1. “Like everyone else involved with this story, I spent my weekend alternating between feeling miserable, hating myself and wondering what we could have done differently. The answer lay within that 56-hour gap between “GREAT PIECE!” and “WHY WOULD YOU POST THAT????” We read every incarnation of that piece through a certain lens — just like many readers did from Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon. Once a few people nudged us and said, Hey, read it this way instead, you transphobic dumbasses, that lens looked totally different.
Suddenly, a line like “a chill ran down my spine” — which I had always interpreted as “Jesus, this story is getting stranger?” (Caleb’s intent, by the way) — now read like, “Ew, gross, she used to be a man?” Our lack of sophistication with transgender pronouns was so easily avoidable, it makes me want to punch through a wall. The lack of empathy in the last few paragraphs — our collective intent, and only because we believed that Caleb suddenly becoming introspective and emotional would have rung hollow — now made it appear as if we didn’t care about someone’s life.
We made one massive mistake. I have thought about it for nearly three solid days, and I’ve run out of ways to kick myself about it. How did it never occur to any of us? How? How could we ALL blow it?”
2. “In my world, Simmons doesn’t write well, doesn’t do TV well and really doesn’t do much of anything but schmooze the right people. At ESPN, any guy off the street — myself included, I suppose — could do a few shows and become a star, based simply on the network’s massive clout and reach. But at some point, there has to be a redeeming value to a personality. And don’t tell me about page views, unique visitors and Twitter followers — the biggest ongoing scam in the web media is how people buy and fabricate numbers, in some cases by the hundreds of thousands. Ignore numbers.
Bill Simmons, BS for short, is the product of a network so big that it can make media sensations out of hubcaps. Now that he has become a liability to that network, expect him any day back in the Garden with his Celtics jersey. Once a fanboy, always a fanboy.”
3. (The manager’s office at the Manchester United training ground, Carrington. Plaques, photographs and framed memorabilia adorn the walls. On one side of the room sits a cabinet that once held silverware, but is now completely empty apart from an LMA Manager of the Year trophy and a black Marouane Fellaini wig. David Moyes is sitting at his desk, reading the morning papers with a tired, glazed expression. Suddenly he becomes aware of a shadow being cast over him. He looks up.)
Jonathan Liew of the Telegraph takes us inside Old Trafford as Moyesey persuades Juan Mata to sign on. In a one act play.
4. “He was once a frightened little boy, beaten often by his mother in a condemned building in Brownsville, Brooklyn, who turned himself into the self-proclaimed baddest man on the planet. Tyson made and then lost almost a billion dollars as the last great undisputed heavyweight champion of the world whose controlled fury in the ring was eventually disfigured by madness and violence. He has had distressing problems with women, been to jail and then imprisoned even more tightly by alcohol and drug addiction.
Now, however, Tyson taps me gently on the arm. “I surrendered to a higher power. I said: ‘Help me. I can’t do nothing no more. Guide me. God, whoever. I don’t know what to do … ’”
Bad week for Bill Simmons and David Moyes: it's our favourite sports writing form the past 7 days
1. “Like everyone else involved with this story, I spent my weekend alternating between feeling miserable, hating myself and wondering what we could have done differently. The answer lay within that 56-hour gap between “GREAT PIECE!” and “WHY WOULD YOU POST THAT????” We read every incarnation of that piece through a certain lens — just like many readers did from Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon. Once a few people nudged us and said, Hey, read it this way instead, you transphobic dumbasses, that lens looked totally different.
Suddenly, a line like “a chill ran down my spine” — which I had always interpreted as “Jesus, this story is getting stranger?” (Caleb’s intent, by the way) — now read like, “Ew, gross, she used to be a man?” Our lack of sophistication with transgender pronouns was so easily avoidable, it makes me want to punch through a wall. The lack of empathy in the last few paragraphs — our collective intent, and only because we believed that Caleb suddenly becoming introspective and emotional would have rung hollow — now made it appear as if we didn’t care about someone’s life.
We made one massive mistake. I have thought about it for nearly three solid days, and I’ve run out of ways to kick myself about it. How did it never occur to any of us? How? How could we ALL blow it?”
Editor-in-chief of Grantland.com and all-round ESPN sports personality, Bill Simmons, was embroiled in a controversy that looks set to rumble on and on. Read the background and apology above. Here’s the article that sparked the tragic trail of events.
2. “In my world, Simmons doesn’t write well, doesn’t do TV well and really doesn’t do much of anything but schmooze the right people. At ESPN, any guy off the street — myself included, I suppose — could do a few shows and become a star, based simply on the network’s massive clout and reach. But at some point, there has to be a redeeming value to a personality. And don’t tell me about page views, unique visitors and Twitter followers — the biggest ongoing scam in the web media is how people buy and fabricate numbers, in some cases by the hundreds of thousands. Ignore numbers.
Bill Simmons, BS for short, is the product of a network so big that it can make media sensations out of hubcaps. Now that he has become a liability to that network, expect him any day back in the Garden with his Celtics jersey. Once a fanboy, always a fanboy.”
Ouch. One former ESPN star Jay Mariotti takes aim at Simmons and his credentials.
Jonathan Liew of the Telegraph takes us inside Old Trafford as Moyesey persuades Juan Mata to sign on. In a one act play.
4. “He was once a frightened little boy, beaten often by his mother in a condemned building in Brownsville, Brooklyn, who turned himself into the self-proclaimed baddest man on the planet. Tyson made and then lost almost a billion dollars as the last great undisputed heavyweight champion of the world whose controlled fury in the ring was eventually disfigured by madness and violence. He has had distressing problems with women, been to jail and then imprisoned even more tightly by alcohol and drug addiction.
Now, however, Tyson taps me gently on the arm. “I surrendered to a higher power. I said: ‘Help me. I can’t do nothing no more. Guide me. God, whoever. I don’t know what to do … ’”
The Guardian’s Donald McRae sits down with Iron Mike and, though it’s hard to feel sorry for him, we’re treated to an insight into Tyson’s life beyond the ring.
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