I began learning the sportswriting business very early in life.

I began learning the sportswriting business very early in life.

I think my mistakes were kind of common - leaning on cliches and adjectives in the place of clear, vivid writing. But at least I knew how to spell, which seems to be a rarity these days.

In fifty years of covering the sport, of course Muhammad Ali is by far the dominant figure.

My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.

Sugar Ray and talked about doing some articles together or writing a book together but dealing with Sugar Ray was a lot like fighting him. He would fake you in and then he'd drop you.

If I got paid, it was no more than five dollars a column, and I still think I was overpaid.