City Of New York Deserves Better Sports Writing

It’s on like Donkey Kong!

Rob Parker has a history of being a jackass

GO BLUE!

I like a full bodied Cabernet Sauvignon with my pork barbeque. Of course, I don’t like to waste my dixie cups on such occassions so we just pass it around and drink it from the bottle.

Man, these are the times I wish I weren’t banned from commenting on ESPN…maybe it’s time to make an alternate ID?

Honestly, Atlanta fans can be pretty bad. But this coming from a NYer with bad information and inaccurate stereotypes just makes me mad. Like a cheerleader with a pencil having done no research.

Let’s go Birds!

As long as Tampa and Miami are fielding sports teams no other city is even in contention for worst sports town.

I would think that the meltdown of the Jets would be a much more interesting story to continue writing about this week… but no, they have go and invent one.

… that mention of pork-saturated barbeque – it’s Daddy D’z for dinner now.

The New York area doesn’t even support a real college football team. Georgia Tech (whom I detest) has a better football following and attendance than any team with 200 miles of New York.

The Atlanta area supports two college football programs and three professional franchises with a metro population a third of New York.

Dude could hold dollar bills within the crevices of his forehead wrinkles.

I can’t even fathom where to start dismantling his each and every word.

But it’s pretty deliberate trolling, written with no other purpose than to get a reaction, which it’s successfully accomplished. I certainly wish I could get paid to troll the internet as an occupation too.

Rob, you ignorant slut

its pretty intense

I forgot that this is the same jackass who called Hank Aaron a “coward” for not attending Bonds HR record game.

If the New York Yankees are the standard for excellence in baseball, Atlanta is the epitome of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to fan support.

Wait what? Comparing a baseball team’s superiority in particular criteria, compared to an entire city’s reputation in supporting… things?

That’s like me saying "If filet mignon is the standard of excellence in beef cuts, asparagus is the epitome of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to kids liking vegetables."

Hell,I think the Rome Braves are going to kick the mets asses!

That was a popular bumper sticker when my family lived in Atlanta for about three years from 1978-1981. Fan support for just about all sports there was pretty sad. We moved away, and because of TBS, I continued to watch my beloved (although usually hapless) Braves as I grew up, and lost interest in the Falcons altogether. (Somewhere, I have a Steve Bartkowksi Falcons pennant, though.) I do get frustrated when I see the Braves selling fewer tickets than I think they should, especially in the playoffs. If I still lived in Atlanta, I have no doubt I would be a season-ticket holder. Sure, Atlanta is full of transplants from other cities who still maintain their old team loyalties. The city is barely what it was thirty years ago when I lived there, but I know many Atlanta fans who are no less passionate about their teams than in many other areas. I won’t comment on the Falcons, as I have lived in New Orleans for fifteen years and I am a, uh, well, you know… Anyway, the point of all this is that I think Atlanta sports fans are better than they were in the past. As for Braves fans, if not being a totally antagonistic, arrogant blowhard is the metric by which we measure fans, yes, I give the Yankees the trophy.

You can call this number and file a complaint against this idiot with ESPN.

1-888-549-3776

BOOM! ROASTED!

Man, do you guys honestly care what ESPN has to say about our city and the fans in Atlanta? They’re the TMZ of sports reporting. They only cover the stories that are “NOW” (haha) or “sexy” (overtly homoerotic and weird). And when there isn’t a fluff story and they might actually have to discuss SPORTING, they just make shit up.

Why anyone in their right mind would rely on ESPN for any sort of factual news or objective analyses is beyond my comprehension.

and it wouldn’t let me send in my feedback because “they suspected I am a bot”

and he is a huge racist as well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Parker_(sports_journalist)

someone put on his wikipedia page that he is an adament supporter or NAMBLA!! haha

Thing is that contacting ESPN about this is a waste, the guy’s rep is well known, they obviously employ him so he can say controversial things and generate a response.

As long as he’s not going after a minority group, no one at ESPN is going to care if people in Atlanta are outraged, contacting them is just telling them that you’re driving their number of page views up.

On January 5th, 2012, Parker released an article on ESPN.com criticizing the fanbase of the Atlanta Falcons. He said “[w]ithout question, Atlanta is the worst sports town in America” and that “Atlanta is the epitome of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to fan support. Currently, he is being proven wrong by Atlanta sports fans.”6 Parker doesn’t always choke on schlongs, but when he does, he prefers a 9 incher with genital warts.

I enjoyed watching him on ESPN First Take before this article, now i can’t even finish the episode. The show has been going to crap anyway since it became the first and ten topics about Tebow and LeBron. The crazy thing is he picked the FALCONS to BEAT the GIANTS by 13 points!?!!? Wow, just wow i can’t get believe this article.

Someone emailed me and said that the original text he had in the article was the following, but he had to change it after complaints:

“Your typical Atlanta fan — who is probably from another city since so few are actually from ATL — will be preoccupied with something else — perhaps even picking peaches. Is it peach-picking season? They might not even be sure what time the game is on.
In fact, at some point, they might ask a friend — filled with sweet tea — at a pork-saturated barbeque, “Are the Falcons playing today?”

Wow.

