Rick Really?

Sports Illustrated-turned-ESPN columnist Rick Reilly has always been one of our favorite sports scribes – which means the fact that he’s now basically lifting material from himself doesn’t bother us all that much.

Hell, he wrote it right?

Nonetheless, from a cleverly-titled Deadspin exclusive:

Last year, ESPN paid Rick Reilly “ridonkulous” money to write an original 800-word weekly column. This week, though, he utilized his space to present a recycled version of a column he penned in 2003.

The newest installment of the Life of Reilly, “Make me MLB commish,” not only follows the same template as other Reilly columns, but it’s eerily similar to one he wrote for Sports Illustrated on April 16, 2003, called “Baseball, My Way.”

Deadspin’s Ben Cohen – who wrote “Rick Reilly Takes A Page From His Own Book” – goes on to meticulously document the similarities in both suggestions and language used by Reilly (twice).

Look, good ideas often bear repeating. And had baseball followed Reilly’s advice on drug testing in 2003 (when his first column was published) it may not be dealing with such a protracted embarrassment today.

Heck, if anybody knows anything about repeating yourself, its our founding editor – who’s been screaming his controversial sportsview (and quasi-libertarianology) from the top of his lungs for years now.

What will be interesting, though, is whether or not such a neatly-laid out case of apparent self-plagiarism will attract the attention of Reilly’s former editors, who no doubt “own” his prior body of work.

Stay tuned …

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