What's been the better hire Patrick at SI or Reilly at ESPN?

I don't think Reilly's necessarily gotten bad, but he's not the Reilly I grew up reading and dreaming of becoming myself one day. He still makes his stuff interesting and funny, albeit weaker than what he used to write at SI. But even he's said something to the effect of he's changing his style to fit the younger demographic that peruses ESPN.com and The Mag.

It works on some level. I emailed the beer pong column to my entire team here at school and they all loved it. Go figure.

As for Patrick....never been a fan.

 

Rick Reilly has become Carsenio


That is the straight stuff Oh Funkmaster!

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi600834073

 

I'm sure Reilly cries himself to sleep at night, using wads of $100 bills as Kleenex.

 

I like Patrick's radio show during the rare times that I hear it. As a writer, he's a pretty good radio host.

 

If RR is going to young-down his work to suit ESPN demographics, why bother hiring him in the first place? It won't fool any of his SI fans into switching, since they pine for the old RR. And it shouldn't mean much to the frat boys who wonder if RR has any hot daughters.

 

When I was is college in the early 1990s, folks at our student newspaper would physically fight over who got our copy of SI first, if there was a Reilly piece in it.

 

I agree with this take. Reilly's a clown and a not even a very good one.

 

Cranberry...in agreement. there was a time early, early on, I enjoyed some of Reilly's writings, but it's gotten way past The Cute Quotient.

 

Reading Reilly as a teenager made me want to be a sportswriter. His Bryant Gumbel profile before the 1988 Olympics is one of the best profiles I have ever read in SI.

 

True that. Why did they even bother?

 

Saw the "Life of Reilly" segment on Sports Center tonight on the Cowboys/Yankees. I'm not sure why I bothered. Lame jokes, no insight (not that I should ever expect any).