Phil Knight Sounds Off On Canzano Departure

Joe Biggs is hard of hearing. Has been his whole life. 

Same lunch box to work every day. Doesn't need earplugs like the other folks on the line.

Blue collar.

More on that later.

My great-grandaddy once told me that if you want to earn respect in this life, you have to earn it. He worked for 75 years as a wood chipper. If the branches were thin enough, he'd use his teeth. If there weren't any branches left, he used buffalo chips.

Maybe John Canzano and I had the same great-grandaddy. Doesn't surprise. Always seemed a bring-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps kinda guy.

Departure? Doesn't surprise either. Time for something. New venture. Bootstraps.

It fits the narrative, even if we're just learning what that narrative is as it's happening. But isn't that journalism? And wasn't Canzano a journalist? Some say he was a self-important hack who seemed empowered by ruling the roost at a flailing publication, with a favorite pastime of inserting himself into whatever latest controversy he was attempting, and failing, to stir up, because nobody outside of Oregon gave two shits enough to read anything he wrote.

But we're not here to debate semantics. We're here to hear stories. With our eyes.

"This definitely fits the narrative," one exec told me. He wasn't the only one. I spoke with C suite people at newspapers across the country. My wife thought my phone was broken it was ringing so much. My niece thought I had left my Spotify app on loop. Ringtone Kings of Leon.

My niece has one leg. Her father is a crack whore. She still throws javelin for her middle school track club. Came in second at her meet last week. Win in my book.

But everyone who kept calling agreed. Departure in the tea leaves for some time. 

Steeping.

Even Chip Kelly wasn't surprised. I spoke with him too. A lot. Always have. Hopped on a Zoom call with Chip, Nick Aliotti, Kevin Pritchard, Mike Riley, Galen Rupp, Bonzi Wells, Bill Moos, LeGarrette Blount, and Phil Knight. Bunch a yuckers.

Damon Stoudamire agreed to pee in front of me and talk about Canzano. His pee was yellow. Hydration, I told him. Steeping, he said. Wisdom and maturity.

Stories with our eyes. Can't help but think of Joe Biggs. He loved that lunch box. 

Turns out, so does Canzano.