NY Times review on Dan Jenkins’ new book: ‘A casual and sly sportswriter’s memoir’

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During my many years covering golf, it always was a thrill to know I was sharing the press room with Dan Jenkins. I know many of my colleagues felt the same way.

Looking forward to reading the great one’s new book, His Ownself. In a review, Dwight Garner of the New York Times writes that Jenkins was entertaining as always.

I woke up with a smile on my face every morning during the two or three days I spent reading “His Ownself.” It’s a casual and sly sportswriter’s memoir, albeit with a few egregious missteps that I’ll get to, one of those books that reminds you that good stories happen only to people who can tell them.

Mr. Jenkins has had, in his recounting, a busy, lucky and friend-filled life. If he tends to boil everything and everyone down to an anecdote, as if he were preparing to be the keynote speaker at the Great Sports Banquet in the Sky, well, at 84, he’s allowed. And his material isn’t bad at all.

Later, Garner writes:

Mr. Jenkins got to know almost everyone who mattered in sports, from Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer to Bear Bryant and Howard Cosell, but most of his best stories are about journalists and the writing life.

 He remembers the editor who told him, “See how many paragraphs you can go before you put the score in.” He recalls a “cocktail-motivated routine” he had with another Sports Illustrated writer, Roy Blount Jr., about how to respond to people who say, “I saw your book.” Part of this routine went — and I recommend these lines to writers everywhere — “You saw my book? What was it doing?”

Garner, though, was critical on one point.

His anti-P.C. campaign is where his geezer routine crosses over into something worse. On Twitter in 2010, writing about the Masters Golf Tournament, he made a racist joke that got him into trouble: “Y. E. Yang is only three shots off the lead. I think we got takeout from him last night.”

Mr. Jenkins’s memoir would have been a good place to apologize, so we could all move on, but he doesn’t. Instead, he doubles down, printing several similarly derogatory and sophomoric Asian jokes. Now this writer is going to be partly remembered for this stuff, which is a shame.

I haven’t seen the book, so I can’t comment about Garner’s view here. Jenkins, though, has pretty made a career skewering everything and everybody in his books. I expect it is in the context of Jenkins being Jenkins again.

Regardless, I heard Jenkins tell many stories during my days in the golf press rooms. Now I can’t wait to read them.

Chris Russo to get new daily show on MLB Network

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Chris Russo will be coming to your television five days a week courtesy of MLB Network.

Here is the official rundown:

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This spring MLB Network will launch a brand new weekday studio program as Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, one of the most accomplished sports radio voices in the country, hosts his first TV-based baseball talk show, High Heat with Christopher Russo. Starting on Opening Day, March 31 at 12:00 p.m. ET, Russo will bring his passionate opinions and energetic delivery to MLB Network for a one-hour live program every weekday with discussion on all 30 MLB clubs and interviews with players and club personnel.

Each show will begin with “The Brushback,” Russo’s opening monologue on the day’s biggest headlines, followed by “Coast to Coast,” a fast-paced look at the top news around the league with a roster of on-air contributors including MLB Network analysts Al Leiter, Dan Plesac, Harold Reynolds and Bill Ripken, insider Tom Verducci, and national and local beat writers and broadcasters. High Heat will also highlight the voices of the game with “Curtain Calls,” where Russo will give his take on the most talked about game calls from the previous day, while viewers will have the chance to give Russo their feedback in a voicemail segment called “Man Bites Dog” to close out every show.

After Opening Day, High Heat will lead off MLB Network’s live studio programming schedule at 1:00 p.m. ET unless a game telecast is scheduled at that time, in which case it will air live at 12:00 p.m. ET. High Heat will be produced by MLB Network and simulcast on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM.

Russo joins MLB Network’s programming lineup in addition to his roles hosting “Mad Dog Unleashed,” his all-sports radio show, weekdays on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio, and serving as SiriusXM’s Baseball Ambassador on MLB Network Radio. Russo joined SiriusXM in 2008 after nearly 20 years in New York hosting the popular Mike and the Mad Dog show. Russo can be followed on Twitter via @MadDogUnleashed.

