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| SI Senior Writer Rick Reilly |
RICK REILLY is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he has been voted National Sportswriter of the Year eight times. He is the author of the "Life of Reilly" column, which runs on the last page of SI. His latest book, "Who's Your Caddy?" from Doubleday rose to No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list. Reilly spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal N.Y. bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
Question: You go to all the big sports events, interview the leading players and personalities, write a weekly column, and coach youngsters on the side. Is life all fun and games?
Reilly: (Laughing) Not when you don't have an idea that week. Then, life approximates hell. Because then you've got to spin it ahead, you've got to have something no one else has, you've got to have something that's not in the other parts of the magazine. If last week you were funny, then this week you've got to be mad. If last week you were mad, this week you've got to be quirky. I might have three or four ideas and they all stink, and I end up with my head in the oven.
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| Sponsors Taking Advantage Of
Elongated Breaks Between Pitches |
Q: But sports is a serious business, isn't it? LeBRON JAMES signs a multimillion dollar contract before he plays a game. The Super Bowl almost seems to exist as content for advertisers, a made-for-television event. TV time-outs interrupt the flow of college basketball games. Even the Little League World Series is now staged in primetime. Have the games become ancillary to the business of sport?
Reilly: They have been for some time. Did you see ABC football now is cybering ads onto the field during huddles? It's like, how much money do you people want? We're getting a different ad every pitch in baseball cybered in on the backstop. And it's gold for these people because NOMAR GARCIAPARRA takes about an hour and 13 minutes between pitches.
Q: That's a lot of ad time.
Reilly: JASON GIAMBI will take a pitch — TAKE A PITCH! — and adjust his glove, hat, belt and shoes again. What could have happened when you didn't even swing? But it's great for the advertisers because they can ply us with more ads. I'm waiting for them to do a close-up on ANDY PETTITTE's glove and cyber an ad in there.
Q: You've written about that in a recent column.
Reilly: Well, what's so great with TiVo is that you can zip past all that crap. But I guess that's why they're doing it also. Because with TiVo, we're all just zipping past the commercials, so they've got to get them in somewhere.
Q: Who's the shrewdest or most creative business person in sports?
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| Reilly Heaps Praise On Vandeweghe
For Renaissance Of The Nuggets |
Reilly: What's that guy's name in Oakland? BILLY BEANE. What he can do — he's like a chef who you give a can of tuna, a stick of celery, some 3-in-1 oil and he makes you chicken divan. Without any money, he makes you this great team. I also think KIKI VANDEWEGHE looks pretty smart in Denver. He's got a team [close to] first place, and he's got $20M still to spend under the cap next year. I think the dumbest guy in sports is this guy [JAMES] DOLAN. Whatever Midas is backwards, he's it. Everything gold he touches turns to Spam. The guy I don't get in sports is ELGIN BAYLOR with the Clippers. I think he's been through, I don't know how many coaches, 18 coaches in 17 years or something, and in every picture the guy firing the old guy and hiring the new guy is Elgin Baylor. Why doesn't anybody look at Elgin Baylor? How does that guy get to skate? He keeps hiring the wrong people. He doesn't do a good job managing the team.
Q: It has been said that BILL VEECK was ahead of his time, that he was doing sports marketing before the term existed. How far have we come in sports marketing?
Reilly: Veeck would still be ahead of his time now. All the stuff he came up with: the fireworks, the exploding scoreboard, the midget, and lots of things. I can't imagine what he'd be doing now, but I know it would be fun, as opposed to an Arizona Cardinals game, which is like dentistry without any kind of anesthetic.
Q: Speaking of fun, TERRELL OWENS pulls a Sharpie out of his sock after a touchdown. MICHAEL STRAHAN flexes his muscles after a sack. JOE HORN grabs a cell phone. Is showtime an inextricable part of sports? Do sports have to manufacture excitement?
Reilly: Joe Horn says, "I'm trying to make it exciting." He scores four touchdowns, making incredible, balletic leaps in the air while a 300-pound man tries to kill the quarterback. Isn't that exciting enough? But when I talk to my kids, my teenage boys, about it, they say, "Dad, lighten up. It's funny." What I'm waiting for, and I think this will probably happen someday, is somebody will catch a touchdown pass and be running toward the end zone and he'll pull out a mini video camera and video himself scoring. My point is that it's not fun; it's very calculated. Joe Horn knows exactly what he's doing, and its all worth 30 grand in just the endorsements, in just the play he's going to get now on Madden [video game].
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| Reilly Not A Big Fan Of
Frequent Skyward Salutes |
Q: A player scores a touchdown, makes a tackle, hits a home run, slams home a dunk, and then points skyward. Is God really that big a sports fan?
Reilly: I can't imagine in this day and age that God actually cares when BARRY BONDS hits his thirteenth home run of the year. I don't know, maybe he does. What I like are the guys that make a tackle and stop someone for a one-yard loss and point to God. And even God goes, "Come on. It's still second-and-11. So what!"
Q: BOB HORNER used to have a weight clause in his contract. Every two weeks he would get weighed. ALEX RODRIGUEZ now makes $25M a year yet receives an additional $100,000 if he makes the All-Star team. JOE NAMATH refused to have an incentive clause included in his contract because he said he couldn't play any harder. What's your take on incentive clauses?
