Slate: Why Rick Reilly couldn't survive in the age of Nate Silver & Bill Simmons

In a word: He lacks their passion.

I bolded the last sentence of the quoted passage because I think it is a cousin of what we were talking about on the Newsweek Bitcoin thread: The demanding modern reader. You can't half-ass it any more. People are just too informed.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2014/03/rick_reilly_retires_why_the_espn_columnist_couldn_t_survive_in_the_era_of.html

Whatever you think of Simmons, you can’t doubt his love of sports or sportswriting. Silver’s pieces are full of a different kind of ardor, the obsessive zeal of someone on a quest to right the wrongs of mainstream punditry. Reilly’s columns, by contrast, read like stifled yawns. The columnist has his interests (Elway, Tiger), but he can’t replicate the Sports Guy’s day-to-day investment in who’s going to win the NBA title.

It’s not just that Reilly is out of ideas. It’s that the sands have shifted underneath him over the last three decades. These days, we demand Simmons-grade sports nerdery, and fans catch on if you lack the gene. We don’t want to spend time with someone who just doesn’t care.

 

There's a Reilly thread. This column is linked on it.

 

Mods, please delete this thread, if you can.

Thanks!