The Good Doctor Z Must Be Proud Of Himself » Brats & Beer

August 8, 2006
posted under: Brett Favre, Dr. Z

Columnist Dr. Z has created quite an uproar in Packer Nation. The longtime Sports Illustrated writer suggested in a column last week that Brett Favre never was as good as most of us think he was and that maybe he doesn’t deserve to get into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. As you can imagine, the Green and Gold faithful have gone into vigilante mode. Chris Havel of the Press Gazette issued a venomous point by point rebuttal yesterday while both the Oracle of Cheese and Railbird Central have taken Dr. Z to task for his ramblings. Well, score one for SI.com, Dr. Z, and Internet trolls everywhere.

What is most aggravating about Dr. Z’s column isn’t that he’s wrong, which he clearly is, but that it is yet another example of the hack journalism we have to suffer with in the age of ESPN, fantasy sports leagues, and Internet message boards. In football seasons past I have thought that Dr. Z was one of the better writers out there, much better anyway than the self-aggrandizing Peter King, but with this column he shows himself to be no better than Steven A. Smith, Jim Rome, or any other message board troll. The professional sports journalist is supposed to enlighten readers with thoughtful insight into the game, analysis, and opinion backed by facts, not to make lists or to try and compare apples to oranges for the sake of creating debate where there was none. Arguing a point just to get people talking (and to become the center of attention) is the job of Joe Blow down at the community tap or purplewarrior78 on Usenet.