The Athletic Has Inflicted Rick Reilly Upon You

If you are subscriber to The Athletic, I have some bad news for you:

Rick Reilly? Rick Reilly! Rick fucking Reilly.

I truly have no idea what to make of The Athletic. On the one hand they are employing a lot of young, talented reporters who are producing good work— while murdering newspaper sports sections around the country, of course—and on the other they are resuscitating old hacks who should have been sent to the glue factory years ago. What’s the play here? Is the idea that Rick Reilly will convince a bunch of 70-year-old guys who watch nothing but golf to learn how to sign up for a subscription on the internet?

Anyway, a sports publication that employs Rick Reilly deserves nothing but scorn for doing so, and not because he’s a hack in the “Haha, what an old hack!” sense. They deserve it because Reilly has repeatedly proven that he is so bad at his job that he doesn’t deserve to have it. In case you need reminders: