One of the first lessons they teach in journalism school is the KISS Method: Keep It Simple, Stupid. It means one should be concise and to the point. Don’t use 12 words when you can use three. It applies to everything from writing obituaries to covering inaugurals.
Having lasted 27 years at CBS Sports and almost 45 years in this profession, I certainly failed to adhere to that journalism canon.
J-school was right — nobody likes an endless story. Everything has an expiration date.
Mine has arrived — professionally, that is.
This is my farewell column at CBS Sports, a wonderful company that allowed me to be part of our wonderful craft. I’ve long believed journalism is a vocation, not just a job. It’s special. I’ve been lucky to be among those waking up each day absolutely loving what I do.
Retirement was a hard decision, but it was mine. It’s time to be more with family, friends and my barcalounger.
Now, it’s time to sleep in just a bit … at the conclusion of the 2025 Final Four.
I estimate I’ve covered 250 college football games and had somewhere north of 6,000 bylines published. In a profession not known for its largesse, I’ve been working for more peanuts than circus elephants.
Actually, that’s not fair. CBS Sports has been more than fair to me. And by “fair,” I mean having the privilege to cover such marquee events as the Stanley Cup Playoff, multiple Final Fours and Frozen Fours and the 2002 Winter Olympics. At CBS Sports, I was able to keep my streak alive covering 22 straight College World Series, still the most underrated championship tournament out there.
This crazy journey has taken me to Dublin, Ireland, for Notre Dame vs. Navy; to Garden City, Kansas, for the backroads of the game in junior college; and to Nick Saban’s office in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The perks while on assignment can be awesome, too. I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen in the rain, the Go-Gos in the Arizona desert and Kenny Chesney at a NASCAR track. I was backstage with Otis Day and the Knights in the run-up to the 2011 BCS Championship Game. They made me want to shout.
It was a gas sitting down with Tim Tebow when he was remaking the SEC as the conference itself was transforming into the sport’s juggernaut. So was walking with the Heisman Trophy finalists from Times Square to Rockefeller Center in the middle of New York while interviewing former Michigan star Aidan Hutchinson’s parents the entire time.
I cold-called Tyrann Mathieu’s home at the height of the Honey Badger craze. (No answer.) I was almost clotheslined by the goalpost — twice — in the Tennessee field storming after the win over Alabama in 2022.
I was among those kicked out of the Miami locker room by former athletic director Paul Dee because he was upset at the media after the Hurricanes had lost to Florida State. Those open locker rooms are long gone. Sadly, so are the likes of the colorful Dee, who died in 2012.
I’ve interviewed Brian Bosworth in his dorm room. Forty years later, he saw me inside Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione’s suite at halftime of a Kansas State game and said, “Hi, Dennis.”
Day = made.
Three times I got locked inside a stadium — twice at Alabama and once at Hard Rock Stadium at the second-ever BCS Championship Game. I was forced to scale a 12-foot fence. A charitable policeman, probably stifling a laugh, helped locate my car at 4 a.m.
Mike Leach once agreed to an offseason interview at his home in Key West, Florida. After a walking tour of the town that lasted eight hours and included Hemingway’s cats, Captain Tony’s Saloon and many, um, refreshments in the Florida heat, I got to my hotel room at midnight, asking out loud, “What just happened?!”
The foundation still endures: The players and their stories are what make college sports great. Heck, all it’s what makes all sports great.
It’s why a certain few among us attended four World Series games in 1985 while paying out of our own pockets. It’s why hitting deadline at midnight after Texas A&M had rallied back from 12 down with 35 seconds left in an NCAA Tournament game to win in double overtime requires nerves of steel — and a closing-time beer.
It’s why watching Annika Sorenstam take on the men at The Colonial in 2003 was more of an honor than an assignment.
Four days in Bristol, Tennessee, will never be forgotten, covering the biggest college game (by attendance) in history as 157,000 watched the Volunteers beat Virginia Tech in 2017.
Missouri’s threatened football boycott in 2015 was an inspiring lesson in democracy, social justice and civil rights.
