Yahoo's Charles Robinson calls ESPN's Rick Reilly an "idiot" for running of the bulls video piece

This post isn't about football. It's more about high profile sports writers fighting with one another and calling each other names. So please, humor me. I live for this kind of stuff!

There's been a lot of chatter around here about how we at Stampede Blue attack journalists who, in essence, piss on the long-established ethics of their profession in favor of cheap gags or shock value. Truth is, other people in the profession are just as upset as we are. The difference is they aren't as vocal about it. 

This is, until Yahoo! Sports' Charles Robinson saw ESPN's Rick Reilly's running of the bulls piece as part of Reilly's "Riled Up" video commentary for the World Wide Leader.

I personally have never cared much for Reilly. For my taste, his columns for Sports Illustrated were often sloppy and full of nothing but vapid prose. When he ditched SI in favor of more money at ESPN, I thought it a perfect fit. Both are cartoons for what they really should be. I can think of a myriad of insults to describe Reilly, and many would agree that the insults paint a pretty accurate portrait of the man. But, I'll leave the Riley bashing to Charles Robinson. Quite frankly, he's more entertaining doing it than I am.

Recently, Riley's "Riled Up" video featured him equipped with a video camera strapped to his head as he ran through the streets of Pamplona, Spain for the annual running of the bulls. It wasn't so much the stupidity of a "sports journalist" like Riley running through Pamplona in order to experience the event, but the method in which he did it that really, really, REALLY pissed off Robinson. I mean, we're talking me after reading a Jason Cole article level of pissed.

After the jump, read Robinson's Tweets on Reilly. And no, I did not hack Charles Robinson's Twitter account, though I admit his tone and choice of insulting language reads very much like my own.

Rick Reilly is a jackass. Saw his piece w/ the running of the bulls. His swatting bulls w/ a newspaper is dangerous & disrespectful. Moron.

Wow.

You should never swat the Bulls w/ a newspaper. It causes them 2 get distracted & go after runners. Rick Reilly should have known that. Ass.

Double wow.

I love that ESPN glorifies Reilly being a totally disrespectful ass. Do some research. He's exactly why locals hate Americans at the event.

Do we need to go over this again? We all know ESPN is not a news organization. If you're an ESPN "personality" like Reilly is now, you're no different than the dudes who dress in the Mickey Mouse costumes in Orlando and Anaheim.

5 minutes of research tells you the rolled newspapers R to distract bulls if they get disoriented & charge. Not 2 recklessly hit them. Idiot

Not even 5 minutes. A quick Google search takes you to Wikipedia which tells you, "In one hand, [runners] hold the day's newspaper rolled to draw the bulls' attention from them if necessary."

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, in the video (embedded at the end of the post), Reilly is trying to run with the bulls and, as part of his personal, Hemingway-like mission, swat a bull with a rolled up newspaper as it races past him. Apparently, by doing this (and not using the newspaper the way it's intended) Reilly was drawing the bulls towards people trying to get out of the way. Thus, endangering them. 

Friends who I met when I ran w/ the bull can't believe the Rick Reilly video piece, either. Dangerous self-aggrandizing garbage. Shameful.

Self-aggrandizing? NO! Not from the network that brought us "The Decision."

Rick Reilly and ESPN are lucky he didn't get someone killed. Do some research before you endanger other people's lives. Reckless & terrible.

Rick Reilly? Do research? Chuck, please. He has Disney interns who are supposed to do that for him now. Rick Reilly hasn't researched anything he's written since 1989.

I'm done w/ the Rick Reilly rant. But people should know how dangerous his actions were. Shouldn't B taken lightly. Piss poor journalism.

NOOOOOOOOOO! Chuck, you can't stop now! This rant is highly entertaining. In the span of a few Tweets, you managed to call one of the highest paid and most visible sports columnists in America an "idiot," a "moron," "reckless," "terrible," "shameful," and at least three kinds of "ass" (disrespectful, jack, and just plain, regular ass).

I mean, I don't think I've ever laid into someone with that kind of anger, and that's saying something!

For those of you who don't care about watching high profile sports writers fighting each other, I'm sorry. Please forgive me for wasting your time with this. I, personally, love this kind of stuff. It fully exposes the nasty, bitter, internal struggle many ethical writers have with the silly antics of people like Reilly, who is obviously being encouraged by the self-promoting corporate monster that is ESPN. Fights like these happen privately all the time. It's rare they go public like this, and in Robinson's case I'm glad he used Twitter to voice his extreme disapproval with Reilly (who has built up a rep for being a self-promoting "ass" more so than a quality journalist over the years).

Again, this is a case of Robinson letting loose on a guy who clearly violated certain ethical standards of journalism. Rarely, if ever, do you see high profile people like Robinson call out other high profile people like Reilly. But, Robinson felt strongly about it because, it seems, he cares about the ethics of his profession. I respect that. That kind of impulsive, opinionated ranting is something I 'd like read more of from the mainstream guys.

Also, after you watch Reilly's video, it's clear why Robinson was so pissed:

I can't wait for Reilly's response.

OK. Thanks for humoring me everyone. Now, on to football: Camp opens in less than a week!