Adding my tribute: What Kobe did for me

Kobe Bryant treated me with class, respect and professionalism.  

I want to add this rather small experience to the many tributes to Kobe Bryant. 

As many know, I spent several years working as a sportswriter, and during that time I spent a decade covering the Utah Jazz and the NBA. As part of my job, I had occasion to interview a number of athletes, including Kobe. 

Tell me I'm wrong, bro: Gervais calls out Hollywood, and man, was it deviously awkward

Ricky Gervais

Even at their best, neither Bruce Lee nor Chuck Norris ever eviscerated anyone quite like Ricky Gervais did. 

Bruce and Chuck were masters of martial arts. 

Gervais was simply the master of ceremony at Sunday's Golden Globes awards. 

The British actor/comedian, never a popular guy in Hollywood anyway (he's seen as too mean-spirited, I guess), stood in front of the A-list crowd and attacked its hypocrisy with the surgical precision of a Kung Fu master ripping a man's heart out of his chest, then showing it to him before he dies (like Bruce Lee himself). 

There are a few things we all can learn from a guy like Taysom Hill

Taysom Hill

I'm just going to admit it: I love me some Taysom Hill.

Now, I am a proud University of Utah alumnus, so it may seem strange to some that I'm writing about my devotion to an ex-BYU quarterback, but I don't care one bit. The truth is, rivalry be damned, I really liked this guy when he was playing for the Cougars, largely because I appreciated the way he played the game (and, let's face it, he never seemed like the type of guy who'd come unglued and start screaming about how he hated everything about the U of U).

Even back then he had a certain charisma that was undeniable.

How social media makes for lazy journalism

A few weeks back I was texting back and forth with my oldest son, Grant, who’s a grown man with a family of his own.  He’s also a diehard baseball fan, just like his old man. 

During a National League playoff game we were watching together, several hundred miles apart, we began sending text messages to each other. 

The Chicago Cubs were playing the Washington Nationals, as I recall.

In one text I sent I said “I don’t like (Cubs manager) Joe Maddon.” 

Grant asked why.

Real journalism: Still on life support

Editor's note: The following is a Facebook post I wrote in November of 2015, after seeing then-University of Missouri Communications Dept. assistant professor Melissa Click take part in threatening a student journalist attempting to cover a campus protest. 
My sentiments haven't changed a bit, so I definitely feel like it's worth re-posting on this blog. 


I won't say journalism is dead, but in many ways the journalism I fell in love with as a kid is all but gone. Those who cared to notice saw the signs of decay worsen over the past few years, but the sickening video of a journalist attempting to cover University of Missouri protests earlier this week encapsulates exactly what's wrong. 

C'mon, man! Newton needs to know better than to use sexist remark

ESPN has a segment on its popular show “Monday Night Countdown” in which analysts choose something strange, funny or unbelievable that occurred during the previous week’s football-related events and have a good laugh about it. 

The segment is called, “C’mon, man.” 

Not everything ESPN does appeals to me personally, but for the most part “C’mon man” is fresh and fairly clever. 

In the wake of tragedy, how about we wait a few days before ramping up the rhetoric?

"What a terribly senseless tragedy,” we say, slowing down for a pious second or two before lunging for the virtual soapbox. 

By “terribly senseless tragedy” I mean what went on in Las Vegas over the weekend; or any other frighteningly violent event in which innocent people are shot, stabbed, bombed or run over.