tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791900055012948732.post3603126567143494912..comments2023-11-20T04:14:20.028-06:00Comments on Badgercentric: Speaking of Sports Illustrated ...Coach Scott Tappahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00305139824550837927noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791900055012948732.post-91417972269279658512007-11-03T17:19:00.000-05:002007-11-03T17:19:00.000-05:00Not sure if morale at SI - or at a lot of magazine...Not sure if morale at SI - or at a lot of magazines - is at an all-time high. Don't discount the impact that has. Lots of perks/benefits are going by the wayside and I think that has a trickle-down effect (in areas like reporting and fact-checking).<BR/><BR/>One thing that I noticed that Slate picked up on is that many of the bonus stories are so doom-and-gloom. What happened to the quirky, longer stories? As much as I enjoyed reading the Shannon/Minaya stories that Gary Smith wrote they sounded pretty similar.<BR/><BR/>I really loved the essays that used to lead off Scorecard and was pretty bummed when they replaced them with smaller stories/Players. Some of the rubrics are interesting, but others are really tired.<BR/><BR/>Still think SI has a lot of potential. Enjoyed the story on the NFL practice squad a lot. There's an example of a fun, light read that ended up being pretty interesting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791900055012948732.post-37345745924765697272007-11-03T12:39:00.000-05:002007-11-03T12:39:00.000-05:00SI does make a ton of mistakes. I remember reading...SI does make a ton of mistakes. I remember reading their 1998 college football preview of Ohio State and saying in a headline that the Buckeyes hadn't won a national title in 20 years ... every casual fan would have known they last won it in 1968 at the time. They also get guys' first names wrong a lot.<BR/><BR/>I too have made plenty of mistakes, but as Jim said, the fact checkers ought to catch that. Hell, when I was quoted by Joanna Cohen in her story some fact checker called me to check the quotes.Coach Scott Tappahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00305139824550837927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791900055012948732.post-10456227627461155392007-11-03T10:57:00.000-05:002007-11-03T10:57:00.000-05:00I read the slate article on the plane ride to Colu...I read the slate article on the plane ride to Columbus last night and I agree with some of it, but certainly not all of it.<BR/><BR/>I still love SI. The SI Players stuff doesn't really appeal to me, although I, unlike Tappa, did find some of the workout stuff interesting.<BR/><BR/>Some other points:<BR/><BR/>-- for the most part, I think SI does a good job handling ``gamers.'' Take the Red Sox story from this week: Verducci provided information I didn't know, like David Ortiz expletive-filled motivational speech when the Red Sox were on brink of elimination against the Indians. Maybe that stuff was in the Boston Globe or elsewhere, but I hadn't seen it so I thought it was pretty fascinating.<BR/><BR/>-- I used to open to the back page and read Reilly first, but he's been hit-and-miss for a while now and I'm not sad to see him go.<BR/><BR/>-- I have a love/hate relatioship with Gary Smith and S.L. Price. I love reading their stuff -- they're fantastic -- but I'm always left with this feeling of knowing that the stuff I write is absolute crap compared to what they produce.<BR/><BR/>-- Here's my biggest gripe with SI: The mistakes. It's rare that you'll find an issue now where there's not a ``SI regrets the error'' in the front section. And that doesn't count mistakes I'll find.<BR/><BR/>Before anybody thinks it, I make mistakes in my writing. Plenty of them. But I guess I have this belief that SI should be the best. It should have the best editors and the best fact-checkers. Now, it has the appearance that the company does things on the cheap and it's kind of disappointing to see.<BR/><BR/>That's all.Jim Polzinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13153738426711677349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791900055012948732.post-64636814776268466472007-11-03T07:53:00.000-05:002007-11-03T07:53:00.000-05:00Thanks Eric, I'm going to give this post a bump be...Thanks Eric, I'm going to give this post a bump because it may have gotten buried and I want to hear what people think. I couldn't read ESPN's magazine after a year - there's good stuff in there too, but too much of the brand's personality-pushing for me. The most consistently interesting parts of each one of those magazine are the "Inside" sections, always good reporting and insight there. But we want more of the in-depth stuff.<BR/><BR/>Like you said, though, I still enjoy SI.Coach Scott Tappahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00305139824550837927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791900055012948732.post-69826687476487344632007-11-03T07:24:00.000-05:002007-11-03T07:24:00.000-05:00This post deserves at least one comment... I agree...This post deserves at least one comment... <BR/><BR/>I agree on most everything, Scott (man, I'm starting to feel a bit like one of Rush's "Dittoheads"...), and I still really enjoy getting and reading my SI each week. <BR/><BR/>I had a free subscription to ESPN THE MAG for a year, and I still found myself spending more time with SI. I'll be bummed out if they move any further away from good long form stuff than they already have. Just because we play Guitar Hero doesn't mean we can't read a story longer than 2 pages.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com