Arash Markazi Must Be Stopped!!!

Many of you who know me are aware of my affection for sports journalism and my sometimes over-the-top criticism of sports journalists whom I consider to be sub par. I have respect for Peter Gammons, a love-hate relationship with Bill Simmons, a fondness for most of Rick Reilly's columns, and a disdain for virtually any Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter (minus Tony Barnhart, of course).

My most passionate hatred in this realm to date, however, has been directed at Arash Markazi of Sports Illustrated. The rage that Markazi's writing inspires in me is unnatural, unnerving, and unhealthy. I am sure that Markazi is a decent guy... he survived cancer and he likes soccer; those are two pluses in my book. His column, however, represents to me everything that is terrible about sports journalism. His whole shtick is to be an unabashed jock-sniffer who concentrates more on the Hollywoodesque aspects of being a professional athlete rather than on such minor things as, oh, I dunno, the actual SPORT or the athlete's TALENT or even the athlete's good nature.

What infuriates me the most, though, is that Markazi isn't even good at what he does. I've read a few of his "columns" and they're not good sports journalism, not good yellow journalism, not good Page Six-ism, they're just...NOT...GOOD.

Markazi's most recent column deals with a party in Los Angeles where Tony Blair, Snoop Dogg, and Venus Williams were hanging out and celebrating with the Chelsea footballers. Besides a few glib remarks and observations about the scene (including a completely unnecessary anecdote about Snoop recognizing Markazi) the "column" adds absolutely nothing to either the literary or sporting worlds. There was no follow up with the Chelsea players about playing in the U.S., about how incredible it was to chat with the P.M. about their prospects, about anything in which a CNNSI.com reader might be interested.

Markazi is nothing if not consistent. He cut his teeth as a "reporter" following Matt Leinart around and basically stargazing at athletes. His niche seems to further distance sports from the actual competitions and turn them into cults-of-personality cum reality t.v. cum celebrity stalking. Perhaps this is appealing to some, but it is certainly not to me.

I lament the rise of the celebrity athlete from Babe to DiMaggio to Jordan to Tiger in that it has stripped athletes' privacy from them and turned them from specimens of physical prowess to be admired from the stands to just another uber-rich celebrity to be "seen" with. I hope that someday soon Sports Illustrated will realize that its sports journalistic integrity is on the line and that it should not allow "columnists" like Markazi to write without art or substance.

Until then, I will read my copies of The Best American Sports Writing from years 1989-2004 and search for those who share my passion for perfection both on and off the field.