After a 42-year career in sports journalism, Jeff Schultz has announced his retirement from the medium, revealing the news in his final column penned for The Athletic published on Wednesday morning. Within the piece, he explained how it is likely his final column anywhere, although he has learned “never to say never in sports, or in life.” At this time though, he feels he is making the right decision and following through on something he considered since the end of 2021 when his contract with The Athletic was expiring.
“The Athletic has been great. The job has been great,” Jeff Schultz wrote. “And to you, the readers, from those who followed me from a newspaper to a website, to even those who I think was always out to get your favorite team or athlete, thank you. I learned a long time ago that the passion of sports fans cuts both ways and that should never be squashed. I can’t imagine sports without debate.”
The venerated reporter received his start in the industry covering a high school football game for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook. Out of college at California State University, Long Beach, he worked at the Los Angeles Daily News where he worked as a staff writer for four years before transitioning to a senior role at the San Jose Mercury News upstate.
In 1989, he began a 29-year stint with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he covered various sports teams in the city, including the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons. Schultz left the outlet in 2018 to join The Athletic as a senior writer focused on Atlanta sports, something he referred to as a difficult decision but a change he made because of his belief in the outlet’s product.
“The interviews, the reporting, the writing, cultivating relationships, building sources, earning trust – I could do that stuff forever,” Jeff Schultz explained. “I learned a long time ago I could write a critical column and still have a working relationship with people if they believed you were being fair.”
Aside from the wear and tear that comes with trying to conjure ideas for future columns, Schultz realizes that he has missed too much time with his family and friends. Being away from sportswriting, he wants to focus on his family and will continue to sit on the boards of two non-profit organizations related to recovery and mental health initiatives.
When news breaks, Schultz remarked that he will miss trying to uncover information, having conversations from people on both sides of the stories and the adrenaline rush that comes with the job. Conversely, he will not miss arriving early and staying late to cover contests with a game credential. Nonetheless, Schultz is undecided if he is leaving sports and writing for good, but at the moment, he is content with concluding this part of his career.
Schultz has been part of The Athletic from its inception in 2018 and hoped that the outlet would last at least two years upon its launch. Five-and-a-half years later, he recognizes that changes have been made, including its ownership by The New York Times Company, and averred that there will be more alterations down the road. Earlier in the year, The Athletic laid off 4% of its newsroom and became the primary source for sports news when The New York Times eliminated its sports department.
