Bart Scott the Blogger

As we hurtle toward the day when every professional athlete has a blog, I found out today that I've been horribly remiss in not reading the Yardbarker blogs of the Ravens' Mark Clayton and Bart Scott. Clayton keeps it real in his blog; like, check out this recent post, as he discusses his ankle sprain suffered against the Giants:

As i was driving him down the field a group of big boys chasing Mike Anderson like a pack of lions huntin for food came and the pack fell on me... I was like O MY GOD....

Being injured is hard to handle for anybody when u know what u can do, but all u can do is watch and say what u woulda done if that was you... Well, I thank God for allowing me to b able to practice this week. It's still pretty sore. If anybody has had a high ankle sprain where u feel it up your leg you know what im talking bout..

And so on. Scott's is probably a little more ambitious, taking on issues like Peter King's controversial Sports Illustrated player ratings:

First of all you can't take any of that stuff to heart. It's a matter of opinion and a hard job to do. Ranking positions like the top linebackers or tightends would have been easier. Because how can you compare what one guy does differently from another player, say an offensive tackle or a corner. So calm down if your guy wasn't as high as you wanted. If you had put the list together someone would be challenging its substance too. With all that being said i like my place on the list and I think I'll take it to my next contract meeting....

And another note to all of you division 1 schools who look down on the lesser division, ha ha ha! Michigan shouldn't see the ranking this year. You all assume that there's no talent in those smaller colleges but trust me there are plenty of ballers there and we are holding the league down just as much as the hyped and sometimes over hyped urban legends. So see you on Monday night where I'll try to earn some national respect the only way that a D-1AA slappy knows how, by taking it violently!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!

Holy cow. That's a lot of exclamation marks. He could blog for the Wizznutzz. Anyhow, I told him I was a blogger and wanted to share some trade talk; "There's big money in blogging," he said, which was a promising start. I asked who his blogging role models were.

"[Ravens director of public relations] Chad Steele and his sister Sage Steele really were two of my biggest influences, helping me to take it to the next level of how to deal with the media and how to respond to the media."

I asked whether he reads other blogs.

"No, but I watch Sage Steele every time I can on ESPN," he said. "She's great. She's the biggest addition to them since Rich Eisen."

I asked how he decides about what to blog--leaving out my typical speech about waking up in the morning and facing the savage blank screen of death--and he said the typical stuff about reaching out to his fans across the country and letting them know what he was thinking and how he was feeling and the rest. I wanted to know what his best post had been thus far, admitting that I hadn't been a regular reader.

"How can you come here and ask me about blogging if you've never read my blog?" he asked, fairly. "You've done no research on me and you want me to respond in your blog? That's unfair."

"I want you to give me free material for my blog," I explained. Again thinking about the blank screen of death.

"Oh, you just want to use me," he said. "Using works better when two people are using each other. I feel screwed now."

I promised him copious links to his blog, and asked whether he reads Gilbert's blog.

"Gilbert's never read mine, so I've never read his," Scott said. Schilling's is popular, I said.

"Just because he's controversial," Scott said. "Does that have something to do with the comments he made about Barry Bonds? I think he's trying to draw attention to his blog. I think there's an easier way to do it. Just talk about how you feel, and give people your true insights about who you are. You shouldn't go propaganda. You end up hurting people in the long run to further your career."

"That's enough for your blog," he said a few moments later. "I'm giving you too much information, you've got to buy the rest. That's five minutes worth of juice, man. You get three; you've got to pay for five."

Then he went up to the podium to talk about how Chad Johnson's mohawk was better than Gwen Stefani's. I really think he has the makings of a great blogger. Anyone who uses 50 consecutive exclamation marks, writes about blood in the water and refuses to provide free content to the competition definitely has a future in this biz. Hopefully he has a computer in his basement.

By Dan Steinberg |  September 6, 2007; 4:17 PM ET  | Category:  NFL
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Posted by: Ian | September 6, 2007 06:03 PM

Posted by: DD | September 7, 2007 04:20 AM

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