A dear friend of mine passed this weekend. Chris Wesseling, NFL writer extraordinaire. Attached are a collection of his works and pieces I would recommend everyone who loves football reads.
QB Index, Week 1: Ranking all 32 starters entering 2020 NFL season
QB Index, Week 10: Kyler Murray, Drew Brees jump into top 10 (nfl.com)
QB Index, Week 5: Aaron Rodgers hits No. 1; Josh Allen cracks top three (nfl.com)
NFL’s top 10 offenses: Chiefs, Ravens pulling away from pack
NFL Game Pass viewing guide: 20 must-watch games to cue up
Super Bowl LIV favors the bold: The tie that binds Chiefs, 49ers (nfl.com)
NFL 2010s All-Decade Team: Tom Brady, J.J. Watt earn spots
Broncos select Mizzou QB Drew Lock in second round (nfl.com)
Chronicles of offensive football in the Ohio River region (nfl.com)
Remembering the hysteria, love affair with the ’70s Houston Oilers (nfl.com)
Also from Wess, this wonderous spreadsheet, which contained the reading list for anyone who wanted to become a great writer. I have not read enough of it, but I am going through it these days. Check it out.
Football Syllabus | NFL.com/books – Google Sheets
And a fan favorite Wess’s football reading list.
10 Football Books You Must Read (nfl.com)
Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady, the final chapter (nfl.com)
Falcons’ overlooked greatness, Belichick and Popovich, more (nfl.com)
Ed Sabol, founder of NFL Films, dies at age of 98
Wess once said the thing he would ask when hiring a sports writer would be “How do you deal with the essential meaninglessness of sports?” that is such a hard question to answer. It’s one I will think about a lot over the next month or so as I take a step away from the podcast to re-calibrate as life with school and work has gotten hectic.
This has been a gut punch to the entire NFL community. Not a bad word can be said about Wess, he was a true hero and I will always look up to him. I was lucky enough to be able to send some of my writing to him, he read it and enjoyed it and to the end of my days that will be my biggest accomplishment. In an Instagram message back in September, the last time I heard from him privately he told me he was really proud of the piece I sent him. That will always mean so much to me. I never met him but he was a mentor and a friend, if you dig back deep enough in the endzone podcast you can find an interview with him, that is my favorite interview I have ever done.
I know he’s watching over everything, I hope he sees this, Wess you meant so much to so many people, and because of you, I am going to try and live my life more fully when we get out of this pandemic. As he would say, there is so much more to life than the end spot it’s about the journey.
If you can please donate to this go fund me set up for the beautiful family of his wife Lakisha and son Lincoln: Fundraiser for Lakisha Wesseling by Matthew Greber : For Lakisha and Lincoln Wesseling. Fuck cancer. (gofundme.com)
Rest easy Wess, we all miss you.