As Dale Lolley elegantly wrote in his farewell piece over the weekend, 'All things must pass.'
Just as they also must progress.
The way DK Pittsburgh Sports has been built from the start, as Dale also noted, was to keep growing and to last. And thanks in part to Dale's five tireless years with us on the Steelers beat, we're better equipped for that now than ever. There isn't anything I can say here that'd adequately express my appreciation, my respect and, above all, my happiness for him in having landed his self-described 'opportunity of a lifetime' to work for the team he'd covered for four decades.
That said, allow me to state with the same passion that the beat will very much go on here. And it'll go ... in some unusual directions, based on some fun talks we've had here the past 48 hours.
Here's the plan:
• First and foremost, always, we've got to cover the news, and that'll obviously be the domain of Chris Halicke, the new beat writer. Chris is a straight shooter and, within that, a straight-news reporter. A total pro with every assignment he's had since joining us this summer, as we've heard from many readers. This is his 'opportunity of a lifetime,' he's ecstatic about it, and he's eminently qualified to take it and run with it.
I won't take that any further. I'll let his work speak for him.
• Eddie Provident will join our Steelers beat team in every capacity, including full travel. As he's already demonstrated, there's nothing Eddie can't do, and there's nothing he doesn't want to do. He'll report, he'll shoot videos, he'll snap elite photos like the material the other night from the Pitt-West Virginia game that had everyone buzzing on social media. And he'll support Chris and me from the reporting standpoint, working a very large locker room with his own interviewing and collection of information.
• Taylor Haase is on vacation, but she reached out yesterday to suggest Eddie whips up a daily collection of his reporting/observations, presented in a fun way that'll take our readers inside the scene. As ever, what Taylor suggests becomes a rule here. So you'll see that from Eddie, possibly into the NHL season, as well.
• Matt Williamson, the former NFL scout and preeminent football analyst in our region, will whip up a War Room for every Tuesday morning dissecting one component of the game that just passed. He's also had his exceptional Scout's Eye podcast expanded from weekly to every weekday, and it's just gold, I've got to say, toward getting ready for the following Sunday.
• Ramon Foster, the 11-year guard for the Steelers, originally came to us three years ago as a writer. And he'll return to that starting Sunday night with a written report card breaking down each positional group, as only he could do it. (Watch out, O-line!)
• This is deliberately well down the list for a reason, but Corey Crisan, our new Pitt beat writer, will be available to help in a pinch, since he's right next door at the same facility. This'll be especially useful on Mondays, when the rest of us are traveling back from a road game. Corey'll be there for the Pat Narduzzi press conference, anyway, and he can skip right down the stairs to cover what else might be needed.
Can't stress this enough: Corey's full-time on Pitt. That doesn't change. But all of us pinch-hit where needed, probably more than what's obvious from the outside.
• There's one other staffer who could get involved here, and in a big way, though it's too soon to talk about that one. Suffice it to say no one will be disappointed.
• So, who am I forgetting here? Anyone?
Oh, right ...
I've been covering the Steelers regularly for 22 years now. I've been to nearly every game, home and road, in that time, including overseas. One of the things that's always funny to me when any change occurs here is that I tend to get left out of the oh-my-god-who's-going-to-cover-such-and-such-team dialogue that follows. Well, I work here, too. I write, I do multimedia, and I whip up a mean brew. And I'll continue to do all of that.
The plan for the written columns is to have one immediately before and after each game, plus another at midweek, most likely from the Wednesday practice. That affords three football columns per week and keeps me free for one other that week on Penguins or Pirates.
To reiterate this for those who ask for more columns -- and that's always taken in the best context, believe me -- there isn't a columnist on the planet who does more than 3-4 per week, let alone one that's additionally helping to run a company 'n' at.
And finally, toward that end, yeah, I'll run the editorial side of things, and Dali will run the business side, with significant help from our partner David Rosenblatt. I legit enjoy this part of the process. Always have.
Any questions at all, I'm in comments.
And one final time: Thanks to Dale. Lucky for me, he won't be going very far. It's good to have people like that in your life.