RIP Dr. Z

Per Peter King's Twitter:

 

The documentary on him was excellent. He has been missed.

 

Enjoyed the hell out of his work.

 

Bought and read Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football when I was in my 2os. Still have it. Still holds up.

 

He has indeed, but given his health issues after the stroke (more than one?) I’m glad he’s not trapped in a useless body anymore.

 

He was probably one of the biggest reasons I got into writing. I remember reading his 1986 NFL Preview in SI and thinking he was a damn idiot. Everyone knew the bears would repeat and they would play the dolphins in the super bowl. His choices? Giants vs. the Broncos. Needless to say come January, i thought he must have been a genius. Read every article afterward and any book of his I could find. My favorite he did was “the last season of weeb ewbank.”

Also, back when he was with the Post, he and dick schaap co-wrote a great piece on the New York Mets in 1969. It was a breakdown of a day when the Mets beat the cubs in a big game. I assume schaap wrote the game stuff, while Zimmerman did the odd stuff that made it so interesting such as the retelling of a guy in queens killing his wife because she kept turning off the game to watch a soap opera. I spent a couple years trying to convince my editor to let us do the same.

 

A giant to his rest.

 

One of the first great internet sports columns. He was super smart, a curmudgeon for the ages and he loved good wine.

 

First sportswriter I ever read regularly. RIP.

 

When I was in high school doing write-ups for my high school's football games for the local paper he was my hero. He provided a level of insight in a Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football that I had never been exposed to by any other writer.

 

We lost him a while ago but I guess today made it official. RIP

 

Didn't his wife have like a blog a few years back where she posted some of his old columns or some columns that didn't make print.