Here is an extended version of my interview with Deadspin's Will Leitch that appeared in the Feb. 7 issue of The Weekly. Enjoy....
Instead of chasing a career in mainstream sports journalism,
Q: What did you think of the ending to the Super Bowl?
A: I still feel like Eli Manning should have come out of the game talking like his balls dropped or something. I feel like he's like a man now. It was disappointing to see he's still a little bit of a yokel.
Q: It’s nice of you to talk to us, considering you used to work for the Daily Illini and everything, so I thought we’d get this out of the way and let you take your best shot at Northwestern.
A: Listen, I have a lot of friends who went to Northwestern, and I understand there’s a certain insecurity involved to the point where unlike a normal person you can’t just say you go to the journalism school at Northwestern. You’ve got your fancy name. No, you’re journalism students at Northwestern, just like we’re journalism students at
Q: What prompted you to write the book?
A: I’ve written a couple books before this and was looking for my next project. And Deadspin was just sort of an accident how it happened. Gawker Media knew my work and asked me if I wanted to do a gambling site. I’ve never been much of a sports gambler, and in fact I think it’s really bad for sports, which makes me a terrible person to run a gambling site, but I said I’d do a sports site. At the time I was working at this magazine, covering the financial services industry, and I was pretending every day like I cared about Merryl Lynch, which is a hard thing to do for two and a half years. But (Gawker) liked the site I started and took it over. So once the site started to get a little bit of readership, I thought maybe we could do a book out of this. It was originally going to be just 25 of these long, dense essays about the world of sports. And I wrote about three of those and got bored with myself about halfway through writing them, which is probably not a good sign for the reader. So we broke it up a little bit…. At Deadspin, I feel like I'm more of a facilitator than a columnist. My job is to introduce topics to people rather than take some strong stance on them. So the book is a little bit more fun. I get to be a little more personal.
Q: In the book, is there a chapter you think will stir things up the most?
A: think the whole media section will stir things up…. I find it astounding that people who choose as their profession to put themselves out there, whether by writing or by broadcasting, people in the media have such thin skin, it’s unreal. If you’re really that concerned about getting made fun of once in a while, go become a banker or an accountant or something. I’ll make pretty innocuous jokes and people will flip out about it…. If you put my name into Google, like the second thing that comes up is “Will Leitch sucks.” You have to have a pretty thick skin. I think the media section is actually pretty tame and light and I’m just trying to have fun with it, but people flip out about that. It’s pretty weird. It probably didn’t help that Page 6 of the New York Post said it was like the “sleazy antics of ESPN stars,” which is like two pages of a 310-page book.
Q: After reading certain parts of the book, it’s hard for an aspiring sports journalist not to get pretty discouraged about that career choice. Is that the correct reaction?
A: I think it would be pretty discouraging if that were going to be how things were from now on, but I don’t think they are…. Newspapers are going to want to be hiring people who understand the Web and how it works. One of my best friends works for the Aurora Beacon News, and the fact that he knows how to do a blog (has helped him) shoot up the ranks, because they’re like “Oh, you know how to do Web stuff? Great, can you do all our Web stuff?” Newspapers are getting a little better, but they still don’t get it, and that can only work to everyone’s benefit.
Q: Why has Deadspin been able to cultivate such a big following?
A: I never really thought it was because of any of my brilliance or anything. I think there was a real calling for something like this, and I mostly just feel fortunate I got there first. So it wasn't so much of a thing like, 'Oh, I can't believe it! This guy's a genius! Let's follow him!' It seems so logical now that obviously people would be looking for a place where they could congregate and get the best sports news off the Web all in one place and a fun take on it.
Q: One topic the book and the Web site cover a lot is ESPN and its shortcomings. If you could change one thing about ESPN, what would it be?
A: One thing wouldn't do it, it'd have to be the ethos of the whole place. Here's what's wrong with ESPN: You're a sports fan, and I'm a sports fan - whether we like it or not, we watch ESPN. We're not going anywhere. They've got us. There's no real major competition. Either we watch ESPN or we don't watch any sports at all. They're a corporation and realize to grow, they have to start going after the more casual fan and start dumbing things down a little.
Q: Being featured in the February issue of Penthouse had to be a proud moment for you.
A: Well it was certainly a proud moment for my dad. He finally realized I don't make my living by just sitting around and e-mailing all day (laughs). Actually that kind of is how I make my money. It was kind of an odd thing to have that happen. I was pretty surprised they put my name on the cover. That was not something you would hae expected coming out of that, because, you know, it's Penthouse.
Q: If you could sit down and have a drink with any professional athlete who’s playing today, who would it be?
A: I have to go with (St. Louis Cardinals pitcher-turned-outfielder) Rick Ankiel. He is the one athlete who totally busts through my whole thing of “Who cares what athletes think? They’re paid entertainers! We’re the consumers! We’re the boss.” I try to be this man of the people and promote this empowerment, this “C’mon fans, let’s take back our game,” thing, but then I’m like “Oooh, Rick Ankiel!” He’s probably my soft spot, and I don’t even think he drinks….You have to be careful not to put athletes on too high a pedestal or bury them too much, because on a certain level, they are in fact human beings, even if sometimes we don’t want them to be.
Q: Five years down the road, where do you see the sports journalism and blogging industries?
A: Any time you try to predict things, you’re going to be wrong… But I’ll say that people who work in the sports journalism industry are finally starting to catch on. I think we’ll start seeing more deals like (former Deadspin contributor) MJD’s at Yahoo! or Henry Abbot’s at ESPN. You’re going to see more people recognizing just how talented these people are and picking them up. I think that’s great. It’s always great to see more talent coming up, but it’s a little scary because there’s always that fear that what we’re doing is going to turn into what we criticize. I think you have to be really careful about that, and what you have to do is be irascible enough not to take any of these jobs. My fear is that all the good independent voices will get swallowed up, but in the end I guess that’s ok, because more independent voices will come. As long as you have people with talent and a way to express it, I think things will get better.”
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