It wasn't even a well-executed story about a golf club. Most people agree now, broadly, about Grantland's failings toward transgender people in its telling of—and creation of—the tragic story of the golf-club inventor Essay Anne Vanderbilt. Bill Simmons, the founder and editor-in-chief of the prestige-sportswriting website, signed off on that agreement Monday with a long note of apology.

On Friday, journalist Caleb Hannan tweeted a link to a recent Grantland story he did, writing, "Not sure what to say other than this is the strangest story I've ever worked on."