Lets Talk About Drew Magary

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This is a fellow who routinely wishes people to perish in fires. But “respect for the family ...”

Felgeresque, CHBesque ...

Snowflakes are gonna snowflake
If you can point me to an example where Magary used that phrase with literal intent or after the subject of his wrath had been physically injured, I might think you have a point.

If not, then it’s worth noting that “die in a fire” is pretty much universally understood as being sarcastic. Beyond this, context helps us understand whether it is meant in a friendly or unfriendly way.
 

jcd0805

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I'm really torn on this. I totally get he has a right to privacy but at the same time he has tons of fans who miss him, wouldn't some type of explanation be better than just this radio silence where people's imaginations start going crazy? I really hope he's ok, I almost always got a kick out of reading him.
 

blueline

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FWIW on the Deadcast released yesterday David Roth (think it was him) said it wasn't anything embarrassing or scandalous.
 

Spacemans Bong

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Roth makes the Deadcast. He’s great on it.

I wonder if part of the reason Deadspin is being schtum is Magary’s going to write a riotous piece in the future about how he had to go on Deadspin IR for accidentally sitting on some Viking horns while wearing his Adam Thielen jersey or something.
 

nattysez

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He tweeted a bit about what happened to him (said he was drinking heavily, started "choking on his own blood," needed surgery on his neck to fix the problem, lost consciousness for a week) but has now deleted them.
 

jcd0805

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Now this has taken an odd turn:
It’s all been odd, frankly. He’s a public figure, we’re not owed anything I get that but the longer it goes without anyone saying what happened to him the weirder it’s going to get.
 

dirtynine

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Just reading the tea leaves, I wonder if there might be some kind of legal liability tied up in what happened, what his condition was etc.

Sounds to me like lawyers are involved and are getting in the way of anybody saying anything.
 

jcd0805

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Just reading the tea leaves, I wonder if there might be some kind of legal liability tied up in what happened, what his condition was etc.

Sounds to me like lawyers are involved and are getting in the way of anybody saying anything.
Really? To me it just sounds kind of ominous, like Drew did something to himself :(
 

dcmissle

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The asshole is venting his spleen on Twitter over the Patriots win. So he’s okay. I hope he has a good night’s sleep.
 

nattysez

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It feels like his Pats criticism has lost its semi-humorous edge, which makes him just another whiner. But maybe he was always like that.
 

Mystic Merlin

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The few Pats fans they have on staff are missing a golden opportunity to play the heel. Every single one of them apologizes in some way for the Patriots to the extent they acknowledge their fandom at all in posts.

If they got canned then I’m sure The Ringer would welcome them aboard.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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The Pats fans on staff (Samer is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, although I think one of the new guys is too) have to abide by the corporate policy there of shitting on the Pats and in fact everything Boston. It's a New York-based site populated by snotty young NY pricks, and it shows. When the Sox won the WS, Tom Ley's lead in to the article was "The Red Sox are World Series Champions. This is piss." It's a blog so whatever, but right there shows they're not trying to add insight.

If Samer got too vocal about the Pats he'd be fired, no question about it. Instead he gets to monitor WEEI and 98.5 and post whatever stupid shit they say when it suits them.

I used to like Deadspin a lot, but their tone over the past few years has taken a sour edge. You can dislike teams but you probably should actually like sports, and I get the sense that balance is lost lately. Once they had some layoffs and lost of writers, particularly Hannah Keyser who I really liked, their focus shifted to this sour side.

As a Pats fan posting there in the comments, I was never given the honest chance to be heard. Every response was FUCK YOU AND THE PATS. So I stopped for a good while. What's the point.

And Dom....haven't seen anything posted by him in a while, which is a shame as he was the only guy to offer real football insight instead of this Magary-style I'M SO MAD ABOUT EVERYTHING AND GONNA SNARK ON IT FOREVER shtik.
 

Leather

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I'm ok with a little Pats bashing, because it comes with the territory. And, let's be honest, there's a lot of stuff to run with, even if it's really stale by now (I mean, my god, the Deflate bullshit was 4 years ago).

But they are just as guilty of helping their narrative along, facts be damned, as the "real" media that they pillory for doing the same. And Magary is no exception, even though I think he's generally self-aware enough to avoid doing so.

To wit: in his latest column, the theme/message/thrust/whatever is that football players, and the NFL, revels in looking "tough" by dressing inappropriately for extremely cold games.

