RIP Grant Wahl

His brother:



Translated eyewitness account from the time it happened (first two tweets, rest are from later):

They are resuscitating a journalist who collapsed in the middle of the second overtime. It's about 30 meters from me but those around them hold their heads. The paramedics arrived.

The subject looks very bad. More than ten minutes have passed and they continue with the maneuvers. It can not be believed.
---
On Instagram, his brother Eric says: "I'm gay, I'm the reason my brother wore the rainbow shirt at the World Cup. My brother was healthy. He had told me that he had received threats. I don't think my brother has dead, I think they killed him."

I would say that the rescue operation was carried out correctly. The paramedics arrived quickly and tried to revive him as much as they could. The area was somewhat covered but I saw that one was holding a serum, which gave me to understand that he was alive at that moment.

Están reanimando a un periodista que se desplomó en medio del segundo tiempo extra. Está a unos 30 metros míos pero los que están alrededor se agarran la cabeza. Llegaron los paramédicos.

— Lucas Bertellotti (@LucasBerte) December 9, 2022

Pinta muy mal el tema. Pasaron más de diez minutos y siguen con las maniobras. No se puede creer.

— Lucas Bertellotti (@LucasBerte) December 9, 2022

Diría que el operativo de rescate se hizo de manera correcta. Los paramédicos llegaron rápido e intentaron reanimarlo todo lo que pudieron. La zona quedó algo tapada pero vi que uno sostenía un suero, lo que me dio a entender de que en ese momento estaba vivo.

— Lucas Bertellotti (@LucasBerte) December 10, 2022

 

One thing I always respected Wahl for was resigning from SI when the usual corporate raiders bought the magazine and wrecked it in order to strip mine it for assets. A lot of big salary journalists like Wahl were ordered to take paycuts along with everybody else on staff. Wahl could have easily accepted it and maintained a lock on a prime media platform.

But Wahl seems to be an independently wealthy guy and has been confident in his ability to find a platform, so could afford to stand up on principle. He left SI and thus created a spot for another journalist to take over. Respect.

(And yep, I remember seeing Wahl get criticized for this decision.)

 

It was just GrantWahl. But I doubt it survived the various server transitions/crashes over the the decades.

 

It didn’t have to be the “government” who killed him, could easily be someone mad about him bringing awareness to what went on with Qatar hosting the WC.

 

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I’m going to let this sit a few days and discuss it with a clear head when the time is right, but something seems off about this

 

Oh my God, I've been off-line for hours and just saw this posted on Twitter.

Unspeakably awful.

A person that I never met but felt like I knew for years.

Condolences to his loved ones in real life.

 

He also said on his last podcast that he came down with bronchitis by burning himself out covering the event.

He also said he had been treated and was feeling better.

Absolutely no idea if it is connected.

Edit: I see that several people have beaten me to this...

 

This is extremely sad.

This on MLS.com has a lot of nicely written tweets from teams and colleagues. Puts into perspective how good of a guy he was and how much he will be missed. https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-remembers-grant-wahl

I respected him greatly even though I didn't really follow his work. It's a shame that he was kind of a lightning rod for some.

He seemed to be at an exciting point in his career, and I was interested to see what he was coming up with as it seemed like he had some freedom to pursue projects that he wanted to do rather than simply following a beat.

 

I'm stunned and so saddened by this. He wrote about the US team when pretty much, post-Jerry Trecker, no one else did. Thank you so much for all your work Grant. Please rest in peace,

 

To be fair SI had been dying for a long time. It’s a magazine after all. I used to read it weekly but I can’t remember the last time I visited the website.

 

I think lots of folks, myself included want to blame someone for this, because it’s hard to believe it happened. 99% it was natural causes. The need to blame is even stronger because of everything surrounding Qatar hosting the WC. I do hope the state department can get his body so an actual autopsy can be done.

 

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I’ve been hard on him and plenty of American journalists for being soft on US Soccer. Eventually have learned the insulated and interconnected culture of USSF and MLS will ice you out big time. So, this is definitely making me pause a bit on the actually intense and conflicting work these guys go through to write with value in purpose.

RIP Grant - You moved mountains for others to walk easier.

 

It’s weird how some people you never met, cause legit sadness when they pass. Grant is definitely that for me.

 

I remember one time he was traveling in some city covering college basketball and was trying to find a way to watch the USMNT in an away qualifier that was only televised on some shady PPV. He found a BigSoccer poster who invited him and a couple of other BigSoccer randos to his house for the game.

 

9 am in Doha. Still nothing from Fox, Fox Soccer, or ALEXI.

 

I’m watching closely how Fox handles this. I don’t want to see any evidence of anyone hiding anything.

 

Fox and its "talent" have been in bed with the Qataris this entire tournament.

 

Their lack of anything screams, PR meetings with their handlers.

 

That's just about where I would put the probabilities, 99% natural to 1% him being killed...

Far more likely than the Qatari government killing him for his journalism or shirt is that the medical people who saw him in Qatar misdiagnosed early warning signs of cardiac arrest as bronchitis...

 

Then made him go to the hospital in an UBER vs an ambulance. Shithole government

 

im just coming home to this, and very selfishly it feels so personal.

hes just 3 years older than me, and covered the two sports (soccer and college bb) that are my two passions. you can chart soccers growth in this country by him, including covering womens soccer when no one else was.

he was both the main-est of mainstream yet always true to his love of the game. he lost his job at si standing up for the "lesser" writers being laid off, has covered the human cost of this world cup, etc.

i dont want to get too far off the incredible loss of his voice in american sports (full stop) but if he is remembered for a pic in a rainbow shirt, at this world cup, having an openly gay brother, having written stories entire networks actively cover up i think thats pretty fitting.

on the complete opposite end of the spectrum is the silence from fox and all those covering this world cup for them.