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Musburger isn’t retiring any time soon: ‘I would be watching them on TV anyway, so why not go out and get paid for it?’

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Tuesday, I did a long story in USA Today about the significant number of announcers/analysts still going strong in their 70s, and even 80s, in TV sports at the national and local levels. It is unprecedented.

The list includes Vin Scully, Dick Vitale, Marv Albert, Verne Lundquist, Lee Corso, among others.

I talked to several of the prominent names, except one: Brent Musburger, still going strong at 74.

A little background: My connection with Musburger goes deep into my sports roots. Prior to becoming a big national star at CBS, he was the local sports anchor for WBBM-Ch. 2 during the 70s in Chicago. In the days before ESPN and the Internet, I grew up getting my sports news from Musburger. He was tremendous back then, and it didn’t take long before CBS Sports gave him the keys to the entire enterprise. In some way, I imagine he helped lay the foundation for me wanting to be a sportswriter.

So naturally I wanted to talk to Musburger. However, after several requests to ESPN, I was told that he wasn’t doing interviews at this time.

In the USA Today piece, I wrote:

With his contract expiring at ESPN this summer, Musburger is turning down interview requests. There has been talk that the network will make Chris Fowler their lead play-by-play voice for college football.

Wildhack wouldn’t talk specifically about Musburger’s situation other than, “My hope is that Brent will be with ESPN for years to come.”

OK, fine, I understood that. However, last week I saw Jason Lisk of Big Lead did a behind-the-scenes story on Musburger, Fran Fraschilla, Holly Rowe and the ESPN production crew during a basketball game at Kansas. The story included quotes from Musburger.

When I pointed out to ESPN that Musburger spoke to Big Lead, I was told that this was a different circumstance with the reporter being on campus. OK, whatever.

However, I felt bad there weren’t any Musburger quotes represented in my story. So I wanted to include his sentiments from the Big Lead story here about still being on top of his game in his 70s.

Lisk writes:

Another way that Musburger stays young? He never thinks he has it all figured out. “I guess my father taught me at a very young age. It’s what you learn — after you think you know it all — that matters. And I’ll learn something tonight about one of these kids.” He specifically cites his change in opinion of Andrew Wiggins, a player he thought was unprepared and overhyped at the start of the season, but now sees as ready to start in the NBA.

He also shows off that humor when discussing the pre-game preparation that includes chatting with the officials before the broadcast. “With Bob [Knight], a couple of them would come over, and there might be one go hide in the corner somewhere [laughs]. With Fran, they all come over.”

He didn’t want to talk about how long he could do this, or envision what it would be like to retire. “I’ve been married fifty years now. My wife will tell you it’s more like twenty-five because I’ve traveled so much. I’m not sure that she would be able to tolerate me around the house, 24/7 every day.”

It isn’t work when you love what you do, and Musburger still loves every event. “It’s energizing, and wherever I go, like I spent the week in Vegas doing the Vegas game, got a lot of friends in that town, a lot of people I like to talk to, and, listen, if I wasn’t doing these games, I would be watching them on TV anyway, so why not go out and get paid for it?”

And I loved this passage from Musburger:

“What are the best things you ever do? I hope it’s tonight, I hope that this game goes five overtimes, with a buzzer beater to end it. I’m more interested in how Oklahoma is going to stay in this game from the get go.”

“If—if—I was not interested, you would be conducting this interview over the telephone, with me touring some exotic place with my wife, like Singapore—I throw that out because I’ve got in my mind I might want to go there—and I would not be around. If I was not interested, then I’m not around you, I’m out. The day I say I’m not interested in whatever event I’m covering, then I’m done, okay. I’m out. For me, the biggest thing on my mind is tonight.”

Musburger did not address his future at ESPN with Big Lead. Clearly, though, he isn’t retiring anytime soon. The kid who grew up watching him in Chicago is very thankful for that.

 

Who will play jerk Dave Kingman? Movie to be made about early struggles for woman sportswriter

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According to Variety, Susan Fornoff’s book, Lady in the Locker Room, is going to be made into a movie.

