| 16 February 2012
Although I haven't heard it from the lips or read it in the words of Rick Cleveland himself, it's been reported that Cleveland and other senior journalists were "offered" early retirements at the Clarion Ledger this week. For purposes of this post I'm going to assume it's true. While the news strikes me as the sad end to an era that stretches for most of my lifetime, Cleveland is too talented a writer to just disappear into the sunset. I suspect we'll see his writing and columns in other places in the near future. That's why this isn't an obituary - just a tribute.
I learned to read on Rick Cleveland columns. Okay, maybe I didn't learn to read on Cleveland, but I certainly became a more proficient reader by my time spent in the Clarion Ledger sports pages as a youth. When other kids were reading comics, I was reading Rick. I never missed a sports page as a child, and I figured out early on that Cleveland was the last word when it came to having an informed opinion on Mississippi sports. By reading Cleveland's columns I was able to engage adults like my dad in conversations. Seeing as how most of our conversations were and have always been about sports, I suppose it could be said that a large part of my relationship with my dad was built around the words of Rick Cleveland. You see, I learned sports, sportsmanship, Ole Miss, Steve Sloan, Billy Brewer, Kelly Powell, the Egg Bowl rivalry, and experienced all the joys and sorrows that come with sports fandom through the prism of the columns of Cleveland. I also learned about sports outside of Ole Miss. From the Saints to the Cardinals and from Super Bowls to Walter Payton, Jerry Rice and Brett Favre, Cleveland made me a well-rounded sports fan. From my earliest memories I never missed a column. His style always spoke to me, and I always wanted to know what Rick Cleveland had to say. Cleveland opened my eyes to people and places I would have never known but for his columns. He exposed me to legends from long ago. He helped me analyze the purpose of it all. Through his work, I experienced sports in ways that the television will always fall short. Whether the game on Saturday was a thrilling victory, an epic loss or just a sloppy disaster I always ran down the driveway on Sunday mornings and cast aside the entire paper to get to the sports section and find out what Rick thought.
And that's never changed.
To this day, his columns are the first thing my eyes search for when I visit the sports page. Am I saying I agree with everything Cleveland has ever written? No. But you don't have to agree with a man on every point to be able to acknowledge he's a good writer. Whether I disagree with Cleveland or not, I always want to know what he thinks. That's what being a columnist is all about, and Cleveland is the standard by which I measure all sports columnists. Even after living five years in New York and having the privilege of reading the greats from the New York Post and the New York Times on a daily basis, Cleveland has always remained my favorite sports scribe. In my brief stint as a sports writer, it was Cleveland who I aspired to one day be.
If you haven't figured it out by now I'm a Rick Cleveland fan. Most other Clarion Ledger subscribers and readers probably are, too. Gannett may think Cleveland is replaceable. It won't be long after Cleveland leaves that they discover he's not.
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