The Best and Worst of Bleacher Report

BEST

1. Lots of good writers and articles on a variety of topics, including sports I am very familiar with but not an “expert” on (boxing) or not familiar with at all (NASCAR).

2. Intelligent people debating a topic with smart arguments and decorum.

3. The humor of Glenn Card and William Berry.

4. The editors (99.9 percent of the time).

5. People on my friends list (and some who aren’t) who comment and debate on my articles, as I do on theirs.

6. Opportunity to write on sports I am less familiar with but have an opinion on (although I haven’t done it yet).

7. Seeing new people show up on B/R that can actually write and make an intelligent argument.

8. Seeing a ton of Patriots' fans on the site (insert your favorite teams, you’ll find your compatriots here).

9. Watching knockdown, drag-out fights on the comment boards! (Yes, I am being a little inconsistent here, but hey, sometimes watching a train wreck is fun).

10. Being able to keep a pulse on what people are saying about current sports events (Jay Cutler, Terrell Owens, etc.).

WORST (OR PET PEEVES)

1. The same article written by the same author in a thousand different ways on who is better—Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning.  (And Patriots' fans continuing to feed the beast with reads and comments).

2. Average writers who make it to the top of the rankings through sheer volume of activity. Quantity shouldn't be better than quality.

3. Dumb people debating a topic with stupid arguments and ad hominem attacks instead of with intelligence and decorum. (But these are sometimes very fun to see).

4. People who post their articles to my bulletin board who have never commented on (or read?) my articles (although this is rare).

5. People who have never written an article signing up anonymously to B/R to attack an article or author.

6. Top 10 lists for any sport, where anyone who played before 1960 is usually shit out of luck on making the list.  The top 10 NFL quarterback lists are the worst offenders.

7. Reading news on NFL.com, or another sports site, and then seeing the same article paraphrased here (and on rare occasions plagiarized) without attribution.

8. Writing an article and then realizing somebody has not only done it already, but done it better than you.

9. Finding yourself at work writing a silly article for B/R between tasks (shhh!!)

10. Too many writers with no sense of the history of the sport they are writing about (see lament about Top 10 lists above).