No. 36: LYLE ODELEIN / A Lesson in sportswriting diplomacy. "I've knocked guys out for less," he lovingly advised me & I lived to tell

Sportswriters dread going into the dressing room after taking a shot at a player. Submitted: the time I was locked in a bar at 4 a.m. with a NHL tough guy that I called "a punk" in the paper that day

Sportswriters are easily divisible into three distinct groups:

Homers who could never write a critical word about the team and athletes they cover on a daily basis and thus are ever welcomed into the home side’s dressing room as fawning stenographers.

Hit-and-run artists who, with wild abandon, take shots, wing darts, assign blame, question character and assume roles of moral authorities, all the while never actually entering the dressing room or clubhouse where they might run into athletes upset by their coverage.

Pros who take shots, wing darts, et cetera but only when fair and deserved, but also kno…