Author, LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE, HOW LUCKY, THE TIME HAS COME, other books. Contributing Editor, New York. Columnist, The Washington Post. Writer, MLB. Critic, Grierson & Leitch. Founder, Deadspin. Illini. Mattoonian. https://williamfleitch.substack.com
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His son--who now PLAYS FOR SYRACUSE--was four years old at the time. He asked me the due date and told me to sleep while I could. I then admitted that I probably shouldn't be telling anyone, it's way too early, that I hadn't even told my parents yet. He promised he wouldn't tell them. (He didn't.)
I just went out and said it. "Hey, I'm sorry," I said ... "I just found out last night that my wife and I are going to have a baby, and I haven't really wrapped my mind around it yet." He was ECSTATIC. "Oh, shit, congratulations!" He hugged me. "You're going to love it, being a Dad is the best."
When I met him in Brooklyn for our first interview, I had barely slept the night before, and for a good reason: My wife and I had just learned that evening that she was pregnant. I was jittery and rattled and not really on my game for the first part of the interview. At one point, I just stopped.
Congratulations to Carmelo Anthony on his very much deserved induction into the Hall of Fame. Here is my Carmelo Anthony story: When he was traded to the Knicks, I wrote a big feature for @nymag.com about his arrival. Here is that story: nymag.com/news/sports/...
For @nymag.com, I wrote about how the NFL never had it better than when Trump was out of office. (Which is a problem, because he is now, as you might have heard, back in office.) nymag.com/intelligence...
For @washingtonpost.com, I wrote about the Dallas Cowboys, the team that I think we're all getting tired of pretending is any more interesting than any other NFL team. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
My college football column this week for @theathletic.com is about Kalen DeBoer, but really it's about how miserable it must be to be a college football coach. www.nytimes.com/athletic/659...
Literally quoted IN THE PIECE!
Hmm. I'm not seeing that. It seems to work for me?
My college football column this week for @theathletic.com is about Kalen DeBoer, but really it's about how miserable it must be to be a college football coach. www.nytimes.com/athletic/659...
One of the nice things about Cuban is that any time I worry people are forgetting who he is in order to try to make him into the thing people seem desperate to pretend he is, he keeps talking.
I wrote a cover story about Jeremy Lin for @gqmagazine.bsky.social in November 2012--it landed on stands the day Sandy hit--and he was great and also only person to ever fall asleep on me in the middle of an interview. (It had been a very long day. Also I am very boring.) www.gq.com/story/jeremy...
I feel like the screenshot doesn't quite do this justice. The full sequence was basically a tragicomedy in three small, beautiful acts.
Can’t remember who beat that Colorado team that year.
I'm going to be writing a weekly column about college football for @theathletic.com this year. I hope people enjoy it. Here is the first one, about how it feels to be a college football fan in 2025. (Which is kind of how it feels like to be anything in 2025.) www.nytimes.com/athletic/657...
Congrats to Heidi Gardner, the final-ever guest of "The Will Leitch Show," on her run at SNL. We taped this when she was still a featured player, surely the only reason she agreed to come on. She dazzled our dozens (dozens!) of viewers. (She also knew the NBA *cold*.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D5W...
Truer words rarely spoken ...
I'm going to be writing a weekly column about college football for @theathletic.com this year. I hope people enjoy it. Here is the first one, about how it feels to be a college football fan in 2025. (Which is kind of how it feels like to be anything in 2025.) www.nytimes.com/athletic/657...
Working on it. (CAST ate the last 40 minutes. Trying to get them back.)
For @washingtonpost.com, I wrote about how in a world dominated by gambling and its goons, fantasy football has returned to its rightful, original place as a dorky, charming activity for happy nerds who just enjoy sports. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
The first three picks in my first ever fantasy draft — a keeper league, no less, one I am still in — were Barry Foster, Troy Aikman and the Phoenix Cardinals defense.
For @washingtonpost.com, I wrote about how in a world dominated by gambling and its goons, fantasy football has returned to its rightful, original place as a dorky, charming activity for happy nerds who just enjoy sports. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Me: These people, they are your family. This is your history. Your past is your future. This is what has made you the person you are. This is what you will pass on to your children. This is your legacy. My children: look at all these uncs
Ha. Don't trust AI!
