Well, I got quite a New Year’s greeting from a couple of old pals.

Thanks to some readers, I’m just catching up with a Will Leitch Experience podcast with Deadspin editor Tommy Craggs via Sports on Earth. No surprise (Hi, Tommy), they weren’t effusive with praise about yours truly.

However, it was a surprise that at around the 28-minute mark, the podcast suddenly veered towards me. Talk about ruining a podcast, right?

Leitch interrupted Craggs to say he wanted to tell an “Ed Sherman story.”

Leitch talked about me contacting him in July, 2012 when I noticed the Illinois alumni magazine put the Deadspin founder on their cover. I thought it was an unusual choice, given Deadspin’s edgy content and that the magazine is generally very conservative.

I wrote in the post:

Every quarter, I receive the Illinois Alumni magazine. The issue focuses on notable graduates, such as scientists, business leaders, economists, etc. Prominent alums, to be sure.

So imagine my surprise when I received the summer issue of Illinois Alumni and saw Will Leitch on the cover. Yes, Will Leitch, the founder of Deadspin.

I reached out to Leitch because I knew he would have a funny response. He did, replying in part:

Ha. I had no idea I was going to be on the cover and had honestly forgotten about the interview until someone told me about the story on Twitter. I suppose it’s an honor, but I can’t help but think that the honor, as a concept, is lessened by the fact that it was bestowed upon me (no club that would have me as a member, all that). I really do hope it doesn’t cause anyone to cancel their subscription.

It was an amusing post. Nothing more.

However, in the podcast with Craggs, Leitch made it seem like I was badgering him for a comment.

“He said, ‘I just wanted to see if you had a comment about the University of Illinois putting you on the cover of their alumni magazine?'” Leitch said. “I said, ‘I think I’m OK with it. If you ask me to make a big thing of it, I will say I’m not against it.'”

Leitch said he never dealt with me before that contact. Evidently, he forgot I had talked to him about his 2010 book, Are We Winning? I actually read the book, which focused on being a Cardinals fan and his relationship with his father. It was an entertaining read, and I did a Q/A with Leitch while I was with Crain’s Chicago Business.

Anyway, in the podcast, Leitch theorizes that my exchange with him was the start of my feud with Deadspin.

“Something about that set him off, and I think you guys (Deadspin) are getting the brunt of it,” Leitch said.

Totally not true. But let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Leitch then went on to say, “He’s an amusing little figure that keeps popping up.”

One of those amusing little things was my critique of a Leitch column on Darren Rovell last February. The column was a vicious attack that went over the line. I wasn’t alone in that view.

However, as a result, Leitch now has reason not to like his fellow U of I alum.

Craggs, meanwhile, took the opportunity to call me some not-so-nice things.

“He might be the dumbest fucking guy in sports media,” Craggs said. “That’s saying something. I’m willing to go out on that limb.”

Well, at least I’m No. 1 in something.

You see, I also have been critical of Deadspin from time to time.

“He seems to have figured out that there’s a percentage for him to be the guy on the Internet who’s always ripping Deadspin,” Craggs said.

Yes, much like Deadspin’s strategy in aggressively covering ESPN.

“He seems to labor under the delusion that the reason we don’t like him is that he has criticized us in the past,” Craggs went on. “If that were our criteria for not liking somebody, we wouldn’t like anybody.

“He’s such a hack through and through. He only can see the world through a hack’s eyes. He thinks we’re responding to him the way he responds, i.e. hackily. He can’t fathom the idea that we hate him because he really sucks at what really should be a cool job.”

Hackily? So, Tommy, if I praised Deadspin’s work, they’d still hate me? Somehow, I don’t think that would be the case.

Later, Craggs wrote about how he and John Koblin noticed how I tend to use the phrase, “No surprise,” or in the “the no surprise department.”

“He’s this incredibly savvy guy who can’t be surprised by anything,” Craggs said. “The unflappable Ed Sherman.”

All I can say is that I’m truly surprised Craggs and Leitch spent so much time talking about me. I think they would agree with me that they might want a mulligan there. Surely, there were better things to talk about it.

But hey, I appreciate it. Thanks for the pub, guys.