I don't think the situation here is particularly unique to Detroit, but it is a big city phenomenon in the sense that the big daily papers in the major pro sports cities had all built these impressive stables of deeply experienced sports reporters - in Detroit it was Jerry Green, Pete Waldemeir, Joe Falls, Watson Spoelstra and then the last of the local line, the late great Tom Kowalski. They were a kind of sports royalty in the 'golden age' years. But with the general collapse of the newspaper business, that is all gone. So fine, times change - but the guys at the papers now still want to bask in the afterglow of an institution that's gone. They don't have the experience, the access, or the institutional support to do what they still pretend to be able to do.