After more than 31 years, Michael Wilbon filed his last column for The Washington Post Monday evening.
Wilbon announced last month that he was leaving WaPo for a full-time gig with ESPN, where he’s been a regular since Pardon the Interruption launched in 2001.
This is the first column I ever dreaded writing, the only time I can recall experiencing that thing known as writer’s block. It’s my last column for The Washington Post, 20-some years after my first one and 311/2 years after I walked in the door as a summer intern. It’s not Shirley Povich’s 75 years but I hung around long enough to think it might last forever.
AdvertisementSadly and of my own doing, I’ve come to that part in the program where it’s time to say goodbye, where I need to tell readers, editors, colleagues, even some of the people I’ve covered over the years just how enormously grateful I am for helping me have the greatest adventure imaginable.
Wilbon reflects on some of the highlights (Cathy Freeman winning track and field gold in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 tops the list as favorite moment) during his storied career and shares with the readers his only two regrets:
The past 20 years, I’ve had the best job in America. My only regrets are that my father, who taught me the art of making a good case from the time I was seven or eight years old, died just before I became a columnist, and that my son Matthew, 21/2 years old, will never truly know what his old man did for a living most of his adult life. Everything else – all 30 years of it, thank you – was candy sweet.
Thanks for the memories, Mike.