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Whitlock on Nebraska-Ball State game

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Jeremy Goodwin, Sep 23, 2007.

  1. Hammer Pants

    Hammer Pants Active Member

    Maybe others would. I wouldn't if someone played for that team.

    Now, the decision for the paper to run it and expense the trip (if it did) are separate matters.

    But he did play for them. To him, it is "we."
     
  2. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    "the football gods"
    "first-ever"
    "BCS foe"

    cliched shit
     
  3. Hammer Pants

    Hammer Pants Active Member

    Well ... yes. I won't argue with you there. And it was a day game, too, so it wasn't a deadline crunch.
     
  4. Lollygaggers

    Lollygaggers Member

    Hey, it's Big 12 country, that was nearly the game of the day and he was going to take the angle of a local kid before the Cardinals almost won. I'd say the paper was smart to foot the bill and would have looked like geniuses had Ball State won. Either way they would have gotten a solid column by a solid writer.
     
  5. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    You said the column was from the perspective of a fanboy who could write. Hate Simmons' style all you want (Lord knows I do), hate his dredging up the same five jokes, hate a bunch of stuff about him (again, I do), but no one can deny Simmons, when he truly tries to put forth an original column and not his usual hackneyed crap, can write. So how does your description not apply to Simmons?
     
  6. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    1. No, he can't write.
    2. He never played for the Celtics and hasn't written on them from the inside. Whitlock played for Ball State and had an inside view of the team this week.
    3. He never was in the cast of The Karate Kid.
    4. No, he can't write.
     
  7. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    Whatever you say, dools.
     
  8. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    I know this is only a tangent of your overall point, Doc, but I think this is an important discussion. And I'm struggling to figure out my opinion on this:

    Can Simmons write?

    How do we separate the writer's talent from his material, when his material is so often hackneyed (to use the same word)? It's like asking, "Was Ed Wood a good director, when so many of his movies were utter crap?" By all accounts, he could direct well. But his material was so poor that it's hard to separate.

    Simmons is the same way. Whitlock's material, the raw substance of his writing, runs circles around Simmons', most of the time. Depth, legwork, original thought -- it's usually present, and it's what helps make Whitlock a "better writer" than Simmons. I think.

    Now, this piece in particular read somewhat like a hackneyed Simmons piece -- and very much like Simmons' perspective, which is why the comparison was so quick to be made.

    But we know Whitlock can write. We know his material has substance. So Dooley, among others, can maybe cut him a little slack on the perspective of this one piece whereas he might be less likely to cut Simmons the same slack. Because Simmons has rarely, rarely, shown the same depth, legwork (especially the legwork) and original thought that Whitlock usually does.

    Can Simmons write? He shows flashes of it, certainly. When he puts forth that "truly original" effort you were talking about ... absolutely, I can see something is behind it. But how much?

    Or does the material -- fanboy-ish, cliched and pop-cultured -- get in the way too much to give him that credit? Is he a good writer, even though so much of his material is hackneyed? I really don't know.
     
  9. friend of the friendless

    friend of the friendless Active Member

    Mr Womack,

    What's the idea dragging "shape" into the discussion?

    YHS, etc
     
  10. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    That's the point I was trying to make. Dooley simply mentioned the word "fanboy." Nothing about an insider's perspective; nothing about being a former player. It wasn't until I brought up Simmons that dools changed the argument slightly, which is why I was flippant with my second response to him.
     
  11. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    Did anyone else who saw this game think to themselves, "I bet Whitlock writes about it."

    And another Jeff George reference ...
     
  12. I found the column endearing, but maybe because I root for the same team.
     
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