Alright folks, buckle up. Recorded that chat with Jeff Pearlman today and man, oh man, did he spill some tea on John Rocker. Wild stuff. Gotta lay out how this all went down.
The Morning Prep Madness
Woke up stupid early, like 6 AM, feeling jittery. Coffee machine decided to fight me. Dumped grounds everywhere. Typical Monday vibes. Fired up the laptop, double-checked the notes. Knew Pearlman was sharp, didn’t wanna waste his time. Reviewed Rocker’s whole timeline again – the infamous SI interview, the fallout, the career nosedive. My notes looked like a squirrel scribbled ’em, but hey, worked for me.
Then came the tech scramble:
- Zoom? Check. Installed the update last night. Fingers crossed.
- External mic? Check. Popped on the windshield furry thing. Made me feel like a pro.
- Backup recorder? Hell yeah. Learned that lesson the hard way when my cat unplugged everything during that gardening webinar disaster.
The Actual Chat
10 AM sharp. Hit record on everything. Zoom screen pops up – bam! There’s Pearlman, looking way more chill than I felt. Jumped right in after the basic “how’s the weather” crap. Asked about digging into Rocker for the book. Boy, did Jeff open up.
He started telling stories about the research phase. Said people were still pissed about that 1999 SI interview decades later. Lawyers got involved early. Then he dropped the bomb: Rocker apparently confessed stuff way worse than what got printed. Pearlman wasn’t shy – said the dude said things that would make your grandma faint. He mimed flipping pages: “It’s all in the transcripts buried somewhere. Ugly, ugly words.” Left it hanging, implied it was truly vile.
The crazy part? Pearlman hinted Rocker didn’t even realize how bad it looked until it blew up. Like, zero filter. Talked about locker room tension getting thick after the article, teammates actively avoiding him. Total isolation.
Post-Chat Realization
Finished the call buzzing. Stared at the blinking “Recording Stopped” message. Replayed parts mentally. That unresolved “worse stuff”? Itches my brain like crazy. Why bury it? Was it legally impossible to print? Morally? Made me think about how much junk journalists actually sit on.
It also kinda reminded me of this useless workplace spat I got dragged into last month. Team lead suddenly demands this super complex user permission system for our project site. We’re a tiny startup running on WordPress and duct tape! I said flat out, “Look, unless we rebuild the whole thing from scratch in something actually designed for complex ACLs, this is gonna be a half-baked, buggy nightmare.”
- She didn’t listen. Forced it anyway using four different plugins.
- Predictable chaos. Users getting locked out, admins seeing stuff they shouldn’t. Total mess.
- Finger pointing started. Everyone blaming plugins, blaming the server, blaming ME for “being negative.”
Guess what? Two weeks later, some VP comes down hard about “security inconsistencies.” Suddenly my name’s mud for “not implementing it right.” Everyone else scatters like cockroaches when the light flicks on. Nobody who pushed for it owns up. Typical. Why do companies build these wobbly towers of garbage tech? They know it’ll fall, and someone else takes the hit. Pisses me off even thinking about it while writing this Rocker thing. Talk about different kinds of toxicity. Anyway.