I knew Fornoff way back when she was covering the Oakland A’s for the Sacramento Bee. Unfortunately, she found herself in the news when Dave Kingman, one of the all-time idiots, sent her a rat for reasons only he can explain.

I’m sure that episode will find the way into the film. Hopefully, the filmmakers will find a good actor who knows how to play a boorish oaf.

Also, they will make a good movie in keeping with last year’s Let Them Wear Towels documentary about women sportswriters on ESPN.

Tatiana Siegel reports in Variety:

CBS Films and Last Vegas helmer Jon Turteltaub are reteaming for a period film about one of the first female sports reporters to break the gender barrier. 

The company has acquired a pitch by Joel Silverman based on Susan Fornoff‘s book Lady in the Locker Room. The deal also includes Fornoff’s life rights.

Turteltaub is attached to direct and produce with Karim Zreik (Common Law). Silverman will write the screenplay.

In the 1980s, Fornoff fought to secure equal rights for female sports journalists, insisting they deserved the same access to athletes as their male colleagues. At the time, most sports leagues barred women from entering the locker room, which made it difficult for writers like Fornoff to do their jobs. Fornoff, who worked for papers including USA Today and the Sacramento Bee, finally smashed that barrier, becoming one of the first women to enter the locker room. The movie will chronicle her hilarious and harrowing journey to thrive in this ultimate man’s world.

Red Smith Award finalists include Wendell Smith, Ryan, Montville, Vecsey; APSE contest winners

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It is award season for APSE. Judging for this year’s contest is taking place at the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana in Indianapolis.

The finalists for APSE’s biggest honor, the Red Smith Award, have been announced. They include some big writing names and some editors who have contributed to APSE, including my former boss at the Chicago Tribune, Dan McGrath.

It is interesting to note Wendell Smith is on this list. Given the history he made in pushing for the first African-American player in the baseball; covering Jackie Robinson’s historical first year; and becoming the first African-American to join the Baseball Writer’s Association of America, it seems like a special award should be named in his honor.

In fact, I’m sure Red Smith wouldn’t mind if the APSE renamed it the Red Smith-Wendell Smith Award. Just a thought.

Here are the bios of the nominees. Balloting for APSE members runs through the end of March.

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Nominees Bios

Richard Kyle Fox
He was the first great sports editor in the United States. Under his aegis, his magazine, The Police Gazette, virtually created championship boxing in the late 19th century. Fox’ magazine also featured crime and sex, but because his sports coverage was so successful, he encouraged newspapers to devote space to sports, to have whole sports pages. Every sports editor in America is, essentially, descended from Fox.

Henry Freeman
Freeman spent 47 years in newspapers as a top newsroom editor and publisher, and is renowned for his strong imprint on sports journalism as a pioneering Managing Editor/Sports at USA TODAY. He was a master innovator and motivator, passionate about journalism and sports. He drove the development of sports staples that were revolutionary. Freeman became APSE president in 1987, with the treasury almost empty after the organization had twice teetered toward insolvency. Through his leadership, APSE bylaws were changed to require presidents to live within a budget – putting APSE on solid ground.

Dan McGrath
McGrath made his mark as reporter, columnist and sports editor (along with some news posts) through the country, from the Sacramento Bee to the Chicago Tribune and myriad posts in between. He was an industry leader and mentor to countless journalists.

Leigh Montville
Montville spent almost 20 years as an award-winning sports columnist at The Boston Globe, was in a group of three that became the first back-of-the-book columnists for Sports Illustrated and has gone on to write best-sellers on Ted Williams, Dale Earnhardt, and Babe Ruth, among others. In 2013, he was inducted into the National Sportswriters and Sports Broadcasters Assn. Hall of Fame. In a brief stint with the now-departed CNN/SI sports network, he won a Cable ACE award for commentary. He’s figured out how to translate a unique voice over a variety of different platforms.

