Veteran sportswriter Rick Reilly has decided to give up his column on ESPN.com and will focus solely on TV work, ESPN announced on Wednesday.
Reilly, 56, has been with ESPN since 2008. He came to the network after 23 years with Sports Illustrated, where he carved out a home as the back-page columnist.
“I’ve been writing sports for a living, non-stop, since I was 20,” said Reilly. “I figured out recently that I’ve published over two million words, all on sports. I’m ready to try something new.”
The ESPN article on the matter says Reilly will write books, screenplays and travel the world, in addition to his TV duties for “SportsCenter,” “Sunday NFL Countdown” and “Monday Night Countdown.”
You can’t help but wonder if some of the constant criticism Reilly faced impacted his decision. Many websites criticized him for “plagiarizing” his past columns, indicating that Reilly may have been writing so long that it was difficult to find new, original material. Reilly also got into trouble for supposedly misquoting his father-in-law in a story about the Redskins nickname.