Has this deadly frost stopped the Football People from stupidly praising their football men for braving the cold dressed like they’re at a fucking tiki bar in Ybor City? I regret to inform you that it has not.
And after three on-point examples, he then (of course) picks a Patriots one, emphasized with an "ugh", to really drive the point home. But the example he picks has nothing to do with how Tom Brady dresses in cold games. In fact, the picture is of him wearing what looks like a wet suit under his uniform:



And the linked article is about Brady wanting extreme cold because he's used to playing in it while visitors aren't. If anything, Brady is obliquely agreeing with Magary's point that opposing players probably don't know how to properly prepare (and dress) for cold weather, thereby giving NE an advantage:

Tom Brady, the way his mind works, he wants it to be stupidly, ridiculously, awfully cold. You know why? Because he's played in that before, he's won in that before. And he has no qualms with playing another one of those games in Kansas City."
That's the sort of shit that turns me off. Blast away; not every NE fan is thin skinned or can't take a little ribbing. But be honest. Because otherwise, you're just being a mis-informative asshole.
 
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Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Honestly the funniest thing he's written in a while was the Hater's Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog. That was great.

Everything else, he's starting to look like just another bitter middle-aged dude.

I was hoping he'd write a piece about his latest health scare, because that could be funny and self-deprecating and that's his strength. Maybe he'll still do it, but nothing yet.
 

joe dokes

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Honestly the funniest thing he's written in a while was the Hater's Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog. That was great.

Everything else, he's starting to look like just another bitter middle-aged dude.

I was hoping he'd write a piece about his latest health scare, because that could be funny and self-deprecating and that's his strength. Maybe he'll still do it, but nothing yet.
All true. The only reason I keep reading his stuff is that I think he's a talented writer. So even the meh subject matter usually entertains me. Its like a mediocre movie that happens to have great acting. It raises it from "turn-it-off-before-i-vomit" to "ehhh, lets see where this goes..."
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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And more on Deadspin: the title of their latest Deadcast is "Isn't The Super Bowl Supposed To Be Fun?" And the first line is "The Patriots are, in all likelihood, going to win again, and it’s going to be awful. The question now is: What is the worst possible way they could win?"

Fuck these people forever. Not even trying to throw in any analysis. They've been straddling the blog/journalism fence for a long time but they should just drop the facade and go full opinion. WAAH NEW ENGLANDS GOOD AGAIN. Babies. I don't mind them rooting for the Rams but at least try to add something of value instead of balling up your fists and crying.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I think that you guys are taking this a little bit too personally. Is this worn ground that Deadspin is trodding on? Of course it is. But that's what happens when you're a really good team for a really long time. People get sick of you. And hate you. And write shitty things about you. I mean they do the same thing for the Warriors. And the same shit was written about the Yankees at the turn of the century. I'm sure people were sick of seeing the Celtics in NBA Finals every year in the 60s. Same thing with the Lakers and Celtics in the 80s. Canadiens and Red Wings during their Stanley Cup runs. The Braves of the 90s. The Bills. The Cowboys. The list goes on.

There are still people who hate the 1972 Dolphins. Like a lot.

Why would we be any different? It goes with the territory.

Does Magary go a bit overboard with "Boston is the most super fucking racist place in the entire world and it's filled with MAGA chuds!", yes. But I think that his football/Deadspin stuff is mostly a character. And I think that he's mentally destroyed from his time at Bates (I'm pretty sure that's where he went for PG). But Leather is right, his best stuff is at GQ nowadays.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I do take it personally because I gave them a fair shot, more than a fair shot over the years, truth be told. Hell I got out of the greys in the comments section.

But they're not evolving at all. It's the same shit every year. I don't want them to kiss Boston's ass. I do want them to actually like sports. I don't think they do any more. It's a constant outrage factory, with a topping of snark.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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You do take it personally. And that's fine, you're passionate, which is great. But let's get real here.

Deadspin has been snarky and edgy since Will Leitch was there. Leitch had a bit more, "Gawsh, it's just sports!" midwestern charm, but that went out the window when Dauliero was brought in. They've toned down the snark and shittiness since then (thank Neptune) but this has always been the way it's been. Magary has been writing there since the Leitch days and aside from getting better as a writer (his first book is fucking awful), but he still has the same schtick.

