Deadspin: paul zimmerman

SI's Dr. Z Recovering After Two Strokes

DAULERIO — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:00:10 EST

This is sad news from the sports media world. Paul Zimmerman, the grouchy football columnist better known as Dr. Z, suffered two strokes in late November and is currently on a leave of absence while he recovers. He'll survive, but how it'll affect the rest of his writing career is still undetermined. Peter King wrote a pretty fantastic tribute to the man in his latest column, highlighting some of Zimmerman's long-form football pieces that he used to write for SI before he became the Dr. Z persona full-time.

Here's an excerpt from his 1984 piece on Jack Lambert:

The painting hangs on the wall outside the office of Art Rooney Jr., the coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers' scouting operations. It's not the kind of thing you'd want your mother or your wife to see. It's what Attila must have looked like while he was sacking a village, or the way a Viking chieftain was with his blood lust up. Only this Viking wears No. 58 and he's dressed out in the gold and black of the Steelers, eyes flashing in a maniacal frenzy; blood flecking his nose; his mouth, minus three front teeth, bared in a hideous leer. Jack Lambert's portrait epitomizes the viciousness and cruelty of our national game. The portrait was done by Merv Corning. It was one of two he submitted to the Steelers' publicity director, Joe Gordon, for possible use as a program cover, and it was rejected immediately. Too scary. Rooney saw it. He called Corning. 'Can I buy the original?' he said. The deal was made, and Rooney hung it outside his office.

Get well soon, sir.

Dr. Z is best football writer of our time [SI]
(Some good reader anecdotes about Dr. Z here, as well.)

Media Approval Ratings: Paul Zimmerman

Leitch — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:05:51 EDT

It's rare that an NFL column makes us feel like we just drank a bottle of wine, but that's what Paul Zimmerman — Dr. Z, if you're down with the hip parlance — does for us.

We felt bad for him when he had to do the "pick-off" with swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker — from which this photo was taken — but hey, what the kids want, the kids get. And we love how baffled he gets by NFL broadcasters; that's probably our favorite column of his every year.

Oh, and he hates the NFL Network.

So: Do you like the Paul Zimmerman? Do you not like the Paul Zimmerman?

Billy Joel Hopefully Sober For National Anthem

Leitch — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:15:20 EST

So here's something we hadn't realized: Billy Joel is singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. Though we are impressed that the NFL remains current and cutting edge with their selection of everyone's favorite rapidly decaying crooner, we are also curious about just how long it's gonna take him to sing it. Paul Zimmerman historically times national anthems — he says the longest he ever timed was 2 1/2 minutes — and CNBC's Darren Rovell is curious as well.

Bodog.com has the over/under at 1:44. Before I started to even get into this, I called up the guys at Bodog to make sure I understood the bet right. They told me that it's not when the accompaniment starts. It's when Billy says the word "Oh." So I woke up this morning and sang the national anthem a couple times to see how long it would take. My regular version took 1:14. My slow version took 1:22 and my extra slow version took 1:32.

I assume a smart bettor would go through the same drill and think, how is it possibly going to get up to 1:44? Well, a smarter bettor would go to YouTube, which I did. There's only one Billy Joel version of the National Anthem. His rendition from the 2000 World Series all timed out - it's 1 minute and 37 seconds.

We'd probably still take the bet; Rovell says no one has ever gone ~~over~~ under 1:44 (though Dr. Z, timing Beyonce from a couple of Super Bowls ago at 2:07). We just can't believe we're gonna have to look at Billy Joel for almost two minutes.

My Favorite Prop [CNBC]
Singing The Blues [SI.com]

Dr. Z Hangs Out With Swimsuit Models

Leitch — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:30:29 EDT

We know, we know: The unconditional love for SI scribe Rick Reilly's "Riffs Of Reilly" segment — sample comedic genius moment: "USC's quarterback is John David Booty and Texas' is Colt McCoy. Hey, weren't both those guys on 'Gunsmoke?'" Oh, Rick, you slay us! — makes you think that SI.com must be so tapped out producing such an earth-shaking segment that they couldn't possibly come up with anything else. But fear not, intrepid online sports content consumer: they've got so much more!

Sports Illustrated will launch later this month "various video programs exclusively on SI.com," according to Terry Lefton in this week's SportsBusiness Journal. SI Managing Editor Terry McDonell said, "Our programming has to go deeper than just personalities. Our charge is to take the magazine experience and making it an every day/every hour thing on SI.com." Peter King will have an NFL-insider segment on "King's Corner;" Bob Costas and Jeff MacGregor will host "Jump The Q," which will "showcase the two in an informal setting discussing the sports issues of the day;" and Paul Zimmerman will be featured in "She Says, Z Says," where he will "offer his weekly NFL picks with SI swimsuit models who are avowed football fans." King and Costas will also star in a yet-untitled webcast on the "lighter side of sports."

First off, we can all agree that Bob Costas and Peter King just don't get enough camera time. But more to the point: Dr. Z and swimsuit models??!! Wha? We're not quite sure what to do with that. Probably cry a little.

Dr. Z Is Mad As Hell (Again)

Leitch — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:00:44 EDT

We'll get into an update of all the fun Zinedine Zidane theories a little later today, but we wanted to pause to take a look at Paul Zimmerman's column for SI.com yesterday. We have no shame about this: We love Paul Zimmerman. We know he's old, we know he's cranky, we know he probably spends most of his evenings drinking wine at his kitchen table while grumbling about the kids on the "Information Superhighway" and how the Whole Goddamned World Is Going To Hell. We know all this, and we don't care. He's a wonderfully natural writer, he knows more about football than just about anyone else we read and, mostly, he seems half-drunk most of the time. How do you not love him?

Anyway, we had a classic Dr. Z moment yesterday, when he was properly piqued enough to fired off a rant about Zinedine Zidane. His argument was that Zidane was justified in the head-butt, not because he was the victim of a racist taunt or inappropriate matron-oriented remarks ... but simply because he plays soccer.

The problem is he doesn't hit the canvas as the rest of those prima donnas do. So the ref must figure nothing is happening. ... Maybe Zidane was tired of all this, of this travesty, which rewards all the things that we were once taught were cowardly, but can be used to great advantage in this game.

See what we mean? Damn kids ... get off my lawn! Dr. Z is the best.

Enough Is Enough [SI.com]