One of my favorite sportswriters/columnists, hands down, is Bill Simmons "The Sports Guy" of ESPN. (P.S. You should follow him on Twitter @sportsguy33.) He writes entertaining, epic length columns full of pop culture references.
Over the years, Simmons has also coined a number of phrases for which he associates and ranks a group of people or things. For example, a recurring Simmons topic is the "13 Levels of Losing" where he defines and ranks the most painful ways for a sports team to lose, like the "Stomach Punch" (a game that ends with an opponent making an improbable and game-winning play).
One of Simmons' other themes is called "The Tyson Zone," and named in honor of boxer Mike Tyson. The Tyson Zone is the status an athlete or other celebrity reaches when his or her behavior becomes so outrageous that one would believe any story or anecdote about the person, no matter how shocking or bizarre.
I've been thinking about how The Tyson Zone applies to so many people now on the political landscape. There might be a waiting list at this point, given all of the strange extremist views coming from Tea Party activists (I'm looking at you, Sarah Palin) and media goofballs (I'm looking at you, everybody on Fox News). And yes, there are plenty of Democrats that belong in it, too.
But there is a special place reserved in The Tyson Zone for Iowa's own Congressman Steve King. Over the years his greatest hits include openly insensitive remarks disparaging minorities, homosexuals, immigrants, Muslims - basically anybody who doesn't look or think like him. Dude has already earned a lifetime membership in The Tyson Zone.
If Steve King is a member of The Tyson Zone, what about all of the people who keep voting to re-relect him? It doesn't say a lot for them. On the other hand, when Mike Tyson went berzerko, it didn't stop poeple from going to his fights, either. Maybe King's constituents have been hypnotized in the same way.
Regardless, I'm convinced if you peeled back Steve King's skin you'd find some primordal creature underneath. He is.....a Martian.....in The Tyson Zone.
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