another columnist opening

http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/060723_prince/

Thomas George Leaving Denver for NFL Network
Less than two years after moving from the New York Times to the Denver Post, sports columnist Thomas George is changing jobs again, this time to become managing editor of the NFL Network, Scott Monserud, the Post's assistant managing editor for sports, said late Monday.

"I think he had a great following for his style, and he was a good complement to Mark Kiszla," another Post sports columnist, Monserud told Journal-isms.

When George was hired in November 2004, the Post wrote: "For 16 years, George, 44, has chronicled the NFL at The Times, in addition to covering events such as the NCAA men's and women's Final Fours, the NBA, Major League Baseball and college football."

"His wealth of experience and views about the world of sports will challenge and entertain readers. I am very pleased to have a journalist of his caliber writing a column for us,'' Editor Gregory L. Moore said at the time.

"It'll be a challenge to find a new one," Monserud said Monday of the columnist's slot. George's last day is to be a week from Tuesday.


NFL Network is the year-round television channel fully owned and operated by the National Football League.

On Sunday, George wrote that being injured in an auto accident taught Anthony Lynn, the Cowboys' running backs coach and a running back on Denver's two world champion teams, that, "Sometimes, I guess, we get a little full of ourselves."

 

Good for Thomas.  He very well might be the most well-sourced NFL writer in the country, and I have a tremendous respect for him.

Having said that, I don't think he ever found his voice as a columnist in Denver.

Don't assume, however, that the Post will be hiring a new columnist.  Earlier this year, the Post offered buy-outs to a bunch of people and only a few took it.  The Post lost another sports writer recently and I heard they were not going to hire but rather shuffle beats to fill the job.

My guess: They make Jim Armstrong, Terry Frei or Tony Cotton a full-time columnist.

 

Armstrong is good in his notes mode. He's perfect for Page 2. The columns I've read of his haven't been good. Does Anthony Cotton even write columns? He's a decent take out writer. I don't know how that would translate to columns. Terry Frei might be the best of those three.

I heard they were passed over before. But If the Post wants to get another person in before football starts that situation could bode well for one of those three.

As for Thomas George, he was an excellent NFL writer, and that showed in his columns. His NFL columns were always stronger than the rest.

Spinning27, you said he never found his voice. Hell, he never wrote enough to find anything. According to the website, he has written 14 columns in three months. You gotta do more than that.

 

Losing Thompson will hurt more than losing George.

 

Mizzou, any word in NBA beat circles about what they're going to do? I heard about a week ago they were going to re-shuffle their staff instead of hire a new Nuggets beat guy. I can't imagine Spears would want to go back on the beat.

 

thomas george and nfl sources should never be used in the same sentence. when he was at the n.y. times he NEVER --read my lips -- NEVER broke a semblance of a story. mike freeman -- sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly -- is who made the times a must-read for football folks for a while. never thomas "on't call me tom" george. he was good at hugging players, though.

 

Well, Spears does a great deal of beat work for a national guy. He's an outstanding reporter. That would take a bit of the pressure off whoever they might promote. I'm not that familiar with their staff, but maybe they promote Chris Dempsey, I don't know.

To replace George, they should hire Couch away from the Sun-Times. I think he interviewed last time and has ties to the area.

 

losing thompson really isn't that big of a loss, in my opinion. ... there's a reason he was moved off the CU beat when they hired dempsey away from boulder. and there's a reason spears still does a lot of the beat work. otherwise, the RMN could eat them up on the nuggets beat.

not sure what they'll do, but they have some solid GA reporters who are capable of stepping into a lot of beats.

...

on another note, I heard the RMN is not traveling with CU, Colorado State or Air Force for saturday games seeing they have no sunday paper.

 

That's really shocking. And stupid.

 

Yeah, Thompson sucks. That's why the Wall Street Journal hired him. Man, people on this board never cease to amaze me.