Why Do I Continue to Read Peter King?

[dcmissle]

So when does Sports Illustrated start thinking about moving on from this guy? Or in an era of extraordinary market pressure on traditional print journalism, is he so valuable to the franchise to make this unthinkable?

Context: don't confuse SI with its Swimsuit Edition. Since it's founding 60 years ago, SI has been a giant of American journalism. Hall of Famers write for them. It's extraordinarily literate, has integrity and focuses on important issues. High standards all around

There is nothing wrong with a writer having a consistent POV. But it is clear now in ways that it wasn't before that PK is a hack and must have a miserable back, having carried so much water for the NFL. Plus this once good writer has lost his fastball. So wouldn't you want to start easing him out?

 

[JayMags71]

I realize that's the SoSH consensus (I happen to agree), but does the average football fan believe King has lost his fastball?

 

[dcmissle]

I realize that's the SoSH consensus (I happen to agree), but does the average football fan believe King has lost his fastball?

No, but reputation always lags performance, on the way up and the way down. The SI editors damn well realize it though. Maybe they'll just keep him in the popcorn section of their menu.

 

[dcmissle]

I would think that the fact SI just recently split him off into his own entity as the face if their football department would show they do not, in fact, realize that he has lost his fastball. Or at the very least, failing that, they believe he has enough left to monetize it to their own profit. They're not dumping him anytime soon.

Altria spinning off Philip Morris. The serious journalism kept in the health food section. Got it.

 

[Corsi]

Wednesday, midday, walking down East 52nd Street in Manhattan. Fairly crowded. I look ahead at the people walking toward me, and everyone, and I mean everyone, is walking while staring down at their phones.
 

 

l. Move over, Kenyans! Well, maybe 94-year-old Kenyans. I ran 6.2 miles in 59:33 Saturday. Something about being in Central Park, I think. Gives you a little extra when you feel you’ve got very little left.
 

 

[Corsi]

 

Peter King ‏@SI_PeterKing  27s
RT @ThomasJCarvalho: Your response to people who are saying you back tracked on reporting to preserve your relationship w the NFL? >>>>
Peter King ‏@SI_PeterKing  28s
>>>> I told the truth.
 

 

[Leather]

 

Why does he post his terrible running times?  I mean, it's cool that you ran 6 miles; good for you!  That's more than most people run in a single day, probably, their whole lives. 
 
But...9:40 minute miles is nothing to brag about, however phony-self-deprecating he wants to be about it.  Given what we know about him, I also wouldn't be at all surprised if he's one of those runners that pauses the timer while he takes a break, and then starts it up again when he feels like it.

 

[joe dokes]

 
 

But...9:40 minute miles is nothing to brag about, however phony-self-deprecating he wants to be about it.  Given what we know about him, I also wouldn't be at all surprised if he's one of those runners that pauses the timer while he takes a break, and then starts it up again when he feels like it.

 

I don't think King has a limit on phony self-deprecation/humblebragging.
 
He'll find 1 email congratulating him, run it in Tuesday's column, thank the sender and "everyone else who has encouraged me through this most difficult week.  When Roger gets cut, I bleed."

 

[CoffeeNerdness]

His politician-on-the-campaign-trail hand gesticulations while doing the NBC halftime gig are another arrow in his phoniness quiver.  He looked like Phil Hartman doing Bill Clinton last night.

 

[Leather]

I expect him to just pull the: "I'm here to talk about football" version of Mark McGwire's bit and just pretend it never happened.

 

[DJnVa]

It's not just SoSH that feels this way about PK--check the comments on a lot of his articles.

 

[Leather]

Ya, but there's a "SPYGATE!" reference every fifteen posts.  Not exactly the most sophisticated bunch.

 

[DJnVa]

True, but with the unsophisticated clods on him and the sophisticated posters of SoSH :huh: he has no constituency left.

 

[epraz]

I was on tenterhooks at the beginning of his column--I really thought PK might not really like football anymore.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Peter, since you've been all over the map on this, it's likely you touched on the truth at some point.

