There have been times the calls to cancel various subscriptions resonated, but I never did because I want to fund quality journalism beyond bad op-eds and crappy headlines. But now Bezos has crushed Sports at The Washington Post. It seems unbelievable if it weren’t so emblematic of our times.
You might think sports isn’t as important as other parts of the paper, but the WaPo covers sports like news — sports betting, political lobbying by leagues, accountability journalism even for local owners like Dan Snyder. No wonder the moneyed class didn’t like WaPo sports.
Feb 4, 2026 14:30WaPo Sports was deeply sourced and resourced, which means if Sally Jenkins needed 3 months to write a beautiful feature on Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, she had it.
There are a handful of sports outlets now that might have the resources and institutional will to write a critical story about the NFL, or do a long-form piece on the social and financial impact sports betting is having on, particularly, young men in the US. Challenging but important sports stories.
It is easy to fragment an institution like Post Sports. Individual writers can start a substack or podcast. But scaling that reporting power is hard. Resourcing it is hard. Maybe that’s the point when powerful people sell powerful institutions for parts.
When I edited The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2024, The Washington Post Sports had multiple selections — features, columns and investigative work. I am beyond disappointed today. This is a huge loss for American journalism writ large and sports journalism. We will know less about our games.
