Rick Telander
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Rick Telander is a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Hired in 1995 from Sports Illustrated where he was a Senior Editor, Telander's presence at the newspaper was expected to counter the stable of sports columnist the rival Chicago Tribune had.
Telander is a native of Peoria, Illinois and attended Northwestern University on a football scholarship. He played for coach Alex Agase and his teammates included Mike Adamle, who is also now a member of the Chicago media.
After graduating from Northwestern, Telander was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs but was cut in training camp. Soon after, he moved to New York where he played basketball on city playgrounds and wrote the book Heaven Is A Playground, which later was made into a movie. In the 1980s, he was a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and was quickly recognized as a rising star. As the college football beat writer in the mid-1980s, he reported on the scandals that plagued the University of Miami, University of Oklahoma, University of South Carolina, and Southern Methodist University. He also observed what he believed to be hypocrisy by the National Collegiate Athletic Association as the college athletes would help the NCAA and the member schools make money, yet couldn't share in the wealth. Telander's 1990 book The Hundred-Yard Lie addressed the problems in college football.
In 1987, Telander was invited to be a regular panelist on The Sportswriters on TV, a weekly show featuring the Chicago Tribune's Bill Jauss, the Daily Southtown's Bill Gleason and former boxing promoter Ben Bentley. Telander was 20 years younger than the three other panelists. The show was nationally syndicated and developed a cult following before concluding its run in 1997.
While with the Sun-Times, Telander continued writing for Sports Illustrated until 2000, when he signed a deal with ESPN. Telander would regularly contribute to ESPN: The Magazine and ESPN.com appear on ESPN television shows like The Sports Reporters (which some critics viewed as a knockoff of the Sportswriters on TV), and host a radio program on ESPN radio. After the multi-year deal expired, Telander sporadically would contribute to Sports Illustrated, and host a radio show on WSCR-AM.
He was co-winner of the 2006 Illinois Sportswriter of the Year award as voted by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.
[edit] 2008 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot controversy
In January 2008, Telander caused waves by refusing to submit a 2008 baseball Hall of Fame ballot, citing frustration with steroid issues troubling baseball. He mentioned in his January 9, 2008 Chicago Sun-Times column how he can't trust anyone on the ballot, and as such can't vote for any of them. Telander used Andre Dawson as an example of someone he doesn't believe ever used steroids, but also said he (Telander) could never completely know for certain. Of note is the fact that Telander voted for two known steroid users, José Canseco and Ken Caminiti in the previous year's Hall of Fame ballot.
The fury erupted very publicly after Chicago sports-talk radio show host Mike North took Telander to task while interviewing Andre Dawson on January 9, 2008. North, the morning host on WSCR The Score 670 AM, is known for his heated arguments and disagreements with many public figures, including Ozzie Guillén and Jesse Jackson. Telander responded with numerous calls to other shows at North's station, and has written numerous columns on the issue since its flareup. It is believed by some that Telander harbors more than a bit of resentment towards the radio station due to the events that led to his resignation from his self-titled talk show at WSCR in June 2005. Many Chicago Sun-Times readers noticed Telander's contradicting ballots without ever listening to North's morning show as well.