 

[joe dokes]

He's so charitable, though, leaving it up to every individual to decide to like football, instead of his usualy condemnatory scolding.
 

I really liked it again, even when I had so many reservations about the week that just was.
 

Not liking football doesn't pay the rent on the East Side of Manhattan.
 
 

I’ll reserve judgment on Goodell until all the facts are in—though I join the chorus that thinks he has to be held responsible for the chaos in the Rice case
 

That's not really "reserving judgment," is it?
 
 

It’s abundantly clear that scores of players get in trouble with the law. Too many. But not so many that it exceeds the national average for young men in the average age range of NFL players.
 

The "national average" includes all manner of criminal crackhead and reprobates.  Good thing King is using a reasonable measuring stick.

c. Troy Polamalu and Mike Mitchell, you did nothing wrong on those ridiculous second-half flags. America vomited at those flags.
 

"America vomited" at a penalty?  I can't speak for "America," but I think most of the vomiting was done earlier in the week, and was aimed at the Commissioner and his minders.

 

[E5 Yaz]

The Peterkingish Peter King masturbatory PeterKingism of the week:

 

I consider this the ultimate compliment for an NFL Films piece: “I wish Steve Sabol were alive to see it.” That’s what went through my mind ... 
 
 

 
PK believes the ultimate compliment for for a video piece is how PK would compliment them. Not "It was so go good it was worthy of Steve Sabol's talent," mind you (for that would leave PK out of the compliment); but, it made PK wish Sabol were alive ... as opposed to other days where PK apparently doesn't care whether Sabol is still dead.
 
By the end of mention of the video piece, PK throws in a few things that PK says would have made it better, whether Sabol were alive or not

 

[joe dokes]

Anyone remember Howard Cosell -- pretty much in the middle of the Holmes-Cobb fight -- vow never to anounce boxing again? At the time, it was a huge deal.  The equivalent would be Jim Nantz or Al Michaels or even Berman saying "no more football for me."
 
King can't just decide --  in or out.   He's going to drag his readers through his mind all season.

 

[Trlicek's Whip]

King can't just decide --  in or out.   He's going to drag his readers through his mind all season.

 
This is fitting, since it'd be much like PK's binky: Bret Favre - and his rickrolling "Mango-ness" in the twilight of his NFL career as to if & when he'd retire.

 

[Corsi]

Well, if he ever gives up the pigskin, we've got this to look forward to:
 

Peter King @SI_PeterKing  ·  9h
RT @stefficult: If you weren't a sports writer, what would you write about? ... Politics would have been fun.
 

 

 

[Skeesix]

Well, if he ever gives up the pigskin, we've got this to look forward to:
 

If he gets played this badly by a penny ante suit like Goodell can you imagine what would happen if an actual politician got his claws into King? He'd be caught in a skirt on K street in two weeks.

 

[Jed Zeppelin]

If he gets played this badly by a penny ante suit like Goodell can you imagine what would happen if an actual politician got his claws into King? He'd be caught in a skirt on K street in two weeks.

 
Or shoved in front of an oncoming train (feels like one of those situations begging for a decent photoshop).

 

[mascho]

Credit where it is due.
 

One last point: Where is Goodell in all of this? Why has he not spoken, other than brief CBS and USA Today interviews to the millions of disaffected fans who view his league as increasingly disconnected? The league is in chaos, and America needs to hear from him. I believe he certainly should have spoken by now. I expect him to surface from his Park Avenue office and speak by the end of the week, when he feels he has some substance to discuss in the realm of domestic violence and the state of his battered league.

 
I think King does a good job in that piece calling out Goodell. 

 

[Fishy1]

On the other hand, battered is predictably poor word choice. So even when he's saying the right things (which, I might add, is coming way too late for me to give him any credit), he's still a terrible writer.

