Reilly nails it

[lone star scribe]

OK, many of us have proclaimed that Rick Reilly has lost a couple mph off his high, hard one, that he's not the columnist he used to be.

But give the guy credit, when he hits one out of the park (OK, I realize I just mixed my baseball metaphors), it's fun to step back and watch it.

Here's the link, on the NFL labor situation:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6177574

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Yet another "put a stamp on it and open the mailbox" column from Reilly.

Owners are greedy? They own multiple homes?

Brilliant reporting work by Reilly here.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

 

[dkphxf]

The column did skew my perspective toward the players, but I don't know if it's outstanding.

 

[jlee]

"Hey, did you hear the NFL owners are rich?"

"How rich are they?"

"They're so rich they're not committing suicide like these two players!"

(Laughter.)

****ing awful use of a serious topic.

[quote author=Rick Reilley]Question: In 10 years, do you think you're going to find New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft wandering the streets because of the 200-plus concussions he didn't know he had from his time in the NFL? You figure Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford will end up with ringing in the ears and depression the way former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson did? Within the past year alone, two former players killed themselves.

You recall any NFL owners killing themselves lately?[/quote]

 

[poindexter]

Yuck.

 

[flexmaster33]

I haven't read Reilly much since he jumped to ESPN the Rag...and this just states the obvious...rich owners looking for a better deal...players signing on for a risky and often short career. Where's the "wow" in that.

 

[mediaguy]

Side note: How does the NFLPA get a figure of 3,000 jobs in each NFL city? I doubt the full-time positions would be even a tenth of that. Maybe if you're counting the beer vendor who gets eight days of good money, but even then, 3,000? Do the dad and son who get $10 for parking spots on their front lawn count as two?

 

[mediaguy]

And does D. Smith at least get a tagline on that? It's awesome that if you stand the millionaire up next to the billionaire, he might as well be standing on an offramp with a cardboard sign. The greed isn't one-sided here.

 

[Some Guy]

"Hey, did you hear the NFL owners are rich?"

"How rich are they?"

"They're so rich they're not committing suicide like these two players!"

(Laughter.)

****ing awful use of a serious topic.

[quote author=Rick Reilley]Question: In 10 years, do you think you're going to find New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft wandering the streets because of the 200-plus concussions he didn't know he had from his time in the NFL? You figure Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford will end up with ringing in the ears and depression the way former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson did? Within the past year alone, two former players killed themselves.

You recall any NFL owners killing themselves lately?

[/quote]

I didn't get that at all. I disagree with Reilly here, for the most part. But his point that it is the players, not the owners, putting their lives on the line is fair game.

He's not making a joke. He's making a point.

 

[Rhody31]

"Hey, did you hear the NFL owners are rich?"

"How rich are they?"

"They're so rich they're not committing suicide like these two players!"

(Laughter.)

****ing awful use of a serious topic.

[quote author=Rick Reilley]Question: In 10 years, do you think you're going to find New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft wandering the streets because of the 200-plus concussions he didn't know he had from his time in the NFL? You figure Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford will end up with ringing in the ears and depression the way former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson did? Within the past year alone, two former players killed themselves.

You recall any NFL owners killing themselves lately?

I didn't get that at all. I disagree with Reilly here, for the most part. But his point that it is the players, not the owners, putting their lives on the line is fair game.

He's not making a joke. He's making a point.
[/quote]

I hate when people say that - "the players are putting their life on the line."
Great. Guess what? That's their choice. It's the risk of the job, a job where they're paid a hefty sum of money.
Don't want to deal with the reprocussions of the job? Stay in school, get a degree, and go teach.

 

[da man]

"Hey, did you hear the NFL owners are rich?"

"How rich are they?"

"They're so rich they're not committing suicide like these two players!"

(Laughter.)

****ing awful use of a serious topic.

[quote author=Rick Reilley]Question: In 10 years, do you think you're going to find New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft wandering the streets because of the 200-plus concussions he didn't know he had from his time in the NFL? You figure Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford will end up with ringing in the ears and depression the way former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson did? Within the past year alone, two former players killed themselves.

You recall any NFL owners killing themselves lately?

