Is Len Pasquarelli Too Old to Cover Sports?

A few minutes ago, I called ESPN columnist Len Pasquarelli at his home in Georgia to ask him about a recent article in which he argued that Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs is, at 67, too old to coach in the NFL.

Having touched the ageism third-rail myself and felt the voltage it carries, I was curious to know whether Pasquarelli had received any harsh feedback from readers, or perhaps from the AARP. I also wondered how he could level such a charge in light of Gibbs's recent accomplishment (taking his team to the playoffs on a four-game winning streak despite the loss of their best defensive player). Finally, I wanted to know at what age Pasquarelli believes a sportswriter like himself might be too old to write about the NFL.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to discuss this with him, because moments into our conversation, Pasquarelli accused me of trying to "ambush" him after hearing the sound of my typing. Was this meant to be an interview? he demanded. Of course, I said; that was why I had identified myself as "calling from Portfolio magazine."

Nevertheless, Pasquarelli felt I had misled him by not explicitly stating that I was calling to interview him; he had been under the impression that I was simply a fellow journalist calling to compare notes. I apologized for not being clearer, and attempted to explain that I had tried to send him an email laying out who I was and why I wanted to talk. (It turns out his email address departs from the standard ESPN formula.)

But it wasn't until after I told him I'm a blogger that things really started to go downhill.

At that point, Pasquarelli demanded to know how long I've been working as a journalist. Eight years, I told him. He said our conversation was off the record, and asked, "Do you know what 'off the record' means?" Trying to avoid being baited by his condescension, I repeated that I was sorry for not stating at the very beginning of my call that I wanted to interview him. "I asked you a question," he interrupted. "Do you or don't you know what 'off the record' means?"

That's when I said I didn't think there was any point in continuing our conversation. He said if that was how I felt, that was fine with him. Then he proceeded to lecture me for a while longer on how he feels that reporters ought to identify themselves honestly, but obviously I don't share his opinion about that, etc.

In conclusion, I would have to say that, at age 57 (or possibly 53; Nexis lists two different birth dates), Len Pasquarelli is, sadly, too old to be covering sports. Of course, I'm assuming that his extreme crankiness is a result of aging. If he's been like this his whole life, that's even worse.

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