Mark Kriegel

So, I'm reading Mark Kriegel's book, Namath, a little late.

It's really a good book -- impressively researched but also very well written. Each chapter reads like its own neat and tidy little story. A lot of thought has been put into structure, which sometimes doesn't happen with a long book, and even though some of the material might seem arcane, it all fits together well, flows, never drags.

Also, there hasn't been one pop culture metatphor.

That got me thinking about Kriegel. When I used to cover fights, he was doing some fights for the Daily News, but I don't know him. To be honest, I thought he was kind of a loudmouth fuckhead at that time. We were in bars together and I was like, That guy needs a punch.

But now, I'm thinking he's more of an inspiration than anything else. Here's a guy who got nutted out of his job at the Daily News, never saw it coming -- unlike today's environment -- in the middle of some marriage crap and with a two-year-old daughter. He was in the same situation a lot of people now find themselves in, and for whatever reason -- probably fear, but maybe for another reason -- he sacked up and got to work. He put his all into a book he probably wouldn't have written otherwise, wrote the hell out of it, watched it become a bestseller, and then wrote another book ("Pistol") that was just as good and manufactured for himself a new life and career.

There's no luck involved there, no break, no lightning in a bottle. That's just balls and industry.

It's time to get to work.

 

But this doesn't change the fact the guy is a loudmouth who needs to be punched?
;D

 

Little late to the party on this one Jones. I've been singing the praises of Kriegel since the SJ bar opened.

He know has the best Web based column going over at Fox Sports.com.

 

Yeah Mark should get his ass kicked. He probably has gotten his ass kicked over the years.
But I consider him a good colleague and a talent. He gets a thumbs up from me.

 

Well now we know for sure that drip is not Mike Lupica

 

Kriegel is the best. A friend of mine, back in '93 or '94--you know, way before the Internet and the days of emailing columnist to tell them how much they rule/suck--was impressed with a column Kriegel wrote about the decline in sportsmanship (I think it was about Rodman and it was a lede to On The Mark). My friend, whose son was eight or nine, called Kriegel at the NYDN to say he was really impressed with it and that Kriegel perfectly summed up what he wanted his son to learn.

My friend left his phone number, never expecting a return call. ten minutes later, the phone rings.

"Hey it's Kriegel."

I got to meet Kriegel a few years ago and picked his brain about Namath and the process of writing books. I couldn't possibly be a bigger nobody, but he took the time to talk to me and ask me about my career and to exchange email addresses.

It's a shame he got squeezed out of the NYDN by the little man, and I think FoxSports.com is a house of cards that will have him on the street, so to speak, sooner than later. But as Jones notes, he's good enough and creative enough to survive and thrive no matter what happens.

And I highly doubt Kriegel has gotten his ass kicked.

 

If Kreigel got his ass kicked, that's a town I don't wanna be in.

 

kriegel's a class act. that is all.

 

he's awesome. should be in obama's cabinet.

 

Met him a couple times in passing when he was still at the NYDN. I told him what a fan I was of his work and he was very gracious.

 

Kriegel is a major, major talent, and the least fuckheaded of any major talent I've ever met.
His boxing novel is one of the best first novels of any kind I've ever read.
Jonesy, be glad you didn't swing, by the way.

 

Did Namath via CD.

. . . and once he gets to the NFL, what a ride it is.