12/21/24
January 10, 2003
A sportswriting legend passes on : - Boston Globe columnist Will McDonough died last night at his home. A died while watching SportsCenter, appropriately enough. He will be missed by those of us who looked forward to reading his columns every week.
Do you have any examples of info that Coughlin or Parcells fed McDonough? Your anecdote reminds me of something from the Jimmy Johnson/Jerry Jones years in Dallas. The unnamed source feeding the Dallas Morning News was always Johnson, and the unnamed source feeding the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was always Jones!
posted by rcade at 01:04 PM on January 10, 2003
I never had a chance to read him much, but I enjoyed his commentaries on television, back when NBC had football. Sad news.
posted by Jaquandor at 02:56 PM on January 10, 2003
I can't really say I have any hard examples. It was something I never noticed until the BSG (back when he was really the BSG on boston.citysearch.com) alleged it. I read McDonough's NFL notes with a critical eye after that and it always seemed like his sources during Parcells' Pats and Jets days were two senior AFC coaches who fit the profile of Parcells and Coughlin given the info he'd drop (teams they'd played, divisions, etc.).
posted by yerfatma at 12:53 AM on January 11, 2003
Can I ask the Globe to deduct a couple of cents from my Sunday copy since it's not worth as much anymore? He'd turned into a crotchety old bastard the past few years (the departure of Mo Vaughn and Roger Clemens really soured him), but he was a terrific columnist with more inside material than anyone else in sports (except that his unnamed NFL coaches were always Parcells and Tom Coughlin). He's the last old-school columnist in the Boston media (Kevin Mannix and the Herald mean nothing to me) and I'll miss him. Two other points: 1. They really picked a photo that de-emphasized the nose 2. If you want to see Mr. McDonough at his best, he was the star of PBS' "The Irish in America" for my money.