Oh, Reilly?

There comes a time of the week in many men’s lives that they wait for. They open their mailbox and, much to their delight, find a crisp issue of Sports Illustrated inside. Then they do something curious, they open the back cover to read the last page. Why? That’s Rick Reilly territory.

Reilly has been writing for SI for 19 years. His incredible investigative reporting and insanely funny anecdotes have helped him earn eight Nation Sportswriter of the Year awards. In a surprise move, Reilly will be jumping ship to work for rival ESPN: The Magazine. That will occur June 1, 2008.

Reilly was born in 1958 in Boulder, Colorado. He always had a passion for sports and wanted his opinions to be heard. After college, he got a job at the Boulder Daily Camera before joining SI in 1985. His weekly column labeled the “Life of Reilly” is a weekly article that is always provocative and hilarious.

He is a very opinionated fellow who always has a good story idea. One time during the 2002 baseball season, Sammy Sosa was quoted as saying that he would take a steroid test if he were offered one. Reilly offered Sosa a drug test after the game he attended and Sosa responded by yelling and threatening Reilly. This, of course, gave Reilly plenty of fodder for his next article.

Reilly has also written some ridiculously funny books including Slo Mo, a fictional tale of a 7’8” kid going to the professional basketball ranks from high school. His latest publication is an anthology of his 100 best articles from the “Life of Reilly” titled Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly.

Reilly claims that seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is the best athlete of all time. Armstrong even wrote the foreword for Hate Mail. This is curious though because Armstrong has recently been tied to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, which Reilly has long blasted the likes of Barry Bonds for. This seems hypocritical.

All aspiring sports writers have something to learn from Rick Reilly. It could be his knack of finding a story. It could be his skills as a wordsmith. Nonetheless, he will go down as one of the greatest ever.