For people unfamiliar with these chats, ESPN has various people (writers, broadcasters, celebrities) "chat" with people asking questions. These chats are like cattle calls because there's somebody different each hour chatting throughout the day every hour for eight hours. Sometimes these chats are very resourceful (Like when Dana O'Neil chats) or they're absurd (Like when the SportsPickle chats).
On MLK Day, Mike Wilbon of Pardon The Interruption participated in one of these chats. In typical Wilbon fashion he talked about the NBA, Chicago Sports, and this past weekend's NFL games. One particular answer though caught my attention. I'll get to that later, but let's first highlight some of things Wilbon talked about in his chat. (The Question and Wilbon's response in bold, my comments not in bold.)
TJ (Arizona): The Packers are playing like a Superbowl team, do you think they carry that momentum to Soldier Field and beat the Bears by a large margin or do they still make it a close game?
This guy is just baiting Wilbon.
Michael Wilbon: Happy MLK Holiday everybody! I'm in Chicago still, following yesterday's Bears-Seahawks game. It's a quieter Monday than usual because of the Holiday...But it's still a pretty busy sports Monday due to the weekend of games and the NBA games being played around the league this afternoon and tonight...But the only place to start, to me, today is the NFL...and since I'm a Chicagoan I care primarily about Packers-Bears, the oldest rivalry in the NFL but one that hasn't ever been showcased in the modern playoffs. The only time the two played in the post-season was 70 years ago..and even though the Bears slapped Seattle around yesterday, as they should have, there is legit worry about the Cheeseheads here in Chicago because of the momentum you speak of. Yeah, I think the Packers come to Chicago on a roll, but the two games the two played this season were close ones...Bears by 3 in the Solider Field game; Packers by seven in the Lambeau game...Why would I expect a blowout today? I don't. People who think offense automatically rules should simply turn back the clock 24 hours to the Patriots getting handled by the Jets defense yesterday...The Bears defense is every bit as good as the Jets' defense, and they know how to play Aaron Rodgers...I expect it to be just like the first two games, which is to say low-scoring and very, very close...
Nice of Wilbon to remind everyone he's from Chicago and the Bears-Packers rivalry is the oldest in the NFL. Like that hasn't been beaten into our brains before. I would mainly say Wilbon is right and say this game won't be close, but we saw the AFC have two rivalry games and those weren't that close at the end of the game. I'll go on record right now and say whoever wins this game, the score won't be close.
Harry (RI): Pregame of the jets patriots, cbs showed tom brady sitting on the bench and huffing something out of a cup. What was it?
Yes Michael, what was Brady sniffing? Glue? Cocaine? Ammonia?
Michael Wilbon: Didn't see it because I was in the Bears locker room following the Chicago-Seattle game. Didn't see the opening. I joined that game in-progress in the second quarter. Are you suggesting The Golden Boy was sick and didn't tell anybody? Excuses would be really intolerable now, after the Patriots got their butts whipped. He looked fine to me, other than when he was wearing Jets defenders around his neck. Look, if you hit a QB in the mouth, even the great ones like Brady, they flinch. All of them. No exceptions. The Jets had to do that--it wasn't any secret--and did, early and often. The Giants did it in the Super Bowl. The Ravens did it last year. Not all defenses can get to him, but those in the business of Defense can and every now-and-then do.
Thanks Mike for answering that question and also thanks for taking a shot at Brady, I guess you're sick of him just like the rest of us. Seriously though Mike, the question wasn't about if Brady was sick it was about what he was sniffing in the pre-game. Of course you're too good to watch the pre-game because you're a fancy reporter.
Austin(St. Louis): hey mike, think we'll see either peyton manning or tom brady win another super bowl before retirement?
Why can't people capitalize people's names and the first letter of a sentence? Isn't that one of the first things you learn in grammar school? Kris sometimes doesn't capitalize the first letter of his sentences in live chats and it secretly drives me nuts. (Whoops! I probably shouldn't admit to that.)
Great question! I don't think so, actually. The Patriots have lost three straight playoff games, two at home and one neutral site. And the Colts apparently will have to re-tool. It's hard to get back there. The Niners did it, but Joe Montana was done and had given way to Steve Young by the time the rest of the team was ready in 1994 or whenever that was. Can the Colts get a Super Bowl-caliber team together in two years? Actually, John Elway's Denver teams did it in time for him to win twice at the end after he'd led teams there three times (losing all of them) as a player in his prime. I think Brady's got a better chance than Peyton, though I wonder if the disappointment of the last two post-seasons will sink the Patriots. And I wonder whether Bilichick will hang around for the long, long haul. He was so defeated yesterday, so bewildered looking after the game...
I'm going to surprise some people, but Wilbon is exactly right. Besides John Elway, no quarterback over the age of 35 has won a Super Bowl. I don't know if it's because by then opposing teams are familiar with quarterbacks or what, but QB's have a hard time winning Super Bowls into their late 30's.
Now let's get to the question and Wilbon's response that made me laugh. The column the questioner is talking about is this one. Like a radio host blasting some poor soul for a bad call, Wilbon blasts this guy and then rails about society today.
Mendel (FL): I know your a staunch CHI area fan, but i believe your recent article on the bulls (d rose particularly) was heavily biased. Rose was barely able to squeak out a victory against a heat team missing LBJ and losing CB4 for the final quarter. Call it what you will, but the heat would have beat the bulls handily if they were at full speed.
Again more bad grammar. How hard is it to to hit shift-whatever letter needs to be capitalized? Also one thing I've learned from these chats, like comments sections of your local newspapers, they draw out the trolls looking for a fight.
Wilbon: Of course my column was biased. Columns are opinions. Are you not aware of the difference between columns and news stories. News stories stick to the facts and strive to keep opinion and bias out. Columns are INTENDED to be biased. That's the point. Now, good columns present good arguments to support the bias...but I am surprised at how many people now don't seem to know the difference...It's one of the areas where the demise of the daily newspaper and in-school discussions about journalism hurt the entire news industry. I meant to put forth my opinion--that D. Rose is the MVP right now--and use various pieces of evidence to support my opinion. That was the point. Now, you can disagree with the point and make your case for Amare Stoudemire, LeBron, D. Wade, Rondo, whomever...but those opinions will express their own Bias. Part of being a good team is winning the games you ought to win. And when your opponent is weakened by injury, which happens in the NBA for every team at some point in a marathon season, you have to cash in. The Bulls should have beaten Miami and did.
Now as many of you know I grew up in a small town. Maybe RJBO, Justin, or Kris can speak for this since they definitely grew up in bigger classes than myself, but I don't remember in-class discussions about newspapers, news stories, and columns in any class by a history class on the topic of political discussions. Maybe at bigger schools journalism is taught in English classes, but it wasn't at my high school. You had to take an actual journalism class to learn about journalism at my high school. So maybe this guy really doesn't know the difference between news stories and column's. Or maybe he's just a troll and he knows he can hook Wilbon easily.
Also you have to love how easily Wilbon can be hooked. Look Mike I know you probably don't read blogs, but one of our motto's is "don't feed the trolls." He fed the troll who no doubtfully was probably proud of himself for hooking one of the PTI co-hosts. Or this guy really was that ignorant. Either way, I'm going to have to pay closer attention to these chats from now on. They're comedy gold.
Don't feed the trolls, Mike!
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