Sandy Rosenbush
Sandy is currently the college football news editor for remote production crews at ESPN but she’s been in newspapers and magazines most of her career at the New York Times, Washington Post and Sports Illustrated. She’s a former president of APSE and was honored by AWSM with the Mary Garber Pioneer Award. She is a founder and year-in, year-out supporter of the Sports Journalism Institute, which has been adding diversity to our industry for 20 years.

Bob Ryan
Ryan wrote for The Boston Globe for 44 years, 23 of those years as a columnist, before his retirement in 2012. He still is an occasional contributor. As a general columnist he has a style that connects with the Boston audience in a way that few have. His exposure on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters has raised his profile nationally. Because his Boston experience goes back so far, he brings a perspective to Boston stories that is rare. Yet, his style has never gotten tired, and he maintains an enthusiasm for the games that is unusual for someone who is doing what he has been doing for so long.

Glenn Schwarz
Schwarz began his career as an outstanding and longtime baseball reporter, then made seamless mid-career transition to sports editor where he led San Francisco Examiner, and later the San Francisco Chronicle, to a number of APSE Top 10 section and writing awards.

Wendell Smith
Smith was instrumental in pushing Major League Baseball to integrate and pushing the Brooklyn Dodgers to sign Jackie Robinson in 1946. He did this while experiencing horrible slights, including not being allowed in many press boxes in spring training in Florida while covering Robinson. With Sam Lacy, a previous Red Smith Award winner, he would cover Major League Baseball meetings, working hotel lobbies trying to convinced MLB owners to consider allowing African-Americans to participate and be included in the majors. He was a columnist and baseball writer for the Pittsburgh Courier and later the Chicago American. Smith was portrayed in the recent movie “42” He died in 1972.

Terry Taylor
The recently retired Sports Editor of the Associated Press was a smart aggressive editor who did a first-rate job supervising the coverage of sports for AP for more than 25 years. She was a true pioneer for women in sports journalism and a star in any league.

Fred Turner
Turner began at the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass., as a co-op student from Northeastern University in Boston, worked the city desk and then sports, eventually becoming sports editor. He left the paper in 1980 to become the sports editor of the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. In his 25 years as the boss, he turned the small-town newspaper into one of the country’s best, winning numerous APSE awards, sending many editors across the country to become sports editors, molding writers who also went on to bigger markets. Fred passed away in 2011.

George Vecsey
Vecsey, a long-time New York Times sports columnist, has written about the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics and a wide variety of sports including tennis, football, basketball, hockey, soccer and boxing. But he considers baseball, the sport he’s covered since 1960, his favorite sport and has written more books about baseball than any other sport. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Stan Musial: An American Life, Baseball: A History of America’s Favorite Game and Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner’s Daughter, which was made into an Academy Award-winning film.

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Here is the link to APSE for all the contest winners.

Congratulations to my current sports editors Mike Kellams and Tim Bannon at the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune was a Triple Crown winner in the large newspaper category (175,000 circulation and above) for placing in the top 10 in daily, Sunday and special sections. The other papers to sweep the three major categories were the LA Times, NY Times, NY Daily News, and Kansas City Star.

Bonnie Bernstein on new role behind the camera: ‘So much more me than the chick you see on the air’

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My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University is on a career transition for Bonnie Bernstein. After more than two decades as an on-air personality, she is relishing her new behind-the-scenes role in shaping Campus Insiders.

From the column:

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The calendar is turned, and Bonnie Bernstein is gearing up for a busy March. That’s nothing new for the long-time sideline reporter for CBS and ESPN.

Yet this won’t be the usual routine for Bernstein. She is taking a different view these days of “March Madness” and college sports.

Bernstein is an integral part of Campus Insiders. It is a new high-tech, high volume college sports site. Campus Insiders is a big money initiative of IMG and Silver Chalice, a business division of the Chicago White Sox. It has contributing reporters on virtually every campus; digital rights deals for games with several conferences; and partnerships with companies such as Cadillac.

Naturally, Bernstein is featured on the Chicago-based network. She hosted a daily show during the football season and will be doing interviews and other appearances during March Madness. CBS and Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis also does a bi-weekly show for Campus Insiders.

