The Daily Pony
WAPO shuts down sports dept., Sam Darnold's Rise to Glory and the Death of Signing Day, highlight The Daily Pony.
And before anyone revs up their politics—spare me. I don’t give a damn about your opinion of the Post as a media outlet. That’s not the point.
What is sad is that some of us still value legacy media, especially in sports. I miss great sportswriters.
I miss when sportswriters were on television. When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, there was a show that featured some of the city’s top writers from the Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times, and Daily Herald. I loved it. These guys were smart—not just former athletes talking about what they lived in real time. They were educated. They were thinkers. They understood sports as something bigger and more important than mere gladiator games.
They were skilled artisans with a keyboard—or a typewriter back in the day—who knew how to paint a picture with words. Now it is all about being loud like Barstool. That’s how you make money. People certainly eat it up. That is fine, you do you, Dave Portnoy. However, I miss the good stuff, the thinking man’s stuff.
As more and more legacy outlets continue to tank, entrepreneurial journalism has thrived. Yours truly now lives in that independent journalism space with the very work you’re reading. We have more sports outlets than ever before. Quantity isn’t the problem. You can get your sports fix easier and faster than at any point in history.
But as the major legacy institutions continue to die off, are we also losing the very best of the craft?
Are we trading quality for convenience—and barely noticing the cost?
Speaking of great sports writing, the Sam Darnold story is a perfect plum waiting to be picked by the best wordsmiths on the planet.
Sam Darnold was never a bust.
The Jets are a bust.
The Panthers are a bust.
Darnold began his career trapped inside two dog-crap organizations that were never equipped to develop a young quarterback. He had no chance. None. He didn’t suddenly forget how to play football—and he didn’t suddenly figure it out years later, either.
When the Jets drafted Darnold, they weren’t rebuilding. They were panicking—which is what the Jets do. They cycle through coordinators, build weak offensive lines, and surround quarterbacks with some of the worst skill talent money can buy. Not even Tom Brady would have succeeded there. The Jets are a cesspool, and Darnold was a byproduct of that toxic ooze.
Maybe he matured as he aged and endured adversity—but he was always talented. The Vikings and now the Seahawks simply provided him with the supporting cast, organizational stability, and coaching fit he needed to thrive.
Now he’s the betting favorite to win the game’s biggest MVP.
Hopefully, even the most rock-headed among us can understand what Darnold’s story is telling us: the “bust” label is often lazy. Teams that pick at the top of the draft tend to stay picking at the top of the draft for a reason. Fans love to call those players busts—but are they really? Or did the organization fail to build a culture capable of developing them?
Sure, teams mis-evaluate talent sometimes. But systematic failure doesn’t happen by accident.
And finally, I woke up today feeling genuinely sad.
It’s National Signing Day—the first Wednesday in February. Or at least, it used to be.
This day was once Christmas morning for college football fans. A celebration. A moment. But the calendar changes—created by coaches themselves—gutted its importance. Then the transfer portal delivered the final death blow to what was once a great day in the sport.
I woke up this morning with a sense of purpose, knowing it was the first Wednesday in February—only for reality to set in and sadness to take over my soul.
Another tradition gone. Another reminder that not everything new is better.
Take a page outta that pizza guy’s playbook and start selling some Pony merch! That hat for starters
I’m sad about the Washington Post. I grew up in Northern Virginia and the sports section was my go-to in the morning. Great coverage especially of high school sports. There will be a huge void that hopefully something can fill. Washington loves its sports and I feel like that section in particular was a big driver of the paper in general.
Also sad about NSD and recruiting in general - used to devour all the coverage and read every article about every kids’ visit but there’s too much flipping and transferring to get as invested as we used to. The transfer portal is pretty exciting at this point so I guess some of the energy is shifting over there.