Peter King to leave Sports Illustrated, join NBC
Peter King, the longtime Sports Illustrated writer whose weekly columns have been must-read material for NFL fans for decades, will be leaving the magazine at the end of the month for a job with NBC. King’s departure closes a remarkable 29-year career at Sports Illustrated.
“I just felt it was time to move on from the 24/7-ness of football coverage and try something a little bit different,” King said in announcing his departure. “My 29 years at Sports Illustrated have been, collectively, a dream come true.”
King is best known for his “Monday Morning Quarterback” property, which began as a column in 1997 and morphed into an entire website, The MMQB, in 2013. Begun as a compilation of notes from King’s columns, The MMQB became a necessary stop for NFL fans, despite (or perhaps because of) King’s diversions into non-football topics like coffee and travel.
And, in a remarkable coincidence, NBC Sports announced moments after news of King’s departure from Sports Illustrated broke that King would be joining NBC in a wide range of capacities, including writing — imagine this — a Monday-morning NFL column.
Although Sports Illustrated’s prominence and preeminence have waned in the last decade, it remains a marquee destination for sports fans, and King has been a major contributor to that reputation. The magazine’s loss will be NBC’s gain.
“For three decades, I’ve had the job of a lifetime in the sports media business, and I will be forever grateful to SI,” King said in his goodbye announcement. “I leave at the end of May with immense gratitude to my editors over the years and to my staff at The MMQB since 2013.”
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
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