Rick Reilly

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Richard "Rick" Paul Reilly (born February 3, 1958 in Boulder, Colorado) is an award-winning American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for Sports Illustrated, Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008. He has won the national Sportswriter of the Year award 11 times.

Contents 1 Career 2 Style 3 Controversies 4 Bibliography 5 Trivia 6 References

[edit] Career

Reilly began his career in 1981 with the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colorado. He joined Sports Illustrated in 1985 and contributed a column for Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue. He hosts The Riffs of Reilly on Verizon VCAST and SI.com.

Reilly has become one of the most popular sportswriters in the industry because of his light-hearted human interest pieces in SI. His column on Sports Illustrated's back page was called "The Life of Reilly." His move to ESPN, where he will work on their magazine, website, and SportsCenter, was announced in October 2007.[1]

Reilly officially left SI during the week of November 29, 2007, after 23 years with the magazine.

He co-wrote "Leatherheads," a film starring and directed by George Clooney released in April 2008.

[edit] Style

Reilly's style is usually humorous, poking fun at the absurdities of athletes, coaches, and almost anyone involved in sports at any level. Reilly does have a serious side, and has written on many subjects, from small town heroes to his own personal life. Reilly has also done features, notably one about a week spent with Marge Schott that ultimately helped lead to her suspension from baseball. He has said in his columns that he doesn't write about sports, but writes "about people IN sports."

[edit] Controversies

In 2002, Reilly responded to Sammy Sosa's assertion that he would "take a drug test if someone offered it to him" by spontaneously offering him a drug test after a game; Sosa reacted by yelling and threatening him. Reilly then wrote a critical column the next week. [2]

Reilly has also been a constant critic of San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds, and Bonds has become a regular subject of his columns. Reilly has ridiculed Bonds' treatment of his teammates, his off-field behavior, and accusations of steroid use.

In 2003, he published allegations by an Alcor Life Extension Foundation employee (Larry Johnson) that the company had mishandled Ted Williams' head by drilling holes and accidentally cracking it. The story also reported that some of Williams' DNA was missing, possibly in connection with his son's (John Henry Williams) desire to sell some of the DNA. Alcor denied the allegations, and said that microscopic cracking can result as part of the process of freezing the head.

In 2004, there was a brief controversy when an alleged rape of a teenager by two high school football players occurred at Reilly's house. ^[1]. Reilly was not at home at the time of the incident which occurred at a party at Reilly's house and no charges were filed against the football players. ^[1]

[edit] Bibliography

• Slo Mo! – A fictional diary of a naive 7'8" kid taken from high school to the NBA.
• Missing Links – A novel about an eccentric group of golfers who are regulars at the worst course in America
• Shanks for Nothing – A novel which is the sequel to Missing Links
• The Life of Reilly – An anthology of Reilly's best early works from Sports Illustrated
• Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly – An anthology consisting of one-hundred Reilly's best weekly articles from 2000-2006.
• Who's Your Caddy – A collection of stories about Reilly caddying for several remarkable people ranging from Donald Trump to the blind golfing world champion.

[edit] Trivia

• During an altercation in a bar in 1997, Charles Barkley threw 20-year-old Jorge Lugo through a plate-glass window.^[2] This led to a long standing running gag in Reilly's column which included a year-end award dubbed "The Chuckies" dedicated to people or things in sports that deserved to be thrown through a plate-glass window. Barkley later wrote the foreword to "Life of Reilly."
• Reilly has his own football card, which he detailed in a column. The card was part of the Donruss "Fans of the Game" series, and featured Reilly with the logo of his favorite team, the now-relocated Los Angeles Rams.
• Rick Reilly is an avid supporter of Lance Armstrong and has often argued him to be the greatest athlete of all time. Armstrong wrote the foreword for Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly.
• Six of his articles have been included in the Best American Sports Writing anthology series.
• Reilly's favorite charity is Nothing But Nets, an anti-malaria campaign that sends nets to cover families to prevent malaria. He wrote about it in a column on May 1, 2006 and since then, over 16 million dollars has been donated to Nothing But Nets.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References