ESPN's Rick Reilly on Minnesota: "The only thing they're legendary for is losing."

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Unregistered User said:
+1
I'm not "butt-hurt" over something he said about the Gophers. I'm disappointed that a writer that used to be so good is reverting to jokes about JoePa's age and the flatness of a state. This is the only time I've clicked on one of this stories in many years, and only because it was linked here. I will sometimes run across one of his articles in print while getting my oil changed, etc. and he is equally disappointing no matter where his lame "flourishes" are directed. Poorly written sarcasm and "rants" have replaced well thought out journalism, and it's been going that way for years. And I've carped about it on this board since I've been here. It's similar to the complaints I've had about KFAN over the years. I don't care if they slam the Gophers, but they rarely use informed opinion when they do that.
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+1 Agreed, no one is acting "butt hurt". I'm not hurt at all. It's like when some dumps a can of garbage in the street. It doesn't hurt, it's just ugly and stupid. I just expect that people who are paid for their sportswriting to outperform random posters.
 


Gopher07 said:
It's a slap in the face to Sandy Stephens, Bronko Nagurski, and college football trophy games. Sure, we've sucked for 40+ years but his play on words was poorly chosen at best. We are "legendary" for the things I listed, among others. We are "irrelevant" because we've sucked for 40+ years.
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Outside of the Bierman complex, who in Minnesota or beyond could name even one, let alone two Gopher "legends?" And who outside of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa know of or care about our trophy games? I tend to agree with Reilly in that there is nothing legendary anymore about Minnesota football, with all of its success coming from fading, bygone era. I agree with you and disagree with Reilly in that the Gophers are generally irrelevant because of the losing, not legendary losers. I wish it weren't so, but we can't wish it away.
 

dpodoll68 said:
All of the above is exactly why people (at least, that's why I am) "riled up" (see what I did there) over this article. There was a time when Rick Reilly had the chance to be an all-time great sportswriter. Looking back at some of the articles he wrote in the late 80s-early 90s compared to what he "writes" now - it's ridiculous and sad. He was writing Pulitzer-level work then, and now it's something my 5-year-old could come up with.

He's turned into a shill for anti-mainstream views and page hits. It's disgusting to see someone waste so much natural talent.
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Unregistered User said:
+1
I'm not "butt-hurt" over something he said about the Gophers. I'm disappointed that a writer that used to be so good is reverting to jokes about JoePa's age and the flatness of a state. This is the only time I've clicked on one of this stories in many years, and only because it was linked here. I will sometimes run across one of his articles in print while getting my oil changed, etc. and he is equally disappointing no matter where his lame "flourishes" are directed. Poorly written sarcasm and "rants" have replaced well thought out journalism, and it's been going that way for years. And I've carped about it on this board since I've been here. It's similar to the complaints I've had about KFAN over the years. I don't care if they slam the Gophers, but they rarely use informed opinion when they do that.
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like i said, i don't know anything about rick reilly, but i do think that the problem might have more to do with the perceived slight in this case. because it seems as though the article got more positive reviews on other sites.

sure this might not be norman mailer on the patterson-liston fight or hemmingway on the bull fights of san fermin, but the medium has obviously changed.

i could be wrong, i don't read much "sports writing" and i don't know anything about rick reilly, but it seems as though the majority of the people have a problem with a single line from a larger article (which i admittedly did not read).
 




bigtenchamps1899 said:
like i said, i don't know anything about rick reilly, but i do think that the problem might have more to do with the perceived slight in this case. because it seems as though the article got more positive reviews on other sites.

sure this might not be norman mailer on the patterson-liston fight or hemmingway on the bull fights of san fermin, but the medium has obviously changed.

i could be wrong, i don't read much "sports writing" and i don't know anything about rick reilly, but it seems as though the majority of the people have a problem with a single line from a larger article (which i admittedly did not read).
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Well, it's not the problem in my case. I might have appreciated a good jab at our football program - I've made more than a few myself. This isn't even the worst column he's ever done (that's probably the Jimmer Fredette hatchet piece).

He makes $2 million a year to write one column a week, and THIS is the kind of work he churns out:

http://espn.go.com/blog/rick-reilly-go-fish/post/_/id/787/hey-bartender-i’ll-have-a-michael-vick

He isn't knowledgeable or witty, and puts no effort into what he does. That's my problem with Rick Reilly, and I suspect that's most other people's problem with him as well. I mean, for Christ's sake, we've been nothing for forty years. Our own student body doesn't even give a *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# anymore. You would think that an award-winning sportswriter could think of something funny to say, especially given the fact that his son went to Wisconsin. But, just like he's been doing for the better part of a decade, he decided to mail it in instead. Any competent Big Ten blogger - hell, 90 percent of the Gopher fans on this board - could have come up with something better. And they do their work for free.

And it's not like that's the only problem with the article either. None of it is worth reading - it's a combination of his usual lame half-baked similes and jokes that were old months ago.

So, to summarize, he mails in columns, recycles old ones he wrote years ago), and even steals other people's work. *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# Rick Reilly. He's the laziest man in sports journalism.
 

I actually enjoyed the article, other than WI he made fun of every school but I am a fan of sarcasm. Plenty of journalists in our backyard to get worked up about.
 

Swede said:
Outside of the Bierman complex, who in Minnesota or beyond could name even one, let alone two Gopher "legends?" And who outside of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa know of or care about our trophy games? I tend to agree with Reilly in that there is nothing legendary anymore about Minnesota football, with all of its success coming from fading, bygone era. I agree with you and disagree with Reilly in that the Gophers are generally irrelevant because of the losing, not legendary losers. I wish it weren't so, but we can't wish it away.
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The bolded just isn't true. I am at training for work right now with ~150 other 22 year olds mainly from each coast, and the majority who follow sports understand our rivalry games
 



After reading the article, I actually found his "shot" at the U pretty tame by comparison. He took potshots at just about everybody, including Nebraska. I did find it funny that he called Ohio State fans "pretty nice people." If those folks are his definition of nice people, I'm really happy that I don't know Reilly personally.
 

Unregistered User said:
And I thought Weisbrod was a sh!tty sports writer. And that has nothing to do with his "analysis" on The U, just the general, incredibly lazy writing he has submitted for the past 5 years or so.
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Lol. He's actually not a bad writer, just a complete dumba$$.
 

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