But I am first and foremost a Braves fan. I bleed Atlanta blue, and on Sundays red. I sincerely hope the Falcons come out Sunday and put a severe hurting on the Giants so Rob Parker has to eat his foolish words.

true writing troll. this guy is pathetic. Falcons and Braves will make him eat his words.

I’m from the NY sports region (CT to be exact, like 15 minutes from the NY/CT border) and I feel strongly compelled to post, so if I may have a moment of your time, I’d like to say a few words.

This is, unfortunately, the state of sports in the NY region. Some of my best friends here are Jets/Giants/Yankees/Mets fans, and they’re normal people. They like to brag when they win, but they do admit defeat when they play lousy or lose a big game. They are normal sports fans.

However, as all y’all have just read, you have encountered the minority of people here that are complete “insert your favorite swear word here.” The first few lines tipped me off:

But Atlanta — the city, not the team — doesn’t deserve a playoff victory over the New York Giants on Sunday.

Doesn’t deserve? What right does he have to say that?

and

If the New York Yankees are the standard for excellence in baseball, Atlanta is the epitome of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to fan support.

The New York Yankees are definitely not the standard for excellence in baseball…

These people are the types of people you don’t to talk about sports. They are lousy fans, ignorant, and to be honest, only care about winning. And when their team is winning, oh boy. Let the tirade of baloney sandwich begin.

This guy is just feeling high and mighty about his Giants (and no surprise, most Giant fans tend to be Yankee fans as well), and he feels they are a gift from God and deserve to win.

This article/his opinion, which he has so generously shared with the world, is simply the New York version of trashing talking. It’s mean, it’s stupid, it hits were it hurts, and it’s more emotion than logic. Like gondee was quick to point out, his article is full of holes. He is just trying to rationalize a reason why his team is going to deserves to win more, because obviously on paper, he’s scared of the Falcons/Giants matchup (which I have no idea, I don’t follow football). Of course the town where you come from/the fanbase you have is the deciding factor of a football or baseball game. (Don’t both teams get extra sparkle points for every 13.75 fans that show up?).

The reason he picks on the Braves, is the Braves just got lumped along with the Falcons.

I’ve met some diehard Braves fans (like myself). I’ve met some fairweather fans. I’ve also met the same for the Mets, Yankees, Giants, Jets, Falcons, etc. It happens with every sports team.

I’m sorry you guys had to see this. To be honest, I’m surprised that the dude got a job at ESPN, posting and thinking this kind of garbage. I also apologize for ranting a bit here, but this is what I have to put up during Yankees winning streaks/Mets winning streaks/almost every other day.

Thank you for your time.

Trending -—> #FireRobParker

Some of the tweets are hysterical.

Say it ain’t so!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0

http://atlanta.sbnation.com/atlanta-falcons/2012/1/6/2686361/falcons-vs-giants-fans-attendance-trolling-columnists

I think it’s funny when people trash Atlanta sports attendance. Here are some fun facts for ya:
1.) Atlanta is ranked the 40th most populous city in the country
2.) NY, LA, Houston, Philly, San Diego, Dallas, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, San Fran, Detroit, Charlotte, Memphis, Boston, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Milwaukee, Baltimore.. to name a few have more people than us.. Pretty sure we’ve had better attendance than some of those cities.
3.) Atlanta has had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Hard to buy tix when you don’t have a job.
4.) Not to say that Atlanta is full of bandwagon fans, but of the 3 Major sports there has only been one title in both pro and college sports in the past 20 years

I hope you know this is not the view among Yankees fans. Rob Parker and Wally Matthews are the two dumbest writers out there.

Can the season please start, already?

John W. (7:03 p.m.): You ask, "How can this guy just post stuff like this and not have repercussions?" Well, what kind of repercussions? If I’m a columnist — a columnist is an opinion writer, as opposed to a straight-news reporter — and I want to opine that Bumfrack, Ill., is a hellhole full of cube steak-eating rubes, I’m fully within my rights to do that, as long as my bosses don’t mind. I may have to risk the wrath of Bumfrack residents, but I know that before I state my opinion. There is no law, no rule against making a broad-brush criticism of a place and its people, even if it’s inaccurate and/or ignorant. As long as the columnist doesn’t draw the disapproval of his superiors at ESPN, then nothing else really matters.

If someone in Bumfrack — or in this case, Atlanta — feels as though he or she has been defamed and there is grounds for a libel suit, then file it. I dare say, no one in Atlanta was libeled or defamed by what was written. (And plenty here surely just snickered at the cartoonish, unoriginal stereotypes.)

Otherwise, what do you suggest be the penalty for making such a statement? There is freedom of expression and speech in this country. As long as his boss doesn’t disapprove of what he wrote, and as long as the writer doesn’t mind being being roundly criticized by Atlanta fans offended by his statement, then so be it. There is no law broken, no "repercussions" he should face other than angry Atlantans’ barbs and slams on airwaves and online, etc.

Again, as long as his bosses didn’t have a problem with what was written — and I’m sure they probably didn’t, given the [predictable] level of heated response he’s received since the column was published. That was his purpose, I’m sure — to get a rise out of people. That’s what some columnists do a lot of the time. And it worked.

Link here

At worst it’s blatant bigotry. Either way, it is certainly offensive.

that when I Googled “Rob Parker”, the first suggestion made was “Rob Parker is an idiot”.