“It might be cool. I don’t know, and if it’s not, I don’t care. Bill Simmons works for ESPN. He’s also named the Sports Guy, and he writes a comical sports column. He must be a popular dude. It’s got a real dirty sound, like a rusty steak knife cutting through a well- aged steak.”
The preceding is the intro to Bill Simmons’s podcast, which I listen to far more often than I read his columns. You see, Simmons writes long columns. LONG columns. Like 7000-word columns. I call this the Modest Mouse phenomenon. If they have a maximum 72 minutes on a CD, they’ll fill all 72 minutes. Maybe there’s only 40 minutes of good music, but hey, why not? Personally, I don’t have a problem with this. They’re going to charge the same amount anyway, so why not fill it up? I think Simmons has the same idea. He’s not constrained by print inches in a newspaper. There’s no 500-word limit. He could theoretically write forever. Here, I have a problem. I just don’t read long pieces online. I will sometimes print something out and read it later, but anything beyond one screen worth tests my patience, and I’ve never felt like printing anything related to sports.
I love the podcast though. He does them from his house, has a good selection of guests, and puts out several per week. I rarely miss one. Now, he has a new book. Sure, he’s promoted it a million times on his show, but I still took the bait.
