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I am losing my faith in Bill Simmons. It wasn't sportswriter-love at first sight, mainly because the first column of his I ever looked at was back in Ought Two, and he was gloating over the Pats recent win over my Steelers 30-14, when Brady threw it 25 times in a row--setting the template on how to shred the Steelers defense--and Kordell Stewart expertly ran the two-minute drill in the waning seconds to tack on a meaningless second TD.

His columns became a must-read for me since then, for all the obvious reasons. I bought his book, albeit after it got a hell of a lot cheaper. I never really got into the Deadspin-spawned backlash when Simmons moved into the "absurdly well compensated, hang with celebrities category", mainly because he was pretty much the first to do what he did, as far as I know.

But his last two columns are hopefully not a sign of things to come. When sportswriters have nothing more to say, they start devoting whole columns to matters of the ultra-personal. Like a dead dog. I don't begrudge the man's love for his dog, but how many high-profile sportswriters out there have descended into maudlin crapitude? Peter King, Rick Reilly, Mitch Albom--isn't Bill Simmons supposed to be different?

But this blip on his otherwise stellar record could have been forgotten, if not for his most recent column, regarding who is truly "underrated" in the sports world. I expected new, insightful information about players flying under the radar in the NBA, but instead got a rehash of his love for Kevin Durant and Manny Ramirez. Maybe those two individuals are underrated by general fandom, which I doubt. The problem is that they have never been underrated to Bill Simmons, who has written thousands of words about each of them in multiple columns. Those of us who follow The Sports Guy certainly don't think those two are underrated, mainly because of Bill Simmons. So it's disappointing that he's telling us things we already know.

Whatever Bill's criteria for "underrated" is, I don't think they can include "2nd overall pick of the NBA Draft" or "Slugger who has won 2 World Series and is paid in excess of $18 million a year".

I would hate for Simmons to start descending into mediocrity while so many of us still hold his work in such high esteem.