« The ever crucial Fred Barnes seal of approval | Main | From Paul Dunbar to MF Doom » How did I miss this?01 Dec 2008 02:55 pm
Dr. Z had two strokes? Here's wishing him a quick recovery. I don't know about best football writer of our time. I'm partial to Len Pasquarelli.
Comments (25)
Aw, nuts ... I knew something was up when Banks filled in for last week's Power Rankings. But I thought it was a day off, not anything serious. 
Oh man, I was raised & lived in NY almost my whole life & I thought you were talking about this guy for second. I know you seen his ads T.
TNC blasphemes "I don't know about best football writer of our time. I'm partial to Len Pasquarelli." Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? Nah I like Pasquarelli, King too though I could do without the coffee/travel notes/Mary Beth King references. For my money, Paul Zimmerman is in a class by himself. Nobody has better stories, especially if you're a football historian, and he isn't an outright asskissing fanboy like most of these guys seem to be now. Anybody who has the time and interest should dig into the SI Archives and read some of his 70's & 80's work. Same terrific writing and insight. To me anyway, the NFL wouldn't be the same without him.
Dr. Z has been my favorite football writer/analyst for as long as I can remember. He always went beyond the hype and really gave in-depth analysis (see his criticisms of Brett Favre, Randy Moss, etc.). And, of course, I always loved his criticisms of the network analysts at the end of the season.
I haven't done an exhaustive survey, so I can't say who's the best. But Dr. Z is great, and is the best football writer I've run across.
as someone who has been reading dr. z since the '60s, let me simply second the compliments aimed his way: he knows the game, he ignores the hype, and yet he's not such an old fogey that he can't recognize contemporary greatness. and: he called the giants over the pats last year!
I throw my two cents for Will McDonough of the Boston Globe. IN the meantime, best wishes to Dr. Z who certainly is no slouch.
Dr. Z is to football what Roger Ebert is to film and Studs Terkel was to America.
I'm still waiting to read a good football writer. Sorry.
Don't feel bad you missed it. King's announcement in today's column was the first anyone outside the world of Sports Illustrated heard of it. Good wishes to Dr. Z! For someone who lives by the word, there is nothing more awful than being trapped inside a body that can't communicate coherently. (Way off topic, but check out some of the studies on aphasia, stroke-induced or otherwise. Really fascinating.)
I don't know who exactly is the best football writer of all time, but I think we can call them "Bizarro Peter King."
If you like Dr. Z, pick up a copy of his twenty-year-old The New Thinking Man's Guide To Football. You can get used copies at Amazon starting at $0.46 (plus postage). It's from 1985, so prepare for a lot of information about Danny White and Joe Montana. But it does a great job explaining technical football stuff to people who love watching football, never played it, and would like to know a little more than the usual Kornheiser/Theismann gems. (At the end of the day you have to outscore your opponent to win? Really?)
At first I thought you were making a Futurama reference... Hurry up and decide whether you're a nerd or a football fan! The two are mutually exclusive, damnit, or haven't you seen every college movie ever made? Hope the guy gets better soon, in all seriousness.
"and would like to know a little more than the usual Kornheiser/Theismann gems." As obnoxious as Theismann can be, let's please not put the man on Tony Kornheiser's level. Theisman played the game for a long time. Tony Kornheiser is terrible. I would feel pretty confident saying that 75% of the people that comment on TNC's football threads knows as much, if not more than Tony Kornheiser. The man simply does not know sports. He knows storylines, big programs, and historical franchises. He's terrible.
I don't know about best football writer of our time either. And I don't want to nominate George Plimpton, because he wouldn't rate IMO. But I must mention George Plimpton because "best football" made me think of "best football movie" and I didn't want to go off topic and get Bobby Brady-ed by TNC, so I had to segue... I watched PAPER LION with Alan Alda a few months ago (it was on Turner Movie Classics, best movie station ever) - and it is easily the best football movie I've ever seen. Certainly the one that best reminded me of what it was like to be on a team, and to be doing double sessions in the dog days of summer (I only played high school, but it all rings true). And it should ring true, because they used Real Football Players! The actual Detroit Lions! And Alex Karras was so good he became an actor and got to be Webster's dad! (Mr. Papadakis? He was awesome!) And of course Alan Alda is at his best. If you like football, rent PAPER LION, about a sports writer who plays quarterback for the Detroit Lions. Not only is it a fantastic movie about a football sports writer, it's also a true story. As to people bagging on Tony Kornheiser, that's crazy. The dude is a national treasure. A fantastic sports commentator. But I guess if you hate Stevie Nicks and hate Tony Kornheiser, you're just not my kind of critic. It's like you hate people with personality. Those two IMO are above reproach. As was George Plimpton, RIP.
