So Rick Reilly made his writing debut yesterday on ESPN and a ton of people posted about it and I could have cared less. It was the same column he's written over a million times, and while I appreciate his love for his Father...it wasn't really newsworthy. This however is.

Apparently a writer for the Province in Canada to plagiarize one of the most popular Sports writers on the Planet....

The most striking was a passage in Reilly's piece: "They say he was born 72 years ago last Thursday, but don't believe it. McGuire dropped straight out of Guys and Dolls with a martini in one hand and a basketball in the other."

Pratt wrote in Tuesday's column in The Province: "Cole was born 75 years ago, but it's more likely he dropped straight out of Guys and Dolls with a martini in one hand and a puck in the other."

"I did it, no question," said Pratt. "It was a mistake. In our [radio] business, lines get used back and forth all the time. That particular line is a pretty famous line and I should have credited Reilly with it and I didn't. It was a stupid mistake and something I regret and I'll make damn sure I'll never do it again.

"I'm looking for stuff from everywhere," added Pratt. "We recycle everything. The sheer amount of volume we produce forces you to constantly be looking for different people's ideas."

Yeah, we all are dude, but you copied that s**t word for word. I know blogging doesn't take much writing per post, but hell if With Leather posts something about a dude getting hit in the "nuts", I'll at least say it he got hit in the "junk". I kid, I kid.

But seriously, if you're going to plagiarize you might want to go a little lower on the totem pole. Like blogs!

For the record (The Province)

Everyone knows how I feel about crediting people for the information that they find and how uppity I get when it doesn't happen. Well how about taking something that ESPN's most popular writer created years ago, renaming it (not very cleverly), and publishing it on a major website?

I give you San Antonio Express-News' Gaylon Krizak and his "Tee Martin Principle"....

There are lots of reasons, and it's not a one-size-fits-all deal. But high on the list is a little something I like to call the "Tee Martin Principle."

Remember Martin? Don't worry — I'll wait (sometimes Google takes a while).

Martin is best known as the relatively nondescript guy who succeeded Peyton Manning as Tennessee's quarterback — and promptly won the national championship Manning's teams never even sniffed.

The principle? Sometimes, talented players like nothing better than the challenge of proving doubters wrong — especially when the doubt is caused by the absence or departure of an über-talented player.

To an extent, the TMP also is on display about 150 miles west of Houston, where the Texas Longhorns are faring quite nicely without Kevin Durant, last season's one-and-done national player of the year as a freshman.

Umm....that sounds vaguely familiar to me. Oh that's right....it's Bill Simmons' Ewing Theory! This is from a 2001 column explaining the whole thing....

Dave introduced me to the Ewing Theory three years ago, and we've been tinkering with it like Voltaire and Thoreau ever since. Eventually, we decided that two crucial elements needed to be in place for any situation to qualify for "Ewing" status:

1. A star athlete receives an inordinate amount of media attention and fan interest, and yet his teams never win anything substantial with him (other than maybe some early-round playoff series).

2. That same athlete leaves his team (either by injury, trade, graduation, free agency or retirement) -- and both the media and fans immediately write off the team for the following season.

When those elements collide, you have the Ewing Theory.

Well that's good Bill and I think I can follow that, but can you give me an example?

2. Tennessee Volunteers, 1998: Even more ballyhooed than Van Horn during his college career, Peyton Manning leaves UT without either winning a national title or beating Florida -- and the Vols win the national title nine months later.

Oh okay...good. Just checking. Seriously people, if you're going to "borrow" material at least try to get a little creative and not just change a few words around. This isn't even trying.

I have no idea who Mr. Krizak is, but he might want to try stealing from lower profile writers before he takes on Simmons.

Ewing Theory 101 (ESPN: May 2001)
Don't forget 'Tee Martin Principle' (SA Express-News: March 2008)

(Thanks to SMF for sending the link along)

Update: Okay so Simmons has already commented on this. Thanks to Leezy for the quote....
"First we had the Ewing Theory ... now, we have the Tee Martin Principle! Oh, wait, they're the exact same thing! My bad. Even Scott Templeton would have handled this more discreetly. Although my buddy JackO is now rooting for this guy to rank sports and pop culture events on the "Not Purposely Humorous Scale"

Another large side order of links (Page 2)