12/21/24
November 25, 2003
The Football Gods reward a Football Nomad.: Yup, Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback -- once of Slate, then of ESPN.com, and late of FootballOutsiders.com -- is on the move yet again. This time he lands, appropriately enough, at NFL.com.
It's payback for ESPN's Playmakers, which does a good job of mocking the NFL if you ask me.
posted by 86 at 11:13 AM on November 25, 2003
Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. Yes, there are plenty of Christian and other Hollywood executives who worship money above all else, promoting for profit the adulation of violence.-- Gregg Easterbrook Maybe Tagliabue's an atheist?
posted by trharlan at 11:24 AM on November 25, 2003
The theory about his ESPN firing that made a lot of sense to me wasn't that he made a politically-incorrect statement in criticizing a movie, but that he criticized a Miramax -- and, therefore, a Disney movie. Thus he was, in effect, dissing his own corporate overlords (ESPN being a Disney property).
posted by Jaquandor at 11:29 AM on November 25, 2003
Easterbrook is one of my least favorite writers. He pontificates about everything from environmental issues to the space shuttle with this air of authority -- and knows, as far as I've been able to ascertain, less than the casual observer does about those things.
Case in point: he wrote an LA Times editorial lauding GWB's environmental achievements last month. He cited three examples of environmental laws Bush had pushed through. The problem? Two of them were passed by Clinton, and one of them hasn't been passed yet. I'm not sure if he's an anti-semite or not, but I know he's a bad writer who ignores facts.
TMQ is somewhat different, because it's so tongue-in-cheek, but I've never been a fan of it either. Easterbrook's cheerleader-ogling absence of any real sports content isn't why I follow football.
posted by jeffmshaw at 11:36 AM on November 25, 2003
I probably wouldn't like Easterbrook if I met him, but I really enjoy reading his TMQ columns. Reading them is a guilty pleasure, like eating a huge meal.
posted by dusted at 11:57 AM on November 25, 2003
That LA Times article was pretty strange -- "Bush would be a good environmental President if Democrats would stop criticizing his environmental policies" -- and I also have noted many times, here and elsewhere, how tired I am of Easterbrook's fixation on the byline Hillary Clinton uses on her books. And, while I used to be a huge fan of TMQ, I find it descending into "schtick" in recent years, with the same points pounded over and over and over again. Not that I disagree with his points, all the time -- far from it, like how tired I am of NFL teams blitzing constantly, etc. But TMQ almost seems to be the exact same points from week to week, with just the names and the details changed. It's the sports commentary version of Law & Order. I guess one's appreciation for TMQ reflects how much one likes the formula, to a certain extent.
posted by Jaquandor at 12:59 PM on November 25, 2003
I lost a lot of respect for Easterbrook when he made some poorly-researched claims about a 'cover-up' by the Canadian government of the torture death of a Somalian by members of the airborne. See Flit for more details. (Scroll down to September 3, or search for Easterbrook.)
posted by alex_reno at 01:12 PM on November 25, 2003
I think Sports Guy is the Page2 columnist that I'd say descended into recycled schtick moreso than Easterbrook. Easterbrook's columns have some repetition but it's more of an expected, running items kind of repetition. Notably absent were his gripes about the games chosen by networks... perhaps because he can't criticize those with which the NFL has a partnership? That's a section I look foward to every week, because every week I am forced to watch utterly horrible games because I can't get Sunday Ticket here. This sunday I was treated to Bills-Colts (I hate both teams) as my only choice at 1, then Bears-Broncos (yawn) on Fox at 4, and the Raiders-Chiefs which absolutely shocked me, on CBS at 4. Anyway, I still enjoy TMQ and am glad it found a home. He apparently also gets to be on TV and in other places now too, so he probably is better off than he was at ESPN.
posted by Bernreuther at 02:01 PM on November 25, 2003
Jaquandor, why didn't you link to the actual TMQ column on nfl.com?
posted by msacheson at 02:41 PM on November 25, 2003
Notably absent were his gripes about the games chosen by networks... perhaps because he can't criticize those with which the NFL has a partnership? That's a section I look foward to every week, because every week I am forced to watch utterly horrible games because I can't get Sunday Ticket here. no jabs at danny snyder/steve spurrier either. (the sunday ticket riff is one of my favorite gags, too)
posted by lescour at 02:55 PM on November 25, 2003
I hope they didn't spend too much time designing this lame logo: 
It still looks better than this: 
posted by dusted at 03:52 PM on November 25, 2003
I didn't actually link the NFL.com TMQ article because it wasn't up at the time that I posted. The original announcement I linked was that NFL.com would announce TMQ's arrival at around noon eastern.
posted by Jaquandor at 04:08 PM on November 25, 2003
Isn't TMQ just a ripoff of Peter King's MMQ? Or is that part of the irony?
posted by usfbull at 09:15 PM on November 25, 2003
Though it's possible they just like his work (and his audience), this move sounds like a bit of an F-U from the NFL to ESPN. I wonder if Easterbrook really is as much of a political football as the past controversy makes it seem.