Comments

2
...and who the fuck is 'Matt Calkins' and where does he get off comparing Marshawn to a carpetbagging worm like Pay-Rod.

More shame brought on the Seattle Times by the Seattle Times. Why can't we have a REAL daily newspaper in this stupid town.
4
They're the Times after all, so you can expect tacky and worthless op-ed columns, opposition to any popular movements, and shilling for big business
5
They have a point. Not everything should be seen through the lens of moral relativism.
6
Oh fuck the Blethen Family Newsletter
7
Racist? Not racist? Who the fuck can tell anymore? Frankly I thought Marshawn's announcement was poetic, which I sort of equate with classiness.

And, FYI, Sherman's awesome rant wasn't a year ago, it was over two years ago...on the 10 year anniversary of the Dean Scream.
8
Calling someone not classy is also not classy.

(Also, WTF is he supposed to do, drink tea with his pinky extended while announcing his retirement on The View?)
9
O please. Methinks some folks are contemplating their navels a bit too much here. Check your Websters.... Parsing "classy" back to an archaic meaning is absurd.
10
Agreed. Wtf does 'class' have to do with this at all? Can a 'tweet' ever be truly classy?

"Lynch's retirement announcement wasn't classy, but it was perfect (ya know, for a black guy.)"

FTFTST
11
This paper is off the fucking deep end with this kneejerk sensitivity bullshit. Remember when there were like four or five actual journalists here like 2-3 years ago?
12
Marshawn Lynch's retirement statement was understated, it was poignant, it was the essence of "a picture is worth a thousand words." It was the very definition of classy. And I can guarantee you, if that had been Peyton Manning's retirement announcement, the folks at The Seattle Times would have had a wholly different Rorschach-test reaction.
13
For you skeptics, there are new dog-whistle words used by the media to denigrate non-white people. "Thug" is the biggest one, but also "Classy" is a word white bigots use when they don't want to be seen as bigots.
14
@2

Oh, Calkins, that embarrassing shit. The only time he came to my attention was when he wrote that he could root for the soccer team because (in his selective view) Hope Solo hadn't appeared genuinely contrite for her troubles. Fuck him.
15
@12

You know what wasn't classy? Peyton Manning working in his Budweiser endorsement in the post game interviews whenever he was asked if he was retiring. Has anyone criticized him for that?
18
@15: Totally. Peyton Manning is one of the most classless players in the NFL. From the Bud endorsement to calling out his "idiot kicker" on national to TV to the sideline pouting to his refusal to help Brock Osweiller earlier in the season, he's displayed boorish behavior throughout his entire career. Yet Manning is widely regarded as a "class act". Pathetic.
19
Calkins just got here a few months ago, and it shows. Forget the racist undertones of his remark; it's just plain heresy to say anything even remotely bad about Lynch right now. The most beloved running back in franchise history (yes, even more so than Curt Warner) just retired. To criticize him at this moment, especially over something this idiotic, is pretty damn tone deaf.

His writing was kind of awful already, all choppy sentences and clumsy metaphors. Now his judgment is suspect along with his writing...though his employer deserves the bulk of that blame for hiring him in the first place.
20
It was TOTALLY classy. He tweeted a picture that pretty much said "I'm hanging up my cleats" and an emoji saying "peace out". It's simple, heartfelt, and humble.
21
We'll miss you, Marshawn! Happy retirement to a classy guy. GO, SEAHAWKS!
@20 venomlash: Agreed.
22
Calkins is an ignorant ass, who apparently was brought in by the Seattle Times to be a professional troll.

He seems profoundly ignorant about most of the sports he writes about too, particularly baseball and football.

Art Theil could be a contrary curmudgeon back in the day. He's mellowed a little, some, but you always know he takes the time to really understand the sports and sports world he write about. (btw He can be found at http://sportspressnw.com/ )

I would say Calkins completely lacks class, but I believe this is exactly the kind of trolling the Seattle Times brought him in for. Calkins is just a profoundly ignorant hack doing what they pay him to do. The powers that be at the Times must think it will give them an "in" to some key sports demographic or something.

I get the print edition at home (because my wife is addicted to morning paper with coffee and kept talking me out of cancelling til I finally just accepted the Times for what it is). I have trouble believing that the demographic who reads the ads for shopping ideas is thrilling to the ignorant assholery of Calkins.

I stopped reading him long ago, but couldn't help checking out the beginning paragraphs of this piece. What an idiot.

Unfortunately, I bet the editors point to this thread as a success in the their dumb troll sports writer strategy.
23
@14 Oh, yeah, the Hope Solo piece. I think that was the piece, somewhat shortly his arrival with the paper, that led to me just not bothering to read anything of his again. On any subject. Regret breaking my habit of ignoring him and reading the beginning of the Lynch piece.
24
@20 and @21. What you said.
25
Ansel, in your TImes-hating haste to create controversy where none exists, you apparently didn't even read the column. He didn't say the announcement wasn't classy, as your headline and tweet say. In fact, he called it perfect for him. He said the timing of it wasn't classy, because it was self-serving. That's his opinion. I don't agree with it, either. But big deal. How that translates to racism, I'm not sure. But at least give the Times shit for things they do. Don't misrepresent what they write and then be outraged about it.
26
Oh the Seattle Times and their passive-aggressive NYMBYism towards the black community.
27
NIMBYism* that is
28
@15: Yes, he has been criticized heavily for it, and not many people actually buy his fake "aw shucks" dad jeans-wearing persona anymore, and have not for some time now. I have actually heard it called "classless" by at least one beat writer, not that I follow the Broncos much at all.

