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Buzz Bissinger, the excellent sportswriter and blog hater who made himself a very unpopular man very quickly by becoming unhinged and cussing out nice-guy Deadspin editor Will Leitch on TV last week, has had some time to think about what he did. And he's sorry now. First his wife told him he looked bad. Then everybody else did. "I started reading emails sent to me. The majority were predictably vindictive — dickhead, horsefucker, douchebag, windbag, ugly, stupid, etc. But what struck me far more is that many of the emails were smart, not laced with personal invective, and made cogent points about sports blogs and the Internet." He has perhaps now learned a valuable lesson, or three!

While Bissinger still professes to believe in his core argument—that sports blogs are the devil—he apologizes for cussing and yelling and generally acting like a crazy person on Bob Costas' HBO show.


I believe in what I said (although the emails I received have also directed me to some excellent information-based sports blogs I was not aware of). But I made a terrible mistake in the manner in which I said it. I am a man of passion and my passion truly got the better of me. I should have considerably toned it down, in particular in terms of my treatment of Will Leitch.

Then he apologizes to Will Leitch again. He must been worn down by Leitch's unflaggingly polite Midwestern disposition!

What is ironic, and embarrassing, is that I directed gratuitous profanity at Will Leitch. And no question - that did undermine the points I was trying to make. Valid points in my mind.

And Bissinger's final bit of very accurate wisdom, in a comment on another sportswriter who disagreed with him:


I think Joe said that because he blogs now and doesn't want to piss off bloggers off (trust me on this on the basis of experience, he is smart not to want to piss off bloggers).

[The Big Lead]