For almost three decades, Peter King has made Monday an appointment date for reading his national perspectives. This Monday, the longtime NFL columnist announced his retirement, calling it a career after 44 years as a sports writer.
King, 66, revealed the decision in his latest "Football Morning in America" piece for NBC Sports. The column, which began as "Monday Morning Quarterback" for Sports Illustrated, famously ran every week from 1997 up to this day.
"To be a long-termer in an increasingly short-term business, to write this column for 27 years and to be a sportswriter for 44, well, that's something I'll always be grateful for," King wrote Monday. "Truly, I've loved it all. I'm retiring*. I use an asterisk because I truly don't know what the future holds for me. I probably will work at something, but as I write this I have no idea what it will be."
Why is King stepping down now? A variety of reasons, he explained:
- He's grown tired of the "day-to-day minutiae of covering the league," which is now a year-round media draw;
- He's interested in exploring a potentially different line of work;
- He knows he can't "change" his longform storytelling style, despite recommendations from NBC bosses;
- He'd like to spend more time with family, which made "significant" sacrifices to aid his work.
A three-time National Sportswriter of the Year winner, King worked for Newsday and The Cincinnati Enquirer before his decades-long run at SI. A Pro Football Hall of Fame voter, he's also appeared on NBC Sports' "Football Morning in America."
King's current column will run at least one more week, featuring farewell letters from fans.
