Neil Best is stepping away, closing the book on a sports media career that spanned nearly half a century and represented a level of continuity that has largely disappeared from American journalism.
The longtime Newsday sports media columnist announced his retirement Sunday, ending more than two decades on a beat he helped define. Best leaves behind one of the few remaining full-time sports media columnist roles at a major metropolitan newspaper, a position that survived industry-wide layoffs, shifting business models and fundamental changes in how sports content is produced and consumed.
During his tenure, Best covered the transition from print-first journalism to a digital, social-driven ecosystem. He chronicled the explosion of sports talk radio, the rise of national debate television, and the emergence of social media as both a reporting tool and a news-breaking platform.
Through it all, Best maintained a measured, reporting-first approach that distinguished his work in a landscape increasingly driven by opinion and immediacy.
In his farewell column, Best emphasized that the decision to step away was entirely his. A Newsday reader since August 1972, he wrote, “It’s OK! It was my decision! Time for someone else to have a turn.” That someone will be Anthony Rieber, who becomes just the fourth person to hold the sports media beat in 48 years. Stan Isaacs and Steve Zipay preceded Best, making it one of the most stable assignments in sports journalism despite the volatility elsewhere in the industry.
Best’s final column read like a greatest-hits tour of a career few writers get to experience.
“What has it been like writing about sports for a living for the better part of a half-century?” he asked, answering himself simply: “It’s been good!”
He recalled interviewing everyone from the San Diego Chicken and Phillie Phanatic “with his head off,” to Willie Mays, who famously admitted he hated fishing. Best wrote about conversations with Ice Cube on the Raiders, Adam Sandler on Mike Francesa, Jerry Seinfeld on WFAN and Billie Jean King and Dick Vitale, who greeted him with hugs.
His reporting took him from youth track meets in Barrow, Alaska, to high school gyms in the Bronx, and into the homes of figures such as Michael Strahan, Tiki Barber, Phil Simms and Francesa. He covered generations of athletes, noting interviews with Nat Holman, born in 1896, and Matthew Schaefer, born in 2007.
Best also reflected on the unique perspective of the job. “You’re an insider, but an outsider,” he wrote, recalling walks through the old Yankee Stadium tunnel past the Joe DiMaggio sign Derek Jeter tapped before games. “Yes, it was cool to follow Jeter down that path. Yes, I was wholly undeserving. But I always appreciated the privilege.”
In an era when sports media columnist positions have been eliminated or diluted, Best’s career stands as an exception. He spent nearly 50 years at one newspaper, covering a beat that barely exists anymore.
As he signed off, Best kept the moment characteristically understated.
“Anyway, that’s that,” he wrote. “Thanks for reading.”
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