Pro football columnist Peter King announced his retirement from full-time writing in his weekly “Football Morning in America” column for NBC Sports. King has done the column, previously known as the “Monday Morning Quarterback,” for the last 27 years and he has been a sportswriter for a total of 44 years.
“Who’s complaining? Not me. I’m the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” King wrote this morning. “To be a long-termer in an increasingly short-term business, to write this column for 27 years and to be a sportswriter for 44, well, that’s something I’ll always be grateful for. Truly, I’ve loved it all.
“I’m retiring*. I use an asterisk because I truly don’t know what the future holds for me. I probably will work at something, but as I write this I have no idea what it will be. Maybe it will be something in the media world, but just not Football Morning in America (nee Monday Morning Quarterback).”
In his column, King listed several factors that led to his decision to retire, which included being less interested in the daily news cycle and a desire to spend more time with his family.
“The sacrifices my wife, Ann, and my kids, Laura and Mary Beth, and their families have made for me to do this job at the highest level have been significant,” said King, who previously wrote his column for Sports Illustrated. “To do this job well, you’ve got to have some selfishness in you, and you’ve got to miss time at home—lots of it. I don’t feel great about lots of those times, but I don’t regret them either. To do this job well, it’s a fact that some things in your family will suffer. Also: All three male members of my family (dad, two brothers) died by the age of 64, before ever experiencing retirement. And my buddy Don Banks, dead at 57 in a Canton hotel room in 2019. All of it matters.”
Many media members have put out mesasges on X and other social accounts praising King for his years of hard work:
