I read this article this morning, and all I was thinking was “What’s the point of this entire article? Is there really that much of an absence of sports stuff to write about?” I don’t mind different POVs, but today’s column really is a waste of space.

Lemme guess how the article went since I haven’t read any of his articles for a long time.

The same smarmy holier-than-thou attitude about absolutely nothing, with future follow-ups of how people take sports much too seriously. This is sprinkled with mentions of his family that no one cares. Am I close?

No sense of a non-biased, true journalist approach. He just wants to stir the pot in the hopes of drawing some sort of controversy or ire from Bruin fans so that more readers flock to his garbage site.

how the LAT continues to flush out this crap. Who’s running the Asylum over there?

I agree with ’71 and ’66, Simers should be banned from UCLA locker rooms. He adds no value to sports journalism. He is a disgrace and the worst writer in America. I once sent him a good natured email informing him that he is not funny, insightful or entertaining in any way and that his frequent writings about his “bagger” son in law and other boring members of his family were going unread because everyone was boycotting the Times because of him. He shot back an angry, hateful response. But, he did not write about his family for about a month after that.

is the fact that even Marcia over at the trojie register got it right today. Simmers was so incredibly far off base it was absolutely infuriating. I think Petie should take a page out of Neuheisel’s book and refuse to overlook anyone, see Oregon State, UCLA, Stanford, and Oregon State again.
When he went into the heritage and past record between the UCLA and SDSU as if it should have an effect on Saturday…just ridiculous. Marcia at least mentioned that UCLA is trying to prevent what they did to Tenn. last year from happening to them this year, and that history is just that.
and calling out Neu for saying gameplanning SDSU will be a huge coaching challenge is nuts as well. Marca AGAIN tops TJ with facts by including the whole quote, mainly the part about SDSU having NO open practices or scrimmages, and thus there is zero scouting report. That is the tough coaching challenge, Simmers, not the fact that SDSU has so much more talent than us. Coach is giving credit where credit is due, and playing Football 101: keep your team focused, and don’t give the opponent a chip to carry on their shoulders.
Idiot.

On the plus side, there were two decent columns on UCLA in the LAT later in the sports section, but TJ is just a douche

Never heard of him.

I totally agree that the only appropriate response to this clown is to totally ignore him. The classless drunk SC fan screaming in line for the mens room desrves more attention that this guy.

on a week when firefighters are risking their lives for the city of LA. He basically wrote a column that says “My job is so cushy and I’m so out of touch with the reality of life in southern California that I am going to complain about not having free food at a public university’s press conferences.”

It’s just unbelievable how much of a waste to society his job is, I almost want to thank him for pointing that out for us.

I listened to Nestor, and blogged up my thoughts on this tool: http://ranjeremysports.blogspot.com/2009/09/letter-to-tj-simers.html

The fact that the guy draws a paycheck from the L.A. Times at a time they’re cutting back everywhere else is an indictment on that paper. Frankly, journalism as we used to know it no longer exists. Fair and balanced is the new journalism. Here are two positions – this is one, this is the other. They’re equal. Kinda like saying there’s this theory called gravity. On the one side, they’re the supporters of gravity, on the other side, they’re the people who don’t believe in gravity. That’s the end of my story. Here, it’s on the one hand, there’s Cheatey who I now love. On the other hand, there’s CRN who I hate. What a sad joke. His story is literally a waste of space. It says nothing other than he’s a moron. What a terrible profession journalism has become. What a disgrace to this now dishonored profession Simers is. Yuck.

How many of you still subscribe to the fishwrap? If you still are a subcriber, you are paying part of Simers’ salary. Just say no. Don’t be enablers. Don’t subscribe to the ‘wrap. Don’t buy individual editions. Don’t look at it on line. Take it completely out of your life.

I don’t subscribe to the fishwrap, but I don’t believe I’m starved for sports news. There are plenty of other sources than the ’wrap.

I call on every man, woman and child to absolutely, totally and completely boycott the ‘wrap. They may not notice, but you’ll notice.

He ridiculed Dorrell for being dull (duh!), then ridiculed the fans for thinking he should be fired after it became clear to anyone with a brain that his dullness was totally eclipsed by his inability to coach, then ridiculed Guerrero for firing him. Now, on the eve of a new season when excitement and optimism about the future of UCLA football is at an 8-year zenith, he has the audacity to complain that the most energetic, optimistic and enthusiastic UCLA head football coach in the last 30 years who after a 4-8 disaster caused by lack of talent in the cupboard and cataclysmic injuries managed to bring in more speed and size in one recruiting season year than Dullard brought in over 5 years is not energetic enough at a press conference? That is the picture of an a$$hat.

Food + more people + the great descriptive word “energy” = better coach?

WTF does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

Basically, if you bribe someone with food and have more followers, you have more energy and you are therefore a better speaker and make better arguments.

Sounds like Peatie has gotten to T.J., because u$c*’s philosophy seems to be that if you pay the players and bribe the officials, you will get 5 times as many bandwagon fans and therefore you are the better team. Right? RIGHT?

I would offer,it is one thing to be a beat writer, but quite another to be a columnist. It is a very different skill to be successful in that arena. I would also offer, that maybe it would be a good idea to cut your teeth in a smaller market in that capacity, before trying out your skills in such a large market as Los Angeles.

Here is Simers official bio off the L.A. Times site. Go ahead, read it for a moment, I’ll wait…

http://www.latimes.com/sports/columnists/la-columnist-tsimers,0,2737037,bio.columnist

Notice anything, oh I don’t know, flagrant? How about the fact he spent his entire career as a beat writer and then suddenly becomes a columnist for the first time at the Times? My memory is they brought him in to cover the local NFL beat, but since there wasn’t one they made him a columnist.

Now, I grew up with the heyday of the Times sports page. No one is expecting him to hold a candle to the great Murray, but it would be nice if the Times had someone at least as good as Downey was, and he at the time was probably the fifth best guy at the Times.

T.J. continues to show what an a-hole he is. Today’s article was about Vin Scully, so I foolishly thought there was no way even a prick like T.J. could say anything bad in this article, but I was wrong. He has a little blurb about Eric Karros, with once again a smarmy remark about UCLA

“He’s a conversationalist, Dodgers family, on some nights already talking to you before the game about the team. He has UCLA in his background, but give Eric Karros credit for overcoming it and making himself into an outstanding baseball analyst.”

What a #$%#!