More Marvin … and, etc.
It’s not unexpected that Peter King forgoes a daily stop here, at Mr. Faded Glory’s blog, but honestly, where’s he been? From today’s abbreviated Super Bowl column:
I think the one amazing thing about the first four days of Super Bowl Week is how little talk of Marvin Harrison there is leading up to the game. Here’s a guy who’s going to finish his career, barring injury, with 1,400 catches or so, and all the talk is Manning, Grossman, Urlacher — even Dallas Clark. It’ll be interesting to see how Harrison matches up against the good Chicago corners with the subpar Chicago safeties over the top. He could have an eight-catch, 164-yard game.
Not 163 yards, people. 164. That alone would be good. Nothing less. 160? 150? Meh.
But seriously, Peter, hunh? Marvin’s been the subject of nearly a dozen articles, most railing against his perceived vanishing act during the playoffs. Honestly, now that Peyton’s no longer the whipping boy (Dan Marino shakes his head sadly – he got to a Super Bowl, too, after all), it’s Marvin’s turn to bear the brunt of media backlash. Backlash is still attention – perhaps Peter King should read his own magazine.
And, Peter could have picked up this morning’s Kansas City Star, to read the ramblings of MFG’s former coworker Jason Whitlock. Apparently Whitlock brought an axe to grind with the supposedly overrated Harrison (largely because of Harrison’s rivalry with Whitlock fave Ty Law), ready to excoriate him in a column questioning Marvin’s greatness and lambasting fools who dare to compare Harrison with Cris Carter or Steve Largent.
Apparently, however, Carter himself — and former coach Jimmy Johnson — talked Jason out of his contrarian stance – and soon Jason realized it was a little counterintuitive to rip Harrison while he spends so much time condemning Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, and the like. The result is a somewhat redemptive column that meanders everywhere, but his beginning agenda is yet another product of the harmful groupthink discussed yesterday, which this week, at least, forecloses rational analysis of Marvin Harrison’s career. Sigh. Love media week.
And in other news — in a classic case of failure to understand one’s place in the market, ESPN — marketed largely to intense, cynical, frustrated, energetic clusters of submerged testosterone aged 15-29, launched article comments today. What positive discourse can come from that? The Worldwide Leader isn’t NPR - it’s the landing place for hours and btus of misunderstood sports fan angst, energy, and misplaced anger, pulsating through the keystrokes of meatheads and slackers everywhere.
To illustrate, wouldn’t you know it, MFG gives a ringing endorsement of Bill Simmons‘ Miami travails, only to read a horrendous puff piece by Simmons, lavishing praise upon Miami.
The 27-year-old Simmons would have scoffed and poked fun at each absurdity he ran into, instead of swallowing it up like Disney-fied candy. The 27-year-old Simmons would have, well, spent ten or fifteen hours mercilessly ripping and railing on the article’s idiot author, such as here, here, and here. (Thanks, Deadspinners.) To quote Simmons . . . Good times, good times. Or is that Bill McNeal?