John Walters

"I really think you're full of ____!"

H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger (Friday Night Lights, Three Days In August), a Pulitzer-prize winning author who has devoted his career to the beauty of language, waited an entire six words to devolve into profanity last night on "Costas Now." What does that tell you about the object of his wrath?

That person would be Will Leitch, 32, founder and editor of the popular, pithy sports blog Deadspin. Bissinger, 53, went after Leitch from the opening bell of their panel discussion, a rhetorical reincarnation of vintage Mike Tyson, describing what is occurring on the web today as "the complete dumbing down of our society."

Leitch weathered the fury with aplomb, absorbing the body blows -- there were no jabs -- that a buzzed-off Bissinger sent his way.

This was cracklin' good television. This was the kind of bout that HBO Sports has been looking for since Taylor-Pavlik I. HBO Sports, which butters its bread via live televised fights (and the shows that promote them), should consider a "Bissinger-Leitch 24/7" series.

Bissinger-Leitch was antipodal antagonism at its best. There was the generational chasm, the class chasm (Bissinger is the product of an elite, or elitist, education, having studied at Phillips Academy, Penn and Harvard; Leitch attended the University of Illinois), the demeanor chasm (odd that it was Bissinger and not Leitch who required expletives to flavor his points) and the sar-chasm.

After all, Leitch was hardly unprepared for Bissinger's ambush. Shortly before leaving his Brooklyn crib for last night's midtown Manhattan taping, he posted an entry entitled, "Costas Now Airs Tonight 10 P.M. Eastern. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" In it he cited a blurb in which Bissinger is quoted as saying that "blogs disgrace the written word."

Besides, Leitch saw Bissinger in the green room, pacing like an anxious pit bull. Watched him take the stage with his sheaf of ammunition -- not even Costas, who moderated five panels during the live, 90-minute program, brought that much prepared material onstage. Leitch, smart and likeable in person ("palatable" was the buzzword, pardon the expression), knew that his best defense was to remain even-keeled and polite, which he did.

Watching it all transpire from the studio audience, I was transfixed. Bissinger both went on the offensive and was offensive, but he is obviously disturbed by what he sees happening to sports journalism. I like to think that I had a unique perspective on what was happening in front of my eyes.

I am a 41-year-old sportswriter who worked at Sports Illustrated from the age of 22 to 38. I now appear exclusively on the internet and write a blog that I wish was as funny (and widely read) as Leitch's. And so while I have a background in what Leitch and his acolytes call "MSM" (mainstream media), I am also part of the next wave. Indeed, it was funny to observe the reactions of two friends seated near me, SI's Mark Beech and Richard Deitsch who cringed in surprise when, in a later segment, Costas described the magazine as "still having cache, though perhaps not to the extent that it once did."

MORE FROM OTHER SPORTS

Other sports Section Front

WSOP finalist faces warrant for arrest Getting to know World Series of Poker's final 9 Boxer in coma after collapsing between rounds New sport combines boxing and chess Bud to keep sports marketing strong under new owners Florida State's Posey wins Golden Spikes Award Beijing Olympics: Features, news, images, more Jeep World on NBC Championship Off-Road Racing on NBC Other sports Section Front   Add Other sports headlines to your news reader: