Frank Deford

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

Frank Deford is awesome, probably one of the last true sportswriters we have around. But he's just as good when he's talking. I had NPR on a bit this morning and he absolutely destroys Roger Goodell in this piece.
 
And for good measure he takes a shot at NFL writers who are too scared to criticize the league *coughPeterKingcough*.
 
It's about three and a half minutes and well worth your time.

 

[Vinho Tinto]

If you have HBO, the episode of Real Sports where Deford details his relationship with Boomer Esiason and cystic fibrosis is worth looking up.

 

[ifmanis5]

Met him a few times, super gentleman in the classic sense.

 

[bosockboy]

Went to a book signing last year, tremendous speaker.  Very forthcoming about his failure with The National.

 

[hittery]

I thought he was really losing his touch last year but lately he's really seemed to get his groove back. I'm glad it wasn't dementia or anything irreversible like that.

 

[mauidano]

ALWAYS have loved him. His writing and his speaking both. Even the tilt the head to the side thing he does is cool. They don't make them like this anymore and never will probably. We will have a generation of Bill Simmons types going forward.

 

[joyofsox]

I thought he had become a reactionary crank who was quite full of himself.

 

[Huntington Avenue Grounds]

He's got a regular, or semi regular, Wednesday spot on NPR's Morning Edition. Deford's been hitting it out like this over there for some time. I enjoyed his Triple Crown take a couple months back and always happy to stumble into one of his pieces.

 

[riboflav]

Goodell, today, provided a great example of what Deford was decrying on Wednesday by showing zero leadership in speaking with reporters about the Rice suspension. In sum, we all need to understand that rules are rules, Goodell's hands are tied especially by the CBA, Rice is a great guy who made just one mistake, and this punishment is totally consistent with all other NFL punishments under Goodell.
 
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11296028/roger-goodell-defends-suspension-ray-rice-baltimore-ravens-running-back