Great Deadspin article on Drew Sharp
http://deadspin.com/crap-emails-from-a-sportswriter/
Great column that shows that Sharp really is, in fact, a giant asshat. It shows email responses to his critics (1st one is obviously from a while ago).
Some highlights:
Email #1:
And stop crying about me picking on your precious Detroit sports teams. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I rag on them because, for the most part, THEY SUCK. If not for the Pistons, this state would be a sports graveyard. But the truth hurts doesn't it?
Email #2
Does the little baby need a pacifier?
Yeah, Detroit needs writers that makes excuses for the city and simply tell the idiots in this town just want to hear.
They've been doing that for 30 years in this town and that's a big reason why Detroit is swirling down the toilet.
If those are really his responses then he is a sad excuse for a writer. He basically admits to hating the city he writes in and the sports teams that play there. Better not to read what an idiot writes tho.
I just wanted to show further proof that he is an assclown. The evidence is there!
I'd like to hear his explanation for the writing slowly gag. I mean, 'I'll use small words' is a classic burn, but spacing out words with ellipses? He knows that people don't automatically read in the pace the writer thought in, right?
And here I figured Drew Sharp was comfortable being such a pessimistic dick. It's sad that this guy actually feels the need to write back like this. I had no idea my respect for him as a sportswriter could actually get lower.
Actually, two writers at "his" newspaper did get lower, and one of them still works there. It's really too bad about Sharp,. though. He used to balance his pessimism with common sense and at least a pretense of objectivity. Then, like many sports writers in particular seem to do, he decided he hated everything and everyone he covers.
If Sharp hates Detroit and hates the teams and players he covers so much, it would probably be a lot healthier for all concerned if he simply got a different job. Most people who are so full of venom and so devoid of substance end up writing about politics. Maybe that would be the best use of his time.
After all, hate + politics = profit.
If you are quiet, and listen, you can hear Section One sprinting to a computer in the distance.
If these are real he should be fired.
Detroit teams sucking must have been made back when the Pistons were a title contender. The funny thing looking back at that comment, is that in the last couple of years the only Detroit sports team to actually suck is the Pistons. Not to mention, given the rest of comment, apparently Drew Sharp was not aware the Red Wings existed at that time.
Regardless, Drew Sharp is a sad excuse for a human being and writer. We already knew he hated the teams in Michigan/Detroit, but if those emails are actually real that is a whole new level of being a dick, even for him.
The emails say they are from 2005. In 2005, the Pistons went to the NBA finals and the Red Wings had the most points of any team in the NHL. When half of a city's sports teams are among the top few in their league, that's usually considered a pretty good sports year for the city.
only New York, Chicago, and Boston have more championships in the history of their cities than does Detroit. And New York has used like 12 teams to get to their total.
Almost hated as much as Chuck Cwirsky, he touted about how great Chicago was when he had the Sports Director job at WJR. He finally ended up in Chicago. I miss J.P. and Van Patrick, good Detroit sports guys. Hey Sharp, who is your favorite city???
Same old schtick. Would rather not give freep.com/espn/whatever my clicks or eyeballs.
Email responses TO his critics, no?
Good thing I am not an English major...
That's the idiotic Drew Sharp I've been missing here in NYC! Every city has its dumb sports writers, but Sharp is on a whole other level. He's almost ironically bad.
I didn't write an essay, so I can't be Section 1! Not that that's a bad thing but my comments are short and to the point immediately.
Hey on the bright side at least we now know it's not just the University of Michigan he hates and wants to run down - it's EVERY team that his readers support that he despises.
I truly do not get it. I grew up in Pontiac but have lived in Salt Lake City, Vegas, San Fransisco and now Cleveland and can tell you I've never, ever seen a sporstwriter in any of those cities attack the teams his paper covers with such consistent venom and obvious negative bias. I feel safe in saying that if he tried his act in any of the aforementioned cities he'd have been run out of town quickly by angry readers and advertisers.
As a case in point here in Cleveland one of our most well-known and respected writers, Tony Grossi, made an ill-advised tweet about the owner of the Browns recently and was fired by the Plain Dealer shortly thereafter. The Browns simply informed the PD that they would take their advertising dollars elsewhere and the paper responded quickly.
I'm not supporting Grossi's termination but rather using it as illustration that the negative shtick Sharpe parlay's somehow to success in Detroit would NOT fly in other cities. Why it's put up with in Michigan is a mystery to me.
A homer spins everything to put his team in a better light. Sharp spins everything to put his team in the worst possible light. Neither one of them does much in the way of thinking, and neither one of them is worth reading.
That's good analysis. I would add one additional twist to your take. "Sharp spins everything to put his team in the worst possible light" in order that he may get the chance to be another Bayless or Steven A. on ESPN.
Dan Shaughnessey of the Boston Globe is pretty close. His schtick relied on the Red Sox to collapse every year and he created a cottage industry when he wrote "Curse of the Bambino" in the 90's. Schilling called Shaugnessey "Shank" and continues to publicly fight with him.
I wrote Sharp and email once and he emailed me back a dick response similar to those described in the articles. Screw Drew Sharp.
Samsies!
A few months ago, I was arguing with Valenti on facebook about recruiting and he banned and many other Michigan fans from his facebook page that day.
Why would you argue with him in the first place? You're just setting yourself up for high blood pressure and stress.
Some guys from the Michigan Recruiting HQ were arguing with him because he was saying complete BS about Michigan (surprise surprise) and I took the bait when I checked it out
I dislike Drew Sharp as much as the next guy, but the emails he was responding to weren't exactly constructive criticism and basically told him to burn in hell. If I were a sportswriter and someone emailed me that stuff, I would probably give a smug, sarcastic response if I chose to respond.
...in a private response to people who didn't exactly present themselves as the pride of their community. I'm not saying he wasn't being a douche, but I was hoping for more reasonable emailers to make it truly egregious.
By the way, as a fellow native Omahan, what high school did you attend?
Exactly what part of Sharp's response is "constructive"?
Drew Sharp? Never heard of him. Moving on.
Drew Sharp's assbaggery is never OT.
A Negative Nancy Drew Sharp......
I am by no means a fan of Drew Sharp, but the people who sent those emails were pricks. If you act like an asshole to someone, you can't be upset when they respond in kind.
Isn't the solution simple to this asshole? The solution is don't read what he writes and ESPECIALLY do not e-mail that dickhead. He knows his purpose in his profession (that being to piss people off and cause controversy), so the e-mails fuel his garbage writing; he does this on purpose. I don't understand why it's so hard for people to simply not read the crap he writes. I NEVER read the Free Press, let alone anything from Drew Sharp. His boss will NOT fire him because he brings readers.
Flattering pic. That's gotta be about 30lbs ago.
The second email isn't that bad, other than the "Does the little baby need a pacifier" line. I'm from the Detroit area and consider it home and all, but honestly, people here are a little too thin-skinned when it comes to criticism of the city/region.