 

[joe dokes]

With the obvious caveat that I can't pretend to be anything close to objective on King because I think his service as a League mouthpiece has compromised him on an issue like this:
 
1--Waaayyy too late.
2--I can't help but think he ran the story -- perhaps not every word, but certainly its thesis -- past the League (perhaps his source "with knowledge of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s mindset") to stay in its good graces.
 
 
 
3--He also thinks the 49ers are right in letting McDonald play.  I dont.  I think relying on the legal system opens up a whole box of trouble.  Just off the top of my head --- What if he pleads guilty to something not as clear cut as "Beating the crap out of a pregnant woman"?  Its fine to say, "If you are convicted, these are the automatic consequences."  But saying, "There wont be consequences unless and until conviction" is not very smart.
 
The problem is that there are few people running teams with the balls to risk defeat on the field and say, "I've seen enough to suspend him now." And King is their chief defender and enabler.

 

[ifmanis5]

When I saw the headline IT'S PAST TIME, COMMISSIONER I was thinking maybe finally Peter got up his nut and was telling him to step down. Nope, it was just a helpful note to his buddy to issue a statement, have a press conference or do something vaguely damage control-ish. Total garbage column there.

 

[Corsi]

Drew Magary already touched upon this, but what a joke of a line here:
 

NEW YORK—A source with knowledge of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s mindset this week said something today that is very bad news for the 2014 playing status of Carolina defensive end Greg Hardy: “Roger has determined that he will be a leader in the domestic-violence space.”
 

 
"The domestic-violence space."  Who's the source, Darren Rovell?  "Goodell looking to increase his market share in the domestic violence space by 12% this quarter."  What a stupid, empty buzzword.

 

[joe dokes]

Drew Magary already touched upon this, but what a joke of a line here:
 
 
"The domestic-violence space."  Who's the source, Darren Rovell?  "Goodell looking to increase his market share in the domestic violence space by 12% this quarter."  What an stupid, empty buzzword.

 
 
Right up King's alley. Praising the *idea* of leadership rather than leadership itself (as he sits in his East Side apartment, drinking Allagash, listening to Kenny G, while in his oak panelled study adorned with Thomas Kinkade paintings.)

 

[Dogman]

 
 
Right up King's alley. Praising the *idea* of leadership rather than leadership itself (as he sits in his East Side apartment, drinking Allagash, listening to Kenny G, while in his oak panelled study adorned with Thomas Kinkade paintings.)

 
If you had said Springsteen you would have won a prize.

 

[pappymojo]

Credit where it is due.
 
 
 
 
I think King does a good job in that piece calling out Goodell. 

 
"The league is in Chaos.  America needs to hear from him." 
 
It kind of reads a bit overboard.  Superman, where are you now?  America needs many things, but hearing from the millionaire commissioner of a professional sports league who is trying to quell the backlash against his billionaire overlords probably doesn't make the list. 

 

[Spelunker]

This reads like the setup piece put out specifically because he has inside information that Goodell will be making a statement soon, allowing King to both praise Roger for stepping up to the challenge as well as pat himself on the back for his part in causing it.

The humblebrag will be stifling.

 

[yecul]

That was my interpretation.

 

[jacklamabe65]

He sounds so discouraged throughout this interview. Absolute schadenfreude. By the way, It takes him only three minutes to say that he lives in New York now.
 
http://media.weei.com/a/96825851/peter-king-with-dale-and-holley.htm

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

Drew Magary already touched upon this, but what a joke of a line here:
 
 
"The domestic-violence space."  Who's the source, Darren Rovell?  "Goodell looking to increase his market share in the domestic violence space by 12% this quarter."  What an stupid, empty buzzword.

That might be the most offensive thing he's ever written. Roger Goodell and Peter King should spend a few days inhabiting the domestic violence "space" at the protective order court and the ER. What a dick.

 

[joe dokes]

That might be the most offensive thing he's ever written. Roger Goodell and Peter King should spend a few days inhabiting the domestic violence "space" at the protective order court and the ER. What a dick.

 
His tone deaf-ness to the world inhabited by most people is staggering. (even after he continues to display it.)
 
