After 44 years covering the NFL at a rather high level, Peter King called it a career Monday morning.
Well, a semi-career, that is.
King announced in his Monday column that he was heading into a semi-retirement and will do something with football, though he won’t writing his FMIA or Monday Morning Quarterback column moving forward.
In his semi-retirement final column, King took the time to shout out former players, executives and coaches. One of those players was Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, who recently won the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award.
“Cam Heyward. Genuine and thoughtful, while being a beast between the lines. He’s arranged for each male student in 11 Pittsburgh high schools—many indigent kids—to get a free suit during their high school years.”
Over the years, King developed a great relationship with Heyward, and on Wednesday it was time for Heyward to speak glowingly of King. On the latest episode of his “Not Just Football With Cam Heyward” podcast, the longtime Steelers stalwart congratulated King on a great career and said how appreciative and thankful he was of their relationship over the years.
“Mr. King, as I like to call him, I’m just thankful and happy you finally get to take a rest, ’cause I know you’ve been running around all these years going to everybody’s training camp. Thank you for spending time with me and my family this past year and doing that wonderful article. But I appreciate you taking the time to get to know not just me but the other Walter Payton Man of the Year award nominees,” Heyward said, according to video via the NFL on ESPN YouTube page. “He has been part of the voting process, I found out. He does a great job, and he is very thorough.
“And he is not just someone who wants to write something just to write something. He wants there to be more to the story and he wants to find out the essence behind a person. And so I always appreciate that, your candor and you are exploratory, but yet you were respectful, and in today’s culture that is very rare, and I am very appreciative of that. So thank you so much. Enjoy retirement. Hopefully you got some pina coladas coming to you very soon on a beach somewhere so you can really get a chance to relax.”
King has long been a supporter of Heyward, both as a player and a man.
Throughout his time in the NFL, Heyward has been featured in a number of columns from King, and then the two worked together on a great interview this past season diving deep into Heyward’s background on and off the field, highlighting the Heyward House Foundation.
Ultimately, that interview and subsequent 31-minute feature video helped Heyward win the long-overdue Walter Payton Man of the Year award at the NFL Honors show in early February.
Though Heyward has had a unique relationship with reporters, both nationally and locally at times, he’s always had great respect and admiration for King, always chatting with him during training camp, and even having him on the podcast last summer in Latrobe.
While King is stepping away into semi-retirement, he’ll still be around the game he loves. And will still likely interact with players he has great admiration for, like Heyward.
Check out the latest episode of “Not Just Football With Cam Heyward” below.