Reilly: Wow, I didn't know that about Namath. Yeah, you would think a guaranteed contract would be enough. KEVIN BROWN signed a $15M a year deal and insisted on free jet travel for his family and friends. As my buddy STEVE RUSHIN says, "We live in an era when a 21-year-old can not only turn down a club's $100M contract offer, he can turn it down angrily." I love that.
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| Clinton Among Reilly's
Favorite Golf Partners |
Q: You have played golf with a variety of colorful characters. Who are the most engaging personalities you've met?
Reilly: Barkley, by far. CHARLES BARKLEY. The funniest, most intelligent athlete I've come across, and packaged in a way that's so real and so funny and accessible. I just think the guy should be, I know he wouldn't get up that early, but he could be president, he's so smart. PETE ROSE is colorful, too, but in a way you just want to wince. I thought [BILL] CLINTON was really fun and colorful. It was like playing with your next-door neighbor. He hit so many extra balls, I always felt bad for the poor caddy who had to go chase them. And the SWAT teams and the Secret Service weren't doing anything to help him.
Q: You have the last word in Sports Illustrated every week. Whom do you read?
Reilly: I like some of the old guys. DAMON RUNYAN is my favorite writer. I like JIM MURRAY, who was with the L.A. Times. I like JIMMY CANNON and WESTBROOK PEGLER and RING LARDNER. I like that they didn't have the urge to quote people all the time. The story you see now all the time in every article is, "It was a war out there yesterday." And then the quote: "It sure was a war out there yesterday," said coach. These old writers weren't down in the locker room. They just painted [the story] with words that were so fresh and new and colorful that they didn't need anybody's quote. They could say it ten times better than any linebacker. I saw a quote during the playoffs. One writer asked a pitcher, "Physically, where are you right now?" The pitcher looked around the room and said, "Physically? I'm right here." A lot of these guys, the newspaper flies them to the game, and they eat the free prime rib buffet in the press room, they're going to put everything on the expense account, they're taking their salary, and they can't think of a single question.
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| Jordan's Competitiveness
Outranks The Rest |
Q: What do you make of sports-talk radio?
Reilly: It's delivered to people who are holding down couch springs by people who should be holding down couch springs. These guys have never been in a locker room, never been in the clubhouse. They don't know anything about the sport, really, except they've got four hours to fill.
Q: Who is the greatest competitor you've seen?
Reilly: MICHAEL JORDAN. JOHN ELWAY and WAYNE GRETZKY are also in there.
Q: Favorite actress?
Reilly: To look at, or for acting? CAMERON DIAZ. She's a 12-car pileup. For acting, somebody like BETTE DAVIS.
Q: What's the best thing about sports?
Reilly: The best thing is that you can't fake it. Just because you're TOM SEAVER's son doesn't mean you get to play in the big leagues. But if you're MARTIN SHEEN's son, you get a job. Believe me, if TOM CRUISE's child wants to act, he'll get to act. And if AARON SPELLING's daughter wants to act, she gets to act. These people who are famous for being famous — it doesn't work in sports. You have to prove it, and you have to prove it every year. DEREK JETER doesn't just get to get by next year because he was in a lot of ads this year. It's not like being the Pope. It's not a lifetime appointment.
Q: What's the worst thing about sports?
Reilly: It's a laundry exchange. Free agents change shirts. BRIAN JORDAN just signed with the Texas Rangers. It has got to be his seventh team in seven years. People follow the fantasy standings often more than the real standings because the players — you can't even remember who the hell they play for. [The fantasy players] just picked Brian Jordan now and they don't even know what team he's on. They just know he's a good player.
Q: What is a typical day off like?
Reilly: My only day off is Saturday because I turn the column in Friday night and I don't have to start thinking again until Sunday morning, when they want me to polish it up. So, Saturdays, sports doesn't exist, except for college football I sometimes watch. I've got this little electric scooter and scoot around town. I play piano, goof off with my kids, play golf. I like listening to music. I read old mysteries by RAYMOND CHANDLER and DASHIELL HAMMETT and basically forget to floss.
Q: Who's your coaching model?
Reilly: I tell the kids it's not about winning, it's not about losing, it's not about sportsmanship, it's not about having a great time. It's about learning successfully to chew sunflower seeds, a skill that you will use the rest of your life.
Q: Last book read?
Reilly: "Henderson the Rain King."
Q: Last movie seen?
Reilly: Cold Mountain. I've been on many of those.
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| Reilly Lauds Ryder Cup As Most
Exciting Event He Covers |
Q: Favorite sporting event?
Reilly: The Ryder Cup is by far the most exciting. It always has the most drama, the best stories. And all these guys, all these multimillionaires, are playing basically for free shirts. And yet these guys, you can see their knees quivering, their eyes bulging. There's so much pressure. And they're not playing for a dime. Yet, they put themselves through it, and it takes so much out of their year. They do it for each other and for their country. It's such an amazing event. No matter how much it looks like a blowout for a while, it always ends up incredibly close. It's the most exciting thing I cover.
Q: OSCAR WILDE said, "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." Do you have a favorite quote?
Reilly: Yes, and it's also by Wilde: "Never write a sentence you've already read." That sits over my computer.
