Former DI sports editor Will Leitch wrote a really nice tribute to Roger Ebert on Deadspin today. It includes a Papa Del’s reference. If you want to skip the fun and uplifting parts (of which there are many) and just read the painful one, I’ve excised it for you below (but seriously, read the whole thing):
And I was ready to make my own name. My editor at Ironminds, the old Web magazine I moved out to New York for, had heard me drunkenly bitching about Ebert at a bar the night before and suggested I write about him. “Put him in his place,” he said. “Yeah: It’s our time now,” I said. We were all so, so stupid.
So I did. The next morning, Ironminds ran a piece called “I Am Sick Of Roger Ebert’s Fat F–ing Face.” The piece — which, mercifully, is no longer online — wasn’t as virulent as that headline would imply, but I did use that exact line in the piece, and I did make a few cheap shots about his weight. The thesis of the piece was that Ebert’s work was suffering because he was on television all the time, but that’s not really what it was about: It was me lashing out at Daddy, trying to make my own name, trying to feed off his. That’s not what I thought I was doing at the time. But that’s absolutely what it was.
Jim Romenesko’s MediaNews, which is popular now but was downright Drudge-esque at the time, picked up the piece. The email came almost immediately. I stared at my inbox for five minutes before I worked up the nerve to open it.
Will –
I have always tried to help you, and you know that. I am not sure what you were trying to do with your piece — if you object to me being on television, there is a dial to the right that will take care of that problem for you — what issues you might be dealing with, but I am certain you will grow to regret writing it someday. If you were trying to make a point, I fear you are not in control of your instrument. I wonder if you feel shitty this morning, now that that piece is out there. I know that I do.
RE
I wrote him back, completely backing down, apologizing, but the damage obviously had been done. I did feel shitty, instantly, and have ever since.