Why do you do this to yourself, Peter King?

[poindexter]

On the opening sentence of MMQ, no less:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/01/02/week-17/index.html
NEW YORK -- On the day Brett Favre said goodbye (again, and this time he won't be coming back),

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I thought this would referring to King's discovery of the Keg stand.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

To be fair, what do you think the chances he's in the NFL next season? I think if he wanted to play, he might have a hard time finding a taker.

The keg stand stuff made me want to pound my head on my desk.

 

[poindexter]

lolz: d. Good luck in the new marriage, Jim Nantz. You deserve it.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

lolz: d. Good luck in the new marriage, Jim Nantz. You deserve it.

The hell he does.

 

[Pastor]

lolz: d. Good luck in the new marriage, Jim Nantz. You deserve it.

The hell he does.

Hopefully the new wife allows him to hang a giant poster of himself up in the house...

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I love MMQB, but it would be nice if someone at SI told King, "Look, there is so much great stuff here, how about you don't:
1. Rant about sports you don't cover.
2. Tell us about your travels.
3. Make a Bill Simmons column look like a USA Today gamer.

 

[Boom_70]

I love MMQB, but it would be nice if someone at SI told King, "Look, there is so much great stuff here, how about you don't:
1. Rant about sports you don't cover.
2. Tell us about your travels.
3. Make a Bill Simmons column look like a USA Today gamer.

What he should really do is put it up on SJ for vetting prior to posting. I don't think we've missed a trick since his column came over the transom.

 

[AD]

why should he change a thing? the column is massively popular, i think by far the biggest regular feature on si.com. like it or not, the entire formula has made it a must-read every monday....the guy's doing something right, no?

 

[poindexter]

He could have asked the two daughters about keg stands, and saved some embarrassment.

 

[JackReacher]

This week's KSK column on MMQB is a good read. As usual.

 

[Boom_70]

"But congrats to Brittany, the biggest Sidney Crosby fan there is (who must be all of 102 pounds), who was able to last 24 seconds. Drinking upside-down. What a country."


I bet Brittany has other talents as well.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

why should he change a thing? the column is massively popular, i think by far the biggest regular feature on si.com. like it or not, the entire formula has made it a must-read every monday....the guy's doing something right, no?

You're right. MMQB is the best-read story on SI.com every week, and I remember someone telling me that if you took Nos. 2 through No. 10 they wouldn't combine to get as many clicks and King's column does.

What's funny is that King is one of the most knowledgeable NFL writers out there. It's just so funny that he sees the need to put so much other crap in the column. I must admit that some of the Dr. Z updates and stuff like that, I like...

But you're right, why change what's working?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

You change what's working so that it works better. I can't believe any of Peter's readers are clicking on for the travel stuff.

 

[JackReacher]

How many fewer clicks would his column get if he ditched the non-football stuff? Not many.

 

[Roland of Gilead]

To be fair, what do you think the chances he's in the NFL next season? I think if he wanted to play, he might have a hard time finding a taker.

It would only take one, and sadly, I still believe the Vikings are just stupid enough to talk themselves in to trying to make it work one more time.
Especially if the labor situation shortens the offseason, and they don't think they have enough time to teach a new guy the offense.
I will believe he's not coming back when Game 1 kicks off and someone else is playing quarterback.
And probably not even then, if the new quarterback is Joe Webb or Tarvaris Jackson or Patrick Ramsey or Spurgeon Wynn or Brooks Bollinger. One or two bad weeks to start the season, and the phone starts ringing in Mississippi.

 

[AD]

i don't disagree: i argue constantly that i usually dislike the insertion of writers' travails or musings -- be it wright thompson or king or anyone.

but everyone keeps saying that the web is unlike a mag story or straight newspaper stuff - that readers WANT that kind of stuff. witness bill simmons. i certainly gloss over the coffee nonsense, but it seems that king is tailoring his column for the web sensibility -- and his formula is proven every week to be the right one.

 

[playthrough]

You can easily gloss over what you don't want. And the fact that it's usually 5-6 "pages" helps me plow through it.

I also appreciate that he doesn't have the "Cheerleader of the week" or "Dashette" or the like. Not being a prude, but those are cheap devices for clicks. Writing about the travel travails and coffee at least takes effort.

(OK, picking the right cheerleader of the week sometimes takes effort too...)

 

[poindexter]

If it was strictly football, it'd be as interesting as Don Banks' or Mort (guessing he has one) or any of the other dozen NFL writers.