SJH, you're better than this. You could literally go back to the early 1900s and you can find articles ripping on the latest dynasty or super team. You're never going to get heaps of glowing praise, because aside from six states, no one wants to read that stuff. No one cares about how you watched Tony Eason and Steve Grogan and all the other pieces of shit try to throw a ball to a receiver. No one gives a shit that you spent Novembers and Decembers with your ass literally frozen to the bleachers and tried to cheer for your team but were out-noised by the opponent's fans who travel well. It all happened in the past and you don't get a medal for it. You just happen to be born in a region with a shitty football team.

I hate to use a cliche, but they don't boo the boring. People don't hate the mediocre. Writers don't write about teams that don't matter. I would much rather prefer my two weeks of "mean" columns about the team that I'm rooting for on Super Bowl Sunday rather than be ignored and the jokes of the league. Do you want to go back to 1990 when there weren't a lot of mean things to say about the Pats? I don't.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I don't want heaps of glowing praise. They used to run articles (mostly by Dom) where I'd actually learn something about football. Other articles would actually be insightful, still others funny.

They don't do any of that any more; they have traded that for the cheap clicks of outrage and foot stamping. Their choice, but fuck that noise. I'm too old to deliberately go to places that I know will take away from my sports enjoyment. They won't miss me and vice versa.

I'll stick to Jalopnik from now on, that was the original reason I started going over to Kinja anyway.
 
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Leather

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I think there's a line, though, where it goes from well-earned, probably well-deserved, ribbing and slant to outright mean-spirited bullshit, though, and the outright solicitation of steroid gossip re: Brady crosses that line. That's not fun for anybody except people who take Patriots hating too seriously. I mean...he's a weirdo pro football player on a team you don't root for. Relax.

But Magary doesn't engage in that. His "Patriots Hate" is turned up to a roiling boil as part of his brand. In reality, I doubt he personally gives a shit except when he's obligated to watch them play.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I think there's a line, though, where it goes from well-earned, probably well-deserved, ribbing and slant to outright mean-spirited bullshit, though, and the outright solicitation of steroid gossip re: Brady crosses that line. That's not fun for anybody except people who take Patriots hating too seriously. I mean...he's a weirdo pro football player on a team you don't root for. Relax.

But Magary doesn't engage in that. His "Patriots Hate" is turned up to a roiling boil as part of his brand. In reality, I doubt he personally gives a shit except when he's obligated to watch them play.
I don't completely disagree with you here. I've always looked at the majority of Deadspin as a place where they take the piss out of the establishment. The Pats are the establishment. So they rip on them. And they've been doing it for years, which means that each rip needs to top the last one. I didn't read the Brady/steroid thing, but if they're looking for someone to do that, I agree; that's shitty.

And I think that your point can be made for a lot of athletes whom we all sports hate.

I do agree with you about Magary. I'm sure that he despises the Pats (he said that the only two teams that he hates are the Pats and Washington) but at the end of the day, he's a seemingly well-adjusted father and husband who is forty something. How much burning hatred can you really have for a team that you might watch twice a month? That's stuff for kids and adults who have nothing going on in their lives.
 

nattysez

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There is no difference today between his Twitter feed and a Super Bowl thread on GangGreen. I'm sure he'd say he doesn't care that none of it is funny, but woof.
 

JohntheBaptist

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I just checked out of curiosity and nope, its pretty funny. It's a bit.

It's how the Yankees get treated here. Everything about the Yankees and Patriots is indisputably annoying and stupid. Not being able to let that go to an exaggerated degree is funny.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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His new column was just posted. It's not ... good.

It's kind of a Drew Magary-I-hate-the-Pats paint-by-numbers. I don't disagree with a lot of his points, but it felt like he felt that he was supposed to be mad and he tried to get mad and it all just falls flat. Like he felt obligated to write this, because he always does this sort of thing.

You like the Pats, you hate the Pats, I don't care. And really, last night's game wasn't an all timer.But your column should be funny or interesting, but this effort was really dull. I never agree with his hot Patriots takes but they genuinely make me laugh or consider the other point of view. I hope he's just shaking the rust off.
 

Mystic Merlin

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I think he’s struggling to tap into hatred at this point.

Fatigue is the best word I can find to describe it, and fatigue doesn’t inspire funny hit pieces.

And he’s had to write like 80 pieces about the Pats.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I think he’s struggling to tap into hatred at this point.

Fatigue is the best word I can find to describe it, and fatigue doesn’t inspire funny hit pieces.

And he’s had to write like 80 pieces about the Pats.
YES! Fatigue is the best word to describe this piece. It was written out of consolation, "Pats are in the Super Bowl, looks like I have to get angry again." I mean, I don't expect him to write anything positive about the Patriots, but I expect something real. This was flat.
 

