The Weekend Interview: Charlie Warzel

Posted on February 2, 2013 by AD

The subject of the 2013 debut of the Weekend Interview is Charlie Warzel. After we featured his recent piece for Adweek’s Sports Issue, “Deadspin: An Oral History: How an irreverent sports site made the big leagues” earlier this week, Charlie graciously agreed to share his behind-the-scenes experiences and thoughts regarding the article and the state of online sports media.

Be sure to read the article, which opens with, “It all goes back to Ron Mexico,” and closes with, “Strip Club photos: courtesy of Deadspin.” Then check out our conversation, below.

Continue reading →

Friday Night Bonus Jam

Posted on February 1, 2013 by bpbrady

As promised on the ALDLAND podcast last night, I’m back with my first Friday jam in a while. Also as promised, it features ya boy Bangs, or Ur Boy Bangz as he styles himself now. No matter how Bangs chooses to spell his stage name, he is still bringing the noise when it comes to music. You only have to watch a tiny part of the video above to realize that in 20 years they will not be calling the Grammys by their present name, rather they will be renamed The Bangses.

No musician or musical group out there can hope to compete with Bangs, which is why it is sad that the Super Bowl made the decision to go with Beyonce rather than to get the best available act possible. The Super Bowl is arguably the biggest sports event in the world, and instead of the biggest musical act in the world we get more generic top 40 music. Maybe one day the organizers of this grand event will pony up the cash and get Bangs, but until then we will all just have to listen to his amazing music and watch his amazing videos (except for our international readers in Melbourne who can catch a Bangs show any time they want).

Seriously though, I would really like to take some time and lament how far the Super Bowl halftime show has fallen. I know no one watches the game for the halftime show, but after that whole Janet Jackson debacle they were on a great run for a while. Paul McCartney, the Stones, Prince, Tom f’ing Petty, the Boss and The Who. Bring back the classic rock, people! I know the kids might not like it, but kids are the worst! I am 100% positive that any of those above named guys could still rock out. What we really need though, is Van Halen. Kids need to learn what real music is. Okay, rant over. Have a great Super Bowl weekend, and whatever music you are listening to, make sure to do the Merton Hanks dance a bit to liven things up. See below for instructions.

ALDLAND Podcast

Posted on February 1, 2013 by bpbrady

With all of you ALDLANDers out there getting excited for the Super Bowl, we had to put out a robust podcast covering that game, and also the biggest game of the weekend, Michigan at Indiana. Join yours truly and Marcus as we cover everything from x’s and o’s to how dumb Chris Culliver is. Come for the Super Bowl, stay for discussion of James Franklin being a weirdo.

_______________________________

Download the ALDLAND podcast at our Podcasts Page or stream it right here:

_________________________________________________________________

Super Bowl Jam

Posted on February 1, 2013 by AD

The leadup to Super Bowl XVII has gotten a little raucous around here, and I promise it wasn’t planned that way. First, make sure you sign the petition, and then check out all of our Super Bowl coverage. You won’t regret it.

One item buried in all of that is a breakdown of a fantastic GIF of 49ers fans. While preparing my analysis, I came across a number of videos of musical performances that were new to me, even though the songs are well known. One of those was by a relatively recent Super Bowl halftime performer, so I decided to feature it in this spot this week:

_________________________________________________________________

The Truth: What really happened in the murder trial of Ray Lewis, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting (via Atlanta Magazine)

Posted on February 1, 2013 by AD

“When was the last time a high-profile case in Atlanta ended in acquittal?” Bruce Harvey asks. “For a criminal defense lawyer, it doesn’t get any better. It ain’t never gonna be no sweeter than this.”

The colorful, ponytailed defense lawyer smiles broadly, sitting behind his paper-strewn desk in a loft near the Tabernacle club downtown. Behind him, the wall is dominated by a framed photo and signature of legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow. Harvey’s Harley-Davidson motorcycle is parked in the lobby downstairs. “Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty,” he almost whispers. “You know, this was the right verdict. In that way, justice and the system was vindicated. When it works the way it’s supposed to work, our justice system is a glorious thing. The trial wasn’t the problem, the problem was that this case ever made it to trial. That was the disgrace.”

