All I ever wanted to do from the time I earned my degree was to write and report for a newspaper. And I did, for six different papers for more than 40 years, the past 36 at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

That all ended today when I joined The Athletic, entering the digital sports writing world full-time. I put my newspaper career in what Mike Tomlin might call the rear view, but certainly not my journalistic career.

I loved covering games, events, news, and the adrenaline rush that came with all of it, particularly when I covered a big story on deadline. I wrote about every sport imaginable even after I took over the Steelers beat for the Post-Gazette in 1985.

Along the way, I worked as a contributor for years for Sports Illustrated and wrote for many national publications. I was a contributor at Fox Sports TV, and still do work on air in Pittsburgh for 93.7 FM The Fan and KDKA-TV.

I began my career banging out stories on typewriters, then word processors and ultimately laptop computers. I went from using an old landline telephone and couplers to get those stories to my paper to actually writing them ON my phone. Or I just Tweeted out news 140 characters at a time.

Our business has changed over my professional career but one thing hasn’t: Reporting and writing great stories, and providing context, analysis and opinion.

That’s why I am pleased to join The Athletic with — no surprise — the Steelers as my focus.

The Athletic is a three-year-old success venture devoted to good sports journalism, stories, analysis and opinion. The company began modestly in 2016 and expanded rapidly throughout the country, attracting some of the best talent in our business, which brings me to why I am here.

I join two ultra-talented sports writers from the Post-Gazette today at The Athletic – Stephen J. Nesbitt and Sean Gentille. We join a Pittsburgh bureau that had succeeded beyond expectations already.

The Athletic noticed that sports-mad Pittsburgh was doing well, so much so that they decided to beef up its presence and added the three of us. After my first contact with them, they had me at hello.

I’ve worked at a dream job for a long time and will continue doing so at The Athletic in a different sort of manner. If I could have drawn up my ideal way of pursuing my job covering the Steelers in these times, this would have been it.

You won’t find me writing traditional game stories anymore, or rushing to announce the latest signings by the Steelers of AAF castoffs. What you will find under my byline is why that game you just watched turned out the way it did, what went right or wrong, and how they move forward from it. And maybe how other castoffs the Steelers signed through the years actually turned into assets for them.

I’ll be heavy on analysis, opinion and good storytelling both during the week and after the game. It’s what I want to do at this point in my career and I’m thankful for the opportunity to do it. You’ll need to purchase a subscription to read me, but you will have the entire site at your disposal, and it will cost you little more annually than a case of good beer — especially with the discount they’re offering today with this announcement.

This is such an exciting venture for all of us. Years ago, a startup newspaper called The National landed some of the best sports journalists in the country for a unique all-sports daily newspaper. You could not find a richer array of talent on one sports staff.

That’s how I see The Athletic, only with so much broader coverage in so many cities, not to mention from our national writers and columnists. In Pittsburgh, we have a group of writers/reporters who have covered their individual sports for years in the city and know the landscape like no others.

I’m proud to join them.

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(Main photo by Mark Alberti/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)