One of my favorite things about the Gambit's blog site is that it has allowed the weekly paper a place to do more sports. Clay Smith and Alejandro de los Rios post there frequently. Rios is the author of a Saints preview featured on this week's cover. The article is titled, "Guys Who Make Passes". Not something I would have recommended, but there it is. Rios's analysis is well-informed but a little conventional. Drew Brees is pretty good, the defense is still a question mark. I do like that Rios raises the question of Sean Payton's job security. I think another 8-8 or thereabouts result this year should not be enough for Payton to skate by on, but you don't see that discussed very often. Meanwhile Smith is already giving us game-by-game 2009 predictions at the blog. This is also not something I'd recommend but, again, there it is. At the Yellow Blog, we've improbably nailed the Saints' win-loss prediction for two consecutive seasons now. It's doubtful that this trend can continue but we're not going to risk blowing it in mid-July. Anyway, I'm glad to see Gambit give us another outlet for professional sports writing in New Orleans.
One reason to support such a development is the crucial role an effective journalist can play in the local sports landscape. Even in matters as seemingly frivolous as football, it's important to have a press corps that, in the best tradition of Buddy D, isn't afraid to speak truth to power. When Ray Nagin tries to tell you that we can't see what's in his email, then somebody needs to keep after him and call bullshit. When Sean Payton tries to kill your grandmother by calling a stupid reverse at the end of the game, then someone needs to handle that too. There are still some very good sports reporters out there (I happen to think that The T-P's Jeff Duncan does a particularly good job) but the trend is toward too much cheerleading and not enough questioning of the party line.
Some of this is attributable to laziness, but a lot of it is just plain old star-f&*%ing where the reporter sees him or herself as a part of the establishment rather than its watchdog. For example, what else but clubby coziness can explain Sports Illustrated's Peter King's decision to hand over the reigns of his "Monday Morning Quarterback" column to Sean Payton for a day? Just like the head of Goldman Sachs isn't supposed to be running the Treasury department, the freaking enemy isn't supposed to be writing the football column. If a coach or athlete wants to get his side of the story out there, he can get in the Tweeter Tube right behind Jeremey Shockey's hatred of necks and Shaquille O'Neal's modeling aspirations. Unfortunately, King elected to grant Coach Soupy an inappropriately larger platform. It's a classic case of regulatory capture. The results were not pretty. Some reactions:
- Of course we wouldn't expect Payton to touch on the Uncle Rico scandal. But, in light of the ongoing controversy, it's probably not a good idea to mention an occurrence of his team cutting a long-snapper... even if it is a different long-snapper... and even if it is a joke.
- Payton tells us that recently murdered former Titans quarterback Steve McNair, "had one of the warmest smiles in our business." This is a bizarre phrase as it suggests that Payton has done some comparative analysis of the NFL's warmest smiles. It would have been fine if he had written, "McNair had an uncommonly warm smile" or something like that but, as written, it seems more an implicit comparison of the smile to those of other football players... as though it were a statistic. He may as well have said, "McNair led the league in smile warmth".
- Payton writes that Lance Armstrong has "has trained and ruthlessly pushed his body into top form" Given the persistent allegations of doping made against Armstrong, I'm not sure we'd want to use any form of the work ruthless in reference to his training methods.
- There's a baseball anecdote
While I was enjoying the Cubs game against the Twins, outfielder Milton Bradley caught a routine fly ball and proceeded to throw the ball into the bleachers. The problem was there was only one out, and a run scored. In that scenario, Bradley is paid to know the situation. He quickly became the poster child for the importance of being aware of your situation. That is precisely why we practice game situations every week, so players know what to do.
Comforting. At no time during the 2009 season will Sean Payton allow the Saints lose count of how many outs are remaining.
But the most disturbing bit is this.
Kenny Chesney has owned the summer concert business for the past several years. No other entertainer is remotely close. Growing up, many of us went to stadiums to see our favorite performers, such as Bruce Springsteen, REO Speedwagon and Journey, but these days no one does stadiums anymore except for Chesney. Even in a bad economy he is sold out at every stop. He attracted 65,000 strong at Soldier Field last month. Unbelievable.
Okay, forget about the Journey thing for a sec. This Kenny Chesney business needs to be stopped. Of all the annoying too cute by half things Payton has done during his tenure, burying trophies, writing screenplays about his Xbox, drafting a punter, to name a few, the worst of these is inviting Chesney to practice with the team during each of the past two training camps. Could it be that... besides the curse of the black pants, of course... the Saints have fallen victim to a Kenny Chesney jinx? If I say we can't afford to take that chance. If big time media outlets like SI aren't going to stand up for the fans, then we need to stand up for ourselves. It's time to get the Chesney-free training camp movement off the ground now. Call the Saints' offices and demand that the coach dis-invite his faux-cowboy friend from this year's practices. The fate of the 2009 season might depend on it.
Update: At the Gambit blog Alejandro de los Rios is offering fans an opportunity to submit questions for him to ask Saints coaches and players. I..uh... I think you know what to do.
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