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So Long...
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Nearly 30 years ago, the legendary USC football coach John McKay left Los Angeles for Tampa Bay to become head coach of the Buccaneers. McKay took over the worst team in football, one which set a record for consecutive losses. When asked about his team's execution, McKay famously quipped "I'm in favor of it."Yet McKay eventually turned the Bucs around, as they reached the NFC Championship game under his leadership. A generation later, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl with John's son, Rich McKay as the team's GM.
Why am I bringing this up? Well, today I write for the last time as regular sports editor of LAist. I am leaving the site for an exciting new opportunity with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I put up the McKay picture and mention him, not to suggest that I'm going to become the John McKay of the Devil Rays. Rather, because he's about the only person I can think of who moved from LA to Tampa, and he's someone I greatly admire.
I do love this city of Los Angeles, and I will undoubtedly miss it. I began writing for LAist because LA Sports have consumed much of my life. Living in New York for five years, only confirmed to me what a great city Los Angeles is. That is why I didn't hesitate when my long-time best friend Tom Berman, the founding editor of the site, asked me to write sports. For a while it was just Tom, myself, and Marleigh Riggins writing for LAist. Today, LAist has grown and it is in excellent shape to move forward with Jason Toney as Editor, and Jake Dobkin running all of the "ists" sites.
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I hope over the course of the last year-plus that I have provided our readers with some perspective on issues in LA sports. I think I offered a different take from what many of those in the mainstream LA sports media, such as Bill Plaschke, offer every day.
I will occasionally contribute to this site, but LAist sports posts will now be written by Alex Delanian, who started this past week. We are also looking for a second sports writer, so if you are interested please e-mail me at pwallace@gmail.com, or contact Jason. But after nearly 270 posts, it is time to say good-bye.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
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