The Ray Lewis Murder Trial, beyond attracting more national attention than any courthouse drama to unfold here in more than 20 years, became a morality play for modern-day Atlanta. It had the intrigue of a well-crafted whodunit. The glitz and glamour of the Super Bowl. An NFL star accused of murder. The trappings of Buckhead. A setting outside a popular bar in which professional athletes partied in a VIP room. It had the street hustle of hip-hop. Young black men wearing mink coats and drinking $200 bottles of champagne with luscious gold-diggers hanging on each arm. It was the kind of trial that makes or breaks legal careers, that seals reputations. And it attracted the creme de la creme of Atlanta’s criminal defense lawyers.

“This was a defense lawyer’s dream,” says Harvey. “You had a high-profile, nationally significant case and an innocent client.”

The result was a stunning and humiliating defeat for Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. CNN legal analyst Roger Cossack went as far as to compare Howard’s performance to the bumbling Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther movies. “If they ever write a book listing the most inept prosecutions ever,” Cossack wrote in his online column, “this one will be highlighted as the standard by which all others are to be measured.”

In a series of interviews, both the defense team and Howard spoke candidly to Atlanta Magazine about the trial. Howard strenuously defended his handling of the case and his decision to enter the courtroom to personally prosecute after a nearly four-year hiatus from trial work. He described witnesses sabotaging the prosecution with organized silence. He answered criticism that he rushed the case to trial, maintaining that the case demanded aggressive prosecution.

Defense lawyers revealed how they shredded the prosecution case. They described political pressure from city officials that led to hastily drawn indictments. Some of the defense lawyers accused Howard of approaching ethical boundaries, even lying to them. (Howard denies all such allegations.) All the lawyers spoke openly of their behind-the-scenes disagreements, detailing awkward moments in coordinating a shared defense strategy. They told the inside story of Lewis’ dramatic 11th-hour plea agreement that gave the All-Pro Baltimore Ravens linebacker what he’d wanted all along: probation for a misdemeanor count of obstruction of justice. And they explained how they won the outright acquittals of co-defendants Joseph Sweeting and Reginald Oakley on all charges.

Above all, they talked about the truths that were never revealed in the courtroom. They talked about what really happened that night when two men died in the middle of the street in the heart of Buckhead. … Read More

(via Atlanta Magazine)

_________________________________________________________________

Ravens vs. 49ers: A losers’ guide to Super Bowl cheering

Posted on January 31, 2013 by AD

All is explained herein…

A question about Super Bowl Media Day

Posted on January 30, 2013 by AD

First, here’s Sports On Earth’s Mike Tanier on Super Bowl Media Day:

The most notorious event of Super Bowl week: a Roman orgy in which the wine and debauchery have been replaced by banal quotes and poorly concealed hostility. Media Day is our industry’s excuse to stuff a tube down our own metaphorical esophagus and gorge ourselves like foie gras geese on a fatty slurry of pregame hype. The players trapped inside interview booths for hour-long interview marathons are ironically the only people in attendance not trying to draw attention to themselves. The whole event is televised, and sometimes open to the ticketed public, so fans can watch players go glassy eyed at inane questions while reporters jostle each other as if the person who gets 18 inches closer to Pernell McPhee wins an automatic Pulitzer.

Media Day, like many Super Bowl events, has acquired its own gravity and atmosphere, so sportswriting cutups like me are more likely to write about Media Day than to write reports based on the interviews we conduct during Media Day. You might think that this would be a good year to report on the phenomenon of reporting on the phenomenon of Media Day, which I am technically doing in this sentence, but in fact that became a common angle on Media Day about two years ago. At some point, you just stick phrases like “Delanie Walker spoke to a bikini model holding a disco ball dangling from a fishing pole Tuesday,” on a plate with some field greens, then move on to something else.

Tanier’s basic take on Media Day isn’t new or fresh– something he readily acknowledges– even if his way of presenting it was.

The question is, why do the same people who hate Super Bowl Media Day seem to absolutely love the cultural circus that is college football’s SEC Media Days?

~~This is an open thread.~~UPDATE: This no longer is an open thread.

_________________________________________________________________

Beyond the Archives: How Big Government Cost Southern Conservatives a Super Bowl Win

Posted on January 30, 2013 by AD

Next up in our coverage of Super Bowl XLVII, we go outside the ALDLAND Archives for another memory of championship plans gone awry, the last of our unadvised foray into the nexus of football and politics. – Ed.

_________________________________________________________________

It was the waning days of the Clinton administration. Deep in the swingingest of swing states– the very and only one that determined the outcome of the election to name the President’s successor– a team of Southern footballers prepared to play for a championship. If they won, it would be their first. The squad’s “moral and spiritual leader” was a man named E. K. Robinson, a defender against offensive social values and offensive passing attacks. The day before the Super Bowl, Robinson received the Bart Starr Award “for high moral character.”