I wonder what Peter King would do if he saw a guy beating his wife in the Quiet Car of the Acela?

 

[TSC]

 
His tone deaf-ness to the world inhabited by most people is staggering. (even after he continues to display it.)
 
I wonder what Peter King would do if he saw a guy beating his wife in the Quiet Car of the Acela?

 "Sssshhhhhhh"

 

[Average Reds]

Drew Magary already touched upon this, but what a joke of a line here:
 
 
"The domestic-violence space."  Who's the source, Darren Rovell?  "Goodell looking to increase his market share in the domestic violence space by 12% this quarter."  What a stupid, empty buzzword.

 
If there was any justice in this world the phrase "domestic violence space" would end King's career.
 
That's simply grotesque.

 

[Leather]

He really is not qualified to discuss anything but football.  His blind self-regard and belief that he is capable of covering anything continues to bite him in the ass, and I'm happier for it.  He's such a poor communicator.  
 
And make no mistake, this is the logical progression from going from football, to girls' softball, to rock music, to beer, to concentration camps, etc... He's never been reined in, and now he's being hoisted on his own petard.
 
Little by little, column by column, he spread his self-professed expertise, like black mold, over all sorts of topics that he has no business talking about at all.  However, it's one thing to offend a fan of Springsteen, or of Starbucks, with inexact phrasing and inaccurate statements.  It's entirely another to wade into the real life, things that matter, field of physical assault, violent crime,  and not know how to talk about it without sounding like an asshole.
 
It's really no surprise he sounds like an insensitive ass, he's been one all along.  The fact that he thinks he is even qualified to talk about domestic abuse, in anything more than a "Here's what X was quoted as saying" is the height of hubris.

 

[pappymojo]

I wonder where the haiku is.

 

[Corsi]

I wonder where the haiku is.

 
Goodell takes deep dive
Domestic violence space
That's value-added

 

[JohnnyTheBone]

Ray Rice punched his wife
Hey, I live in Manhatten
The whole thing is weird

 

[Shawn O'Leary]

Left Hook
The Shield is Dented
Am I Next?

 

[joe dokes]

He really is not qualified to discuss anything but football.  His blind self-regard and belief that he is capable of covering anything continues to bite him in the ass, and I'm happier for it.  He's such a poor communicator.  
 
And make no mistake, this is the logical progression from going from football, to girls' softball, to rock music, to beer, to concentration camps, etc... He's never been reined in, and now he's being hoisted on his own petard.
 
Little by little, column by column, he spread his self-professed expertise, like black mold, over all sorts of topics that he has no business talking about at all.  However, it's one thing to offend a fan of Springsteen, or of Starbucks, with inexact phrasing and inaccurate statements.  It's entirely another to wade into the real life, things that matter, field of physical assault, violent crime,  and not know how to talk about it without sounding like an asshole.
 
It's really no surprise he sounds like an insensitive ass, he's been one all along.  The fact that he thinks he is even qualified to talk about domestic abuse, in anything more than a "Here's what X was quoted as saying" is the height of hubris.

 
perfect. He waded in and quickly went over his head.
 
As Pete Seeger might've said....."he was waist deep in the big muddy, and trhe damn fool just kept pushing on . . ."
 
To be fair-ish, he is not alone among football writers in going in over their head; but he is unique given the lofty football-writer position he occupies.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Left Hook
The Shield is Dented
Am I Next?

 
That works.

 

[Leather]

Undeserved beating.
You people should be ashamed!
Just doing my job.

 

[Doug Beerabelli]

That must be the square root version of a haiku. 

 

[ifmanis5]

Atta boy Roger
Let us do some BBQ
Best br0s. Forever.

 

[JohntheBaptist]

 
Atta boy Roger
Let us do some BBQ
Best br0s. Forever.
 

 

 

[JayMags71]

"What do they look like, Jimmy?"

 

[pappymojo]

This isn't the first time Peter King has stuck his foot in his mouth in regards to domestic violence. 
 

Kasandra Perkins.
Romeo remembered her.
We all should. Often.