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Richard Paul Reilly (born February 3, 1958) is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for Sports Illustrated , Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008, where he was a featured columnist for ESPN.com and wrote the back page column for ESPN the Magazine. [1] Reilly hosted ESPN's Homecoming with Rick Reilly , an interview show, and he is a contributing essayist for ESPN SportsCenter and ABC Sports.
Reilly began his career in 1979 as an undergraduate assistant with the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado. [2] He left the Camera in 1981 to be a football writer on the sports staff of the Denver Post , then on to the Los Angeles Times in 1983 before joining Sports Illustrated in 1985. [2] Reilly has become a recognized name in the sportswriting industry because of his human interest pieces; his column, “Life of Reilly” was featured on the back page of SI from 1997 until 2007. [2] The "Life of Reilly" was the first signed opinion piece in SI's history. [3] By some accounts, during his prime he was considered the preeminent sportswriter in the United States. [4] Reilly officially left SI during the week of November 29, 2007, after 23 years with the magazine to join ESPN.
At ESPN, his column “Life of Reilly” appeared in ESPN The Magazine (also on the last page) and on ESPN.com. On March 10, 2010, Reilly announced that he would no longer be writing his opinion column for the magazine, but was going to a regular essay on SportsCenter. [1] Reilly delivered essays from live sporting events for SportsCenter and other ESPN telecasts, such as the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, and the British Open. He also hosted “Homecoming”, an interview program, on ESPN, which was taped in the hometowns of featured guests. The series launched in April 2009. [5]
On March 12, 2014 he announced his retirement from sports writing, and his last column was published on ESPN.com on June 10, 2014. ESPN announced that he would continue working for them in a television-only capacity, including SportsCenter and Sunday NFL Countdown. [6]
Reilly has been voted NSSA National Sportswriter of the Year eleven times. [2] [7] He is second only to the late Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times (14) in number of times winning that award. [7] In 2009, he joined a roster of journalism notables as winner of the Damon Runyon Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. [8] His work has also been recognized by the prestigious New York Newspaper Guild's Page One Award for Best Magazine Story.
Reilly co-wrote the screenplay for Leatherheads , a film directed by George Clooney, starring Clooney, Renée Zellweger and John Krasinski and released in April 2008.
Reilly's first novel, Missing Links, has been optioned for development as a feature film.[ citation needed ]
Slate 's Josh Levin noted that Reilly had an affinity for discussing pro athletes and their accomplishments via tooth jokes. He is especially harsh on dental flossing. He described Tiger Woods's 2002 victory at Augusta as suspenseful as flossing, riding Lance Armstrong's team car about as boring as flossing sharks, would rather floss crocodiles than go skydiving, and stated John Elway's perfect endorsement product would be Johnson & Johnson dental floss. [9]
In 2002, after Sammy Sosa's public assertion that if baseball initiated testing for performance-enhancing drugs, he "wanted to be first in line", Reilly suggested that he submit to preemptive, voluntary testing. "Why wait to see what the players' association will do?" Reilly asked. "Why not step up right now and be tested? Show everybody you're clean." Sosa refused, angrily. Reilly described the incident in his column the following week. [10] [11]
Reilly has also been a frequent critic of former San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds for his treatment of his teammates, his off-field behavior and his alleged steroid use. [12] [13] [14]
Reilly had long defended cyclist Lance Armstrong against accusations of using illegal performance enhancements, in part because his own reporting turned up no evidence corroborating the allegations that had been made against Armstrong over the years. When Armstrong confessed in January 2013 after many years of denials, Reilly wrote a strongly critical piece about Armstrong, saying that he had spent 14 years "polishing a legend that turned out to be plated in fool's gold." [15] [16]
In 2006, Reilly wrote a column in Sports Illustrated about a program dedicated to providing anti-malaria nets to African children at a cost of $10 per net. [17] His request for contributions elicited a response from thousands and led to the creation of the Nothing But Nets foundation in partnership with the United Nations Foundation.[ citation needed ]
Reilly's books include:
Reilly appeared in a Miller Lite commercial with Rebecca Romijn in 1999. [18]
Reilly is married and resides in Hermosa Beach, CA and Sedona, AZ. [19]
Wayne Douglas Gretzky is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One", he has been called the greatest ice hockey player ever by many sportswriters, players, The Hockey News, and the NHL itself, based on extensive surveys of hockey writers, ex-players, general managers and coaches. Gretzky is the leading career goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history, and has more career assists than any other player has total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in 15 professional seasons, 13 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.
