Comments on: Why Does the Sports Guy Even Bother to Write about Boston?

By: pat

pat — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:19:38 +0000

your an idiot you sit here and bitch because people follow the sports guy and the most popular thing you have is your article bashing simmons so i would rather hear from a guy who lives in la and roots for boston rather than someone who gets people to hear from them by bashing other writers…. congrats your famous off tsg

By: Adam S.

Adam S. — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:15:58 +0000

I no longer read Simmons because all he talks about is the Boston perspective. I don’t take issue with his columns, I just don’t read them. Is that what ESPN wants to hear? No, so perhaps they should tell him to ditch the angle. The national fanbase is fickle.

By: skdub

skdub — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:35:45 +0000

A guy (cough, Kowalski, cough) who hails from the Seattle area who is a devout Seattle sports fan but roots for the Red Sox, the Cubs, the Bears, probably the Nationals and the Fighting Illini (let’s not forget to mention he most likely owned a Yankees hat and a Raiders Starter jacket in middle school) has no credibility to discuss about objectivity and fandom in general.

I have to side with Jon here. Simmons has his schtick. It’s not his job to be objective. Yes, Simmons is past his prime, but he still moves the needle. Kowalski, Tim Hardaway hates you.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:23:44 +0000

If you have a valid critique it is with ESPN, but remember the E stands for ENTERTAINMENT, which is focussed on now more than ever. Nowhere is he packaged as objective, or who you should read for NBA coverage. He writes about the NBA because he likes the sport. The reason he is on the front page is he is by far the most read person on the side and its not close. If you don’t like his style don’t click on his fat face. Read: JA Adande, or Chad Ford, or Ric Bucher or, David Thorpe, or Marc Stein, or the above mentioned Hollinger. Simmons may be a DBA but you shouldn’t care unless he’s your only source of news. This aint a local newspaper with one or two columnists.

By: Kowalski

Kowalski — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:10:38 +0000

Fig Jam!

I could not agree with you more. I liked his column last week about the series as a whole, but his recent column is complete crap. I wonder what b.s. he is going to drudge up in reaction to last night’s thrilling and historical game? You are right, his homerism belongs on a different platform, not ESPN. ESPN already caters to the NYC-BOS rivalry enough. I mean, how sick would you be if Jay Bilas was that big of a homer and wrote that way about Duke? He’d be the most hated guy on The Network. Two other thoughts: Jason Smith’s NBA podcast is better than Bill Simmons’ NBA “coverage and two, Bill Simmons will lose relevance when the Boston teams begin to suck again (starting very soon my friend). I don’t think people will read his pouting columns about losing after his city has had the greatest success of one team in a decade that I can recall. (3 SB’s, 2 WS’s, 1 NBA Champ. and the Bruins are very, very good this year).

By: admin

admin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:31:40 +0000

I think we can all agree that Sports Guy became annoying when New England fans became annoying (you can debate when this happened for you).

But the fact of the matter is this: Red Sox fans used to be tragic figures. Everyone (except Yanks fans) pulled for them a little bit. Now they are obnoxious, drunken idiots that shout down children at Mariners games.

http://hotdogandfriends.com/2008/07/22/red-sox-games-where-grown-men-shout-at-little-kids/

http://hotdogandfriends.com/2008/05/28/red-sox-fans-are-awesome/

This makes Simmons a DBA – douchebag by association. It’s a tough pill to swallow for him, because I did love his stuff. But them’s the breaks.

By: sweden rocks

sweden rocks — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:46:11 +0000

the collumns are ok nobody wants to hear about new england sports when they are winning all the time. But the BS report is my favorite podcast by far. And its not really the boston, its the fact that it just sounds like a conversation between people without all the typical sports talk yelling and overproduction and arguing.

See jeremy green, wilbon, mike and mike, or just about any other cast that the world wide leader has.

By: Joey Jo Jo

Joey Jo Jo — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:46:52 +0000

I tend to agree with Jon. You have to take his blatant Boston homerism as part of what he does…the guy wrote a book about the regional mutual masturbatory event that was the 04 World Series, and it was pretty much just his columns cut and pasted together (so I’ve heard). I don’t think he’s trying to pretend that he’s objective or neutral. I skip his columns about Boston most the time (1 out of 4?) but that’s just the package–it goes hand in hand with “I hate Joakim Noah”. It’s not like he writes the game recap. He’s a columnist.

By: flawson

flawson — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:42:58 +0000

I guess we have to…right?

By: Spokan't

Spokan't — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:10:52 +0000

Simmons is a columnist so he can write on whatever he wants. “Whatever he wants” just used to be more appealing to everyone outside the state of Massachusetts. He now lacks variety. Just like Hotdog and Friends lacks daily article updates… friendly jab! Friendly jab!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:08:27 +0000

Would you settle for just one Hotdog and Friends article a week?

By: ButtShark

ButtShark — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:22:32 +0000

I’ve stopped reading The “Sports” Guy. He used to be one the favorite parts of my week, but I just can’t stand reading about Boston anymore! It would be different if he was a regional writer, but last time I checked ESPN was a national platform. Before Boston started winning everything he would slip in a plea for mercy every now and again, or perhaps mention a particularly good or bad Boston performance, but now that Boston wins everything he is totally unreadable. I’ll take a Hotdog and Friends article any day of the week.

By: Fig Jam

Fig Jam — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:52:01 +0000

That’s your love of Sport’s Guy from like 3 years ago talking. Simmon’s is called the “Sport’s Guy,” not the “Boston Guy” and writes for the biggest sports organization in the world, not the Boston Globe. If I want to read about why it was ok for Rondo to punch Brad Miller because of all the “yeah but’s” that Boston fans have (yeah but Ben Gordon stepped out of bounds…. yeah but Ray Allen totally got jobbed), I’ll go to a Celtics blog.

On ESPN.com, I want to read about the sporting event from the perspective of some of the most talented sports writers in the country.

My critique is lazy? So what? I’m lazy. I write on a Seattle sport’s based blog for fun.

What does Hollinger have to do with it? Well, he covered the game (and the incident in question) by opining that it probably was a flagrant, by pointing out why Miller had to stay in the game to shoot the FT’s, by examining the percentage difference chance the Bull’s would have had if the foul was a flagrant…. and basically by writing a better article about the situation without blowing the Celtics (or Bulls) in the process. That’s what Hollinger had to do with it.

I don’t have a problem with the foul, I have a problem with a writer calling himself the “Sports Guy” writing sentences like, “If Bulls fans want to whine about it, fine, just remember that (A) Boston’s best clutch guy (Ray Allen) fouled out on two of the worst calls of the playoffs, and (B) Ben Gordon stepped out of bounds right as he got fouled by Tony “Why Am I In The Game Again?” Allen for three game-tying free throws in the final 30 seconds.”

umm.. thanks for the comment?

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:30:55 +0000

BIll Simmons is not a Journalist/sports writer! He writes from the fan perspective. He happens to be a Boston fan. You know this from word one. There are 7 other people writing on the NBA for ESPN.com. He just happens to have the most unique /entertaining writing style of the group.

Your critique is lazy and rambles. What does Hollinger have to do with Simmons other than ESPN?

If you have a problem with the foul write about the foul not a boston fan’s reaction to the foul, which is about as predictable as it gets.

Don’t get me wrong you do good stuff here, journalism critiques are not your forte, however