Jim Sorgi: Peyton's well-paid messenger boy

The first bit of Super Bowl media hype has seeped into my consciousness this morning, and it ain't pretty. Today is, "Look editor, I am working in Miami. I interviewed the back-ups" day for the slovenly mass of mainstream media. How must the mind of the local scribe on an expense account function? An in-depth look at an impact player? A feature piece with a human interest angle? No thanks, the lines are too long. Let's see. Who does nobody care about? Who's sitting alone in his uniform reading the latest issue of Maxim? Ah, Jim Sorgi. Let me get this interview done in five minutes, write the article in an hour, and then go grab some KFC (Saving my per diem for the strip club later on. Beers are $12. Can you believe that?). Steve Ballard of the Indy Star writes this fascinating piece: "Colts backup QB Sorgi accepts bench role behind Manning ... No one has a better understanding or is more accepting of his role on the Indianapolis Colts than backup quarterback Jim Sorgi." His role is to hold a clipboard. Wow. What a good solider. Especially when there are ZERO other NFL teams knocking down his door to offer him a starting job. Quoth the Sorgi: "Yeah, this is the greatest job in the world until Peyton comes off the field and thinks his thumb might be broken and you're down by three (points) to New England and you haven't taken a snap all year ... I sat at my locker after the game and ran through all the scenarios in my head. I could have won the game and that would have been great. Or I could have lost the game and that would have been horrible." How long did it take you to contemplate all the scenarios, Jim? All two of them, that is. You have to give Ballard some credit. He knows he's filing a crappy fluff piece without a smidgen of news in it, so he has some fun with it towards the end, throwing Sorgi under the bus: "He gets his exercise shuttling information between Manning and wide receiver Marvin Harrison, who sit at opposite ends of the bench ... Manning isn't always as receptive to Sorgi's suggestions as Harrison is, but Sorgi doesn't mind being a well-paid messenger and little else." Damn. If you want to see how the exact same interview gets turned into a halfway decent story with actual information in it, check out Jim Corbett's USA Today piece (and I know, when the McPaper is the good example, we're all in trouble).