New episode! We review three new movies: 1) "Weapons" 2) "The Naked Gun" 3) "Together" Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/475M... Have a good week. Beware of darkness.
This was very funny.
Yeah, it’s the Substack link there.
This is why I always play my headphones really really loud once I finally get into the theater. JUST in case. (It's remarkable how often I have to do this in screenings too. C'mon, guys, we're THIS close, we've almost made it ... hand the ball to the ref and act like you've been there before.)
They're not booing, they're saying "Goo-rge."
Absolutely knocked me on my ass.
Holy shit, WEAPONS.
Every professor and teacher should do this.
I think you're thinking of the season AFTER the bubble season. (Which was very annoying yes.)
For @nymag.com, I wrote about how wrong Daryl Morey is: The COVID season was awesome, actually. nymag.com/intelligence...
This one I actually liked!
You're so right. There are exactly 11.
You wouldn’t be the first on the tour to do so!
If you're in the DC area, come out to Wonderland Books in Bethesda, tonight, 7 p.m. ET, July 30. We'll talk LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE and sports things, and you can yell at me for apparently not liking the new NAKED GUN movie as much as everyone else. Also, there is air conditioning. Come on out!
WAS AT THIS GAME
Sure wish they’d get that MLB logo up on the collar where it’s supposed to be and get the letters back and huge again though. (I just spent a lot of time in the team store waiting in vain for these.)
@bencollins.bsky.social Little light reading at the Cards game tonight.
I feel like the final stage of totalitarianism is when Trump gets himself in the Nats’ presidents’ race.
I honestly did not know that Leno Men existed.
I wrote about AI this weekend. williamfleitch.substack.com/p/volume-5-i...
I wrote about AI this weekend. williamfleitch.substack.com/p/volume-5-i...
@mikevorkunov.bsky.social Found this in some archives. Don’t you miss when you did REAL journalism?
There is! I've got events coming up in Bethesda, Md. (July 30), Columbus, Ga. (August 15) and Brooklyn, N.Y. (November 6).
🚨BONUS EP! We invited the great @williamfleitch.bsky.social to stop by for a spirited chat about sports media in the aughts. Available for all members, free and paid, right here: www.patreon.com/posts/134220...
Hey, Los Angeles! Come to Book Soup tonight and see me talk about LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE. 7 p.m. PT I will give you a hug.
All songs by the Doors are instantly improved if you imagine them being performed by Ron Burgundy.
I’ve had Braylon tied up down here for months waiting for this precise moment.
Guess it's time to point to the "Why McAfees Are Ruining The World" sign again. williamfleitch.substack.com/p/volume-4-i...
Man, McAfee's even on the Statcast version.
Andrew Dice Clay is really good in that movie! (Louis CK, uh, is not.)
I wrote a long (free) newsletter this week about the history, the future and, yes, the magic of Web publishing. williamfleitch.substack.com/p/volume-5-i...
(I'm outing myself for occasionally checking my own name on here, but I think it's worth it to note this was actually Dana Jacobson.) deadspin.com/deadspin-hof...
I'm not sure Syndergaard's would be though.
For the record, I am against the Cardinals signing Matt Harvey to their rotation.
I'm pretty sure that's not what the piece says!
For @washingtonpost.com, I wrote about asking more from our sports teams that they are morally capable of. They will always disappoint you if you let them. So don't let them. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Can we just say these people are stupid? I mean, they're evil and monomaniacal and out of control, but I keep getting stuck on the stupidity first. This is ... a moron?
Definitely read Siegel's first!
[mentally pre-ordered, that is. The point is I can't wait.]
Wow, this is very kind of you. Thank you! (I've got your book pre-ordered myself, sir!)
Come out tonight and say hi tonight, St. Louis!
My son's about to have a very badass Heat jersey.
Wow, thanks!
I hope you like it!
I am sorry to have invaded your life in such a sudden, comprehensive way.
I am overwhelmed by this show of force.
Big crowd too!
No, but that’s where my son and I are this weekend. It has been very welcoming!
This is exactly how it felt in OKC this morning.
