Bob Ryan...Defining Joke

Bob Ryan is that once-revered, 'old coot' Boston Globe sportswriter. The public only enjoyed reading him because, well, back in the day the information pipelines were monopolized; and he was the best of the worst. The internet and the explosion of non-traditional media has thankfully outed him for the poseur that he always was.

Today he's rambling about Tiger Woods - about how worse than lying to and cheating on his wife is the fact that Tiger has become the butt of *jokes*!

Here's the problem.

You're allowed to falter. You're allowed to screw up. You're allowed to deceive. You're even allowed to lose, once in a while.

But you cannot allow yourself to become a cartoon.

He then attempts to draw a parallel prediction to NBA standout Dennis Rodman - a man whose antics eclipsed his accomplishments.

Is Tiger really in this category?



Well, Bob Ryan writes:

Tiger has more than likely moved into that category. Being a garden variety philanderer who legitimately falls out of love with his legally-wedded wife and into love with another woman is something people can understand, perhaps even relate to. But when you compile a dossier like his, with porn stars and blond bombshells of little personal substance, and your private e-mails and cell phone messages are out there for all to read and hear, you have entered into another category.

That's where I think Tiger is already. He's a joke, a punch line, a cartoon. That's the last thing you want to be, and I'm not sure it's reversible.

Well Ryan, most ironically, has become sort of a cartoon character in his own right in Boston. Everywhere he goes surely people ask themselves, "Why the bleep did I ever care about HIS take on last night's game???"

Though personally, I never, EVER cared much for him.

You know, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he wrote an article bemoaning that potentially the worst consequence of the disaster was that *many of his favorite restaurants might never re-open*!

And he also got in hot water dissing Jason Kidd's wife. Story here.

Some years ago, I used to harass him all the time over email - as did plenty of other blogger-types. But now, he's so pronouncedly irrelevant that most everybody ignores him.

Fame is indeed a slender reed to lean on....and that goes for all of them.

See also - Bob Ryan - Senility On Full Display.

(Some blogger here says that Bob Ryan hasn't written a basketball article in two months!)