Sorry in advance (another Reilly thread)

[Bullwinkle]

Just read --- okay, skimmed --- Rick Reilly's latest offering. The column obviously stunk, but we're used to that by now as he has mailed in every column since joining dot-com. No, the problem I have with this one is that it reads like he's basically making up quotes for his friends.

Nobody actually talks like this. Everything that comes out of his friend(s) mouth is completely Reilly'd. Maybe it is supposed to be assumed that it is not really his friends talking here. But if that's the case, duh.

Am I missing something?

Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4281277

 

[Rhody31]

Just read --- okay, skimmed --- Rick Reilly's latest offering. The column obviously stunk, but we're used to that by now as he has mailed in every column since joining dot-com. No, the problem I have with this one is that it reads like he's basically making up quotes for his friends.

Nobody actually talks like this. Everything that comes out of his friend(s) mouth is completely Reilly'd. Maybe it is supposed to be assumed that it is not really his friends talking here. But if that's the case, duh.

Am I missing something?

Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4281277

Fixed.

 

[wisportswriter]

Nobody actually talks like this. Everything that comes out of his friend(s) mouth is completely Reilly'd. Maybe it is supposed to be assumed that it is not really his friends talking here. But if that's the case, duh.

Duh.

That said, I agree. The column stunk. And I like more of Reilly's stuff than most here.
The whole thing got old quickly. I couldn't read anymore and literally skipped the last few graphs of 'quotes' to get to the ending.

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

Just read --- okay, skimmed --- Rick Reilly's latest offering. The column obviously stunk, but we're used to that by now as he has mailed in every column since joining dot-com. No, the problem I have with this one is that it reads like he's basically making up quotes for his friends.

Nobody actually talks like this. Everything that comes out of his friend(s) mouth is completely Reilly'd. Maybe it is supposed to be assumed that it is not really his friends talking here. But if that's the case, duh.

Am I missing something?

Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4281277

Yes. You are missing something!

Gently: these are fake characters. Reilly has used them for years. Like the late Ralph Wiley's "Road Dog," they are fictional devices.

(Don't be embarrassed!)

 

[Bullwinkle]

Now I feel like an idiot. And here I thought my former favorite columnist was losing his fastball.

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

Now I feel like an idiot. And here I thought my former favorite columnist was losing his fastball.

Don't worry - seriously, your instincts were more or less correct; you correctly noted that the quotes sounded fishy and very much like those Reilly himself would utter. Your B.S. Detector was reading 8 when it should've read 9.6. Don't worry.

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

Now I feel like an idiot. And here I thought my former favorite columnist was losing his fastball.

Also, Reilly HAS lost his fastball. So you're doing even better than I thought you were doing.

 

[spnited]

Now I feel like an idiot. And here I thought my former favorite columnist was losing his fastball.

Your former favorite columnist lost his fastball years ago.
Then he started cashing paychecks without caring.
Now, he is embarrassing himself, and laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[JackReacher]

I enjoyed it.

I guess I'M the asshole. Then again, I don't expect a story that will blow me away and leave me speechless every time the guy writes.

 

[Small Town Guy]

Slats Grobnik thinks this is no big deal.

 

[PopeDirkBenedict]

I wish I had the time machine from Calvin and Hobbes so I could go back and bring the early SI Reilly to see what the 2009 Rick Reilly is doing. Either the early SI Reilly would kick 2009's ass for being a sellout who just wants facetime and paychecks, good journalism be damned, or he would high-five himself for achieving his dreams and I would slink off to a corner to cry.

Rick Reilly influenced me more than any journalist. Reading some of my early clips is physically painful for me since it reads like a 22-year old kid doing a really bad Rick Reilly impression...because that is what I was. I have been going through the Seven Stages of Grief reading his stuff. Right now I am at anger, but turning the corner toward depression. This is not a guy who lost his fastball. This is a guy who decided that his fastball wasn't as important as book deals, TV facetime and being a "celebrity."

Ryan, I don't expect to be blown away by every single Reilly column. Even at his peak, Reilly didn't nail everything. No one does. But he has been mailing in his columns, with very few exceptions, for a few years. I want to consistently read a Reilly column that doesn't feel like he wrote in 20 minutes in between SportsCenter standups.

 

[Joe Williams]

Reading that column happily used up less of my life than usual, it was so ultra-lite. So it's got that going for it.

Please, no one break down what the author earned for that bit of craftsmanship, on a per-column basis. My dog does not want to get kicked.

 

[broadway joe]

I have to disagree because I didn't find this column to be bad at all. In fact, it would have fit right in with the columns he was writing 10-12 years ago at SI, when most people thought he was fantastic. I think this is a case of a certain perception about a writer gaining such momentum that it doesn't change no matter what he does. Reilly's written so many clunkers lately that we're predisposed to thinking everything he writes is bad. It's a humor column and maybe his brand isn't everyone's cup of tea, but this is exactly the kind of column that made him a star.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Reilly, not long before the move to ESPN: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1106884/index.htm

Says Corey, who was taught how to shoot by his father, "I think we all believed he would try to kill us all one day. I'd kind of been preparing to shoot my father for a while."

One of the most chilling quotes I've ever read.
Also, one of Reilly's best columns.

 

[spnited]

I wish I had the time machine from Calvin and Hobbes so I could go back and bring the early SI Reilly to see what the 2009 Rick Reilly is doing. Either the early SI Reilly would kick 2009's ass for being a sellout who just wants facetime and paychecks, good journalism be damned, or he would high-five himself for achieving his dreams and I would slink off to a corner to cry.

Rick Reilly influenced me more than any journalist. Reading some of my early clips is physically painful for me since it reads like a 22-year old kid doing a really bad Rick Reilly impression...because that is what I was. I have been going through the Seven Stages of Grief reading his stuff. Right now I am at anger, but turning the corner toward depression. This is not a guy who lost his fastball. This is a guy who decided that his fastball wasn't as important as book deals, TV facetime and being a "celebrity."

Ryan, I don't expect to be blown away by every single Reilly column. Even at his peak, Reilly didn't nail everything. No one does. But he has been mailing in his columns, with very few exceptions, for a few years. I want to consistently read a Reilly column that doesn't feel like he wrote in 20 minutes in between SportsCenter standups.

Wow, Pope. Anger? Depression? Way too much idol worship.