Why Do I Continue to Read Peter King?

Dogman

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That is one of the first things I thought of after reading the piece. Based on the ocean size amount of water carrying King has done for the Ginger and the league, it would make sense that this was under Gingy's direction.

But why from a fan's perspective @JMOH? Rog already exhibited how much he doesn't care about the fans with his initial decisions in the Rice fiasco. In this case, Ginger Spice would fear owner backlash much, much more.
 

Leather

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One remote, though plausible, scenario is that the Rams/Chargers/Raiders move created some fault lines that have left Goodell fearful for his own future, and he needs to woo back some of the owners he may have alienated over the past couple of years, including Kraft.

I mean, at some point the sheer quantity of negative shit surrounding the league has to reach a tipping point where Goodell's head gets put on the block. It's been 2 straight years of nothing but shit sandwiches, from concussions, to spousal abuse, to AP smacking his kid around, to deflated footballs, to the military paying for pregame shows, to getting smacked down in court (again), to Johnny Manziel, to the league's #1 star, fresh off of a Super Bowl victory that the league surely hoped would serve as a reminder of everything "good" about the NFL, and a pushing of the reset button of sorts, getting dragged through the mud in a very public fashion.

Granted, lots of this isn't Goodell's fault, but the Jerry Joneses of the world do not give a fuck. Super Bowl ratings were down. Lots of owners were pissed about the LA move, and how it went down. Now they have the joyful prospect of the league's biggest offseason story being a public shaming at the hands of the court of appeals. Oh, and not to mention whatever else some scientist discovers about CTE, or what other young star decides to hang 'em up out of health concerns.

All that in mind, maybe some owners look back on the overzealous handling of Deflategate and say "You know, it sure would be nice if that had been wrapped up a year ago. What the hell was Roger thinking, again? Explain why he didn't just strip a 3rd rounder and be done with it?"

And, yes, the Brady case isn't *really* about Deflategate, but this is, what, the 3rd bite at the apple that Goodell has attempted in securing some arbitrarily large power to discipline players? If I'm an owner, I start to see this as a pride-driven, quixotic, quest that's doing more to embarrass the league than secure some sort of upper hand that benefits ownership. That goes double when you stop to consider the ostensible reason for securing the out-sized power for Goodell is to be allowed to punish players severely to make the league look good by showing how "seriously" they take issues like "integrity of the game" and spousal abuse.

The best case scenario for league, at this point, is a Pyrrhic victory.
 
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dcmissle

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Good Lord.

Some times people you really don't care for much do something smart. When that happens, accept it. To fight off the cognitive dissonance, if you must, just chalk it up to the broken clock. But don't invent deep background CIA-style crap to explain something that is easily explainable on its face:

Like it or not, Peter King has been harsh on the League for its handling of DFG for some time.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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But why from a fan's perspective @JMOH? Rog already exhibited how much he doesn't care about the fans with his initial decisions in the Rice fiasco. In this case, Ginger Spice would fear owner backlash much, much more.
I would assume that Goodell already knows what the owners would say about this. And I'm sure he knows that most of the players could give a shit. But you're right, that Ginger Spice doesn't give a fuck about the fans, but maybe (for the laundry list of items that Leather noted above) he starts thinking, "Maybe I should try to get the fans on my side again." Because I do think that at some point the league owners are going to get sick of him. Yes, he's a perfect lightening rod but lightening has been striking this guy six or seven times a year. After awhile it would be nice to have a couple wins in your column.

Perhaps Goodell's taking the temperature of the fan and wondering what, after a year of Deflategate bullshit, they're thinking. It's obvious that 99% of Pats fans think it's complete crap, but what about the fans in the other 44 states in the country? Do they still think it's a punishable offense? Do they look at Brady and the Pats differently (and I'm not talking about Colts, Ravens and Jets fans -- what about neutral observers like Cowboy fans or Packers fans) now than they did a year ago? Would they support a commissioner who went back on his word?

