Tank Johnson columns

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-plaschke31jan31,1,6806920.column?page=1&coll=la-headlines-pe-sports

 

Text, for those who don't want to register?

 

Jeez - one sentence paragraphs. What will Bob Ryan say.

 

I've gotta say, it's a breathtakingly stupid premise and ending by Plaschke.

He says he understands Johnson's background, understands the violent culture in the NFL, and is irate because ... he won't apologize to society?

Inane.

EDIT: Oh, and before the fetch-me-a-beer-newbie brigade arrives, I've posted here plenty of times. Am having log-in problems, so I've created a new account until I can get it resolved.

 

Boom, you are comparing opinion pieces that pass judgment with straight reporting that attempted to give a balanced look at the player. The NYT piece did not say the player is innocent, it said he is a more than a one-dimensional thug. And, as I noted on a previous thread, a prominent columnist in the Bears' hometown wrote essentially the same thing as the NYT, yet you keep harping on one writer while ignoring that the newspapers closest to the situation did the same thing.

If you think the media horde at the Super Bowl has a better vantage point in assessing Tank Johnson as a person, well, that is uninformed. My guess would be that the NYT reporter or an assignment editor had read the Chicago newspapers' coverage, gave it the weight it deserved as being closest to the situation and kept that in mind during the reporting process -- the journalists who know Tank the best think what he did was wrong, but that he is not without redeeming qualities. I think that's far more responsible than making uninformed judgments about someone you just met a half-hour ago and writing them with some aura of expertise.

 

Well, define compelling. It didn't compel me for shit.

 

Just thought I'd point out that in Morrissey's Trib column today, Tank lived all over the place while growing up and not just Arizona. According to the column, Tank lived for a time in Gary, Ind., and once had neighborhood kids pour gasoline on him and try to set him on fire, but the match went out.
I'm not offering excuses for Tank's behavior, and it didn't seem like Morrissey was either, just providing some details that apparently have been missing in other stories about Tank.

 

Frank - I agree with you and it was unfair for me to post. I am going to take it down.

 

alma

a super bowl starter on being in miami on house arrest isn't compelling? you've lost me there.

oh, and frank, we'd all best get out of the biz if we think any writer -- even your hero, karen crouse -- gets to REALLY KNOW any of these guys based on media days or locker room chats. they are all staged events.

geez, mariotti and morrissey, two chicago columnists, hit tank pretty hard today too. are their opinions less valid than anyone else's? of course not.

oh, and i'm still waiting to read about what tank's "redeeming qualities" are, other than he's a pretty darn good football player.

 

My sun doesn't rise or set on crime and punishment, I guess.

Columns like this make me queasy. Plaschke actually uses the word "normal." He actually asked somebody if they were sorry. Icky.

 

I think highly of Plaschke and his work, but I agree. What is this, Barbara Walters now? "Tank, aah yew sowwy? Weal, weal sowwy? Tell us how sowwy yew ahh."

 

But do you think if Tank took a more contrite approach yesterday, perhaps without his shades that it might have been disarming instead of the pr disaster it turned out to be.