RIP Grantland

[LineSkiCat14]

Sad day, indeed.

ESPN is closing the doors on Grantland, for some dumb reason, I'm sure. First it was firing Bill Simmons, a guy who knew more about sports than Smith and Bayless combined and was infinitely more entertaining (coming from someone who hates ALL Boston sports).

Now the entire organization is shut down, again for reasons I have no idea of. No more Jalen and Jacoby. No more great pop-culture pieces with excellent writing and humor.

While I admit Grantland faltered a bit after BS' departure, hopefully they can form their own website. I'd certainly check in daily and show my support.

 

[KingOfBBN]

Sad day, indeed.

ESPN is closing the doors on Grantland, for some dumb reason, I'm sure. First it was firing Bill Simmons, a guy who knew more about sports than Smith and Bayless combined and was infinitely more entertaining (coming from someone who hates ALL Boston sports).

Now the entire organization is shut down, again for reasons I have no idea of. No more Jalen and Jacoby. No more great pop-culture pieces with excellent writing and humor.

While I admit Grantland faltered a bit after BS' departure, hopefully they can form their own website. I'd certainly check in daily and show my support.

I'd be thankful to be out from under the control of Disney.

 

[WayneDougan_rivals170043]

ESPN is on a huge cost cutting operation. Supposedly Grantland cost a fortune, but didn't bring in much revenue. I probably went there three times since Simmons left.

 

[TheDonJiggy]

I would love to see a breakdown of click percentage - fantasy pages excluded - to see how many clicks Grantland pieces garnered compared to the rest of ESPN's reporting.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Read up a bit on Grantland AFTER BS left. And basically anyone of talent jumped ship as well. Maybe it was doomed the second Simmons left, but everyone bailing certainly didn't help.

But who cares?! We have 50 ex-athletes we can watch discussing the same 6 things over and over again, remaining hush hush on any scandal or topic Disney deems damning.

 

[anon_l8pbkn96tg3j6]

Simmons alluded to some of the grantland talent joining him in one of his podcasts. Honestly though, since Simmons left how often did you go there? I literally used to check every day.

 

[Chuckinden]

Never heard of it.

 

[Altro Cat]

Simmons alluded to some of the grantland talent joining him in one of his podcasts. Honestly though, since Simmons left how often did you go there? I literally used to check every day.

Went there maybe twice since BS left. And really only clicked on anything other than Simmons if it just happened to catch my eye while I was there for Simmons.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

My God.. Zach Lowe was an exceptional writer for the NBA. BS podcasts.. Jalen and Jacoby.. and great pop culture pieces that would tie in sports perfectly. It's worth checking out some of their prominent pieces, but not sure how those will be accessed going forward

 

[WayneDougan_rivals170043]

My God.. Zach Lowe was an exceptional writer for the NBA. BS podcasts.. Jalen and Jacoby.. and great pop culture pieces that would tie in sports perfectly. It's worth checking out some of their prominent pieces, but not sure how those will be accessed going forward

I like Zach Lowe, but I don't think he's anything different than a top-tier basketball writer/analyst who already works at ESPN. Why not have him just be a part of regular old ESPN and drop the overhead of Grantland? The pop culture stuff - take that crap of ESPN and put it in Variety or wherever you film nerds like to go. It's just not a fit for ESPN.

I thought Grantland was doomed from the get go for one key reason - Bill Simmons. Bill Simmons is the Dave Barry of sports writing. He's a humorist, but for sports, and he does his best work when he's operating in his wheelhouse - (e.g., funny sports writing/pod casts with occasional pop culture references). Serious Bill Simmons is annoying. And serious Bill Simmons is who created Grantland. He picked a bunch of people who all had the same political, sports and pop culture views that he had. So if you didn't like his views you weren't going to like his website. And the only saving grace was that he'd operate in his wheelhouse and post it on Grantland, so that's why I visited that site. But ESPN would have been better off to just put his column on good ole ESPN.com.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Thankfully it appears they are getting some of the Grantland staff together for a project. In the meantime, can't wait to read and listen to what ESPN hand picks for it's "staff".

 

[wildcatsboston1984_rivals]

Grantland was awesome

 

[Mojocat_rivals48469]

Zachary Lowe is great. Mark Titus is fun to read. Wesley Morris, hardly ever agreed with his take on a movie, but he's an interesting read. That's about it. Politically pretty far left of center, but then I'm sure the demographic skewed very young. I'll miss it, but only a little.

Simmons is interesting. Basically invented a new form of writing....and as much as I enjoyed him years ago, he got stale IMO. Everything new and edgy eventually gets old, and I thought he did. His ego got pretty big too...

 

[GonzoCat90]

Lowe, Titus, Morris, Jalen and Jacoby, Shea Serrano, Amos Barshad--all excellent writers who put out content I enjoyed all across the spectrum in addition to Simmons' manifestos. I'd like to see them all follow him somewhere with absolutely no restrictions.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

ESPN knew they'd be shutting it down when they axed Simmons. The simple fact is that it didn't generate much traffic, despite being extremely over-staffed. And they really did a crappy job monetizing the traffic they did get.

