Sports On Earth goes live

It works for Tyler Dunne.

 

He's leaving to finish his new book, "Manti and Lennay: A Love Story."

 

He seems to be having some commitment issues since leaving the paper.

 

In four-plus years:

Sports Illustrated
Sabbatical for Paterno book
Sports on Earth
NBC

Great to be in demand. Who can turn down any of those opportunities?

Wasn't he hired to be the face of Sports on Earth? Where does it go now? I still, as I said before, seek out Leitch and Hruby, but beyond that it hasn't grabbed me. There was a really "insightful" column yesterday about how these 49ers aren't as good as Walsh's dominant teams. At least, I think that's what it was about; that's what the headline said, and the column took forever to get to the point.

For me, Sports on Earth just seems too in love with the sound of its own voice, and too in love with the Importance of Sports. Grantland can be pretentious, but it also makes me laugh and doesn't just try to sell The Greatness of Sports.

 

As a pessimist, it reads to me that he left his "dream job" for another dream job and then left that within a relatively brief period of time.

Neither he nor Selena Roberts seemed to have a very happy turn at SI.

 

More evidence for the belief that it's difficult to be a great writer and a happy person. He seems to be in that endless loop of always looking for something more fulfilling.

 

Tyler Dunne has stayed longer at jobs.

 

Maybe.

Or maybe: He left his "dream job" at a struggling legacy publication for a can't-turn-it-down web venture with great people involved, then within a year realized (or learned for the first time) that Gannett was still Gannett.

 

Not seeing this at all. In this climate, you see a better opportunity--whatever that means to you, not anyone else--you go with it.

 

Is SI struggling money wise?

IMO, the content's as good right now as it's been in many years.

Posnanski was average at SI. Genuinely, indisputably average. He was better at SOE.

I'm guessing that at NBC, he'll be the lead baseball writer -- whatever the heck that looks like at network that has no rights -- and chief Web lionizer of Wimbledon, the US Open golf tournament, SNF and the Olympics. It's gold-plated access to any of the athletes in those sports and pretty good security, I'd say.

 

He was hired to be the face of Sports on Earth, and in some ways the place bears his signature (which is why I personally find it to be too much about The Greatness of Sports and not enough about the aspects of sport I find more interesting).

So at the very least, it's eyebrow-raising to see him leave six months after launch.

 

With the new gig at NBC, he can be Chief Apologist Officer for Notre Dame.