Related Article: Dan Patrick + Dave Zirin – Rick Reilly = 3 Cheers for Sports Illustrated!
I was right in the middle of a new McDonald’s Steak McSkillet Burrito (not bad at all!) doing my mainstream sports media morning internet clicks, and my jaw dropped to the floor. Luckily the food remained in my mouth as I saw the following. “Dave Zirin: The Edge of Sports” listed under… Sports Illustrated’s website.
About Sports Illustrated: COSELLOUT has previously documented SI’s indefensible coverage of Barry Bonds spanning more than 15 years; the part-time bully (Rick Reilly) who is their most popular writer, and its troubling COVERage of white and black athletes as fathers. Despite a few excellent writers (Gary Smith, Chris Ballard, and Jack McCallum come to mind), SI, as an INSTITUTION is the epitome of the term “Cosellout”.
In the world of sports journalism, Jay-Z signing Nas has got nothing on the surprise of this new partnership. Endless scary questions immediately raced through my mind. How would his take on Michael Vick go over with his new bosses? What would his colleagues think about his willingness to write POSTIVE stories about NBA players? After years of setting the record straight on Barry Bonds, would he trade in his unpopular views to help rename SI’s Bonds Hater Firm of Verducci-Reilly-AND ZIRIN?
Could it possibly be? One of my personal sports-writing inspirations, one never afraid to speak truth to power, one who would continually “tell-it-like-it-is”… could he become (gasp!)… a “Cosellout”!!! Et tu, Brute? On the surface it was simply not be possible, but then again… didn’t Metallica go from “Puppets” to “Black” to "I Disappear", didn’t Aerosmith actually sing “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, and didn’t Liz Phair escape “Exile in Guyville” to record “Why Can’t I Breathe Whenever I Think About You?”. And while in the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that I did actually like “The Black Album”, couldn’t it still be possible that Zirin give up the good fight for some of the finer things in life?
After rushing to peruse through his first few columns, my worst fears… were proven baseless:
Zirin Interviews John Carlos on The Jena 6: “‘I understand why we marched in Jena,’ he [Carlos] said. ‘Because the six are so young, because it is such a terrible double standard. The world is seeing it: When white jump on black, they didn’t face attempted murder charges. When black jump on white, the world falls upon them. I was glad to see them come together. These young people, they are a new breed. A lot of people thought these young people wouldn’t march like we did. But since 2005, with Katrina, there is a feeling of enough is enough.’”
And yet Dr. Carlos feels a sense of melancholy that there even needs to be a Civil Rights movement in the 21st century. "I can’t believe we still have to be marching," he said. "I can’t believe how injustice has taken root and has become normal. It appears that there is a message being sent that we can’t go anywhere, aren’t worth anything. And that’s not just black people. It’s brown people. It’s poor white people. It’s the millions of our kids who go to school every day in the wealthiest country in the world and don’t even have books. We are raising a generation with no knowledge, no chance. If people are products of their environment, we are in a great deal of trouble. We see no money for books but they keep building these prisons."
Zirin on Allen Iverson and Practice: “… last week [Iverson] repudiated his infamous — and endlessly hilarious — comments from five years back about the irrelevancy of skipping team practices ("we’re talking about practice!"). To this day, I loved that rant because it pulled the curtain back on the gap between our fantasies about professional athletics and reality. In the real world, more than a few players shared — and share — Iverson’s view that there are few things more monotonous than an in-season NBA practice. It’s like asking a mathematics doctoral candidate to take side classes in how to operate a calculator. But just because Iverson was right doesn’t mean it was either great for his image or the best message to send young athletes — the people who actually need practice… Iverson, 32, said recently about those famous comments, ‘It was just being young and definitely immature. I wish it wouldn’t have ever happened. But you learn from experiences like that. … I think it sent the wrong message, especially to kids. You can’t be a scoring champion and an MVP and an All-Star and all of that without practice. … I didn’t want kids to get the message that you don’t need to practice because when you’re not practicing, someone else is out there practicing, getting better.’
On Perspective: “We also need to channel our disgust onto far greater sporting crimes. It’s a crime that the bridge in Minneapolis fell away two days before the groundbreaking on a $500 million dollar stadium. It’s a crime that the good people of the Twin Cities were subsidizing the dreams for Twins owner Carl Pohlad, the richest owner in baseball. It’s a crime that football players are being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in their 30s. It’s a crime that a family of five needs to take out a second mortgage to go to a game. It’s a crime that any college coach worth anything needs to know who the best 12-year-old is in their region. And lastly, it’s a crime that despite all the billions produced by sports, physical education programs are being cut from public schools around the country.”
Zirin on Women’s Basketball: “It’s also the period where the shock of the new becomes conjoined with the crescendo of champions. For those who write off the WNBA, as if daring to watch would cause a crippling identity crisis, the fall brings the finals and this year they have delivered the Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi center stage – a player with a game so smooth, butterflies skid off of her skills.”
Conclusion: Damn it Dave! Stop talking like that! John Carlos? Jena 6? Mature Allen Iverson? Ron Artest a good guy? Even a woman as ATHLETE? If you keep that up, SI might just have to put a woman on their cover BESIDES the annual swimsuit issue!!! …With Sports Illustrated picking up Dave Zirin, the world of sports media has become a better place. Zirin’s readership will undoubtedly grow in size, and that is a good thing. As far as compromises go, like any good employee, Zirin probably can’t trash his new employers and colleagues. But that is a very small concession to get his voice to the greater masses. And as far as holding SI accountable goes, that’s what we are here for!!! Now go do that voodoo that you do Dave!!! And finally, Sports Illustrated must be commended for making an institutional decision to embrace some diversity of viewpoints that has been sorely lacking for a long time. It was surely one step in the right direction to address a much larger institutional problem that plagues SI (which also includes an appalling lack of racial diversity amongst its staff). Let’s all hope that the Zirin signing was not a singular act, but the beginning of a new management strategy for institutional change. In the meantime, kudos to SI!
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[...] ADD: Thanks to COSELLOUT for the piece on one of our favorites, Dave Zirin, and his syndication on Sports Illustrated’s website. Wow. Happy, but… wow. Digg [...]
Can’t agree with you more. The more people who get to read Zirin, the better off everyone is.
While we’re at it, let’s add that our own Malik Rose was in South Africa this summer as part of the Basketball Without Borders and Habitat for Humanity summer camp program. Malik is not about fanfare or cleaning image the way the “cosellouts” would have us believe. He is a man who expresses his caring ethic.
KFL
Wow, at first I was as shocked as you. But I think this fits into the bigger picture of where sports sites are going, namely which big sites are going to have to make some dramatic changes to keep up with the Jones, so to speak… very interesting, Modi.
I really believe that Zirin will keep his soul and this move is good……I need to tell myself that, I need for that to be true.
Miranda, the early indicators for Zirin show that he has not changed one bit. If there is any person that I trust maintaining their integrity while joining the mainstream, it is Zirin. But like you, my world would be shaken if that ever changed. But I know that would never happen. His soul is too real.