None of it would be possible without the guts and glue, which includes my mentors, bosses and influences at CBS Sports with whom I was honored to work: Mike Kahn, Steve Miller, Mark Swanson, Jeff Gerttula, Randy Brickley, Jerry Palm, Adam Silverstein, Craig Silver, Verne Lundquist, Jim Nantz, Dan Weinberg, Dane Cleven, Greg Gelbr, Josh Pate, Marcus Nelson, Jack Crosby, Adi Joseph and Trey Scott.
Special recognition to Larry Wahl, a CBS SportsLine stalwart, mentor and friend who left us way too early in 2021.
CBS Sports has always punched above its weight. With our fantastic 24/7 streaming platform, CBS Sports HQ, we are seen around the world. I know because friends on vacation have texted seeing my ugly mug on TV from some beach bar or another.
Thanks to James “Easter” Heathman for opening the door to his home in 2001. In 1931, Heathman saw Knute Rockne’s plane go down in a remote Kansas cattle ranch. Heathman, living nearby, eventually made it his life’s work to preserve Rockne’s memory, leading tours to the Rockne Memorial for anyone who asked.
Thanks to the friends and family of Steve Boda, the former NCAA statistician whose story revealed there is still a lot of good left in the world. I still get warm and fuzzies remembering that one.
On a lighter note, it was always fun talking ball off the record with Saban … or going off on a tangent with Les Miles. Watching Deion Sanders’ pregame ritual was more celebrity red carpet than stretching on green grass.
Five days in Iowa City last year revealed not only Caitlin Clark but her hold on a nation and, in the end, the strength of women’s athletics.
Covering college athletics means sometimes covering the worst of the human condition. The date was Nov. 5, 2011. I got to my seat in the Alabama press box for the LSU game only to open my computer and find the heartbreaking first mention of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State.
Bill O’Brien should always get credit for having the guts and foresight to take the Penn State job coming out of that scandal. For two summers, he allowed to me to ride the bus during the program’s offseason caravan around the Northeast. Hey, we’ll always have Scranton, Pennsylvania.
There were seven of us who covered all 16 BCS Championship Games. This particular writing chapter ends having covered 25 of the 27 championships games overall since they started playing them in 1998 across the BCS and College Football Playoff eras.
Fun fact: The antacid still hasn’t been invented to combat the effects of press box food.
Favorite stops on the beat
LSU: There really is nothing like Death Valley at night.
USC: When the Trojans are good, they own Los Angeles.
Texas: This is a full-on Football Disneyland.
Alabama: What other school has as many statues of each national championship-winning coach? I swear I saw the Bear Bryant effigy move.
Orange Bowl: It’s gone now, but in its day, the legendary structure on NW 3rd St. in Miami was an institution bathed in sweat, swag and Schnellenberger.
Cal: A view of Tightwad Hill out of the front of the press box, the stunning vista of San Francisco Bay behind you.
Where college football should go from here?
- The Rose Bowl should host the national championship game every year. Period. The sun, the sights, the smells, the San Gabriels.
- Rick Neuheisel should be college football commissioner. Period.
- College football will consolidate further — perhaps to the top 70 or 80 teams — in the next 5-7 years.
- Millionaire coaches are coaching millionaire players. That used to describe the NFL, but now it includes the middle of the SEC and Big Ten. Little of that is going to change. It’s here. Deal with it. I’ve said for a while we won’t be making a fuss about NIL and pay-for-play in two years. It will be as much a part of the game as the goal posts.
- Some entity or another will buy an athletic department. Not just the football program — the entire athletic department.
- Dovetailing off that, get ready for de-facto team owners. There will be more of the pro athletic elite — i.e. Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech, Andrew Luck at Stanford — having a direct say on how the athletic department is run.
But take heart. On Saturdays, we’ll still care about the games, not a temporary restraining order. And I’ll miss the hell out of all of it. Well, everything but the parking.
This farewell has gone on way too long. Figures. The KISS Method should endure.
Me? I’ve got a tee time coming up.
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