I don't want to live in a country where Tony Kornheiser is a national treasure. Not saying the guy is a terrible writer. I'm not even saying that he didn't know sports at one time. But today, the guy is clueless. I would be willing to bet the guy couldn't name more than 15 MLB managers. I bet he couldn't name three starters for the Milwaukee Bucks. If it were up to him, Brett Favre would play for the Patriots, and they would get to play the Dallas Cowboys every year in the playoffs. And it would just be a coincidence that those two teams play in different conferences, because he probably forgot that a few years ago. He makes a fool of himself on PTI on a daily basis, and he makes MNF hard to watch with the sound on. And he's terribly unfunny most the time. Tony Kornheiser sucks. As far as Stevie Nicks, well, I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. But if we were just going off personalities, I would definitely dislike her even more. If personalities are a deciding factor for you, and you really like Stevie Nicks, then you must love back-stabbing whores. Okay, that's proabably a bit harsh. I bet Tony Kornheiser is a HUGE Stevie Nicks fan.
hey, the foulness, i'm sure the movie is fine and all (never did see it), but the book is excellent all by itself, and for its time, it was pretty revolutionary....
Actually, I take that back. Kornheiser loves Brady too much. He would want Favre to play for the Cowboys. That way, he'd get to call him a gun-slinger even more.
I hope Dr. Z is going to be okay. As far as Kornheiser goes, he may not be the best football commentator but I got to say that he did a fine job tonight interviewing Plaxico Burress' agent. By the time the interview with Drew Rosenhaus concluded I started to wonder why he even bothered to appear on television as Kornheiser, with calm and respect, sliced him open. Frankly, that interview was better than many of the ones done on political candidates during the election season and showed why Kornheiser is actually a good addition to MNF.
showed why Kornheiser is actually a good addition to MNF No, no, no, no... That interview could be the the gold standard for sports interviews and it wouldn't come anywhere close to making up for dozens of hours of inane commentary during gametime. The single worst thing about MNF right now is having to listen to Kornheiser's blather if you want to hear the good game analysis coming from Jaws. If they'd just ditch Kornheiser, let Tirico call the game, and have Jaws breaking down the football it would be the best booth team since Cosell left. If they feel like you have to have someone babbling for color they could at least just replace him with Suzy Kolber since she's already on the team and far, far less annoying.
As obnoxious as Theismann can be, let's please not put the man on Tony Kornheiser's level.Yeah, that was low blow by me. I actually liked Theismann in spite of myself. But then how could you not like a guy who said (referring to his second divorce and subsequent re-marriage) , "God wants Joe Theismann to be happy"? I live in DC and grew up reading Tony K. and watching him on the local basketball show. I liked him. But now Tony K. makes MNF all but unwatchable for me. He plays the role of a know-nothing sports fan in the booth, which conveniently means he doesn't have to do any research or, um, "work" to prep for the show. In fairness Tony K made it clear a while ago he doesn't consider himself a sports reporter any more. And he always said he didn't know much about football. Too bad ESPN chooses to inflict him on us to juice one of its flagship shows.
Man, here's to a speedy recovery for Dr. Z. And I definitely think that, if there's truly a "best football writer of our time," Dr. Z might not be the one but he's definitely on deck. You might also add Rick "The Goose" Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News to that list, even moreso than Pasquarelli and King. Seriously. He's one of the most respected NFL writers in the biz.
Ive only enjoyed Dr Z's incredibly incorrect weekly predictions as long as ive been reading SI. For someone who knows football as well as he does, his picking record is quite suspect.
Jim, i've often wondered why it is that sports writers love the prediction game (presumably because readers do), but if you want good predictive skill, follow the oddsmakers in vegas: they are good enough to almost always make money. i never hold poor predictions against a sportswriter; i do hold poor analysis against a sportswriter. Dr. Z has been wrong on many predictions over the years, but when it comes to analysis, he's as good as it gets.
|
Subscribe to Ta-Nehisi Coates by Email 
Trailer for The Beautiful Struggle  Monthly Archives
Recent Posts
Keepin It UnrealStanley Crouch Is A Gangsta RapperConfessions of a 30-Year-Old GamerRice, Rice, Baby!Compa$$ionate Capitali$MJust Another Quick-Witted, Egg-Roll-Joke-Making, Insult-Hurling, Chinese-American RapperThe Irrelevant Rev. SharptonWal-Mart's Urban RomanceBlack and Blue |
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood Copyright © 2008 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
No, Dr. Z is the best. Has a good sense of history, doesn't get caught up in all the off-field dramatics and morality, the best at ignoring reputation and evaluating performance.
Posted by dwhite10701 | December 1, 2008 3:02 PM