I didn't get that at all. I disagree with Reilly here, for the most part. But his point that it is the players, not the owners, putting their lives on the line is fair game.

He's not making a joke. He's making a point.

I hate when people say that - "the players are putting their life on the line."
Great. Guess what? That's their choice. It's the risk of the job, a job where they're paid a hefty sum of money.
Don't want to deal with the reprocussions of the job? Stay in school, get a degree, and go teach.

[/quote]

Then they'll really be putting their lives on the line.

 

[jlee]

"Hey, did you hear the NFL owners are rich?"

"How rich are they?"

"They're so rich they're not committing suicide like these two players!"

(Laughter.)

****ing awful use of a serious topic.

[quote author=Rick Reilley]Question: In 10 years, do you think you're going to find New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft wandering the streets because of the 200-plus concussions he didn't know he had from his time in the NFL? You figure Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford will end up with ringing in the ears and depression the way former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson did? Within the past year alone, two former players killed themselves.

You recall any NFL owners killing themselves lately?

I didn't get that at all. I disagree with Reilly here, for the most part. But his point that it is the players, not the owners, putting their lives on the line is fair game.

He's not making a joke. He's making a point.
[/quote]

I reread it, and you're right. I guess I'm too used to Reilly yukking it up.

Still, I think Reilly used an extremely serious issue to make a point that is trivial in comparison.

I didn't get the reference to a kid with a flower getting crushed by a tank either.

 

[DanOregon]

Owners are wealthy? Really?
There is a really interesting nugget in there - the thing about owners needing to build new stadiums. Aren't at least two-thirds of NFL stadiums less than 15 years old? I can only think of the Niners, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings and Bills that have an older stadium that hasn't had a significant upgrade. So what is the problem? I'm not advocating any owner operate a team like a charity for the good of a local municipality (I'm not that naive) - I'll settle for not soaking the taxpayers for a facility that most can't afford to get into on game days.
Hell - the only owners I can think of selling in recent decades are those that died or ran their personal wealth into the ground. I can't think of any that said "I just can't make money with this team."

 

[dirtybird]

Didn't strike me as much better than Magary's piece on the same subject from Deadspin. I'd hardly say anything was nailed.

 

[SoCalScribe]

Locking out a bunch of guys who made hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars last year is unconscionable because of the economic climate?

Sounds to me like Mr. Cruise Control is not in touch with the economic climate at all.

There are a LOT of American corporations worth far more than the NFL, who have laid off many, many times more workers than the NFL is thinking about maybe-sorta not paying for six months or a year.

In attempting to connect with reality, the author shows how out of touch he truly is. He spends most of his time advocating for the players, when given his from-each-according-to-his-means thesis, he should be advocating for the concession workers, etc., whom he so gallantly mentioned for, what, a sentence or so.

 

[LevinTBlack]

Side note: How does the NFLPA get a figure of 3,000 jobs in each NFL city? I doubt the full-time positions would be even a tenth of that. Maybe if you're counting the beer vendor who gets eight days of good money, but even then, 3,000? Do the dad and son who get $10 for parking spots on their front lawn count as two?

You're not thinking it through completely. The people who would lose jobs wouldn't be just those employed by the team. Restaurants who cater to the game crowd around the stadium would cut staffs heavily plus parking attendants at parking lots/garages ... etc. The 3000 number is a pretty good rough estimate to me.

 

[Boom_70]

The only way I come across a Reilly column since he left SI is if someone posts a link here on SJ.

I suspect that a lot of really good writing on ESPN.com goes unnoticed because of the sheer volume of what is there.

Going to ESPN.com is comparable to the experience of walking into a Super Walmart store. Both can prove to be a daunting experience.

 

[SoCalScribe]

I know what you mean Boom. It's so hard to even FIND the writers that I like on that site, it's always playing video -- which I never, ever want to autoplay on any site -- and then half the stuff is Insider stuff anyway. Maybe that speaks poorly of me and my computer skills, but it's the truth. I often find it easier to find and read ESPN content by being linked to it by other websites.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It's an extremely well-written column by Reilly that reads quickly and it probably took him all of 30 minutes to write.