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| Don’t let the smile fool you: It’s all fun till you don’t have an idea. |
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?", rose to No. 3 on the New York Times best-seller list. Reilly spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
You go to all the big sports events, interview the leading players and personalities and write a weekly column. And you 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.
It looks like it's fun, though.
Reilly: It is fun, but there's a lot of bleeding and gum gnashing in between.
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 prime time. 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.
Who's the shrewdest or most creative businessman in sports?
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 $20 million 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.
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 it's all worth 30 grand in just the endorsements, in just the play he's going to get now on Madden [video game]. What the average adult white guy doesn't understand is the big money is in all these video games and the endorsements that you get off it. And you know, because you have Terrell Owens grabbing the pompoms [in the video game], that it's going to be in there. So I don't want to hear anybody who's going to make money off Joe Horn complaining about it.
A review in The New York Times of a current novel said the book "feels overstuffed and undernourished at the same time." Could the same be said of our appetite for sports?
Reilly: More and more, my friends — and admittedly they're in their 40s — are saying, "I've had it with all the pro sports." They say they get so much more enjoyment out of the high school state tournaments. They go to watch the high school lacrosse championship. They go to watch the local college. When I ask why, they say, "Well, for one thing, I know they're going to stay there. They're going to be in the same jersey for four straight years. For another, the P.A. announcer doesn't scream at me for the whole two minutes and 20 seconds of the break. And for another, I don't have to hear about how much they make and they're going to sit out if they don't get traded next week."
There's a chapter in your book ("Who's Your Caddy?") on your match with Donald Trump. 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.
Sports is all about competition. Who's the greatest competitor you've seen?
Reilly: Michael Jordan. John Elway and Wayne Gretzy are also in there.
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.
What's the worst thing about sports?
Reilly: The worst thing about sports is that it's a laundry exchange. Free agents change shirts. Brian Jordan just signed with the Texas Rangers. It's 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.
What's your 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.
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.
Look for more of this conversation in our sister publication, The Sports Business Daily, located at www.sportsbusinessdaily.com.
