The End of Deadspin

If you follow sports or the internet, you’re probably already aware of the situation that occurred last week at the website Deadspin. The short story is that new ownership of Deadspin directed the writers and editors to “stick to sports” even though the website’s most-popular articles were sports-adjacent and sometimes not about sports at all. As a result, everyone, or at least nearly everyone, resigned. (The longer version of this story is available on "The Washington Post" here and here and on "NPR".)

I just want to share my own personal experience with Deadspin. The blog/website debuted not long after Sean’s Ramblings started, and I read the site everyday for years. Some of the language on Deadspin could be R-rated, but I was able to check out stories by reading them on Google Reader. (I miss Google Reader.) The content was generally light and made fun of so many things that some people take so seriously in sports. Yet, powerful and insightful posts regularly appeared on the site. I would definitely say that Deadspin influenced my writing, particularly in my posts about sports. Most of my sports posts don’t discuss strategy or analysis and instead focus on lighter topics such as fun with names or commercials featuring athletes or even Pittsburgh athletes with other athletes and celebrities. I was also honored to have Deadspin link to several of my posts in its early days.

While I used to check out Deadspin multiple times per day, my visits to the site lessened over the years. Still, I continued to read as many Drew Magary posts as I could, and I learned about many stories/articles from friends sharing them on Twitter.

It seems that Deadspin is going to live on in the short term, but I can't see it being viable going forward. Replacing an entire writing staff and culture is going to be difficult at best. Plus, the core readers (and probably advertisers) are gone and aren't coming back.

My hope is that the writers and editors of Deadspin are able to create its own site. Perhaps they can add some of the writers from the late Kissing Suzy Kolber too. The writing and posts by these individuals are too good not to be shared and seen by a large audience.

Update: There's a Deadspin freelance account @UnDeadspin, which features the work for the now former Deadspin staff.

Excellent Sports Posts

There have been some terrific sports-realted posts recently that I wanted to share in case you have not read them:

- The Pensblog created a mock trial between Ty Conklin and Marc-Andre Fleury. The winner gets to start for the remainder of the Pittsburgh Penguins' season. Erin Brockovich and Marty the Chicken serve as the attorneys with witnesses including Marc-Andre Fleury's former water bottle.

- Deadspin's Will Leitch was online for a discussion at The Washington Post.

- Kissing Suzy Kolber welcome back Tony Kornheiser to the radio.

Enjoy!

Steelers-Jaguars Preview

Welcome to Wild Card weekend! I am excited and nervous about tonight’s Steelers-Jaguars game, so I have been searching the web to see what the “experts” think.

The ESPN folks made the following predictions:
Salisbury – Jaguars
Hoge – Jaguars
Jaworski – Jaguars
Schlereth – Jaguars
Allen – Jaguars
Mortensen – Jaguars
Golic – Jaguars
Wickersham – Jaguars (who the heck is Wickersham?)

In addition, Hank Goldberg picked the Jaguars on Sportscenter this morning and Bill Simmons chose the Jaguars in his column yesterday.

Over at Deadspin, five of the seven picks went for the Jags:
Cool Standings – Steelers
Football Outsiders – Jaguars
Michael David Smith – Jaguars
Big Daddy Drew – Jaguars
Dan Shanoff – Jaguars
AJ Daulerio – Jaguars
Deadspin – Steelers

Cris Carter on Yahoo picked the Jaguars as did Peter King and Dr. Z (he’s probably as real of a doctor as McDreamy) at Sports Illustrated. On CBS Sports, Harmon, Prisco, Judge, Davis, Richard, and “Spin” also selected the Jaguars to win.

Based on my detailed statistical analysis, 29 experts chose the Jaguars to win tonight and only two feel that the Steelers will win. That seems like a clear majority for the Jaguars, so they shouldn’t even play the game tonight. I guess NFL rules, NBC and the Rooney family are the only reason why this game will be played.

Now I certainly understand why everyone is picking Jacksonville. They defeated the Steelers in Pittsburgh 29-22 just last month and the Steelers are playing without injured Marvel Smith, Aaron Smith, Max Starks and Willie Parker. However, the Steelers are playing at home where they had a 7-1 record this season. The team also has twenty players who have appeared in five or more playoff games. Something that has not been discussed (except for the Post-Gazette today) is the fact that this is Jacksonville QB David Garrard’s first playoff game. He’ll be playing in a difficult environment that will be much tougher than the game in Pittsburgh last month. Yes, he had a terrific season and the Jags rely heavily on the running game, but can he be mistake-free today and lead the Jags to victory? I say no.

Just as I was about to publish this story the ESPN NFL Countdown show aired the following statistic: Quarterbacks making their first playoff start since 2005 are 0-7 with a 55.7 QB rating. Apparently, these folks care little about these statistics as Mike Ditka, Keyshawn Johnson, Emmitt Smith and Chris Berman all pick the Jaguars. Tom Jackson replies by saying that he is the only person in America picking the Steelers. You’re not alone Tom; Deadspin, Cool Standings and I are with you!

Big Week for Sean’s Ramblings

Thanks to DC Blogs and Deadspin, there were more visits to this site in the past 2.5 days than there usually are in an entire month.

On Thursday, DC Blogs linked to my bus story by writing “Harry Potter book interrupted by the sight of finger nail cutting woman. Metro bus story at Sean’s Ramblings.” Technically, the nail cutting incident took place on a Fairfax Connector bus, but that’s irrelevant.

On Friday, Deadspin linked to my recap of the Argentina-U.S. soccer match. As a comparison of how much Deadspin has grown, they linked to a post I wrote about Ben Roethlisberger attending a Penguins game in January 2006. On that day, I received 78 visits, a personal record at the time for most hits in a day. Yesterday, I received an incredible 848 visits, primarily from Deadspin readers.

The total number of visits on Thursday through 10:30am on Saturday = 1036! So thanks again to DC Blogs and Deadspin, and if you have not already visited these sites, I hope that you do (often).

Have a great weekend!

Band Madness

Everyone loves brackets, but let's say you're not a college basketball fan. Well, here's an alternative: the website Band Madness "is a March-Madness style, single elimination tournament of pop/rock bands where the winners are determined strictly by fan voting. There are 512 artists from various decades and genres."

This is one huge bracket! Anyway, you can go on and vote for your favorite bands. Some current match-ups include: The Beatles vs. Big & Rich; Tenacious D vs. Cat Stevens; Run-DMC vs. Moody Blues; and Monkees vs. Wolfmother (this last one is no contest - you can't stop Micky, Michael, Peter and Davy!).

I learned of Band Madness through Deadspin, so I thought I would give them some credit.