UPDATE:

TMQ lives! Here's the announcement that Gregg Easterbrook's TMQ column is joining The Upshot at the New York Times.

Original post below

Though I'm excited for the start of this upcoming football season, it appears my usual weekly routine is about to be interrupted in a big way.

For more than a decade, Gregg Easterbrook and his TMQ column at ESPN.com has been required reading every week of the fall and winter. For the uninitiated, TMQ stands for “Tuesday Morning Quarterback". As the logo says, it covers all things “On field, off field, and far afield.”

It’s a football column, yes, covering the NFL, colleges, and even high school. But it also delves into politics, science, sci-fi, TV, pop culture, and more. I love printing out the 16-20 pages each week (sorry, environmentalists), taking it home, and relaxing on the recliner while reading and watching college football on Saturdays.

Unfortunately, it was reported after the end of the 2014/15 NFL season that ESPN had not renewed Easterbrook's contract. Back in July, he reported via Twitter that he was in discussions about a new home for the column.

As Opening Night is approaching quickly, I went straight to the source to ask if TMQ would be available. The news was not good:

As he alludes to, ESPN undertook a bit of a purge recently of many writers critical of the NFL. Bill Simmons, Keith Olbermann, and Easterbrook all were shown the door. Easterbrook writes often about making student-athletes live up to both descriptions and the continued push for a safer game at all levels of football. That, apparently, has made him toxic.

I loved Gregg’s recent book, “The King of Sports”. And though I don’t always agree with everything he writes, Gregg is correct when he tells us TMQ is/was a “thinking man’s” football column. Here's the audio of a conversation we had when "King of Sports" was released:

Easterbrook has a new book, "The Game's Not Over: In Defense of Football," due out soon. We're looking forward to having him back on the show soon.

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