Blog Wars

Those of us that follow Pitt football with any verve this time of year regularly check in on Paul Zeise’s Redshirt Diaries blog for the Post-Gazette, as well as Kevin Gorman’s Sitting Ringside blog for the Tribune-Review. Through these blogs, the authors offer loads of observations and insights on the team in these preseason camps and continue, though somewhat abated, into the regular season practices, and much of what they write about in the blogs doesn’t make it into features or other stories for the paper. Each is an essential stop off for the Pitt fan looking for football info, and we should count ourselves lucky to have both to follow.

Slap Fight!

That being said, their current spat (whether it’s real or not) is laughable and arguably unprofessional (says the part time sports blog that once devoted 3000 words to a fake date with Rihanna). It all started when Gorman posted a slightly enigmatic entry about Monday morning’s practice:

“The Panthers conducted perhaps their most entertaining and exciting offensive practice of training camp this afternoon.

Sorry I can’t tell you about it.

There are certain things we are privy to watching in practice but are not permitted to report, and offensive formations and gimmick plays are primary among them. So, I can’t share what I saw. Please forgive the tease.”

“Well I never”, said Paul Zeise to himself and then proceeded to write this scathing attack:

“The practice yesterday, for instance, was in shorts and shoulder pads, meaning there was no hitting and not much activity for the defense.

And because of that, one could say the practice was designed to make the offensive players smile, the defensive players scowl and the heat was enough to make tears well up in the eyes of one player who got sick. I suppose I could say something clever like "I know something you don't know, nah, nah, nah" but that would be silly and immature and I for one cannot imagine an adult taking that kind of approach with other adults......”

Zeise going low with the ‘act your age’ reprimand. I, for one, would like to know which player was crying because of the heat and would request he not be allowed to play the physically painful sport of football for my favorite team. Maybe he should take hints from Wanny on how to stay cool…the man has the mustache of a walrus, but doesn’t seem to complain about the heat. So because Zeise apparently felt that the practice was useless, he decided to list a bunch of asinine lists instead (10 MVPs for Pitt this year, 10 best players, 10 best athletes, etc…).

Anyway, today’s Sitting Ringside was Goreman’s Revenge!!!!!!

“If I was writing in my diary while wearing a red shirt (I prefer blue) [because I need to inject a reference to the fact that I graduated from Penn State into my Pitt Football blog…I’m an asshole], I could fill this space by giving you countless top-10 lists involving the same 10 players, just in a different order under different categories.

Instead, you’ll get another practice report.”

[brackets added by BOTF, obviously]

Oh snap!!!