WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Post sports section disappeared Wednesday. Whether you blame natural causes or more avoidable factors, the damage in the Washington area has been significant.
The impact was felt almost immediately. The hometown NBA team made a massive trade shortly after the newspaper eliminated its sports section and laid off a third of its staff. The Washington Wizards have agreed to acquire star Anthony Davis from Dallas. More than two hours after the news broke, there was still no mention of the incident on the Washington Post’s online sports site.
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Compared to passionate Eastern cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston, Washington is struggling for respect as a sports town, sometimes as an afterthought. Washington, D.C.’s population is, as stereotypes suggest, too mobile and too obsessed with politics to care about local sports teams.
Yet for decades, The Washington Post has embraced sports as an important part of life in the region. No matter what the rest of the country thinks about Washington’s teams and fans, there’s no better place to read sports news than in the nation’s capital.
If you were a sports fan growing up in Washington in the 1980s, the Washington Post wasn’t necessarily Woodward and Bernstein’s paper. This is the paper by Boswell, Brennan, Feinstein, Wilburn, and Kornheiser. Most recently, this was the paper by Jenkins, Buckner, and Kilgore.
“I grew up watching The Washington Post and didn’t realize that wasn’t the case in other cities,” ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt said on social media. “I had no idea how lucky we were to be able to enjoy their masterpiece.”
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The Washington Post makes Washington sports fans feel like they matter. If those days are gone, they should not be forgotten.
the best the best
Before they became television stars on ESPN’s “Excuse the Interruption,” Michael Wilburn and Tony Kornheiser were establishment figures at The Washington Post. In 1991, as Joe Gibbs’ team won its first 11 games to give Washington its third Super Bowl title, Kornheiser’s “Bandwagon” column — which combined his usual wit and irreverence with a arrogance befitting one of the best seasons in NFL history — became as memorable as the game itself.
Before her television career took off, Rachel Nichols chronicled the Capitals’ run to the Stanley Cup Final for The Washington Post. John Feinstein was a reporter for the paper both before and after his book about Bob Knight made him a famous author.
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In the mid-1980s, Christine Brennan covered football for The Washington Post. Brennan, who now works at USA Today, received the Red Smith Award from the Associated Press Sports Editors in 2020 for contributions to sports journalism. The following year, Sally Jenkins, still working at The Washington Post, won the award. The Washington Post’s Shirley Povich received the honor back in 1983.
Thomas Boswell, The Washington Post’s go-to baseball columnist, has been awarded the 2025 Career Excellence Award by the Baseball Writers Association of America. He was honored last year during Hall of Fame Weekend.
new era
The Washington Post will never be confused with a tabloid sports section, but its headlines and layout are gorgeously brought into the 21st century.
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Designer Brianna Schroer said she was part of this week’s cut. Reporter Scott Allen, who was responsible for some of the sports section’s best front-page posts on social media, has also been eliminated. They’re a timeline of the last 25 years of Washington, D.C. sports, including the return of Major League Baseball to Washington and long-awaited championships won by the Capitals, Nationals, Mystics and Spirits.
The Washington Post’s coverage of the organizational culture was part of Dan Snyder’s downfall as owner of the football team he renamed the Commanders. Just last year, Candace Buckner (Top Sports Columnist), Adam Kilgore (National Rhythm Writing), and Kent Babb (Best Novel) won APSE Awards.
The Washington Post balances coverage of national relevance with coverage of local interest. Andrew Beyer – the man behind the famous Beyer Speed Chart – was the paper’s horse racing columnist for nearly four decades.
If you want to know about the World Cup, Steven Goff is one of the top football writers in the country and he’s in the pages of The Washington Post. If you’re wondering who has the best high school volleyball teams in the area, The Washington Post ranked them all — part of extensive prep coverage that includes the paper’s highly anticipated All-Metro team.
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future
Wilbon and Kornheiser did not mention the Post’s actions on Wednesday’s “PTI” show, but for those who have recently lost their jobs, the feelings are understandable.
“The community loses. It’s true. The sports page should be a place for conversation and debate, without the vitriol of other areas. In Washington, that’s gone,” said columnist Barry Svrluga, who was fired Wednesday. “Someone is going to fill that void. I hope that happens soon.”
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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
