Benjamin Franklin Deford III[1] (December 16, 1938 – May 28, 2017) was an American sportswriter and novelist. From 1980 until his death in 2017, he was a regular sports commentator on NPR's Morning Edition radio program. (wikipedia)
I was a much better writer than I was an athlete. My college coach told me flat out, he said, "Deford, you write basketball better than you play it."
the National Football League needs "a guardian, not a CEO" to deal with the fact that "the sport is simply more and more identified with violence, both in its inherent nature and in its savage personnel.
In Hollywood, writers are considered only the first draft of human beings.
I don't understand blogs. People used to write to make money, no? You didn't give it away. I have nothing against blogs. I don't have a problem with them. But it's like, 'What are you doing? Why aren't you working?
I think one of the most immoral things is college football and basketball, where everybody is making money except the players.
It's been a long time since I covered games,
You imagine people are looking forward to it as a treat, ... But the trick, I suppose, is to keep their interest up before you get to the ending.... Above all, you want the main character, Roger Bannister in this case, to be someone you like and you root for.
It really surprises people, and I understand why, but that was probably the easiest book I ever wrote, because it was simple narrative,
Everybody loves sports. It's awfully hard to be critical of these athletes -- they're young, they're strong, they're beautiful. You want to celebrate these guys.
He was the first prominent college player ... the first star to be associated with college, and in that sense he made baseball acceptable,