ESPN’s The Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, has announced that his eagerly anticipated new Web site will be called “Grantland.com” and will launch in June. The name pays deference to renowned 20th century sportswriter Grantland Rice. The site, which reportedly aims for a mix of 70 percent sports and 30 percent pop culture, will feature work by accomplished writers including Chuck Klosterman and Malcolm Gladwell, while also offering a venue for lesser-known, up-and-coming writers like Chris Ryan (formerly of GQ), Katie Baker (previously of Deadspin) and Bill Barnwell, managing editor of Football Outsiders.
Here’s the link to the full press release from ESPN.
Will be interesting to see how this new site affects Page 2 (where, in the interests of full disclosure, I was contributing until recently).
Grantland is definitely a catchy name. Perhaps it’s just me (and my overexposure to children’s programming as a father of a two-year-old), but I can’t get the theme song to “Franklin” out of my mind now. Hopefully this will pass.