Regarding Sports

Sports Illustrated At It Again

Sports Illustrated has to be one of the least classy magazines out there. If there was a sports magazine equivalent of a tabloid magazine, Sports Illustrated would be it. They consistently like to do "in-depth" articles on athletes that really do nothing more than bash them and make them look bad. Sports Illustrated was the magazine that ran that article on Jon Rocker. Sports Illustrated was the magazine that ran that piece on David Wells, where every other paragraph mentioned that Wells is "fat". And now Sports Illustrated has decided that they are such a hard-hitting sporting news magazine that they have to run an article about how all of A. Rod's teammates basically think he's a wimp.

It's not that I think all athletes are saints, or that their bad traits should be hidden. For example, when David Ortiz whined about how he deserved to be the MPV over Derek Jeter, that deserves to be reported on. The difference is, David Ortiz did this in public, in the clubhouse, after a game, in front of several reporters. He was being indiscreet and stupid. Sports Illustrated doesn't do that. Instead, they get "exclusives", one on one time with various players, and they string together what the players say in order to generate controversy. Jon Rocker didn't say the things he did in the clubhouse in front of all the other reporters. He had a one-on-one interview with a Sports Illustrated reporter. So they spent some time together, the reporter got Rocker to open up a bit, got Rocker to trust him, and then the reporter went and basically ambushed him.

The whole thing is just very underhanded and shady, and really shows a lack of class on the part of Sports Illustrated. You don't see these kinds of exclusive interviews showing up from ESPN reporters. Unless a player goes out of his or her way to be a complete ass, there's no reason to show up that player, and especially to take a private conversation (or in this case a series of private conversations) and air them out like dirty laundry. That's what tabloids do, which is why Sports Illustrated is the worst of the major sporting magazines.

posted by Chris @ 1:39 PM