The Fall of Rick Reilly

I don't have a subscription to Sports Illustrated anymore, but I used to read it religiously.  When each issue came in the mail, I used to immediately flip to the inside back cover and blow through the latest Rick Reilly column.  Reilly was my favorite sports writer in the business, and his ability to mix legitimate sports journalism with humor and a colloquial tone was something I admired and looked forward to.  When Reilly left SI and eventually made his way over to ESPN, I stopped renewing my Sports Illustrated subscription and began to read ESPN The Magazine instead.  I recently renewed my subscription to The Mag for another year, but this time it wasn't because of Rick Reilly.  Actually, it was in spite of him.

Somehow, Reilly went from bring one of my favorite sports writers to arguably my least favorite "journalist" in a matter of a few short years.  After ditching SI and starting to cash in what I assume are massive paychecks from ESPN, Reilly's writing has become increasingly lazy and decreasingly insightful.  Instead of digging deep into the sports world for the unique and original material that used to distinguish him from other sports media personalities, Reilly now seems to tackle whatever subject requires the least amount of research time and allows for the largest number of cheap jokes and uninspired random analogies.  Instead of a quality piece of writing, every recent Reilly article reads like a bad Family Guy script.

Rick Reilly's columns used to get well-deserved billing on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Take last week's "column" (if you can call it that) on regulars at the gym, entitled "Where everybody knows your name" and posted on ESPN.com on Friday, August 24th.  Devoid of any real content, the column buckets gym-goers into twelve different stereotyped charicatures, none of which are particularly funny, original or, frankly, even that accurate.  In typical modern Reilly fashion, his last line refers back to himself - a cheap, self-deprecating joke that does nothing for the reader other than remind him that, yes, Rick Reilly still exists and he's getting paid a lof of money to do very little.  I don't even know why I keep reading what Reilly writes anymore, given that I haven't enjoyed one of his columns in longer than I can remember.  I guess I keep hoping that, one day, the old Reilly will miraculously return to form, even though I know it's never going to happen.

I'll confess that, months ago, I was caught in the middle of a serious case of blogger's block and thought about writing a similar post about the types of people you see at the gym.  But after I thought about it for about 45 seconds, I realized that the content wouldn't be strong enough for Caught Looking - it wasn't really related to sports, it wouldn't be that funny and it would come off as nothing more than a cheap excuse to get something posted.  So if I decided that a similar post wasn't good enough for my blog, how could ESPN let Reilly post this column on its website?  Have his prior accolades and track record gotten him to the point where he can throw any garbage onto a page and his readers and editors alike will accept it?

After posting on Caught Looking every three or four days for the past two-plus years, I recognize that it's difficult to generate compelling content on a regular basis.  I also recognize the irony in me dedicating an entire post to blasting an extremely accomplished guy for obviously struggling with the same issues that I deal with while trying to maintain this blog.  But given how much I used to enjoy Rick Reilly's writing and how much I now dislike it, I felt like I had to capture my disappointment with his evolution the way the old Reilly himself might have done it - in writing.  Perhaps my expectations were just way to high, but I was hoping for much better when Reilly made the jump from SI to ESPN - and I'm sure I'm not the only one.