Sam Mellinger Covers a Difficult Subject,

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/12/2651357/tommy-morrison-now-42-still-clings.html

How would you suggest handling such an odd subject as this?

 

I thought Sam did a great job. He injected just the right amount of skepticism, but he didn't belittle Morrison. Excellent story.

 

Interviewed Livingstone Bramble one night several years ago before he got the crap knocked out of him by someone I had never heard of but was 15 years younger. Bramble just couldn't move at all and was a punching bag. It was so sad.

 

Most stories of former boxers are sad. Mellinger could have painted this with the same broad brushstrokes that cover so many of those stories, but Morrison is so unique in his patheticness that Mellinger just let him speak. Morrison is all sorts of crazy.

 

Sir,

He tried to pick up my missus at a bar up in Canastota on the Boxing HOF induction weekend. Nice guy once it got straightened out. Can't blame him for trying.

YHS, etc

 

One of the first stories on Tommy Morrison and the HIV rumors, from one of the first issues of ESPN: The Magazine, by Tom Friend: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3247534

 

Fantastic story. Losing Posnanski and Whitlock during the last two years were rough on the KC Sports section, but Mellinger has really stepped up.

I rarely read comments on the web, but I started looking through the posts about this one and, what do you know, Tommy Morrison himself pops up more than a few times. My favorite:

Hey Sam -
It took you a year to write this article? Your memory must be fading a little...I remember talking to you about my first paperback BOOK:
TOMMY: My Boxing Career...you said you were going to mention it...guess you must have forgotten to write it on the back of your hand bro!
For all the "denialists" on HIV....you can't spread something that doesn't exist....so "Trisha" the "mensa idiot" after 3 years does not test "positive"...now "what" does that tell you?
Sam- really appreciate you keeping the HIV HYPOTHESIS (which means "theory" ) out there in the public...let's do another interview bro on just that subject.
To buy my book..so Trish and I can afford to go eat at more expensive restaurants of your caliber go to my website:
www.TommyTheDukeMorrison.com
Appreciate you showing us a photo of your dog Sam.
And FYI...the GYM is 20 minutes drive from where I live (each way)...and YES I have taken quite a few hits on the head..but I can chew bubble gum, walk,talk and work a blackberry and GPS !
God Bless you Sam looking forward to the next one man...bring your gloves with you..OH and don't forget your boots!
(and by the way...you forgot to mention that there is NO.. repeat NO ...test on the market that detects the presence or the absence of the HIV VIRUS.....ask Dr.Gallo and the FDA and the CDC yourself.

 

Thanks for pointing that story out.

I thought it was really well-done.

I am not so sure I needed to start reading the comments.

 

Something like this would work: http://goo.gl/EzHGp

 

Mellinger covered infamous birther Luke Scott in a recent column: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/03/2847923/being-an-athlete-doesnt-make-you.html. Should we, as journalists, be giving these (insert your own word depending on your political allegiance, but I would say crazies) the opportunity to speak on topics like this? We have the megaphone to reach our audience. Should we use that for certain segments of the population?

 

can't get it via the link anymore...did they take it down?

 

Granted, what we do in sports isn't rocket surgery, but I lump jocks' opinons on anything outside the lines in the same category as the opinions of entertainers and socialites on things outside their areas of expertise: It's great fodder for the talk shows and it fills the news cycle, but in the big picture, who gives a flying fork?