The D

Well, I guess we all knew this was going to happen at some point this week. A bored sportswriter has apparently gotten fed up with all the free food and booze that's been thrown at him and has decided to rip Detroit.

Rick Telander's column in the Chicago Sun Times is a piece of garbage. Now, the Realests don't usually take things too seriously but there are a few things that you can't make fun of: Hov, Pistons, Redskins, Zoolander, any MTV reality show, and Detroit. Telander has decided to take on the city of Detroit. I know that Telander is a pretty big sports writer, but how does his editor let him write something like this?

After reading the column, its pretty evident that its just a ploy to grab the spotlight for a few minutes so that Jim Rome and the boneheads on Around the Horn can spend a segment discussing all the reasons why the Super Bowl shouldn't have been put in Detroit. But, in all honesty, that horse was beaten to death a few years ago when the NFL decided to give Detroit the Super Bowl. And then it was beaten to death at the start of the NFL season. In fact, my growing seed of discontent with ESPN began when I read the Sports Guy say that he wasn't going to the Super Bowl this year just because of its location. Well, the story is over and done with folks.

Now, Detroit is far from perfect, but the city has been making great strides over the last couple of years and especially in the last couple of months. I don't know why sports columnists feel the need to turn their columns into a referendum on the problems of urban Detroit - they certainly aren't experts on the problems of urban flight, unemployent, and urban revitalization. The fact is that they should be writing about sports. And if they would just do that then then the world would know that Detroit is a great sports town. In the last year alone Detroit and its suburbs have been host to 2 NBA Finals, the MLB All-Star Game, and the Super Bowl. Why not focus on the positives? Why not focus on how Detroit is a great sports town? How the fans in Detroit are some of the most loyal and knowledgeable in the country? How the Red Wings were the closest thing that hockey has seen to a dynasty in the last 20 years? How the Pistons have single-handedly brought the "team" concept back to the NBA? How MSU basketball has been a national powerhouse? How Michigan football continues to disappoint year after year? (Sorry, had to put that one in there - Fire Lloyd!!!)

They city of Detroit has shown a lot of resilience in the last few years and the feeling in the air is that things will turn around soon (granted, I don't live in/near Detroit anymore so I'm not sure exactly what the air is like). I mean, after all, even Jimmy Kimmel is spending a week in Detroit.

After reading Telander's column, take a look at Michael Wilbon's piece.