hotfoot:atencio:

Excellent Deadspin post by Will Leitch that perfectly sums up the impact Bill Simmons made on sports writing both online and in more “traditional” media outlets. I started reading Bill Simmons in 2003, when he was already enjoying a fair amount of success and was being heavily promoted by ESPN.com, and it was a huge revelation to me at the time that a sports writer could be funny, engaging, and perfectly accessible to a less-than-rabid sports fan like myself. His articles, when supplemented by ample googling on my part to pick up the more obscure references, actually had the effect of making me more excited about watching sports, if only to try and enjoy the games on the level to which he’d describe in his columns. I’m happy to see him succeed, and it’s proof that no matter the subject of interest, talent in writing will eventually bubble up to the top.

This is true. As a reader since only 2005, I enjoy and appreciate his rise to success. Among those regular-joes that had genuine skill, worked really hard, finally got their deserved success, and deal with quite a lot of backlash now (notably Kevin Smith), they are still incredibly appreciative of their fame, fortune, and the support of fans that got them there (as evidenced here). Having met both Smith and Simmons in person, after consuming everything they put out for years and years, both lived up to my high expectations and came accross as very nice guys at their core. They put up with a lot of shit.