Again, I have no idea what Goodell is thinking, that's just my thought when reading that Peter King (a man who PROTECTS THE SHIELD(C) like no other) is criticizing his chili brother. It wouldn't surprise me if Goodell called King and said, "Hey, I was thinking of giving the Pats their pick back but I don't want to look like a pussy. Why don't you write a mild critique about me and see what happens? After that I'll send over a keg of Alegash, whadayasay? For your ol pal Roggie?"
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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There's virtually no chance that Goodell was waffling about the Delfategate punishment and was using King to gauge how a reversal would go over. Firstly, there's zero evidence that Goodell has ever changed his mind about anything, particularly on an issue that would potentially increase his authority. Secondly, Goodell is an extremely stupid, bullying man with zero self-awareness, so any thought that he might have screwed up in the Deflategate penalties would never have occurred to him. He's simply not wired that way.

Also, the vast majority of football fans, diehard and casual, are thrilled that the Ginger Hammer is fucking over the Patriots. They do not give a shit about science and fairness, they just want to see the Pats burn. Goodell's possible reversal of DFG penalties would piss off far more fans than they would make happy.

It's far more likely that King himself is having second thoughts. While I agree that it's a shocking reversal for King, it's a far more believable development that Goodell suddenly deciding to right one of his many wrongs.
 
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Harry Hooper

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What is this reversal you speak of? King months ago said the penalties should be held in abeyance until the NFL completed its football testing and analysis over the 2015 season. When the NFL stated no rigorous testing had actually been done, King said the picks should be returned.
 

E5 Yaz

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Muhammad Ali's death was so important that Peter decides to publish a day early ... because MMQB is one of the go-to places for comments about Muhammad Ali ... even though no one will be looking for MMQB until tomorrow
----

Some surprises this week: “Monday Morning Quarterback” is “Sunday Morning Quarterback,” for one week only. I felt news of Muhammad Ali’s death, on Friday at age 74, was so riveting and important that we should publish a day early this week. My thanks to editors Dom Bonvissuto and Mark Mravic for hustling Saturday night and early Sunday morning to get the piece up on The MMQB. Except for “Ten Things I Think I Think,” the column will be solely about the impact of the life of Ali. This is more about his importance to our society than anything else, but we’ll all be okay if we go a week without football dominating this column in June.

* * *

I did not know Muhammad Ali, at all. I never met him.

...

So … now for what this means 50 years later. Suppose I asked you, “Which NFL players of recent vintage seem to have a piece of Muhammad Ali in them?” What would you say?

The first name on my tongue: Richard Sherman.

(Because who cares what others might think ... Richard Sherman is on Peter's tongue)

...

I asked Sherman: “Could an Ali exist today—taking three prime years of a sports career away for a cause?”

(No, you idiot, he didn't take three prime years away for a cause ... they were taken away)
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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This is the thing that I hate most about celebrity deaths, and it's not just Peter King--though he is one of the worst. If you don't know the person or have only met him in passing, don't write about what a profound affect he had on YOU. I think Ken Rosenthal tweeted on Saturday about how he'll never forget about listening to an Ali fight on the radio when he was a little kid. Good for you, Ken. Who cares. You added nothing other to report that you were a kid when Ali fought. Wonderful.

King does this all the time, no matter who it is, he thinks that his readers give a shit about his relationship to the person that died. "Loved Prince. Purple Rain was a great movie, I remember watching it in a Cincinnati theater and blah, blah, blah." Shut up. If King wanted to do a story on NFL players reaction to Ali's death (which I think that he has done, I haven't read it) then that's fine. Leave it at that.

Anything from your POV is glomming on to a celebrity's death and making it about you. That's whack as hell.
 

CoffeeNerdness

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His use of riveting is directly related to John Marzano's point. He writes about his own and loves the stories of fellow writers and their relationship with the famous athlete. He's "riveted" by the image of little Kenny Rosenthal huddled around the radio. I'm sure he feels self-satisfaction in knowing a writer who knew Ali, and reading those stories makes him feel special. It's just like his glomming onto Springsteen or a million other paper thin veneers he covers himself with. He loves the fraternity and the proximity to fame. It's riveting. So, of course he writes those stories and publishes a day early because he is gracing us with his writing that he believes will give us that special feeling that he gets when he's riveted.
 

MyDaughterLovesTomGordon

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Just think of his editors and the web guys: PK is so desperate to post his thoughts about Ali, when everyone else is doing it, that he forces a bunch of people who don't give fuck all about him to drop their weekend plans and edit and post his drivel.

What an asshole. Hey, a famous person died - how can I leverage this for my own benefit?
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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This is the type of thing that Peter King should write, it's by Keith Olberman, and whether you like him or not, he's at least interesting.

The other thing that bugs me about King and his ilk is that many of them are just like us. No matter how powerful and connected they are today, there are (were) times when they aren't. They're still like us. They sit and listen to their heroes on the radio. Or watch them on TV. And that should humanize these writers. But for some reason, it doesn't. It only emboldens them to be above the vox populi and they over compensate by pushing their normal, mundane, every-day "interactions" with recently dead famous people as if they're somewhat closer to them than we are.

And I think that's what's so annoying about it. King is just some guy from NJ who can string a few sentences together coherently and who is a guy that billionaires like talking to. He's no different than a million other people, yet he thinks he is. He thinks that by virtue of HIM watching Ali box, it's more interesting than you or I watching Ali box. And it's not. He has no more insight into Ali today than he did six days ago, six years ago, six decades ago. This cult of personality that has grown around "rock star" journalists and their every thought is probably the worst side effect of the sports going supernova in the last 30 years. It's all just kind of nauseating after awhile.

* And BTW, I've pretty scrubbed all "NFL Insiders" from my Twitter roll because I was sick of reading "120 days until the season begins!" "100 days until the NFL starts!" and stupid shit like that. I know what Twitter is and I know that the messages that it relays are often twisted because of character limits, but these guys are nothing but cheerleaders for the league now. It's boring. Anyway, I can only imagine how Ali was tied into football and how the NFL inexplicably became the center of Ali's death.
 

JohnnyTheBone

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And I think that's what's so annoying about it. King is just some guy from NJ who can string a few sentences together coherently and who is a guy that billionaires like talking to. He's no different than a million other people, yet he thinks he is. He thinks that by virtue of HIM watching Ali box, it's more interesting than you or I watching Ali box. And it's not.
Great post, and you were extremely generous with the bolded. King sucks as a writer. Anyway, I was surprised by this rather illuminating effort from Phil Mushnick: http://nypost.com/2016/06/05/debunking-the-myths-that-have-glorified-muhammad-ali/

I didn't know about the original Cassius Marcellus Clay, for instance. Anyway, King has zero shot at writing an article like that.
 

ifmanis5

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Totally agree with JMOH. It's bandwagon narcissism.

If Little Kenny had listened to Ali and then was inspired to convert to Islam then sure, you should pipe up and say what a huge impact he had on your life because you actually took action. Otherwise this is just 'me too' with a celebrity you never even met. It's of zero value.
 

joe dokes

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So King has a "Pound Ridge, NY" dateline and mentions Lake Kitchawan as the location of his "retreat." Makes it sound like he's hunkered down someplace far, far, away. Pound Ridge is basically across the border from the toniest parts of Fairfield County.


And he links to a vid of an Ali fight in which the announcer calls him Clay.
 
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E5 Yaz

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The most Peter King Moment of the Week:

In the Quotes of the Week section, in the attributions of quotes 2-3-4 ... err, II-III-IV:

An NFC West player, to me ...

Broncos rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch, to me ...


U.S. women’s beach volleyball player April Ross, to Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, in my Story of the Week, in No. 10 of Ten Things I Think

A couple of things:

In Quote I, which wasn't to PK, he doesn't attribute the source

Exactly what does "to me" add to the relevance of the quote? (I'll save you the trouble: It adds nothing.)

The Plaschke attribution is a riot. It doesn't matter that she said it, or that Plaschke wrote it; what matters is that it's PK's Story of the Week (a bit he usurped from Richard Deitsch, who doesn't self-aggrandize by inserting himself into the category or by using capital letters) and it's contained below in what PK lists as to what crosses his mind. I was reminded of when Peter "discovered" R.E.M. and had to share that discovery with readers who obviously had never heard of them. (Think it was REM, might have been Coldplay).
 

