger trying to make it. So it is a bit surprising to see him in this tiff.

 

Does every little jab between writers on Twitter need its own thread? Glad this is a one-pager ...

 

you seem a lot like the person who calls up on deadline and asks why "you didn't have more on the kentucky riots in the paper today?" kinda person.

it's called sportsjournalists.com for a reason, and i guess we can discuss whatever the hell we want, even if it goes 20 pages deep.

thanks for reading.

 

Gotta say mediaguy, my feelings summed up here.

A) it was out of character for Litke and B) if nobody's interested in a thread, it will go away, with only a thread line lost. (I must admit a perverse hope that this post pushes this thread to a second page.)