The Trouble With Sports Journalism

Veteran sportswriter Pat Jordan wrote a fascinating piece for Slate, describing how the relationship between athletes and journalists has changed. Thirty years ago, when Sports Illustrated wanted him to write a piece on an athlete like Catfish Hunter, he'd spend a few days talking to his subject and following him around. Now, players work hard to keep writers at a distance.

This has become the curse of modern sports journalism. Writers and fans alike no longer get to know the object of their affections in a way they did years ago. Athletes see us as their adversaries, not as allies in their achievements. They are as much celebrities as rock stars and Hollywood actors are. They live insular lives behind a wall of publicists, agents, and lawyers. They don't interact with fans or writers. They mingle only with other celebrities at Vegas boxing matches, South Beach nightclubs, and celebrity golf events, all behind red-velvet VIP ropes. We can only gawk at them as if at an exotic, endangered species at a zoo.

That's one of the reasons why magazines are dying, because the quality of the articles is declining. It's not that writers can no longer write, but as Jordan puts it, "magazine writers are forced to churn out inconsequential puff pieces to satisfy those stars' publicists, or else the publicists will withhold their other clients from that magazine."

When Bill Gates Reviews Your Software Spec

Bill Gates retired from Microsoft last week, leaving behind the company that he helped to found so he can devote himself full time to his charitable foundation. Gates was a fascinating character, in part because while he became the world's most powerful businessman, he was still first and foremost a great programmer.

There are a lot of great stories out there to illustrate this, but I was reminded of this blog post from a former Microsoft programmer. Joel Spolsky described what it was like to walk into a code review and see that Gates had decided to sit in. Spolsky wrote a 500 page spec for a new macro language in Microsoft Excel (which would eventually be released as Visual Basic for Applications), and the next day. Not only was he surprised to see Gates, but to see that the boss had come prepared.

He sat down and exchanged witty banter with an executive I did not know that made no sense to me. A few people laughed.

Bill turned to me.

I noticed that there were comments in the margins of my spec. He had read the first page!
He had read the first page of my spec and written little notes in the margin!

Considering that we only got him the spec about 24 hours earlier, he must have read it the night before. He was asking questions. I was answering them. They were pretty easy, but I can't for the life of me remember what they were, because I couldn't stop noticing that he was flipping through the spec...

He was flipping through the spec! [Calm down, what are you a little girl?]

... and THERE WERE NOTES IN ALL THE MARGINS. ON EVERY PAGE OF THE SPEC. HE HAD READ THE WHOLE GODDAMNED THING AND WRITTEN NOTES IN THE MARGINS.

Here's a guy who's the CEO of a huge company, the richest man in the world, and still he spent his night reviewing this guy's software spec. I'm sure that that sort of relentless attention to detail wasn't the only thing that made Gates so succesful, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.

Red Grange's Notebook

One of the great things about doing football research is the treasure trove of source materials available from coaches and players. The image above shows a couple of pages from the notebook of Red Grange, which describes some of the basic concepts of the T-Formation offense. they're available from the archives of The University of Illinois, Grange's alma mater.


Great coaches from Knute Rockne and Clark Shaughnessy to Bill Walsh and George Allen have left us a rich legacy, documenting their strategies and innovations in great detail for future generations. I've got several dozens of these in my collection, and I'm always on the lookout for more.

One of my favorites comes from the college ranks. Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy wrote this book on the T-Formation in 1949, having won the National Championship three times in his first six years as head coach. It includes chapters on special teams play, run and pass defense, and even his approach to pre-game warmups. These sorts of books were intended to serve as a guide to other coaches, but they also provide an invaluable insight into football history, and into the minds of the game's great innovators.

Goodell Calls Rookie Salaries "Ridiculous"

In an appearance late last week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke out on the huge salaries being given to top draft picks.  He acknowledged that it is "ridiculous" to reward untested rookies with lucrative contracts, and wants the issue addressed in contract talks.  "There's something wrong about the system," Goodell said Friday. "The money should go to people who perform."

He was asked specifically about the five-year $57.75 million contract that Michigan tackle Jake Long signed with the Miami Dolphins. "He doesn't have to play a down in the NFL and he already has his money," Goodell said during a question and answer session at the Chautauqua Institution. "Now, with the economics where they are, the consequences if you don't evaluate that player, you can lose a significant amount of money."

And that's a huge problem.  If you've read my annuals, you know that recent history suggests that half of first round draft picks don't pan out. If you commit that much of your salary cap to one guy for so long, you're bound to get into trouble, and it doesn't make any sense to be taking that kind of risk on a player whose never played a down in the NFL.  Absent some sort of limit on salaries for rookies, teams are in a bind.  They want the talented players that are only available at the top of the draft, but if they aren't willing to pay the market rate, the players simply won't sign. 

The owners don't like the current system, and neither do the veteran players.  How do you think veteran players -- guys who have been to the Pro Bowl -- feel when a new kid walks into camp making twice as much as they do?  Maybe he'll earn it and maybe he won't, but those veterans hate seeing unproven players get substantially more money based on their potential.  And they also hate the fact that the kid's bloated contract is going to force the team to cut several players loose just to stay under the salary cap.

Ultimately, that's what will drive the change... the veteran players and the union.  Their careers are very short, their contracts aren't guaranteed, and the vast majority of players are better served by a system where everyone is paid based on their performance.  Tom Brady threw 50 touchdown passes last year and led his team to 16-0 record.  This year, he'll make $5 million, less than half of what Jake Long's pro-rated contract will pay out.  That's great for Jake and his agent -- God bless 'em -- but it's just ridiculous.

Russert's Death

The death of newsman Tim Russert earlier this month highlighted an important fact: medical science doesn't have all of the answers. An article in the New York Times illustrates the discomfort that this realization creates.

Mr. Russert, the moderator of "Meet the Press" on NBC News, took blood pressure and cholesterol pills and aspirin, rode an exercise bike, had yearly stress tests and other exams and was dutifully trying to lose weight. But he died of a heart attack anyway.

An article in The New York Times last week about his medical care led to e-mail from dozens of readers insisting that something must have been missed, that if only he had been given this test or that, his doctors would have realized how sick he was and prescribed more medicine or recommended bypass surgery.

Clearly, there was sorrow for Mr. Russert's passing, but also nervous indignation. Many people are in the same boat he was in, struggling with weight, blood pressure and other risk factors — 16 million Americans have coronary artery disease — and his death threatened the collective sense of well-being. People are not supposed to die this way anymore, especially not smart, well-educated professionals under the care of doctors.

Mr. Russert's fate underlines some painful truths. A doctor's care is not a protective bubble, and cardiology is not the exact science that many people wish it to be.

It's kinda scary to realize that you can do all the right things and still have a fatal heart attack.