Former Seton Hall basketball coach Bobby Gonzalez, who was fired in March 2010 for a pattern of behavior both on and off the court that angered school officials (and who was later arrested for shoplifting in a bizarre incident), created a lot of ink for sportswriters during his tumultuous four-year tenure at the helm of the Pirates. Gonzalez’ sister, Linda, has now penned a blog post called “Here It Is: America’s Top Ten Worst, Least Credible, Most Conflicted Sportswriters (Do not try this at home and keep away from children),” a missive that probably won’t help her brother get his next coaching gig.
The worst sportswriter according to Linda Gonzalez is Pete Thamel of The New York Times, of whom she writes,
“Probably got beat up every day in grammar school for that lazy eye and now wants to take out his personal rejections on the world. Got to love the pictures of him from nonstop.com. Thamel is no more than a low-life domestic word terrorist, with no respect for human life, crawling around on his belly to better bite people in the heel to bring them down. He’s making a living at getting basketball coaches fired. Why? Politics wouldn’t have him, too many big words and complex issues.He’s made it his mission in life to bring down coaches he doesn’t like. He’s already cost hundreds of people their living, destroyed the lives of players and players families, and cost states millions of dollars in educational assets. He is unfair, unbalanced, inaccurate, misleading to the point of making things up, a danger to his newspaper and to the public at large. If this were an old wanted list, he would be Baby Face Nelson. No conscience. His only interest is inspiring widespread hate. Wants fame and blows his own horn every chance he gets. He’s exactly the opposite of everything a reporter should be. Wants to be a TV star too. Partners up with anyone who will boost his self-image. For all that he isn’t, he’s #1. Prediction fantasy: somebody no one ever heard of, who’s life was ruined indirectly by him lies in wait and runs him down on a New York street some dark and foggy night. Unfortunately, as in the world of pipe smoking crack dealers, Kevin Armstrong, whose star suddenly fell at the New York Daily News for partying too heavy and failing to join his fellow pack journalists at a local photo op, jumps in to quickly replace him.
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Some other excerpts from her Top 10:
2. Pat Forde: “Forde is a conflicted, two-faced individual and the worst mistake ESPN has ever made in its history.”
3. Jeff Goodman: “The CBS job is a good move for Goodman since working with such writers as Gregg Doyel – one of the best in the business- will force him into some kind of self-awareness of his shortcomings.”
4. Lenn Robbins: “Prediction fantasy: Robbins finally comes out of the closet and runs away with a well known SNY sports newscaster. Unfortunately, they are followed by twitter addicts who will never let them be alone. They decide to use their popularity for good and end up serving as co councilmen in San Francisco writing pamphlets for gay pride.“
6. Gary Parrish: “Parrish is bored, hates sports, hates sports people. He deals with his boredom by bullying and picking on people who have no idea who he is.”
Yeah, it’s quite a read. And quite a boost to Bobby Gonzalez’s job prospects.