Originally Posted by
pbmax
The absolute trust of scouts drives me nuts. It not based on any kind of success rate. Its just a cudgel to beat arguments to death from readers and fans. "They do it for a living, you are just fans" WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP.
Scouts spout off ALL the time about things and players they don't know and don't understand, using the hoariest cliches. And the opinions on skill level are always a choice of terrible, replaceable and great. The insights about how they play often betray less familiarity than I have with the Packers.
Its different with college players, because I don't know them at all, but I am not sure the insight is any better.
However, he does hold to team accountable for success and addressing areas of weakness. He is willing to publish facts that do not reflect well on the team. Those are good things that are not evident in every beat writer (Demovsky probably comes in second and I am not sure who would be third). Dougherty and Oates are happy to bash obvious faults, but they don't report internal material very often.
He is careful and scrupulous in his reporting. The columns can be dicey, especially the Sunday Game Day bombshells. Some of those would fit in a NY tabloid.