Peter King Dispatches From South Africa

Should be a fun couple of weeks. His first dispatch - on the way from Amsterdam on the way to South Africa:

"Also had the opportunity to see the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam Friday. It was a bit of a disappointment. There was no context. No real attempt to show the place exactly as it was. There were lots of signs, no furniture, short videos and never a sense of what it was like to live there. And, frankly (pun intended), no moment of terrible sadness and grief for her like you feel when you read her diary. I kept trying to understand what it was really like but could never feel it."

 

When we finally license the 'Peter or Parody--Home Edition', that one will be the Million Dollar Bonus question that no one ever gets right.

 

That's funny.

I of course agree with his assessment about the beauty of Cape Town. And he's right about the weather, but better to play in the weather now than in an African summer.

I've told this story on here, but I would give a lot of money for him to have been stuck by the guy we were next to last time we flew back from Cape Town, in February. Moments into a 20-hour flight, the drunk man in back row in the middle three seats vomited all over the seat and himself, then passed out. The attendants made him clean it up himself "to punish him," and then he passed out again, after telling the staff he had too much alcohol and sleeping pills. Oh. The stench was horrific and didn't go away until a cleaning staff arrived during the one-hour stop in Senegal, about nine hours into the flight. Could have been a 20,000-word MMQB entry.

 

As a NFL diehard, I love King's MMQB column and the Tuesday follow-up. When he writes about anything else, he's mediocre at best.

For SI to have him out of the NFL loop (he's not scheduled to write about football until July 26) is a huge mistake. That will be especially apparent when the Favre watch begins. I'm guessing King will write about the NFL from Cape Town if news breaks, but I don't know that.

I guarantee you that MMQB column will get 10X the clicks of anything he writes on the World Cup.

 

I think it's fine to send him to South Africa.

Pretty sure he could report from down there if news were to break on the NFL front.

 

He would be more effective reporting from Cape Town than 99 percent of NFL reporters would be at home, but it just seems stupid for SI to take him out of the loop (to an extent) for the month leading up to training camp opening. The simple fact is if King is covering the Cup, he won't be calling NFL teams (as much) and finding out what's going on.

 

Has King ever (his daughter's games don't count) written about soccer before now? Has he even attended a high-level match prior to this?

I'm not sure how many staffers SI sent to SA, but surely it could have sent somebody with a better working knowledge of the game and the players than King.

 

Brett Favre is going to the World Cup. Who knew?

 

I was wandering through the Anne Frank house. It was kind of boring.
Stephanie went to get some yogurt-covered pretzels when my cell phone rang. It was Washington Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb.

 

Pretty sure he takes a 4-6 week hiatus at this time every year and comes back right around camp time. Usually, if memory serves, he's done some traveling or visited troops.

My guess is he probably asked to be included in the World Cup Coverage for the experience.

But I agree....MMQB will get tons more hits than anything he writes about the World Cup.

 

You are right and it is not surprising that he would want the free trip.

 

I went to see the former Polo Grounds site. It was kind of boring. Just a plaque on basketball court surrounded by a bunch of apt buildings. I was just not feeling Bobby Thompson.