Writer Grant Wahl’s unusual greatness was obvious early
INDIANAPOLIS – Do yourself a favor, if you don’t know much about U.S. soccer journalist Grant Wahl, and search for his name online. See the response to his death early Saturday morning at the World Cup in Qatar, at 48. It is overwhelming. His death is overwhelming. His life was overwhelming.
This happens, though rarely, because Grant was rare. Someone dies unexpectedly, before the world has had a chance to give him or her their flowers, as the saying goes, and the outpouring is bittersweet. You love to see the impact, but wish they were here to see it too. To know.
But now I’ve decided: Grant knew. He wasn’t smug about it, but he knew the greatness he had shown, and I’m not talking about journalism, though he was GREAT, all caps. Quick aside: I met Grant in 1996. I’m the Marlins beat writer for the Miami Herald. He’s an intern. I was 25, young and decent at my job and a bit cocky. Grant was 21, younger and a lot better and so humble it hurt. He once wrote a sidebar from the Marlins game we covered together with some reference to the Pleistocene Era, and he made it sing. He had no idea how good he was.
Sports Illustrated hired him out of college, which didn’t happen in 1996, when print journalism was still our main thing and SI was everyone’s dream job. But he was unusually great. Read him once, and you know. But this is about another kind of greatness.
Truly good people like this don’t live their life needing their goodness rewarded. Their goodness is their reward.
So read about Grant Wahl. See the life he lived, and the worldwide mourning – from friends and family, FIFA and the U.S. Soccer Federation, world-class players, LeBron James and Billie Jean King – he has inspired.
How do you want to be remembered by your circle, whatever its size? Then live in a way that deserves it. Enjoy those flowers.