Katharine Anne Hnida is a former American football player who became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A game, college football's highest level. She accomplished this as placekicker for the University of New Mexico Lobos on August 30, 2003.
Steve Rushin is an American journalist, sportswriter and novelist. He was named the 2005 National Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, and is a four-time finalist for the National Magazine Award.
Skip Bayless is an American sports columnist, commentator, and television personality. He is well-known for his work as a commentator on the ESPN2 show First Take with Stephen A. Smith, a show which he left in June 2016. Bayless debuted his show Skip and Shannon: Undisputed with Shannon Sharpe on Fox Sports 1 on September 6, 2016.
Fred Russell was an American sportswriter from Tennessee who served as sports editor for the Nashville Banner newspaper for 68 years (1930–1998). He was a member of the Heisman Trophy Committee, president of the Football Writers Association of America and a member of several sports-related Halls of Fame. He served for nearly 30 years as chairman of the College Football Hall of Fame Honors Court, a group responsible for selecting College Football Hall of Fame members. Known for his sense of humor and story-telling ability, Russell authored several books about sports and sports humor. Over his career he wrote over 12,000 sports columns under the title, "Sideline Sidelights".
Lesley Candace Visser is an American sportscaster, television and radio personality, and sportswriter. Visser is the first female NFL analyst on TV, and the only sportscaster in history who has worked on Final Four, NBA Finals, World Series, Triple Crown, Monday Night Football, the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Figure Skating Championships and the U.S. Open network broadcasts. Visser, who was voted the No. 1 Female Sportscaster of all time in a poll taken by the American Sportscasters Association, was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association's Hall of Fame in 2015 and the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
Robert L. Papa is an American sportscaster who is currently the radio play-by-play voice for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). Papa also is the lead broadcaster for PGA Tour Champions events on Golf Channel and has been the blow-by-blow announcer on many professional boxing telecasts, notably for ESPN and for HBO’s Boxing After Dark series.
James Patrick Murray was an American sportswriter. He worked at the Los Angeles Times from 1961 until his death in 1998, and his column was nationally syndicated.
Rick Telander is the senior sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Hired in 1995 from Sports Illustrated, where he was a Senior Writer, Telander's presence at the newspaper was expected to counter the stable of sports columnists the rival Chicago Tribune had.
Joe Posnanski is an American sports journalist. A former senior columnist for Sports Illustrated and columnist for The Kansas City Star, he currently writes for his personal blog JoeBlogs.
The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS).
Pat Forde is a sports journalist who is a national columnist for Sports Illustrated. He previously worked for ESPN, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, and Yahoo Sports.
Daniel Thomas Jenkins was an American author and sportswriter who often wrote for Sports Illustrated. He was also a high-standard amateur golfer who played college golf at Texas Christian University.
Sally Jenkins is an American sports columnist and feature writer for The Washington Post, and author. She was previously a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. She has won the AP Sports Columnist of the Year Award five times, received the National Press Foundation 2017 chairman citation, and was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize. She is the author of a dozen books. Jenkins is noted for her writing on Pat Summitt, Joe Paterno, Lance Armstrong, and the United States Center for SafeSport.
Mike Downey is a retired American newspaper columnist.
John Edwin Pope was an American journalist known for his sportswriting at the Miami Herald, where his work appeared from 1956 until his death in 2017. He covered Super Bowl I through Super Bowl XLVII. Some referred to him as "the best writer of sports in America."
William Jerome Barnwell Jr. is an American sportswriter and staff writer for ESPN.com. He has written about a wide range of sports including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf and mixed martial arts.
Donald Trump is closely associated with the sport of golf. As a real estate developer, Trump began acquiring and constructing golf courses in 1999. By the time of his election as United States President in 2016, he owned 17 golf courses worldwide through his holding company, the Trump Organization. Courses owned by Trump have been selected to host various PGA and LPGA events, including the 2022 PGA Championship. A spokesman for the Trump Organization said that "This is a breach of a binding contract and they have no right to terminate the agreement".
Dave Kindred is an American sportswriter.
Alan Shipnuck (1973) is an American sportswriter, specializing in golf. He is a partner and content creator for the Fire Pit Collective. He was previously a senior writer at Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine.
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