Sunday, May 6, 2018

The King is Dead! Long Live the King! ... Wait, the King Lives


Wherefore art thou going, Peter King?

After 29 years, he’s walking away from The MMQB at Sports Illustrated, or so he said in on online announcement.

He’s giving up S.I. for NBC Maybe doing the same thing for 29 years is too much to ask of anyone. Except rooting for your favorite team, which you always do for life. Your love for your team always outlasts and outlives your relationship with any significant other you’ve ever had.
Every time.
Why do people change jobs anyway, be it in journalism, sports, sports media or even construction, medicine or being a personal trainer?
Like I always tell the classes I’ve taught (for 24 years), it’s always the money.
Always.
Why do players switch teams in free agency? They always say it’s for the opportunity, the chance to win a championship, but usually, it’s for the money. Ask Scott Michell, Matt Flynn. More recently, Nate Solder.

It’s always the money. And why not? I left my first job as a full-time sports reporter, after seven years, to go to work for a restaurant magazine – which offered me a 37 percent pay raise at the time. With a divorce staring me in the face and all the money to my name in my wallet at any given time, it was a little difficult to pass on it.
But I kept working freelance in sports, and still do to this day, covering games, and writing and editing books, detailing sports business drivers.
Sort of like the emotion that makes sure you value your team more than any other relationship in your life. You know it too.
But Peter King has already made a lot of money, his original Monday Morning Quarterback column becoming a staple of the football world in America. He once wrote the entire thing on his Blackberry. He had a following of 2 million or so we’re told.
I have parlayed my part-time love affair with sports, and my full-time love for my New York Giants, Knicks, Mets and Rangers, into two blogs, freelance work at two major dailies and two books I’ve either written or edited.
Like Peter King, I have a 29-year love affair with Jocelyn, my wife of that time period. She is my rock. She’s a sports fan. But I cheat on her. With sports, that is.
Just like you cheat on your significant other. With sports.
Ain’t it grand?
So go for it, Peter King. Do something “different” at NBC, whatever your job description there may be. You are forever the Monday Morning Quarterback.
Whether you want to be or not.
HOW GOOD WAS YOUR TEAM’S DRAFT?
According to espn.com, Jacksonville should be feeling “confident.” I’m having trouble processing that after watching their coaching staff express no confidence in Blake Bortles at the end of the first half against New England in the AFC Championship Game, making him run out the clock instead of trying to score with timeouts aplenty and decent field position.
The Baltimore Ravens are feeling “hopeful,” says the Mother Ship, after giving Joe Flacco some more weapons. Flacco won a Super Bowl – I mean, the defense won it for him, despite the NFL’s attempts to take it away with the now-famous blackout at the Super Dome. He’s done nothing since, with whatever weapons they gave him. The Ravens are fortunate to have the Browns in their division.
Besides, everyone feels hopeful after the draft and going into OTAs.
Unless your name is Belichick, good luck with that.