He celebrated receipt of that award and sought to prepare himself for the next day’s game according to his own, privately determined preparatory plan. A leader of the team all season long, he neither sought nor required governmental oversight in the execution of his preparation. He received it anyway, though, and as often is the case with government intrusion into individuals’ private lives, the results were disastrous.

Specifically, the government infringed upon Robinson’s attempt to contract privately with another individual in order to further his physical preparation. Before he knew it, it was 3:00 am (the very day of the championship tilt), and Robinson was under arrest.

Although he was released from custody later that morning and allowed to play in the game, the damage from the government’s regulation was done. Robinson was tired and distracted, and his teammates were rattled. From the People’s History:

[W]ithout much sleep the night before due to the [aforementioned invasion of privacy], Robinson gave up an 80-yard touchdown reception to Broncos receiver Rod Smith, giving the Broncos a 17-3 lead over the Falcons. Later, in the fourth quarter, he missed a tackle on Denver running back Terrell Davis that enabled Davis to break a long run to the Atlanta 10-yard line. The Atlanta Falcons ended up losing the game 34-19.

As the San Francisco Chronicle remembers, “The lopsided loss might have happened anyway . . . but the pregame distraction clearly rattled them.”

We’ll never know for sure, though, a fact that illustrates that the externalities of Big Government’s invasion of the private life of even one citizen truly constitutes an invasion of the private lives of every citizen.

_________________________________________________________________

Super Bowl Politicking

Posted on January 29, 2013 by AD

We really do try to keep politics out of these pages, especially when it comes to such focal sporting events like the Super Bowl. But once in a while, they creep into the picture. It happened last week, when I wrote about Super Bowl halftime performer Beyoncé’s appearance at President Obama’s inauguration, and it’s about to happen again.

No, I’m not announcing my candidacy for president, although with the site’s readership rapidly expanding from its historical base– 13-17 year-old females— to include people of all ages, genders, and nationalities, this would be the ideal time to do that. Still, were I to run, I assure you that my platform has been set for years. Here’s a sneak peek:

Find out about alien stuff and share it with the public.
Make the Monday after the Super Bowl a national holiday.
Forgive student loan debt.

I can’t reveal any more of the platform right now, or somebody else might use it as a free pass to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which is what it is.

Fortunately for all of us, one of these planks is within our immediate grasp. Some sensible folks have taken the initiative to draft a petition to the federal government to “declare the Monday following the Super Bowl a national holiday.” They’ve posted some reasons why you should sign their petition, but if you need convincing, you need help. Click here and sign this thing right away.

Finally, for you cynics who say that this will never result in anything meaningful, consider this: 1) the President is widely known as a sports fan with sports opinions, and 2) the President has already issued an executive order creating a federal holiday (of sorts) in response to a WhiteHouse.gov petition so requesting. Don’t say it can’t be done. Sign this petition now.

_________________________________________________________________

Deadspin: An Oral History: How an irreverent sports site made the big leagues (via Adweek)

Posted on January 29, 2013 by AD

It all goes back to Ron Mexico.

In 2005, The Smoking Gun broke the story of a legal complaint about a prominent athlete who “knowingly failed to advise” a partner that he was infected with a sexually transmitted disease. The athlete, then-phenom Michael Vick, was reported to have used the alias Ron Mexico during herpes testing, a story that quickly spread across the nascent blog culture of the Internet.

Will Leitch, an early, struggling blogger, got the idea for Deadspin after taking note of what he believed to be a failure in mainstream sports media: It wasn’t covering or even mentioning stories like the tale of Ron Mexico—stories that sports fans were eating up. Partnering with Nick Denton’s Gawker Media, Leitch launched a site that would talk to the average sports fan like a real average sports fan, eschewing, as the site’s motto goes, “access, favor and discretion.”

Over the last seven years, Deadspin has grown from a one-man operation run out of a bedroom into a formidable counterweight to the sports media industrial complex of Sports Illustrated, ESPN and other players. Along the way, Leitch and successive editors have exposed star athletes and top media personalities, offended countless readers and managed to make over the culture of sports journalism, all from the outside.

On Jan. 16, the site was the first news outlet to report that Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o’s girlfriend, whose “death” was the basis of one of the more inspiring stories of the past year, was a complete hoax. The story would explode and cement Deadspin’s place at the head table of the sports media world—and the mainstream media’s worst nightmare. … Keep Reading

(via Adweek)