Leather

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He's had two GQ pieces in the past week, and even the one about the bagel showed more fire than his warmed-over (to stretch the metaphor) Patriots stuff. I just don't think he cares much about his Deadspin content anymore. He's kind of reached the Bill Simmons circa 2008 period where he's only mailing it in and focusing on other things.

I almost wonder how much longer he'll be a regular presence at Deadspin. I know he must feel some loyalty there, but he seems like too self-aware a guy to be doing the screaming-at-the-keyboard-about-the-NFL shtick until he's 50. He can, and does, do better elsewhere.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I almost wonder how much longer he'll be a regular presence at Deadspin. I know he must feel some loyalty there, but he seems like too self-aware a guy to be doing the screaming-at-the-keyboard-about-the-NFL shtick until he's 50. He can, and does, do better elsewhere.
I agree. And I also agree that he has to know that he's closer to the end of this schtick than the beginning. But, like Simmons and other writers, he's probably a victim of his own success. I guarantee that there is a large swarth of people who want him to do the yelling into the keyboard thing every week for the next 30 years because they genuinely like things like that. Like the group of Simmons fans who love when he drops a Karate Kid reference into the middle of an NBA preview. Or when Posnanski writes about his kid.

I'm not sure what Magary will do. It's a hard decision to make, alienate your hard core fans or hope that they'll come along. I strongly believe that Simmons tried doing this at the beginning of his ESPN tenure when he wrote that piece about climbing Mt. Washington and how he was ripped for it (to be fair, I remember it being pretty bad) and he never really wrote anything out of his comfort zone again. With his GQ stuff, Magary does do that so maybe his transition will be easier. Maybe he'll become the next Charlie Pierce?
 

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All true. The only reason I keep reading his stuff is that I think he's a talented writer. So even the meh subject matter usually entertains me. Its like a mediocre movie that happens to have great acting. It raises it from "turn-it-off-before-i-vomit" to "ehhh, lets see where this goes..."
Exactly. He's such a brilliant writer that I don't have to agree with his point at all, because his turns of phrase are so witty, and the jumps of subjects so inventive, that it's entertaining even if its connection to reality is somewhere south of "Jabberwocky".

Like any good rant, I enjoy it more if I agree with it. So I hope he picks additional subjects soon that aren't the Patriots. But as long as he doesn't lose his writing edge, I'll keep reading anything he puts online.

I feel an analogous way about Posnanski. It would be stale and cliche and boring for any writer to just write personal anecdotes about their kid(s)... except when you're as goddamned brilliant as Pos. He could write an in-depth story about the daily life of a mail delivery lady and drag emotion and greater meaning out of it. As long as he doesn't lose the edge - as long as he, or Magary, don't stop caring and mail it in to the extent that they lose their voice - then I don't really care if every subject or take is adroitly chosen. The writing's enough for me.
 

Leather

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I agree. And I also agree that he has to know that he's closer to the end of this schtick than the beginning. But, like Simmons and other writers, he's probably a victim of his own success. I guarantee that there is a large swarth of people who want him to do the yelling into the keyboard thing every week for the next 30 years because they genuinely like things like that. Like the group of Simmons fans who love when he drops a Karate Kid reference into the middle of an NBA preview. Or when Posnanski writes about his kid.

I'm not sure what Magary will do. It's a hard decision to make, alienate your hard core fans or hope that they'll come along. I strongly believe that Simmons tried doing this at the beginning of his ESPN tenure when he wrote that piece about climbing Mt. Washington and how he was ripped for it (to be fair, I remember it being pretty bad) and he never really wrote anything out of his comfort zone again. With his GQ stuff, Magary does do that so maybe his transition will be easier. Maybe he'll become the next Charlie Pierce?
Oof, that Mt. Washington column. I just re-read it. No surprise Outside magazine never knocked on his door.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I'd say Magary is going to stick with the angry dude shtik for a while longer. He's morphing into Simmons, the very thing he hates.
It's interesting how Magary has seemed to make peace with Peter King, but he's still going pretty hard on Simmons. And I'm not downing him for that, I just find it curious.

I will say that I thought that his shot at Portnoy was about the only good thing in his piece from yesterday. That made me chuckle.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Oof, that Mt. Washington column. I just re-read it. No surprise Outside magazine never knocked on his door.
I just re-read it, right here for those who haven't or forgotten, and man, it's not good. I will say this, for everyone who wants Simmons to write like how he used to; no you don't.