You think Wilbon ever thought this photo would hit the web? Probably not. At any rate, the Washington Post scribe (whom we thoroughly enjoy on PTI) has been taking a pounding for participating in ESPN’s summer ‘Who’s Now?’ series. Today in his Washington Post chat, he defended his actions. He really had no choice after Peter King dumped Starbucks all over Wilbon in MMQB this morning.

The journos slug it out after the jump:

From Peter King’s Column: Thoughts on Peter King’s comment in his column today, since he brought up your name?

“I’ll be the first to admit that ESPN is full of wonderful programming, but whoever thought up this idiotic ‘Who’s Hot Now’ racket and debate needs some sort of reality check. The aim, evidently, was to find the 32 hottest/most talented/handsome (I guess)/People-magazinish athletes in the world, pair them off against each other, and see who is the most ‘now’ guy. I got a kick out of Matt Leinart being in it, with the ESPN anchor talking about him like he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Injecting performance into the debate made this all the more laughable, seeing that Leinart was the 23rd-rated quarterback in the league last year, completed 56.7 percent of his passes, with a minus-1 TD-to-interception ratio. And the panel discussions arguing the levels of nowness. Silly, silly stuff. Poor Mike Wilbon. This is why ESPN lured one of the best columnists and journalists in America to work there full time, so he could debate who’s more ‘now’ — Kobe Bryant or some soccer player from Brazil?”

Michael Wilbon: I love Peter King. Love him. He’s one of my favorite people, period…not just sportswriters. But I don’t take myself nearly as seriously as any football writers. That’s why I’m glad I’m not one anymore, and it’s why I took the “other” fork in the road when I had a chance to continue being a football writer. “Who’s Now” is simply a bigger platform (some would say too big) for a traditional PTI “toss-up” segment without the news peg. Tony and I do this every week, and have for 5 1/2 years. And I LIKED doing “Who’s Now?” and would do it again if the schedule permitted. Football writers–99 percent of them, and yes, they are dear, dear friends–think we’re war correspondants and that we all care to be serious 100 percent of the time. They don’t see other sports, they don’t cover other sports. They think all of us in the professional crave football 100 percent of the time, and therefore the seriousness it conveys.

I could give a damn.

And I love football.

But I’m not beholding to it every day, nor feel the need to be serious that most football writers (sometimes including Peter) feel. I have had these discussions with another very, very close friend, Gary Myers of the New York Daily News. I’ve got other interests, some of the frivilous. I like pop culture, though I don’t go any deeper than reading “People Magazine” and even then only on flights. I like “Who’s Now?” and as frivilous as it is, it speaks to a huge number of people, and it’s the kind of things old newspaper guys like Peter and myself usually don’t indulge in…But this, for me, has been a treat. I wasn’t ordered to do it, wasn’t nudged to do it… And I volunteered to do it again for the next round; too bad for me the schedule won’t permit…”