{"id":130211,"date":"2021-06-21T15:58:22","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T19:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crossingbroad.com\/?p=130211"},"modified":"2021-06-21T16:00:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T20:00:32","slug":"les-bowen-is-calling-it-a-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crossingbroad.com\/2021\/06\/les-bowen-is-calling-it-a-career.html","title":{"rendered":"Les Bowen is Calling it a Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s get it back to sports media news.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Eagles writer Les Bowen revealed that he was one of the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em> staffers taking a buyout and moving on, joining Marc Narducci, Ed Barkowitz,<\/a> and Frank Fitzpatrick<\/a>. In an article at the Inky site, aptly titled Hey Thanks for Putting Up With Me Through All These Years, <\/a><\/em>he explains that he was originally going to hang ’em up at the end of this coming Eagles season, but instead opted for the early exit when it was presented:<\/p>\n

\n

I came here 38 years and one month ago from The Charlotte Observer. No one asked me to come, but the people in charge ended up letting me hang around a very long time, and I am grateful.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was headed to Philly regardless because my lovely and talented wife, whom I met at The Observer, got a job at The Inquirer. (She left that job a long time ago and is now wrapping up a second career, as a teacher.) By the time we moved into a cockroach-inclusive apartment at 20th and Green in Fairmount, I had managed to talk my way past the door at the Daily News, initially as a summer replacement copy editor on the news desk.<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/em><\/p>\n

This might be the place to give a shoutout to all the copy editors over the years who puzzled over why I thought 4-for-7 was 50%, or who, when tasked with writing my headline, had to figure out exactly what the hell I was trying to say.<\/em><\/p>\n

But more than anything else, what I want to do here is thank you, the audience. I\u2019m sorry I wasn\u2019t ever quite as good as I wanted to be, or as good as you deserved. I never stopped trying to get better, and despite vast shortcomings, I think I\u2019m more polished now than I was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Les makes me laugh with that self-deprecating humor, but he should give himself more credit. He’s a good writer. Asked a lot of interesting questions at the press conferences, too. It was thoughtful stuff, not just “hey coach talk about the game<\/em>.” I know we poked him a little bit as\u00a0 that grumpy veteran newspaper guy, and we often reference that time when he punched Jeff McLane in the face, but Les put in a ton of years at the Daily News<\/em> and Inquirer<\/em> and turned in some really good work. He was not a hot take columnist and not a bullshitter, and those are two traits that will carry you far in this city.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, Les is a good dude. Really laid back and down to Earth, easy to talk to. It’ll be a bummer to see him move on, but I’m sure he’ll remain active on Twitter, complaining about media access<\/del> sharing opinions and insights that I mostly find myself agreeing with. Best of luck to Les with whatever comes next. 38 years at one place is a hell of a career and something worth celebrating. If they throw him a goodbye party, just make sure Inga Saffron and Stu Bykofsky aren’t invited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s get it back to sports media news. Over the weekend, Eagles writer Les Bowen revealed that he was one of the Philadelphia Inquirer staffers taking a buyout and moving on, joining Marc Narducci, Ed Barkowitz, and Frank Fitzpatrick. In an article at the Inky site, aptly titled Hey Thanks for Putting Up With Me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":130212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[64,1724],"class_list":["post-130211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eagles","tag-eagles-2","tag-nfl"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLes Bowen is Calling it a Career - Crossing Broad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crossingbroad.com\/2021\/06\/les-bowen-is-calling-it-a-career.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Les Bowen is Calling it a Career\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let’s get it back to sports media news. Over the weekend, Eagles writer Les Bowen revealed that he was one of the Philadelphia Inquirer staffers taking a buyout and moving on, joining Marc Narducci, Ed Barkowitz, and Frank Fitzpatrick. 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