probably hasn't helped him, but I don't even think he cares about building new networks at this stage of his career. His contract is too guaranteed.

When I began reading Dick's articles regularly some 20 years ago he stank of wannabe elitism. Those kinda reporters are decent only if they write good.

Unfortunately Dick didn't. But he at least brought energy to his his articles back then. He hasn't done that for years, though.

(And frankly, I had a TON more energy for BYU sports back then too. It's just the nature of sports & aging. Very few non-coaching guys can wed it & sanity for too long a stretch. That's why those who don't love guys like Bill Walton simply haven't lived long enough (& a big part of Bill's secret is that he's able to mix his sports freely with a ton of other life-interests. Very few guys in the profession come with his sort of genius, though. (& that's not to say Bill succeeds as a writer--he's actually quite bad, but you have to appreciate that a guy at his level clearly chooses to write his own stuff--when he does so, anyways.))

mutu.