Bernstein’s card, though, reads: vice-president of content and brand development/On-air host. While she is considered a primary face of the network, her primary role is behind the scenes.

Bernstein spends the bulk of her time on the marketing end, meeting with potential business partners. She also is heavily involved in the process guiding the content for Campus Insiders.

Now 43, Bernstein sought to do more with her career than to catch a few sound bites from a coach coming off the field. Not that’s there anything wrong sideline work, but there was a sense of been-there, done-that for her. She wanted more.

“When I hit 40, I remember thinking, it’s time to start thinking about 2.0, and what’s that going to look like, because I don’t want to just be talent the rest of my life,” Bernstein said. “Some people take the on air role and just run with it. It’s not that I don’t, I certainly do, and I always will. But I knew I wanted to start getting behind the camera.”

After more than two decades on TV, Bernstein actually feels she always has been better suited for this role. She insists she isn’t a make-up person and cracked, “I am the furthest thing from a fashionista that you will ever find.”

When countered that she always looks nice on TV, Bernstein said, “slap makeup on a pig, it’s still a pig.”

Again, you would get some dispute about Bernstein’s self-description, but here is her point.

“(The make-up and clothes are) not me,” Bernstein said. “This is my TV persona. When I’m sitting in these meetings and brainstorming about what our social media strategy should be, how we can tweak the show to make it more compelling to our target demographic, who do we want to go out and approach as sponsors and what’s our philosophy on approaching a sponsor…? All of these strategic conversations that I’m having, that’s so much more me than the chick you see on the air.”

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And there’s more from Bernstein in the rest of the column.

 

Why Fox went with three in the booth for its A baseball team

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Ultimately, Fox decided it would take two men, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci, to replace Tim McCarver with its A baseball team.

Why the threesome with Joe Buck navigating extra traffic? The principles explained yesterday in a teleconference.

From Richard Deitsch at SI.com:

Fox Sports management said it has known that Buck, Reynolds and Verducci would be its lead MLB team for a couple of months after the three had a practice broadcast together in St. Louis late last year. Rehearsal games often do not go well in sports broadcasting, but management said it was particularly impressed by the chemistry between the three men. Said Shanks: “The thing you look for in television is, do the guys like each other? Do they respect each other? Do they work hard to make the guy next to them look good? That’s what we found. It was surprising right off the bat that it was there, so we have high hopes.”

Network executives said they did not enter the search with a preconceived notion about using a two-person or three-person booth. John Entz, the executive producer for Fox Sports, said that he was impressed by the hundreds of hours Verducci and Reynolds worked together in the studio at MLB Network.

“It would be a heavy decision in any case but when you have someone taking the mantle from Tim McCarver, I think we all felt an extra layer of pressure,” Entz said. “We had several meetings on it and it was the topic of conversation over dinner, hallway conversations. This was not a simple one and done meeting where we decided it.”

Buck said he was nervous during the practice broadcasts because he had developed such an innate feel with McCarver over 18 years together. But he came away feeling very positive.

“I can tell you literally, within five minutes, this was going to be the combination if my opinion had anything to do with it,” Buck said. “This felt very easy, and three-man booths are not easy. But I think the three-man booth can work when the two guys come at it from different perspectives and they can debate something or they look at different parts of the game or different parts of a pitching sequence or whatever it might be. I told anyone I knew: We found it and this is going to be really, really special.”

Special? Obviously, that remains to be seen.

As I wrote previously, the sportswriter in me is hoping the Tom Verducci component works. If it did, it might open the door for more sportswriters to sit in the analyst’s chair for games in all sports.

Showtime: Jeff Pearlman on being ‘book whore’ to promote new book on Magic’s Lakers

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This is a big day for Jeff Pearlman. His new book, Showtime, is formally released.

Pearlman, though, has been pounding the pavement, literally, and hitting the phones with abandon for weeks to promote his extensive look at the Los Angeles Lakers “Showtime” teams of the ’80s.

