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It's been a couple of weeks, so I think that it's fair to provide a fuller judgment.
First, the site hasn't been all Simmons + Klosterman + Cousin Sal, so that's good. Right now I count 15 authors on the front page, not counting pseudonyms who could potentially be one of those other authors, so there's nice variety. It's also nice to have a clearinghouse for writing that at least tries to be quality. It doesn't always succeed, but what does? The product is miles better than what is in a newspaper or on the ESPN website at any given time.
Second, there have been some real quality pieces thus far. I thought Klosterman on the DVR and sports was quite well written, and I'm not a huge fan of Klosterman in general.
That being said, there are some huge problems. Is Grantland a sports site? A guy site? A "things Bill Simmons likes" site? On the main page right now there are two stories about Breaking Bad, something called the "Youtube hall of fame," Justin Timberlake, and the Humblebrag twitter guy sucking all the fun out of his shtick by explaining the joke. There is quite a bit of sports coverage, of course, including admirable breadth: baseball, NBA basketball, NFL, women's soccer, WSOP, and professional wrestling. July is a dead period in sports, so I understand it's difficult to fill space, but the end result is that the site feels unfocused.
I wonder what the endgame is for the site? How many people are actually going to the main page, as opposed to getting referred to articles piecemeal style? I know that I haven't made Grantland a place I stop as I move around to the websites I read, although I've read quite a few of the articles from links.
Another concern, especially in the wake of l'Affaire Feldman, is how much separation Grantland really has from ESPN. Despite it's nominal independence, who can't help but wonder how much is being left back. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps much. Impossible to say, and that's coming from someone who has been generally pro-ESPN up until this past week.
Finally, too much of the writing is just so damn glib. I already said elsewhere that I thought Simmons's article on fixing the NBA lockout was one of the weakest I've seen from him. But there are others that are equally grating. Bill Barnwell has had some awful articles on the NFL that offer little else besides "here's a list of players I don't like." You have some authors that go for the constant Family Guy style: " [Sporting event] reminds me of [Pop Culture Reference]! Do you remember the one time [celebrity] [did something illegal]? That's just like [sporting event]? The style was liberating a decade ago, but like all templates, but it is not much less boring at this point than the 1980's newspaper columnist hackery that it was rebelling against. On the other hand, you get Very Serious People writing Articles That Will Make You Think About Sports and The Times We Live In, which is fine, I guess, but if you are going to be the NPR of sports webmagazines, don't have pieces that compare the Bulls playoff run to the time you prematurely ejaculated when you were 15.
I still give the site an overall thumbs up, despite the problems and inconsistencies. I like that it is being tried, at the very least. Maybe some of the authors will stop feeling like they are writing for America's Best Sports Writing 2012 or trying to be Bill Simmons's BFF. And hopefully Simmons will give them the freedom to do so.
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