The big national story to come out of Bob Costas' sports media town meeting on HBO Tuesday was the cross-generational holy war pitting Buzz Bissinger and (to a lesser extent) Costas against Will Leitch, representing the blogosphere.
The most interesting New York-oriented development, though, was Michael Strahan talking to Chris Russo for the first time in nearly nine years.
Strahan has been incensed with Russo and partner Mike Francesa on a regular basis, starting with his controversial comments in 1999 while Jim Fassel was out of town for his mother's funeral and continuing through the criticism of Strahan's record-breaking sack in the 2001 season and his 2007 holdout and subsequent selection as a team captain.
"All of a sudden, that's why the team is 0-2,'' Strahan said of the blame he felt he took for the team's slow start.
Strahan said that sitting next to Russo was the closest he ever has been to the WFAN host, and it was clear from his tone he was tempted to reach over and slap him.
Strahan referred to Russo and by extension many other sports talk hosts when he said, "The last time you had a uniform on was when your mom took you trick or treating."
When Russo pointed out radio hosts often do say positive things about athletes and don't get credit for doing so, for example after Strahan helped the Giants win the Super Bowl, Strahan shot back, "You had no choice."
When it was over the two shook hands on stage. Unlike Bissinger and Leitch.
I have other stuff to do now. Go back to discussing Imus and Carton if you want.
Comments (13)
it was a very good and interesting show. i have to give it to russo for sitting there and taking the heat. i like how russo tried to give strahan a five and strahan didnt see chriss hand so chris did the ill-play-it-off-and-rub-my-hair move. of course it would of been even better if francesa was there. russo doesnt seem to hold grudges as bad as mike does. thats pretty obvious. hey neil why werent you on there as someone who is a columnist and a blogger? hbo missed the boat on that one.
Comedy: I was in the audience waiting for someone to come and get me for a panel.
Personally, I think the whole show was typical Costas "I'm against the Wild Card STILL even though it, not steroids, saved baseball" BS, as the only segment that came off good was the last one on race (and even that was too short and left alot of issues unanswered).
The whole show was typical "We fear change" from the old age generation, where anyone who likes fantasy football is a 'geek' and how things were "so much better in the 50's with Mantle and Mays" crap, as personified by Bissinger (oh wow, the guy's name is "Buzz", this guy MUST be over 50). The way Leitch was blindsided was ridiculous and of course he's going to have trouble coming off well with TV professionals like Costas there egging "Buzz" on.
I loved "Buzz" going off on "Big ***** Daddy" or whatever it was because he “couldn't take a guy with that seriously.” Wasn't the source that W&B used to expose Nixon the maturely named "D******"? Oh yeah, you old guys weren't juvenile at all in the 60's-70's...
Costas is SO anti-progress and I hate media types like that. Are there seriously old guys that go to bed wake up each morning and say "I don't know if the Mets won b/c I haven't gotten the morning paper yet; I’m not looking it up on the fandangled internet thing"?
So here's the solution: Every sports writer over 50 can go sit in Fenway and watch highlights of Ted Williams for the next 100 years til the place collapses and leave the rest of us alone while I play fantasy sports, read articles on the 'net, and enjoy my sports watching experience, ok?
The Russo-Stranhan was funny though b/c, was expected, Russo can't back up his big words
I wonder what today's show will be like. About this topic. I'm sure Francessa will be more enthused about this topic than Dog's appearance on David Letterman. Both emphatically hate Strahan and now they have the ammo and perhaps some petty caller support with them.
I always noticed that on each panel there was always one weak link in the 3-person panel discussions. Braylon Edwards, Cris Carter, surprisingly John McEnroe, Joe Buck.
I'm surprised NOBODY has brought up the Tiki segment. He seemed genuinely upset at the writers after serving as such a source from the Giants locker room for so many years and feeling betrayed that when he entered the media and thought doing what he did outside the locker room was the way it went, he was sorely mistaken and immediately villified. He came across as as bad as Bissinger in my opinion except with whiter teeth and a real nice suit.
I thought those two segments (the athletes and TV segments) were really really bad and didn't open any new doors or lead to a decent discussion. The woman found SI (forgot her name) just kept talking while TIki smiled and the Buck/Patrick/Tirico segment was all "Espn is evil/Bob called fantasy players geeks".
You know who else came off as REALLY crotchety and old? Al Michaels.
The best take I found on what happened last night is by Ken Tremendous at firejoemorgan.com. I can't say it any better than he did, but just throw in my two cents, I think that Buzz's own ignorance made Will's points for him.
good to see the NYDN is keeping up the journalistic standards in reporting Avery was "unconscious and not breathing", then later scrubbing that into the lacerated spleen story.
and blogs are evil?
Bryan Mayer summed up the show perfect.
I just want to add Jason Whitlock is da man. I love when he called out Kellen Winslow.
neil best...they definitely should have had you on the panel.
cgar....it was great when whitlock called out winslow. and the last word when whitlock said espn fired him of his treatment of bonds.
Whitlock was fired from ESPN because he called out Scoop Jackson (No, not the late US Senator who's assistants became the bricklayers of the neo-conservative movement) and Lupica for various things in an interview on the blog The Big Lead. He said Jackson was acting as the black stereotype that has drag his people down and he basically said The Sports Reporters is an echo chamber for Lupica. Oh yeah, he made short jokes too! He's a bit like Ralph Wiley in some ways, which is a compliment.
Kellen Winslow Sr. may have had a right to be upset if his son was called a thug. But then again his son is not a "f@#%ing solider" either.
Okay, the entire Bissinger v. Leitch war is on youtube along with the precursor to the whole one-sided confrontation with a an appearance by Ken Tremendous and Wilbon acting crotchety but where's the Russo-Strahan video.
Also to infuriate the fantasy baseball base, Bissinger spent the first chapter of Three Nights In August saying people who look at stats are not real baseball fans.
The Whitlock interview with TBL was great. In fact, it was the reason I started to read all his columns. TBL is the reason I started reading this blog and Best's columns. Morons like Buzzy don't understand the synergy between blogs and mass media journalists.
at least francesa knows sports; russo, he knows tennis and generically knows some baseball. russo can tell you who led off the third inning of the 1959 world series but other than that - his knowledge is all generic stuff.