#tom ley

[pablolf]

The truth is that nobody who matters—the readers—ever asked for any of this shit. Every bad decision that has diminished media—every pivot to video, every injection of venture capital funds, every round of layoffs, every outright destruction of a publication—was only deemed necessary by the constraints of capitalism and dull minds. This is an industry being run by people who, having been betrayed by the promise of exponential scale and IPOs, now see cheapening and eventually destroying their own products as the only way to escape with whatever money there is left to grab.

How We Got Here

[combatdavey]

deadspin

I've wanted (and tried!) to write something meaningful about Deadspin, but words have failed me. It was a singular, meaningful, and good place on the internet. It was staffed by the exact right kind of people. It had guts and integrity. It had heart, and brains. I like sports, and people who like sports, but precious few people know exactly how to contextualize popular sports within the larger motherfucker of it all, and no one has ever done it like Deadspin did. 

And now, no one else will.

I never wrote a piece for them and I don't know any of them IRL but David Roth, Laura Wagner, Albert Burneko, Drew Magary, Diana Moskovitz, Barry Petchesky, Samer Kalaf, Tom Ley, Lauren Theisen, Megan Greenwell, et al, made me better at what I do professionally and somehow, personally. 

Nothing gold can stay, alas, and that blows. Fuck Jim Spanfeller, fuck vulture capitalism, and fuck anyone who gets off on issuing (or conforming to) edicts as mind-numbingly feckless, stupid, and boring as "stick to sports." Y'all should stick to not wrecking the world.

[funtime-error]

They Turned Spider-Man Into A Damn Cop And It Sucks

Tom Ley, writing for The Concourse:

It’s dumb to expect video games to be responsible reflections of real life, but it is also impossible, for me at least, to not feel some ickiness about the game forcing me into cahoots with even a fictionalized version of the NYPD, an organization that routinely oppresses some of the most vulnerable residents of the city I live in.

During my playtime, Spidey said, "Whoah! A drug deal!" My first thought was, does Spider-Man support the drug war?

I know this is a heightened universe with superpowers and capital-c Crime, which is different from real-life crime, but it still feels weird.

🎮 funtime-error

[allmyfriendshaveblogs]

It feels really weird to look at a Padres roster that looks downright dangerous—this is a team that has the aura and mystique of an Applebees—but god bless them for aiming high. I fully expect to wake up tomorrow and find out that they have traded for Troy Tulowitzki.

http://deadspin.com/padres-trade-for-justin-upton-are-all-the-way-out-here-1673188603

[hardcharging-blog]

From Deadspin's Tom Ley:

Say hello to Fancloud.com, a sports website in the Yardbarker Network that wants you to pay $50 in exchange for the opportunity to write for it. The three dipshits in the video above are the site's founders, and they can explain everything to you, but if you're not in the mood to have some wannabe Silicon Valley bros explain why you should give them $50, allow me to explain what Fancloud is: a fucking scam.

Much more on the pyramid-scheme-as-fan-blog-network here: http://deadsp.in/Xon0sL

[goodmenproject-blog]

Although NBA owners are most to blame for the lockout, Tom Ley writes, they’re also receiving the most sympathy.

With the recent revelation that the NBA lockout has finally crystallized into frightening reality and will be costing us at least two weeks (and likely more) worth of games this season, it’s not surprising to see so many fans, writers, and pundits express their anger at the situation. It’s never fun to have something you love taken away from you, so unceremoniously, for reasons that are so far beyond your control, and I have no doubt that many NBA fans feel victimized and helpless right now, two feelings that often lead to anger. I’m also not surprised to see a lot of this anger, unfortunately, get directed at the NBA players rather than the owners.

[goodmenproject-blog]

In my mind, when it comes to having an intelligent conversation about sports, publishing pictures of dicks might be the most important thing that Deadspin does.

READ TOM LEY'S "In Defense of the Dong Shot"