First of all, I would like to disclaim that this post is not in any way meant to disrespect the death of UNC mascot Jason Ray. Instead, it’s a call-out to Wayne Drehs, whoever that is.
I understand we live in a time full of negative media coverage of war and homicides, but what kind of caption to a story is this? He ‘found a way to keep on living’?
ESPN really needs to stop trying so hard with corny, touchy-feely stories. You see them on repeat 4,000 times per week on GameDay, Sports Center, and Outside the Lines everyday. Did you know that Vince Young was hit by a car when he was seven years old, while riding a bicycle, on the way to a booty call, or that Frank Gore is legally retarded? Dick Schaap, Jr.’s Jeremy Schaap’s voice and annoying sign off make me want to punch a baby in the face.
Found a way to keep on living? I refuse to read this story, not only because it’s probably longer than my 500 word max limit, but because it will likely make me want to vomit.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
The headline makes more sense if you knew that Jason Ray’s organs were donated to several people and extended their lives. I graduated from Carolina last year so I was on campus when he was killed during the NCAA tournament. It was a tragic accident and I don’t really consider it to be a corny, touchy-feely story because he has actually helped several people live after his death. This isn’t that touchy-feely crap you see on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; it’s a legitimate story.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Whoever Wayne Drehs may be (senior writer for ESPN.com, according to the tag line), he’s most likely NOT the person who wrote that headline. That’s not the way it works.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
First off, the reporter never writes the headlines for their story. That’s the editor, copy editor or web page editor’s job, not the reporter.
Second, the headline and deck sound rather appropriate, but you didn’t read the story, guess it didn’t have enough pictures for you.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
So he had an organ donor sticker on his license? Where’s my cover story?
October 16th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
The tag “Sports Information Blog” should probably be removed from the header of ballsiest.com, seeing as how the defintiion of “information” is: the result of processing, gathering, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the receiver.
I think it’s safe to say that this post met none of the criteria for that definition.
The tag “funny sports blog” should probably be removed also, just a suggestion.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I’ve also grown tired of the non-stop stream of “feel-good” stories in sports magazines. They are never about sports, they are just about a person who happened to be connected with sports. It’s just lazy, lazy journalism. Out of hundreds of thousands of people who donate organs, this guy is worthy of a feature because–he was a mascot? For a college football team? Huh?
Please, ESPN, stop patronizing us.
October 16th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I agree wholeheartedly. I go to ESPN for sports news. Anything involving a mascot barely qualifies anyway.
October 16th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Wayne Drehs, whether he wrote that headline or not, was responsible for some of the most annoying sports-related drivel I’ve ever read. He wrote for the U of Iowa’s student paper almost ten years ago.
October 16th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Dude! You said it, but I didn’t realize I was thinking that way until you did. I refused to read that article as some kind of subconscious protest. That’s the dumbest headline I’ve seen and I’ve been seeing it for 2 days and haven’t waivered from that thought each time.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:15 am
[…] again, ESPN.com. Last week you gave us the most retarded caption ever, and this week we get this gem. Great […]