E5 Yaz

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Saturday, 6:30 a.m., two NFL general managers and good friends on the phone, trying to finish a trade. The subject of sleep comes up. Neither Philadelphia’s Howie Roseman nor Minnesota’s Rick Spielman has had any of significance during the night, not since they’d last been on the phone five-and-a-half hours earlier.

“I’m staring at the ceiling, wide awake, at 2:30,” Roseman said to Spielman, “and [wife] Mindy says, ‘You okay?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not okay. We’re about to change a lot of lives here.’ ”

“Same thing with me,” Spielman said in return. “Couldn’t sleep. I was out at 4 a.m. walking the dogs.”

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/09/04/sam-bradford-trade-minnesota-vikings-philadelphia-eagles-nfl

If I were Mindy, I'd be worried about the fat man in their house that early in the morning, transcribing phone calls
 

Leather

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I just can't imagine Roseman was that worried (although he certainly may have played up his reluctance as a negotiation ploy). Why would he be?
 

coremiller

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Also, please spare me the over-the-top gravitas about "changing a lot of lives" when all that happened is that a guy who has made over $50 million in career earnings has to change cities for a year or two. The tone is ridiculous, they're portrayed like they're contemplating sending troops into battle.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Honestly, how many lives were "changed" with that trade?

The Eagles GM, coach and new quarterback, the Vikings' GM, coach and Bradford. Maybe the backup QBs, the offensive coordinators, the quarterback coaches and a couple of receivers on each side. Let's call it an even 20 to be generous. How is this any different from any other trade that is made in literally any other league?

An executive's job is judged, a coach must now install a new part, people's jobs are changed. Oh the fucking humanity! How will the league ever get itself together to pull off Opening Weekend now? Will Roger Goodell have the stones to continue to hide in Maine? Or will he have to issue another ham-fisted press release to the world?

Only in the NFL, folks!
 

E5 Yaz

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Phew, I was worried we were going to get through another 9/11 week without the story of how PK stood his ground and waited in a long line to give blood.
 

GeorgeCostanza

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Surely he has a story to share with his readers about asking a first responder how many dead bodies/body pieces they came across. Much like his question to a service member how many people they killed in combat.

I've stopped reading PK completely and only come in here to read you all taking shots at him. Kinda bummed that not much of that goes on anymore.
 

Leather

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"Some gave all, I gave some. Some blood. But I had to come back twice because the first time I had a triple venti depth charge macchiato right beforehand and I fainted when they stuck the needle in. Just one more sad story on a day that left so many folks bummed out."
 

Dropkick Izzy

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Jumping back to the Bradford trade, if you were to believe the schlock Peter King is selling, Howie Roseman must be borderline suicidal on cutdown day. Cause, you know, all those lives being changed.

God what an insufferable prick.
 

SDSox5

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I'm not really an emoticon kinda guy, but maybe I should have added a ;)?

I'm not advocating that anyone proudly wear an MMQB shirt - but that other one with the hair? Come on, that's gold!
 

joe dokes

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Still treating the Bradford trade like the Cuban Missile Crisis:

A few words about Wentz, who has been wholly impressive so far.

Just think: If Minnesota GM Rick Spielman hadn’t picked up the phone Aug. 31—exactly three weeks ago tonight—and called Eagles GM Howie Roseman and started the ball rolling on the trade for Sam Bradford, there’s a very good chance Wentz would have been inactive for Philadelphia in these first two weeks, and wouldn’t be facing Roethlisberger on Sunday. Maybe Bradford would have played better for Philadelphia than Wentz in the first two weeks, but not by much. Wentz hasn’t turned the ball over, he’s completed 61 percent of his throws, and he’s thrown three touchdown passes (would have been four if Jordan Matthews caught the easiest pass of his year on Monday night in Chicago) in wins over the Browns and the Bears.
 

joe dokes

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Why? For the tasteless tone-deaf haiku, of course:

Jose Fernandez:
Gone way too soon. So bummed for
what never will be.