I thought the site was garbage mainly. Titus was awesome. Jacobi podcasts were decent. But most of it was crap, and Simmons spread himself too thin, so his writing became garbage as well. They needed to have a strong editor to reel in the literary masterbating most of their writers were doing, but Simmons is the ultimate anti-editor, so that wasn't going to happen.

 

[WayneDougan_rivals170043]

ESPN knew they'd be shutting it down when they axed Simmons. The simple fact is that it didn't generate much traffic, despite being extremely over-staffed. And they really did a crappy job monetizing the traffic they did get.

I thought the site was garbage mainly. Titus was awesome. Jacobi podcasts were decent. But most of it was crap, and Simmons spread himself too thin, so his writing became garbage as well. They needed to have a strong editor to reel in the literary masterbating most of their writers were doing, but Simmons is the ultimate anti-editor, so that wasn't going to happen.

Word. The best part was all the hipster writers from the interwebs freaking out about how AMAZING the site was.

 

[Violent Cuts]

It was too long form - I didn't have 30 minutes to read each article. 538 is a much better ESPN creation and I'm excited to see what Simmons does at HBO

 

[Big_Blue79]

I like Zach Lowe, but I don't think he's anything different than a top-tier basketball writer/analyst who already works at ESPN. Why not have him just be a part of regular old ESPN and drop the overhead of Grantland? The pop culture stuff - take that crap of ESPN and put it in Variety or wherever you film nerds like to go. It's just not a fit for ESPN.

I thought Grantland was doomed from the get go for one key reason - Bill Simmons. Bill Simmons is the Dave Barry of sports writing. He's a humorist, but for sports, and he does his best work when he's operating in his wheelhouse - (e.g., funny sports writing/pod casts with occasional pop culture references). Serious Bill Simmons is annoying. And serious Bill Simmons is who created Grantland. He picked a bunch of people who all had the same political, sports and pop culture views that he had. So if you didn't like his views you weren't going to like his website. And the only saving grace was that he'd operate in his wheelhouse and post it on Grantland, so that's why I visited that site. But ESPN would have been better off to just put his column on good ole ESPN.com.

Zach Lowe is head and shoulders above anyone else on ESPN's roster. He's sublime when covering the NBA. Haberstroh, Pelton, Stein, etc... all have their strengths, but Lowe is just better. Maybe he's rivaled by peak John Hollinger (and his legendary snark). Lots of other terrific talent at Grantland - Barnwell and Mays, Jason Concepcion, Holly Anderson, Jonah Keri, Andy Greenwald, etc... All in one place, now they'll probably scatter.

I agree that Grantland was doomed to fail because of Simmons, but for another reason. Simmons was destined to leave ESPN; he's just too volatile for a Disney owned (corporate controlled) company. And Grantland was a Simmons project. The cutting the cord movement just accelerated the process. But we've seen what ESPN is becoming for a long time now - pandering to the biggest number of clicks. We saw that with the rise of First Take, with the Tim Tebow coverage (happy birthday cake for a replacement level QB that wasn't even on the show? Talk about jumping the shark), with the Draft Kings integration into existing shows, with the non-stop fantasy coverage. There's still good stuff worth reading, but not as much.

 

[wildcatsboston1984_rivals]

It was too long form - I didn't have 30 minutes to read each article. 538 is a much better ESPN creation and I'm excited to see what Simmons does at HBO

Except 538 isn't an ESPN creation, it existed long before ESPN brought on Nate Silver

 

[Violent Cuts]

Sorry, ESPN property. You're right.

 

[Geese Feeder]

Lowe knows his ****, but his articles are a struhhhhgle to get through.

My GOD, he and Luke Winn need to procreate and create a new race of nauseating analytical super-writers... Would be incredible.

 

[Big_Blue79]

When did reading like 3000 words become such a struggle in this world?

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

When did reading like 3000 words become such a struggle in this world?

When the same exact points could be made in 800 words - it's a struggle. Printed newspapers forced writers to be succinct so it could fit on the page. The byproduct was that they actually had to hone their writing to be tight. Now it's just a mind dump, with no concern for space or the readers time. Sportswriters think everything is about them anyway, we are lucky to get their full unabridged thoughts ----> FALSE.

 

[Big_Blue79]

When the same exact points could be made in 800 words - it's a struggle. Printed newspapers forced writers to be succinct so it could fit on the page. The byproduct was that they actually had to hone their writing to be tight. Now it's just a mind dump, with no concern for space or the readers time. Sportswriters think everything is about them anyway, we are lucky to get their full unabridged thoughts ----> FALSE.

Or you get nuance and detail. Bad writers writing long articles sucks, like Simmons the last few years. But an article can be long and good.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

Or you get nuance and detail. Bad writers writing long articles sucks, like Simmons the last few years. But an article can be long and good.

Well, sure. Of course an article can be both long and good. But Grantland's articles - the vast majority of them - were not. Like I said, reading 3000 words is only a struggle if the subject only needed 800.