Hey - I used to be Hunter S. Thompson!

When I first started going to visit ESPN.com's Page 2 - it was a great place. You had David Halberstam, Hunter S. Thompson and of course Bill Simmons the [Boston] Sportsguy. All three on a regular basis.

After 9/11 - Halberstam decided that he should spend his time on more worthy pursuits. Bill Simmons then abandoned his readers and now mails in his columns from Hollywood. When Simmons first took the job with Jimmy Kimmel Live I predicted that his Page 2 stuff would go right to shit. Think about it - when's the last time you saw even a half-decent reader mailbag from Simmons? Did the readers stop emailing him or did he just start using the best material for the show? Come to think of it - when's the last time you saw a reader mailbag from Simmons? Maybe the readers have stopped emailing him because he was just stealing their stuff for the show.

This rant isn't about Simmons though - it's about Hunter S. - a man who is an icon to those of us of a certain age. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a classic book. Thompson has been played on the big screen by both Bill Murray and Johnny Depp. He used to be big. He used to be something.

Now he's not really even good enough for Page 2. Sure they still put his stuff up but it's almost always on the sidebar where the old material goes. His Internet postings have become the equivalent of direct to video movies. Some of the writers who get the prime Page 2 locations couldn't hold Hunter's jock back when he had his fastball. But Hunter doesn't have his fastball anymore - now he mails it in.

Sometimes I wonder if Hunter just takes his betting slips for the week and then dictates who he took with little side stories mixed in for his Page 2 offerings. Fifteen minutes worth of effort? Twenty tops. It's a shame because the guy who posts on ESPN.com's Page 2 used to be Hunter S. Thompson and Hunter S. Thompson used to be must reading.