Totally Gutless

Mike Ditka is absolutely right about the book that Jeff Pearlman "I think it's ridiculous to me," Ditka said Thursday on "Carmen, Jurko & Harry" on ESPN 1000. "What's the point? What's the point? The point is one thing only -- to sell books. That's all it's about. It's a bunch of crap, first of all.”

He is referring to the controversial new book by Jeff Pearlman about Walter Payton.

"If you're going to wait 12 years after somebody's passed, come on. This is the sign of a gutless individual who would do this. Totally gutless who would hide behind that, and that's what he's done."
"I learned a long time ago people can point the finger, say anything they want to say," Ditka said. "What gives [Pearlman] any credibility? What's his expertise? I know he's an author, and the only way he would know anything is to get information from other people. Who's to say the other people he got information from gave authentic information? He didn't get it from the horse's mouth. He didn't get it from Walter. I have a lot of questions about the authenticity of the book."

Even beyond the authenticity, this wreaks of a person buying into the ‘Howard Stern’ mindset. Hey, most of us have skeletons in our closet. That is what happens when you are human.
Pearlman addressed Ditka’s comment and justified it with having talked to 678 people, including close family members. But this goes beyond credibility. It gets to human decency. It might be interesting to see what might be found behind Pearlman if somebody ‘went there’.

Pearlman admitted he did it for money. Okay, yeah, he writes for a living, but there is nothing that says one has to seize every ‘opportunity’ they come across. If so, they are selling out; that is selling out with regard to their principles. Well, maybe not. Apparently, Pearlman has no principles.

American Idol

Well, another year has come and gone with American Idol.

We saw two new judges, one that added very good insight (along with a lot of beauty) and another that added no insight, but a lot of wit and charm.

I was always amused at listening to people that said the show was in trouble with Simon leaving. It is easy for me to say now, in retrospect, but I just didn’t get it. Were people really that impressed by Simon, but further, did they tune in primarily to see what the judges said? Why watch the show, then? First and foremost it is a singing contest.

But further, Simon duped people into thinking he was better than he was. People made him the authority and that mindset seemed to influence others into believing he was brilliant in evaluation performers.

He is a talent scout; not a musician. He is good (not great) at recognizing talent. But hey, how good, could he have been if he originally said no to Chris Daughtry going on to Hollywood?

AI will endure for a long long time. It does not matter who the judges are.