This is why I started reading Bill Simmons in the first place...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3712343

"Director of competition Howard Katz, who would parlay this gig into a job running ESPN and ABC Sports, assesses a two-second penalty to NBC and awards the race to ABC as future A-list directors Penny Marshall and Ron Howard celebrate a bit too exuberantly."


For a 30-something, this is just a golden column. If he screwed up a detail or two, sigh, so be it, but I still loved this column.

 

Oh, OK.

 

Simmons gets crushed on here a ton, and for good reason many times. But when he does something that I think is good, it deserves noting as well.

 

Battle of the Network Stars = good. Why?

 

It's funny.

It reminds me of when I was 10 and watching TV on a Friday night.

 

I think this is where those crazy kids would roll their eyes and say, ``Whatever, dude.''

 

I remember when I was 10 and watching TV.
I don't think the world necessarily needs to know about it, at length, 40 years later.
Different strokes, I guess.

 

Battle of the Network Stars ruled. Thirty years later, it's a bit of nostalgia. It's campy, 1970s stuff. What's wrong witht that?

One of those 20-somethings watched some youtube clips, courtesy of Simmons, and thought it was great.

 

I like pop culture writing, and Kaplan dusting the battery idiot is just one of those great moments that makes the 70s the 70s.

 

It's a temptation.

But we resist it.

 

Hey, it's free (unless you specifically order ESPN the Magazine, and if so, you deserve what's coming to you) and it's a breezy read, so I don't care when he does it, but I thought this was the definition of cashing it in. He's talked about Battle of the Network stars probably a dozen times in the past seven years. Save it for VH1.

 

And now that I think about Kaplan and his current poker prowess, Conrad going "all in" with the challenge was perfect.

Mr. Kotter was holding pocket aces the entire time.