Today this is not the case.
Anyone has the ability to become “published”
instantly. What I mean by “published” is that the work—a Facebook status, a
Tweet, a blog entry about a trip to Seattle—is online and can be seen by more
than say, eight people. Now I don’t mean to imply that everything “published”
is total crap. In fact, a poem posted on a blog could have more reads (and more
acclaim) than a poem read by all the subscribers of the North American
Review. (Nothing against that magazine by the way.) The point is that we
all have the power to put ourselves out there for all to see. All we need is
internet access and an email address. Not only can we display our ideas and
writings easily but nothing and no one hinders us from doing so. We can create
worlds that suit us and at the same time attract audiences to see what’s up. I
believe that if we don’t deceive them and tell them what they are getting into
when they join up with our personal creative guilds, we can be very successful.In this essay I will be examining one particular article titled “A Hierarchy of Hypocrites” by Bill Simmons, the editor-in-chief of Grantland, an online sports magazine affiliated with ESPN. The article is (mostly) about the commissioner of the National Football League Roger Goodell, although the commissioners of the NBA, MLB and NHL are discussed, too. Simmons criticizes Goodell for various decisions he made around the time the article was written, October 2012, and suggests we oust him. The article is a hodgepodge. Fans’ emails and YouTube clips are seen on the page as well as Vegas picks for upcoming NFL games.
First, let’s get a little insight into Bill Simmons and Grantland. Grantland is an online sports magazine that Simmons runs, and it’s very clear that he runs it. While there is a gaggle of recurring writers Simmons’ articles always receive a link on the ESPN homepage, conveniently located next to a black and white picture of the man himself. Simmons is also the host of the B.S. Report, a podcast also linked on ESPN’s homepage.
On the Grantland website Simmons has his own
link at the top of the page and the magazine’s other authors fall under the
label “Contributors.” Well now, have I led you to believe the Simmons is a narcissistic, megalomaniac writer? Heck, if I was the editor-in-chief of an online journal I would want to make a big deal of it too. Plus, it is not like the other authors of this journal have their pieces hidden behind spam. It's not like they require secret codes to access. Their pages are a click of the mouse away. My reason for showing how much Simmons’ image and name are attached to Grantland is this; by increasing his own identity and visibility within the magazine we are allowed to understand that what Bill Simmons wants Bill Simmons will have. We can ascertain, from the very first site of his picture on ESPN, that whatever there is to read, it was allowed to cross the finish line into publication by Simmons.
On October 19, 2012, Simmons published the article
into which we will now dive. Titled “A Hierarchy of Hypocrites” the article
begins with the subtitle “The Sports Guy [Simmons] wishes we could run our
sports commissioners out of office and makes his Week 7 picks.” Clearly no
subjectivity will exist in this article. If we are looking for research-based
and opposition-answering rhetoric, look away we should. But really, what kind
of sports article would be written in that way? Don’t we, when reading such
articles, expect to gather the opinions of the writers themselves? Aren’t we
prepared for objectivity? The first paragraph of the article is as follows:
The first
paragraph of the article is as follows:
This wasn't the best morning for Roger
Goodell. Hours after former Viking Jimmy Kennedy practically ran out of ways to
call the NFL's commissioner a “liar,” Goodell announced that he would be
recusing himself from hearing the Saints' latest bounty appeal. Taking over?
Wait a second … good God, that's Paul Tagliabue's music! Can you remember
another commissioner having his objectivity questioned so vociferously that he
had to enlist his former boss to clean up his mess? Me neither.
A little later Simmons says, “And then there's
Gary Bruce Bettman, the serial killer of the National Hockey League, someone
who keeps murdering games and seasons without being caught. He's only
missing a catchy/creepy nickname like the Zamboni Killer or the Canadian
Bogeyman.” We can deduce that Bettman is the commissioner of the NHL, but Simmons
refers to Bettman as a “serial killer” for specific reasons not mentioned.
Simmons is referencing the cancellation of half of the 1994-95 season as well
as the entire 2004-05 season. Bettman was head of the League during both those
labor stoppages.
If
Simmons wants to expect his audience to be up to speed with the current events
in the sports world and have a somewhat intimate knowledge of the game, fine. It’s
his magazine. We don’t have to read it. Let’s go back to earlier in this essay,
when it seemed the Simmons was on the verge of appearing narcissistic to us.
This narcissism would be achieved if he expected us to know as much as sports
as he does and blew past anyone who didn’t live up to his standards. Simmons is
redeemed because of two things: the humor of this piece and the accessibility
of it.
Simmons
describes a notion of Goodell’s hypocrisy and follows it with a funny jab: “Translation:
This dude is a H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E.”
He
follows this judgment with the clever
paragraph:
If you noticed,
Goodell never responded — not even after Fujita called him “condescending” and
“extremely desperate,” then complained about Goodell's “absolute abuse of the
power that's been afforded to the Commissioner.” By continuing to trade shots
with Fujita, Goodell would have inadvertently broken the golden rule of
hip-hop: Thou shalt never beef down. And after word trickled out last
weekend that Fujita had suffered a potentially career-ending neck injury, there
was little chance Goodell would fire back. Even Stern during his swaggerlicious
apex wouldn't have feuded with a badly injured player.
Simmons made up a word!—a fact which he
acknowledges in the side panel of the article. Why not?
The second point to make is the accessibility of
this piece. This may seem like contradictory on my part since I’ve already
shown that Simmons demands prior sports knowledge from his writers. That is
still true, but what I mean by accessibility is that this article can be
enjoyed by people who don’t necessarily understand everything that is going on.
Simmons provides links, YouTube clips and “even Brick killed a guy.” As much as
this article is for those who are well versed in the people, places and
goings-on in sports today, this article is for casual sports fans who want a
laugh. The prose Simmons creates is not near academically sound, clocking in at
the grade level of 8.0, not including the texts of fans’ emails, but the goal
of this article is not to comply with the expectations of academia. So we see.
Let’s
go back to the paragraph starting with “this wasn’t the best morning.” Look for
the sentence containing Paul Tagliabue. It reads, “Wait a second … good God,
that's Paul Tagliabue's music!” Someone who has never watched a World Wrestling
Federation match can both laugh and wonder at this sentence, and thus it
perfectly emphasizes my point. Isn’t that funny or weird, the idea of your old
boss coming through a door—possibly smoke-filled, at least in my fantasy—to music to clean up some mess left by your
current boss? It can be funny without the specific knowledge of entertainment
wrestling.
Simmons’
article is written in one of the plainest styles—academically speaking—a legitimate
adult author can use and still be respected. But he needs to write in this way
because it suits the humor of his style and because it has the power to attract
an audience. Simmons’ objectivity can be forgiven because it’s clear from the
get-go what the intentions of this article are, and the brashness and
ballsiness of the article can be allowed because, after all, it’s his magazine and because the day after
this article hit the internet Goodell could have become the nicest and most
loved man in the NFL thanks to some redeeming action. Anything could change and
so a writer must go all out to be heard in a world where people are clamoring
for opinions and ready for the next change in the sports world. This world of
Sports sees many punches and Simmons delivers his own, his way. And what can I
say except write on, sir. We are better for knowing ahead of time what you are
all about.
By Matthew T. Bauman
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