Rushin out at SI

Nice...


I'd still rather read Rushin than Reilly, but yeah, his column has turned into "I can turn a phrase"... and yes. Yes he can.

 

He used to be consistently the best read in SI... As Luggy points out, that has not been even close to the case for the last 6-7 years. I think I remember reading that he had signed some monster contract to stay at SI the last time Reilly and Gary Smith re-upped. Maybe his contract is up.

I'll miss the old Rushin. His book "Road Swing" is a favorite and "Air and Space" used to be the first thing I read when I got my SI in the mail.

As soon as he tried to be a straight columnist, his stuff went down about 10 notches. A lot of people have said his stuff began to suck right around the time he and Lobo got hitched and he started writing about UConn hoops every other week.

Personally, I just think his stuff began to suck when he went away from the style that made him so good...

 

I agree with Billy's original post. I'm not reading him to learn anything. I never knew that was even a columnist's job. And he does do stuff like you're asking for. It was no more than a month ago that he had a great column about the kid who has a terminal illness who got to meet all of his favorite athletes. It was a great read and a great story.

 

Met him at Wrigley Field in 1998 while working on a Mark Grace feature. Chatted with him and he was a nice guy and I, too, enjoyed "Road Swing." Read his stuff in SI more after meeting him and he had his moments. Best of luck to him.

 

His style was more like the Dr. Seuss of sportswriting. Very clever, very talented. But lately there wasn't enough substance in his columns to justify running them every week in the premier sports magazine.

I'm sure he'd make a great features columnist, like Dave Barry, if he extends his interests and reports like he writes. He'll have no problem finding another job.

 

I strongly suspect this was more Rushin's decision than SI's. The magazine is in the process of laying off people right now, and they are planning to ax six writers. They may not get rid of that many now that Rushin has taken a big salary off their payroll. By doing what he did, Rushin probably saved some people's jobs. SI might have wanted him to do other things besides/instead of the weekly column, but no way did they want to dump one of the best sports writers in the business.

 

am i the only one who thinks rushin and reilly peter principled? i'd much rather read six takeouts a year from them -- they're TREMENDOUS at these -- than weekly columns i often don't even bother to check out.

 

I loved his column and his features. Nothing was ever too complex. Too heady. It was just a fun read in a magazine. Many times I'd try and figure his topic before reading, and say to myself that this'll be dull. But 9 times out of 10, it was a good investment of a few minutes of my time.

 

They wanted him to stop the column, he said no, and quit.

Replacements, anyone?

Hire from within?
Internet writer?
Newspaper writer?

 

Agreed, at times. Sometimes I think Reilly tries too hard to be funny, and it's easy to spot.

 

I'm going to assume he got offered a dumptruck of money to sign on somewhere else. Just a matter of days or weeks before we hear he's headed to Yahoo or something like that.