thanks y'all. This article isn't quite as accessible as most of the others we've posted lately -- I still love the idea of it, but I feel like I could have packaged it in a way that would have made it a more inviting read.
This article isn't really based on a personal experience -- obviously there have been times when I have an impending deadline, self-imposed or otherwise, and start grasping for straws, but that happens to just about everybody. It was inspired more by some of the columns pumped out by big-name sportswriters like Rick Reilly, Bill Simmons, etc. Both of these guys are actually very talented pure writers, but they assume expertise in areas (soccer, to take one example) that they know nothing about. There are several sports that I can't write about with authority (again, soccer); my solution is to either riff on it in a way that won't come off as ignorant, or just not write about it at all.
Anyway, more to the point: I read
a Rick Reilly piece lately that came off as really desperate and hurried. It's such a fucking sorry piece of writing that if you aren't familiar with Reilly, you'd probably think that there's no way he's actually a good writer. This piece was the main thing that inspired me to write my article, but it's one of many examples of this.
Begin Freakin' Rant: At SB Nation, there have certainly been a couple of times where someone submitted an article to me and I was like, "eeeeeesh," but I've been really surprised by how much talent is over there. A lot of the team-specific blogs are great (just to name a few, our Mariners, Mets, Chiefs, and Sacramento Kings blogs), and the main site is full of ace writers. A lot of people who are only vaguely familiar with us put us in the same category as Bleacher Report -- if you're familiar with Bleacher Report, you know how terrible of an insult that is, and we die a little inside whenever we hear it. End Freakin' Rant!