Qatar 2022 - The Shitshow
- Thread starter adam
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doesn't sound like foul play to me. pretty sad and sucks. i wasn't a fan of the guy or his writing, but I respected him as a serious soccer journalist.
It remember meeting him before an NYCFC match. Nice guy. His brother’s IG video is chilling. Hope they do the autopsy in US, don’t believe anything that they say there. That being said, their government, no matter how corrupt and cold blooded, is not stupid. They wouldn’t dare kill a famous American citizen at their World Cup. This is still epically tragic. Sad sad day today.
The idea that someone could have slipped something into his drink at the stadium is really not crazy, especially in a country like Qatar. I hope to hell there was no foul play but in a country like Qatar, with the type of stories he was writing, it's hard to believe there wasn't foul play.
Exactly. I wasn't much of a fan of his, but absolutely respected the work he has put in covering the game and helping to grow it in the US. The work he's done there has been incredible.
He has also been a champion of smaller media and has helped amplify one of my articles for The Outfield and I think that goes to the point above about how he's always looked to help grow the game, and understood that a lot of that started at the fan-driven level.
This is terribly sad. I'm not going to say that there is foul play, or that there isn't (a journalist incredibly critical of Qatar being killed in Qatar wouldn't be the most surprising thing). Speculating at this moment doesn't really help all that much and hopefully this is able to get situated out and hopefully there was no foul play.
I posted this over in Big Soccer, just copying it here:
I had a childhood friend who died under similar circumstances when he was just 26. He was a radio DJ for the old Z100 back in the 1980s, did the overnight show and then the Morning Zoo, then in the afternoons he did Man in the Street interviews. Really burned the candle at both ends.
He came down with some kind of respiratory infection which he thought was bronchitis. He kept working through it and then suddenly had a heart attack and that was it. Awful. Willie was such a wonderful person.
The Times misspelled his name (it was McFarland) and got his mother's name wrong, too (it's Toni, and she's still with us, living with her son Tom down south). But for what it's worth: William McFarlane, Disk Jockey, 26 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Oh man, you can hear the pain in his voice.
This is super sad, I wasn't the biggest fan of Grant, but like others said, he was extremely important in the soccer landscape and what he's done to help grow journalism of the sport and the game itself. He'll be missed, and it's incredibly shocking. Rest in peace, Grant.
Grant Wahl was a kind, wise champion of the voiceless in soccer
The tributes that have poured out after the journalist’s death are no surprise. He used his privilege, power and position in football for good
This has been both shocking and heatbreaking.
I was a big fan of Grant's reporting early on. He was that rare combination of a great reporter and a great writer. He developed amazing access to important people in the game, which helped him uncover interesting information. And then, when he wrote about all that, he put together stories that were interesting and compelling. He is one of the few reporters whose best work I can remember and cite.
A great example of all that in motion is his story of the Reyna family and the loss of their son Jack. Just so well written, and it can't have been easy to get Claudio & Danielle to open up about that painful part of their lives.
Like many, I had cooled to him in the past couple of years. His reporting became more political - especially with Covid and the status of his wife as an epidemiologist pushing the more extreme reactions to the pandemic. He also lost his place at Sports Illustrated and ended his relationship with Fox, making it harder to access his work.
But, I never stopped respecting him, his talent and his good nature. The outpouring of grief from the journalistic community shows how much people cared for him and saw him as a fundamentally decent person. Fans should agree - I recall he'd announce on his podcast that he'd be at a particular sports bar for a big game and would encourage fans to come say hello.
He was a bright, talented and decent person, and we don't have enough of those these days to lose one so unexpectedly.
I was a big fan of Grant's reporting early on. He was that rare combination of a great reporter and a great writer. He developed amazing access to important people in the game, which helped him uncover interesting information. And then, when he wrote about all that, he put together stories that were interesting and compelling. He is one of the few reporters whose best work I can remember and cite.
A great example of all that in motion is his story of the Reyna family and the loss of their son Jack. Just so well written, and it can't have been easy to get Claudio & Danielle to open up about that painful part of their lives.
Like many, I had cooled to him in the past couple of years. His reporting became more political - especially with Covid and the status of his wife as an epidemiologist pushing the more extreme reactions to the pandemic. He also lost his place at Sports Illustrated and ended his relationship with Fox, making it harder to access his work.
But, I never stopped respecting him, his talent and his good nature. The outpouring of grief from the journalistic community shows how much people cared for him and saw him as a fundamentally decent person. Fans should agree - I recall he'd announce on his podcast that he'd be at a particular sports bar for a big game and would encourage fans to come say hello.
He was a bright, talented and decent person, and we don't have enough of those these days to lose one so unexpectedly.
As for whether there was foul play in his death, count me as one who is extremely skeptical. I think that probably matches the mood of most after everyone has had time to digest the shock and reflect.
For all their many faults, the Qataris are not the Saudis. They don't chase people around the globe and then chop them into bits when they finally lure them into a trap. They are callous to outsiders and offensive to liberty, but murdering a U.S. journalist doesn't seem to be in their toolbox. The fact is that people, even healthy, young people, can drop dead at a moment's notice. It's rare, but it does happen, and it's something we should all keep in mind.
For all their many faults, the Qataris are not the Saudis. They don't chase people around the globe and then chop them into bits when they finally lure them into a trap. They are callous to outsiders and offensive to liberty, but murdering a U.S. journalist doesn't seem to be in their toolbox. The fact is that people, even healthy, young people, can drop dead at a moment's notice. It's rare, but it does happen, and it's something we should all keep in mind.
File all this under the heading that if it came out of Hollywood we'd find it disappointingly implausible.
Surprised no one has mentioned the Qatari photo journalist who died shortly after Wahl.
Qatari journalist ‘dies suddenly’ at World Cup, shortly after Grant Wahl’s death
A Qatari photographer has “died suddenly” while covering the World Cup – the second journalist to lose his life at the global event following influential US soccer writer Grant Wahl’s death.…
nypost.com
Grant Wahl's Cause of Death Revealed as Doctor Wife Says 'There Was Nothing Nefarious'
Legendary soccer writer Grant Wahl, who died suddenly in Qatar, had an undetected medical condition, his wife - a noted physician - says.
www.nbcnewyork.com
Grant Wahl's Cause of Death Revealed as Doctor Wife Says 'There Was Nothing Nefarious'
Legendary soccer writer Grant Wahl, who died suddenly in Qatar, had an undetected medical condition, his wife - a noted physician - says.
It's incredibly sad still, but a relief this wasn't anything nefarious. Hopefully his family can find comfort in this news.
I will read it, but the only evidence I needed is that they were named as host in the first place. That, and the fact that the other country named as host at that meeting was Russia.