WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Bob Ryan is 72 and has been officially retired as a sportswriter since 2012, except he still writes several Sunday columns every month for the Boston Globe, makes regular TV and radio appearances on ESPN and hosts his own podcast.
“I’m just an observer,” he said. “It seems all I’m doing is watching sports.”
He didn’t offer that as a complaint. Ryan was relaxing inside a hotel lobby, a Hall of Fame sportswriter talking shop about the state of his profession. He’s here to present his friend Dick “Hoops” Weiss, who was inducted into the National Sports Media Association’s Hall of Fame on Monday night.