Rick Reilly wrote for Sports Illustrated for a long time before recently moving over to ESPN. He's either seriously awesome (won Sportswriter of the Year award 11 times) or seriously not. Here are a couple bloggish snippets which amused me:
ESPN Fills Badly Needed Smart-Alecky Middle-Aged White Guy Quota
...Growing up I read Reilly's SI column almost religiously, but that was before the Internet had videos of monkeys playing drums, and I don't think I've read a Reilly-penned article in over four years...(deadspin.com)
I have to assume that, sometime in the late-90s, Rick Reilly got some career advice from Kent Brockman, because his column has turned into a print version of "Bart's People." (lonestarball.com)
There are also a whole lot of posts about an article titled "Which franchise rules your city? I know the answer." Apparently he's WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!!!!!!!!
Anyway, he's here about his charity, Nothing But Nets (.net, of course). Here's a summary:
Nothing But Nets began when Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly wrote a May 5, 2006, article calling on readers to fight malaria -- a disease which kills more than 3,000 African children per day. He asked them to donate $10 to purchase insecticide-treated bed-nets. Since then, Nothing But Nets has delivered more than 23 million nets to African families and educated them on proper usage of the nets, which prevent malaria-carrying mosquitoes from biting the families while they sleep at night, the most common time of day for malaria to be transmitted. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies have proven that the nets are virtually guaranteed to save a life -- for only a $10 donation. Every dollar donated to Nothing But Nets is matched by an equal contribution from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, so two lives are actually saved with one $10 donation.
That original article is here. I found several other mentions of fundraisers, and of course there are quite a few partner organizations (including Orkin pest control. I like that).
So, dunno what the interview'll be like, but
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