Yeah, Kirk didn't get me the private plane I'd demanded in my rider either.
This story is impeccably reported, full of jaw-dropping scenes and scoops, but even better, she wrote the shit out of it--it's consistently, surreally funny, our own real-life, real-time Dr. Strangelove. (Seriously, though, we're all doomed.)
I stood in line getting popcorn in Westwood to see “She’s So Lovely” behind Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman on the day Princess Diana died.
Just checking back in to see where we stand on this @bostonglobe.com fake front page from pre-election 2016
Everything is going great.
The disparity btwn what’s actually happening in Los Angeles and the way it’s being mischaracterized is one of the biggest stress tests of modern media in recent memory. Botted socials, AI, old clips, declining literacy—it’s like seeing a broken emergency response system hit by a storm.
Katie’s is actually pretty great too, totally fair. It is starting to become our pregame haunt.
I enjoyed chatting with @davidjroth.bsky.social and @drewmagary.bsky.social on the Defector podcast about writing, the Cardinals, the NBA Finals and the Trump sons.
Thanks to Amazon Books for choosing LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE as one of their best books of the first half of 2025. I do believe one of my rewards is to be shot into space as an inspiration to women everywhere. www.amazon.com/b/?_encoding...
Thanks to Amazon Books for choosing LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE as one of their best books of the first half of 2025. I do believe one of my rewards is to be shot into space as an inspiration to women everywhere. www.amazon.com/b/?_encoding...
My favorite Easter egg in the Peralta video are the Cubs fan and the Cardinals fan behind home plate, obviously lifelong friends, having an immediate and appropriate emotional reaction as soon as the ball is hit. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C57...
My free weekly newsletter just came out. It's about The Naked Gun. It's free, and weekly, with links to everything I wrote this week, you should subscribe, you might like it. williamfleitch.substack.com/p/volume-5-i...
Oh, wow, thank you. I'm so glad you liked it!
For @washingtonpost.com, I wrote about Timothee Chalamet, Ben Stiller and celebrity sports fans, and how a famous person is never more relatable and human than they are when they are screaming for their favorite team.
Embedded in this piece is one of my favorite unhinged interviews of all time, back in 2016, when Ben Affleck lost his freaking mind about Deflategate on former sportswriter Bill Simmons' long-forgotten HBO show. I've never liked Affleck more. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhEq...
For @washingtonpost.com, I wrote about Timothee Chalamet, Ben Stiller and celebrity sports fans, and how a famous person is never more relatable and human than they are when they are screaming for their favorite team.
For @nytimes.com, I wrote about Zombie Arguments, issues that many of us thought were long settled decades ago--from Pete Rose to abortion to "Cats"--but simply refuse to die.
Naw, that was him.
For @nytimes.com, I wrote about Zombie Arguments, issues that many of us thought were long settled decades ago--from Pete Rose to abortion to "Cats"--but simply refuse to die.
I'm an fervid anti-Slack-er -- my phone beeps at me enough already! -- but if anything were to ever make me alter that view, it would be Dayn's site.
I, too, had so much publicity for my book release week that late-night talk shows were canceling episodes because people were so sick of hearing me talk.
I enjoyed talking to @jaybusbee.bsky.social about LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE, the banal beauty of Atlanta's Spaghetti Junction and optimistic realism (or realistic optimism, take your pick). jaybusbee.substack.com/p/people-wan...
This is a very kind (and well-written) review of LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE in the @ajc.com this morning. www.ajc.com/arts-enterta...
Today is the release day for LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE, my new novel about a cop who, upon learning he's dying of a brain tumor, tries to get himself killed so his family can get the insurance, keeps failing and becomes a civic hero. I think you will like it. www.harpercollins.com/products/llo...
So anyway, yeah: LLOYD MCNEIL'S LAST RIDE. The new book. Out today. You'll like it. I hope you buy it wherever you buy your books. Albert Pujols wants you to. www.harpercollins.com/products/llo...
I tried to make the book as entertaining as I could. I like to say it's the funniest and most heartwarming book about a man dying of a brain tumor as humanly possible. They're even turning into a movie. It is a movie I would like to watch. (After I read the book.) deadline.com/2025/04/lion...