I will have more on the book later, but I was amused by a post on his site in which he discussed the process of trying to generate some publicity for Showtime. Pearlman is much more experienced at this exercise than me, but I now can relate as I attempt to hype my book, Babe Ruth’s Called Shot: The myth and Mystery Behind Baseball’s Greatest Home Run. (Notice the not so subtle plug).

 

Pearlman wrote about handing out flyers for the book at a Lakers game at the Staples Center.

Writing books is great. Tremendous. Awesome. It’s two years of being left alone; of digging; of feeling out a subject and reading and traveling around. Really, it’s one of my true loves, and I’m insanely fortunate to be doing this for a living.

Promoting books, on the other hand, is eh, um, well, awkward. But necessary awkward.

You call in favors. You ask friends and colleagues to spend money on your product. You Tweet incessantly, usually about yourself and your work. I don’t think I’m a huge ego guy, but book pimpin’ requires ego to emerge toward the forefront.

Later, he wrote:

PS: When Sweetness came out, I planned on handing out flyers at Soldier Field. Then the backlash happened following the SI excerpt. Then the violent threats started. Then the book burning. And I thought, “Eh … maybe not.”

In another post, Pearlman wrote:

Publicity, however, is a beast. Leigh Montville, one of the best of the best, once told me being an author is akin to living in a cave for two years, then emerging for two weeks of light before returning to the darkness. It’s a perfect analogy. Showtime (Amazon link right here) isn’t even out yet, and I’m squinting to guard my eyes from the light. I’m calling in every favor. I’m jumping at every media opportunity. I’m Tweeting nonstop. My website has been redesigned. You wanna have me on your radio show? Your podcast? Your neo-Nazi, anti-cookie, pro-Al Oliver transistor program? Um … OK. What time do I call in?

For better or for worse, this is a huge part of the process. Talking, talking, talking, talking—when you’re significantly more comfortable writing, writing, writing. You’re grateful for any opportunity; willing to go anywhere; delve into any topic. You wanna ask about John Rocker for the 987,533rd time? OK. You want me to drop some Young MC rhymes? No sweat. If you’re taking the time to talk Showtime, I’ll happily do whatever you ask.

I am Jeff Pearlman.

I am a book whore.

Yep, I can relate.

By the way, here are a couple of Q/As with Pearlman on the book.

Big Lead.

Tom Hoffarth, Los Angeles Daily News.

I will have my own Q/A with Pearlman soon.

 

 

 

Still awesome, babeee! Unprecedented era of 70-and-over announcers/analysts working at top of their games

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I did a piece for USA Today on a remarkable trend: A huge number of announcers/analysts in their 70s who still are working the big games. It is unprecedented in TV history.

An excerpt from the story.

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Dick Vitale turns 75 in June. He has been around so long that sports viewers born in 1979, when he began at ESPN, are veering toward middle age.

Yet Vitale, the former college and NBA coach, has no intention of getting off the thrill ride that has been his sportscasting career. And why should he? When he walks into arenas, the first sight of the familiar bald head sparks cries of “Awesome, Baby!” and “PTPer” from college kids who still devour his shtick the way their parents did at that age.

Vitale absorbs the energy that comes his way as if it would allow him to turn back the clock.

“I never have had a problem relating to young kids,” Vitale said. “I love being around them. They keep you young. If you didn’t tell me I was 74, and if I didn’t look in the mirror, I wouldn’t even know it.”

Vitale is at the forefront of an unprecedented trend in sports television. Long gone is mandatory retirement age, which led to then-CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite leaving the network nine months before his 65th birthday.

For all the talk about catering to the young demographic, there never has been a time with so many announcers and analysts older than 70 who continue to be featured in high-profile sports coverage by the networks.

This year’s Bowl Championship Series title game was called by Brent Musburger, who turns 75 in May, and the soundtrack for the NBA All-Star Game on TV was provided by Marv Albert, 72. Verne Lundquist, 73, works the big Southeastern Conference football games for CBS and on Feb. 23 called Michigan’s basketball victory against Michigan State with Bill Raftery, 70.

The loudest cheers for ESPN’s GameDay studio show on college campuses in the fall are for Lee Corso, 78. And the 70s club will get a high-profile addition in November when Al Michaels celebrates a big birthday.

