Worthwhile Will Leitch essay on Bill Simmons

Simmons book is very good. He put a lot of time and effort into researching it. He didn't just sit down in front of his computer and start typing. He even had an editor!

 

323 reads, and as many as 10 or 12 weren't from Simmons hitting refresh.

He'll be on his deathbed and still complaining about not getting a shot at a newspaper. Made millions of bucks, is the best-known sports columnist in America, wrote for a TV show and has topped the NYT best-seller list, but he's still empty inside. I'd love to be that empty.

 

Hey, during his HOF induction speech MJ was still compaining about getting cut from his HS team. Gotta find that inspiration somewhere!

 

Translation: I'm going to make a WAY off-base assumption right here.

DD isn't old, but he's not 22 either. And he's seen, and written, a lot of things I wish I had. Doesn't validate his opinion any more than any other, but painting him like a pie-in-the-sky recent grad doesn't lessen his opinion either.

 

It was his dream and it'll never come true.

You don't think that kind of itches at people?

 

Outing alert: DD is between 22 and 75 years old.

 

When you've replaced the old dream with one that hundreds of thousands of sportswriters young and old want to live? Poor Bill.

 

But that doesn't change *his* dreams and ambitions. Sure, he's done some cool things and been privy to some pretty amazing moments, and I'm certain he'd acknowledge that (and fairly confident that he has). But that doesn't change the fact that he grew up wanting to write for the Globe and never got that opportunity. In fact, now that he has the clout he does, it has to eat at him even more that it never happened. Hell, he's BIGGER than the Globe's sports section and didn't get the opportunity.

He might have achieved your dreams, but he didn't achieve his. And I'm sure that will always eat at him.

 

He should be cackling at how he performed an end-around The System and won. He rewrote the rules. He became famous and the newspapers that wouldn't give him a chance (never mind that Simmons would have been a horrible fit at a newspaper in multiple ways) are dying off. You can't possibly win in any more resounding fashion than Simmons has. My dreams were far less grandoise than his and my accomplishments have been laughably less notable, yet it's been years and years since I sat up at night bemoaning how I'll probably never get to be the traditional beat guy.

But Simmons cries multiple rivers over the demise of his dreams. Enough already.

 

Oh yeah, being mature sucks, Wally. I hope Mom doesn't get sore at me. And no, most people don't talk about sports the way he does. And no, he's not the most famous sports writer around. Just the most revered in the blogosphere, which uses the age-old book industry tactic of authors daisy-chaining each other.

 

Nothing I haven't said before, but:

Simmons' "Why Roger Clemens is the Antichrist" column was what made me a fan of his in his early days at ESPN. A couple of friends from Boston had tried to express those sentiments to me, and Simmons nailed it. His columns on the Ewing Theory, Levels of Losing, NBA Draft diaries, etc. were great and made me a daily Page 2 reader at the time. Even read Easterbrook all the time.

Simmons tapped the everyfan in all of us. Because everyone has been through the whole "Will my team ever win it all (ever again)?" period. His passion and writing style were very enjoyable to read. His unbridled shock and jot when the Patriots won it all was great to see. He started to lose a little of that a few days later with his "I want MORE!!!!" column. That's about when you could see the arrogance and fandork greed start to creep in.

Around the time he became a writer for Kimmel, Simmons went off the rails. Wrote less, with less thought and creativity. Started to fall back on the same old cliches and references. Did those short ones for ESPN the magazine. Became a caricature, so much so that I never bothered to finish any of his Red Sox 2004 columns.

Now he's far from what he was. When he whined on his newly created blog about the editing he was getting, it rung about as hollow as Howard Stern's final year on terrestrial radio, when every time he got beeped, he went into a long rant about how "I can't do the show the way I want TO!!!" Because, you know, saying the F word is so essential to good radio. Simmons got upset because he couldn't rip his own employer constantly. Oh well, you're a writer; find a way around it.

But it's undeniable that he helped create a niche that a lot of people would have liked to fill. The bitter, yet humorous, sports fandork blogger is an epidemic now.

Agree that he should be more than satisfied with that, and quit complaining about his brief moment in newspapers. He's wasting time that could be spent following through on things like adopting a Premier League soccer team and finishing the best sports movies series.

But it's much easier to just be lazy and collect a paycheck.

 

Who is more famous today?