Now THAT is a professional headline tease.

Will Leitch from Deadspin joins the show to talk about his departure from the sports blogging world for a cushy job in the swanky, high profile realm of magazine editors.  For those under a rock for the last month, Leitch is leaving Deadspn – the site he created with his own blood, sweat, and carpal tunnels – to work as a contributing editor at New York Magazine.

Will asserts that he’ll still be floating around the Deadspin corner of the internet, in a Tom Brokaw-and-NBC capacity.  I ask if he thinks he’ll be more like Bill Parcels (or Larry Brown) where he says he wants out, but he can’t ever really leave.

We talk about where he sees Deadspin going in his absence and who he thinks will (and should) get one of the top jobs in the sports world.  All signs point to Daulerio, which is probably why Gawker will go with someone else, in my opinion (yes, we vote Balls on this one).  I ask Will if Gawker is faced with the philosophical conundrum of running ‘Will’s Deadspin,’ which AJ is an extension of, or Gawker’s Sports site, coincidentally (and fortunately) named Deadspin, which may warrant a fresh start. Will doesn’t think it’s that cut and dry, and he lauds AJ for being his own man, and frankly, a talented one at that.

We also spend a lot (note: A LOT) of time talking about Will’s bombshell of a post today, linked here, responding to the LA Times article on sports blogs. And here is the link to the LA Times.

If you don’t want to read the article, basically it asserts that sports blogs have changed in the wake of Buzz Bissinger’s mad ranting on Costas Now Live Now....Live...With Bob Costas (Costas Costas Costas).  Now.  Will’s post was a response to that article, keying a scathing defense of blogging for integrity’s and NOT popularity’s sake, taking shots at many of those quoted, including Jason McIntyre at The Big Lead and Mike Florio at PFT (and Deadspin’s own Daulerio.) in a blog post that will make the little Jerry Maguire in all of us proud. (My Jerry looks like L. Ron Hubbard.)

There are many quotable moments in that cut up (to the right, tagged Mission Statement), but this is one of my favs:

...

“I’ve never understood this notion that we need to ‘legitimize’ blogs or something.  Whether something is legitimate should be in the eye of the individual reader, not as some sort of....media group that we’ve all decided okay, ‘once we’ve gotten THEIR stamp of approval, we’re okay.’  I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

and this:

“Just because Buzz Bissinger won a Pulitzer Prize doesn’t make him any more educated on what a blog is.  He continues to be a great writer and a great journalist, but it doesn’t mean he knows what he’s talking about.  That’s where this got off the rails a little bit.”

...

We also talk sports.  While he is still a professional sportswriter, I take advantage to ask Will about the upcoming Olympics.  We talk about the issues facing the sportswriters going to China, and debate the relevance of the Olympics in today’s sports landscape (teaser: it’s not.)

After the interview with Will, friend of the show AJ Daulerio stops in to answer a few questions in rebuttal.

What’s this?  I’m acting like a REAL journalist?  Indeed.  I called Daulerio for comment on his LA Times quotes, to see if he was actually misquoted.  His reply:  “Yeah, I was f-ing misquoted!” (Note: I may have misquoted him there.)

AJ also takes a few minutes to talk about how many blogs, including the one he writes for, are mainstream media, whether traditionalists admit it or not.   And we somehow end up back on his quotes, and Will’s post today.  Is there a catfight brewing at Deadspin?  Listen to find out. 

Link to this:

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