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Maybe it’s too soon to search for solace in a story that is a cocktail of shock, aching sadness, and more than fleeting suspicion.
The death of distinguished soccer journalist Grant Wahl at age 48 Friday after he became ill in the press box in Qatar during a World Cup soccer match brought an immediate outpouring of grief and admiration from waves of friends and former colleagues.
S.L. Price, who worked with Wahl for many years at Sports Illustrated, remembered him as the most “generous, enthusiastic, and principled colleague” he had ever known, calling his death “multi-level tragic.” Joe Posnanski wrote he was the “best of us.” “I don’t know how else to say this,’’ tweeted Tim Layden, another former SI colleague. “He cared about things. About everything.”
So many others — journalists and fans alike — shared anecdotes about Wahl’s kindness, his joy in finding kindred spirits who loved the sport the way he did. Many shared photos, and they all seemed to have the same theme. Whether the setting was a bar, venue, or a television studio, Wahl and the people with him were almost always laughing, happy to be in that moment with good company.
The words of admiration and respect after his death did not feel trite, cursory, or previously unsaid. The examples of his generosity with his time and knowledge continued to flow Saturday.
And maybe that is where the solace is found. Wahl cared. And he had to have known how much people cared about him.
Wahl was more than just an advocate for soccer. He was no shill. He covered the complicated and frequently unethical entanglements of the sport critically and fearlessly.