NBC Sports and CBS sports writers have called him classless for both the Budweiser statement, and for not helping his back-up much throughout the first part of the year.

29
Oh, and it appears pretty much no one commenting even read the piece (including Ansel), he called the timing classless as it was during the actual game, not the content. He also called it the perfect send off for Lynch, who he praised as being a guy who was unafraid to do things his way. Not that it will change much, but there it is.
30
Do any of you even know what hanging shoes from a telephone wire even means? Yes, Marshawn was classless. Yes, it was unprofessional to "quit" via tweet.
32
Oh for God's sake. Both the Times AND the Stranger are way out in the woods on this one.

The NFL is a brawn, beer, and boobfest that consists overpaid men running into each other while underpaid young women frolic on the sideline and a nation of fat people watch and eat nachos. Who cares how he resigns, and whether it's "classy" enough for a dying newspaper?

As for trying to tie the word "classy" back to some sort of classist struggle or colonialism, or whatever the intention was, give it a rest. Most people in this country - including that bore at the Times - probably think of one of Trump's hotels or soft-core porn when they hear the word "classy".
33
@25, @28

I guess you both feel that slamming Ansel is a good way to score points for your Stranger hate, but it seems like neither of you understood his post, which questions the headline that says exactly, "Lynch's retirement announcement not classy." Ansel and others whose tweets he links to essentially say that a metropolitan newspaper has a responsibility to recognize and not use racially coded language like it does here. "Class," like "boy," which is what Bill Romanowski called Cam Newton, isn't explicitly racial or racist, but if you are unaware of the racial associations, you really don't belong in the modern mainstream media.
34
So who is this Marshawn Lynch fellow you all keep going on about, anyways?
35
@33: I just said he and several commenters apparently did not read the article. Is that a "slam?" I am not sure what you mean by "scoring points." Are you keeping score of something?

I understand the point Ansel is making, but he likely could have offered deeper analysis had he bothered to read the subject of his ire. But I guess I do not agree with the point that certain races need to be treated differently when it comes to criticism, or that people should be treated or described differently based on their race.

So if Peyton Manning's actions can be described as classless by those that believe so, I do not see why Lynch's can't, personal disagreements of "classiness" notwithstanding.
36
"Classy" is the word hicks use to describe things like the fake wood interior trim in a Toyota or Cook's Champagne.
37
Ohh, there ain't no gentleman that's fit for any use
and any dame will touch your privates for a deuce
and even kids will kick your shins and give you sass...
38
If declaring that word racist is what it takes to remove it from the lexicon, then racist it is.
39
Meanwhile, in the "things that actually matter" part of journalism:

http://www.africanews.com/2016/02/10/at-…
40
@38- wow. That has to be one of the most painfully stupid things I have ever read.
41
@33: I completely understand "boy" and "thug" and words like that being racially charged at the very least. I've never before heard that about "class." Is is a new thing? I'm not opposed to learning, but to assume this is a thing most people should know I don't think is fair.
42
@38- I don't like the word "pustule". Can we please just call it racist and have it " removed from the lexicon "?
43
Everything there is to say about the Seattle Times is being said better by other folks here. But just from a strictly public relations standpoint, JFC: media 101's top rule is NEVER SAY NO COMMENT. The fact that this is all the ST was willing to say speaks volumes about their incompetence and their unwillingness to confront the internal racism roiling around their editorial department.
44
I guess the writer should have said "tacky", or "gauche" because those words are kind of gay sounding, rather than racist sounding.

for the Manning haters: http://deadspin.com/peyton-manning-can-e…
45
Running out of real news stories, are we?
47
@30, it can mean a lot of things.... here's one from wikipedia that's not about death or murder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossi…
"Yet another legend involves that shoes hanging from telephone wires signals someone leaving the neighborhood onto bigger and better things"
48
I love Marshawn,
But they Times is right. It was classy. In the middle of the Super Bowl? I mean, it wasn't like that was when he made up his mind. He had his social media team gin up the 'hanging up the cleats' image and scheduled the tweet.

C'mon guys, call a spade a spade.
49
@48 I, of course, meant "wasn't".

I mean, whatever guys, do the limbo to avoid using the magic words when the meaning is still obvious.

It's a faux pas to announce your engagement at someone else's wedding; to brag about your promotion to a friend in the hospital, etc. We know there are times when things are appropriate and when they are not. Dude literally planned this for specifically a someone else's jam. It's rude. You know it's rude.
50
@48: Look, the jury is still out on if "classless" is a racial slur, but c'mon, we all know "spade" is.
51
@48-49, shut up hippie! Rude? - no because it does not take away from the entire Denver Bronco victory nor grab the headlines away from them in most if not all sports websites outside of Seattle. A spade is a spade? Really? you are a tasteless idiot.
52
Marshawn Lynch clutching his balls and grunting is a million times classier than the frigging Seattle Times.

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