At the local level, there are numerous team announcers and analysts who continue to thrive into their 70s, preeminently, Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play man Vin Scully, who signed on for another season at 86. Dick Enberg, 79, has called San Diego Padres games since the 2010 season. The 2013 World Series marked the Fox Sports farewell of Tim McCarver, 72, but he signed to do some St. Louis Cardinals games this year.

Albert insists he doesn’t pay attention to his age. He cracked, “Seventy is the new 68.”

If anything, he contends he is improving with age.

“I feel I’m better now than I ever have been,” Albert said. “You learn so much as you’re doing it. I’m watching tapes, and I’ll see things that get me annoyed and where I know I can improve. I love what I’m doing. As long as I can stay at the same standard, there’s no reason to stop. It feels pretty good.”

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Here is the link to the entire the story.

 

 

Mariotti writes about first-hand experience with Darren Sharper lawyer; Calls him ‘A liar’

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Jay Mariotti says he has moved on with his life. He writes that he is happy doing a daily web radio show at Mariottishow.com. Naturally, he also pumps out columns for the site.

Yet Mariotti confronted his past today in a column about Darren Sharper. It turns out he has first-hand experience with Sharper’s attorney.

Mariotti writes:

I will not pretend to know if Darren Sharper raped as many as nine women in five states, as charged. But I do know that his Los Angeles-based attorney says the former NFL star is innocent.

And I do know, from personal experience, that his attorney is a ruthless liar.

Keep my narrative in mind as a jurisprudence-weary sports world examines the latest legal entanglement involving a high-profile football name. Sharper, a five-time All-Pro who is accused of drugging women in most of the alleged rapes, is represented by Leonard Levine. He is best known as a criminal defense attorney, recalling his successful 2006 defense of Mark Sanchez when the current New York Jets quarterback was accused of sexual assault as a USC student-athlete. But curiously enough, in August 2010, Levine chose to reverse roles and represent a troubled plantiff who’d lost her full-time job, had little money to her name and chose to tell lies and press charges against an innocent man who’d simply tried to help her.

Me.

Mariotti details what happened to him in the domestic abuse case that derailed his career. Then he writes:

Lawyers lie — it’s a redundancy — but Levine recklessly disregarded the truth and severely damaged my reputation in a retaliatory Los Angeles Times story. Because I didn’t want my family exposed to further one-sided media coverage and rampant lies being told by the plaintiff, I chose not to pursue this winnable case in a very expensive trial. By pleading no contest to a low-level misdemeanor, I would proceed with my life and remove an assortment of money-grubbers and headline-seekers from my daily existence. With the drama over, my attorney issued a statement to the media. Levine, who did not like my Orange County-based attorney and squabbled with him during the process, was incensed by the statement.

So, to retaliate, he invented a sick lie. He told the Times that I’d punched his client in the face. I haven’t punched anyone in my life, much less a woman in the face. He didn’t tell the Times that she was a heavy drinker, didn’t tell the Times that she was the one abusing me, didn’t tell the Times she had fallen twice on a drunken boat excursion off Marina del Rey — with several witnesses around — and sustained bruises that Levine conveniently blamed on me. No, Levine wanted to get back at my attorney. So he fabricated a horrible image of me for public consumption.

Mariotti writes about further problems he had with Levine’s client. Things, though, have been quiet for a while, and as he said, he is on to the next phrase of his life.

He concludes:

In the coming weeks and months, you’re going to read quotes from Levine defending Sharper. This is what he told a judge last week:

“All of these were consensual contact between Mr. Sharper and women who wanted to be in his company, who voluntarily ingested alcohol and drugs in many cases.”

All nine cases were consensual. That’s what Levine is saying.

And this is what he said when agreeing to a judge’s edict that Sharper not go to bars or clubs: “If he goes to a bar and meets women, he’s putting himself in a position of being accused of misconduct whether it’s true or not.”

Levine would know. He used that strategy against me.

May the better lying lawyer win. Such is the American legal system, 2014.