Can I Get a Beat Writer?

Lord knows I make more than my allotted share of mistakes. But something has to be said about ESPN's Bill Williamson, ex-Denver Post Broncos beat man and current AFC West guy for the Leader. As in, he's an embarassment to his profession.

Here's some verbiage from his recent AFC West mailbag:


Owen: Is there any chance that the Chargers will use more of Legedu Naanee in their offense this year? The few times he got to play last season he created a lot of match up problems for defenses and always seemed to make a big play. What are your thoughts?

BW: I think so, Owen. Naanee will get more playing time for exactly the reasons you detailed in your question. With Antonio Gates likely out to start the season, Naanee will get a chance to play more. There are a lot of people in the Chargers' organization that think this player has just scratched the surface and will be an impact player. That,m of course, will be bad news for the rest of the AFC West. The last thing they need is another offense a weapon in San Diego.

Redundant, poorly written--"offense a weapon"?--and smacking of total incompetence, but not as bad as this, from the same mailbag:

John: Everyone is ruling out Denver for the playoffs, they seem to have a decently soft schedule, and most think Cutler will have a very strong year. It seems we improved in most positions on our team. What do you guess to be the regular season record for this team? Oh, and the Chiefs suck.
BW: There are a lot of holes in this team that makes people skeptical that the Broncos can be a team that needs to prove a lot things before adding get excited about them.

What the fuck could he have been thinking with that sentence? That's the kind of monstrosity that would have forced Faron Scott to beat we HoGsters with a copy of the OED. The Unabridged version. This is a guy who gets paid money to write, yes?

Usually when you encounter a reporter who can't write, you either don't know that about them because of good editing and/or they have exceptional reportorial legerdemain, great sources, a real newshound's acumen. Adam Schefter, for instance, who busts his nuts to report stories that he can just barely write yet remains one of the best in the country at what he does.

Williamson, as far as I can tell, has none of that. His dispatches read like stuff you could find in any number of fan blogs. Like an NFL version of the Onion's old "Outside Scoop with Jackie Harvey" column, where a friendless loser wrote celebrity chat based on stuff he read in magazines and watched on television, but not funny.

Photo from http://samuraifrog.blogspot.com/2008/03/photobucket-meme.html