Since there's nothing happening in NASCAR today and tomorrow except an all-teams test session at Lowe's (note to Goodyear: this time, try bringing the same tires to the test session you'll be bringing to the race), thought I'd take a moment to pretend I'm a sports blogger.

Recently, the sports blogosphere grew quite roiled and in some cases boiled over a recent episode of Costas Now, a sports panel talk show on HBO featuring Bob Costas (hence the name).  The episode giving everyone quite the episode had Costas along with one Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and other tomes, along with Will Leitch, perverter... uh, purveyor of Deadspin.  The panel swiftly turned into a pitched battle with Bissinger assailing Leitch about comments on Deadspin, Deadspin itself, and sports blogs in general, a medium he dismissed out of hand as something significantly lower than snail trail.  Eh, whatever.  A member of traditional media slamming blogs and bloggers is more commonplace than weather reports on all-news radio stations.

Some members of the blogging community took Bissinger's jabs to heart as something of a personal affront.  Can't see it that way.  I'd be willing to bet my next house payment he's never read a word I've written, so being generalized is of no concern.  Besides, I know he wasn't talking about me personally, since I write about either NASCAR which most people in sports don't believe is a sport or hockey which most people in sports no longer acknowledge exists.  (/sarcasm off)

It's understandable why people who have spent decades first going through the education system grindhouse, then fiercely competing with hundreds of others for the scarce jobs available in traditional sportswriting, and then working on their craft to both perfect same and do what they can to keep their job in the face of said fierce competition are less than thrilled when what they perceive as a brigade of bozos declares themselves to be of the same ilk.  When you're flying the Deadspin flag as your standard, it becomes even easier to grasp why there is such scorn.  To start, using Leitch as a spokesperson for the sports blogosphere is disingenuous in the extreme.  He is a traditionally schooled journalist who floated around assorted freelance gigs before being hired to write Deadspin.  That's not being a blogger.  It's online traditional media, which in the case of Deadspin along with variations and/or sycophants thereof is done very badly.  A slew of links, no genuine insight into sports on any level, and a pseudo-hip pop culture drenched smarmy snark?  As the little boy said during the parade of the emperor's new clothes, I don't see anything.  At least nothing worth reading.  It's certainly a method well designed to make you beloved among fellow bloggers whenever you link to them.  But in terms of adding anything to the discourse about sports?  No.

There's no defense for Bissinger's throw out the baby with the bathwater doctrine of blog hating, but it would be good if there was a more level-headed view of things instead of a mutual admiration society.  Garbage is garbage regardless of the medium, and the "look at me -- SQUEE!" self-satisfied and usually self-congratulatory nature of Deadspin and company is ridiculous.  It's one thing to say you've reached a milestone in terms of site visits or acknowledgment by your peers, or members of traditional media as a peer.  It's quite another to pose as the savior of sports journalism or some exciting new version of same when all you're doing is emulating the traditional media you insist is the Antichrist.  Why replace one ESPN with another?

As to the brouhaha over comments, I believe a blogger is responsible for their comments area, and the tone established by the blog is directly responsible for the tone of comments.  Instead of garbage in garbage out it's garbage out garbage in.  When a blogger puts out garbage, their blog will take in garbage comments.  There are few things more laughable than when a blogger who has established a tone of complete disrespect for those they disagree with, and who uses a philosophy of nothing being sacred and everything being a big laugh fused with a corresponding condescending air of everyone and everything existing solely for their amusement, suddenly claims to be shocked -- shocked!! -- when the comments on their blog pick up on this and run with it.  It also gives cause to wonder what they'll do when the hammer blows of life come their way and their grief is greeted with nothing but smirks and statements about how others can't be bothered with such inconveniences as it's putting a damper on the party.  On a less somber but amusing from a distance note, it also makes one wonder what these puffed up kittens masquerading as young lions are are going to do when they're forty plus and the next generation of young guns dismisses them as relics from a bygone age.

That all said, this whole thing with Bissinger vs. Leitch can be used as a starting point for something positive.  We who are part of this blogging thing can use it as a reason to ask two questions.  What is it that we're doing?  And why are we doing it?  For me, I love writing.  I love the opportunity blogging provides to entertain and inform people.  I'm not trying to be a reporter, and I know I am to a very large degree dependent on their work for the information I pass along.  I am developing more direct sources of information, but with very few exceptions I'm not at the race, and I don't have the opportunity to directly questions the newsmakers as events occur.  Within the boundaries set by those limitations is where I work, which translates into opinion and commentary being at the fore as the resources to do anything else simply aren't there.

I also love the building of community, the shared love of NASCAR evolving into people genuinely sharing with and caring for each other.  This directly ties into why the smirk society doesn't "get" NASCAR, nor will it ever do so.  When you view athletes as three-dimensional video game characters, you are unable to grasp a fan base which deeply cares about these people as individuals.  They'll never know the motivation behind the fury of so many at Kyle Busch, or why the eyes of NASCAR fans immediately grow distant at the mention of Dale Earnhardt's name, or what went through my heart and mind when I paid my respects at Kenny Irwin Jr.'s grave.  It's to their loss, but that's the way they've chosen to be.

These are my reasons for what I do and why.  It'd be interesting to hear Bissinger and Leitch's reasons.  I wonder if they have any other than the paycheck.  Making money doing what you love is nice work if you can get it, but it's not high on my agenda.

And that's the story on that.