Correction, Dec. 12, 2022: This newsletter has been resent to correct Grant Wahl's name in the subject line.

Tributes continue to pour in for sports journalist Grant Wahl, who collapsed and died while covering a World Cup match Friday in Qatar. He was 48. 

Those who were there reported that Wahl fell back in his seat while covering Argentina vs. the Netherlands. Reporters around him called for assistance and emergency workers responded quickly. Wahl was treated on-site for 20 to 30 minutes and then was taken away on a stretcher to a nearby hospital.

As of Sunday, there has been no official cause of death. Before Friday, Wahl wrote on his website that he had not been feeling well.

“My body finally broke down on me,” Wahl wrote. “Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you. What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.”

Wahl wrote he tested negative for COVID-19 and added, “I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis. They gave me a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup, and I’m already feeling a bit better just a few hours later. But still: No bueno.”

Earlier in this World Cup, while entering a stadium to cover the first U.S. match of the tournament, Wahl wore a rainbow T-shirt in support of LGBTQ rights. He wrote that he was refused entrance by security unless he removed the shirt. Gay and lesbian sex is criminalized in Qatar, a conservative Muslim emirate. Eventually, he was allowed in.

Wahl was considered one of the best soccer journalists in the world, but he covered other sports as well, especially during his 24-year career at Sports Illustrated. In 2002, Wahl wrote an SI cover story about a high school basketball player named LeBron James. The memorable piece — called “The Chosen One” — was the first time James appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

James retweeted a photo of that cover on Saturday, and wrote, “You had a huge impact on me and my family and I’m so appreciative of you. A great person and journalist. Rest In Paradise Grant Wahl.”

After his game Friday night, James told reporters, “He was always pretty cool to be around. He spent a lot of time in my hometown of Akron. Any time his name would come up, I’ll always think back to me as a teenager having Grant in our building down at St. V’s. It’s a tragic loss. It’s unfortunate to lose someone as great as he was. I wish his family the best.”

Wahl was mostly known for his soccer coverage. Qatar was his eighth World Cup. The United States Soccer Federation said in a statement, “Grant’s passion for soccer and commitment to elevating its profile across our sporting landscape played a major role in helping to drive interest in and respect for our beautiful game.”

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement, “His love for football was immense and his reporting will be missed by all who follow the global game.”

Wahl grew up outside of Kansas City and attended Princeton. His superb career at Sports Illustrated ended abruptly when he was fired in April of 2020 in a dispute with Sports Illustrated’s news owners, Maven, over pandemic-related pay cuts and layoffs. He then went on to start his own newsletter and began a podcast for Meadowlark Media — the company started by former ESPN personality Dan Le Batard and former ESPN president John Skipper.

Wahl’s wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, tweeted that she was in “complete shock” over Wahl’s death. Journalists flooded Twitter with tributes to Wahl, many writing about his skills as a journalist, but many more writing about how kind and generous he was.

In a lovely tribute, Alexander Abnos, the deputy managing editor/US soccer for The Athletic, wrote, “My Grant stories aren’t special at all, and that’s the point: they are representative of his true nature. His habit. Search his name on Twitter and you’ll find countless others from hundreds more people — young writers who would get seemingly random compliments from him on recent work; editors who received his detailed recommendations on the up-and-coming talent to hire; behind-the-scenes producers who he treated like the professionals they are; fans who he engaged in enjoyable conversation. The people telling these stories come from women’s and men’s soccer at nearly every level and across most continents. They speak English and Spanish and French and all sorts of other languages. A mosaic of kindness big enough to cover at least 100 soccer fields — but that only became fully visible this weekend, when we all had the worst reason to share.”

Brittney Griner’s return

WNBA star Brittney Griner is back in the United States after the U.S. conducted a prison swap with Russia. Griner, arrested 10 months ago and sentenced to nine years for having vape canisters and cannabis oil in her luggage, boarded a plane for San Antonio on Thursday. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens told CNN’s Dana Bash that Griner couldn’t wait to chat. 

Carstens said, “When she finally got on to the U.S. plane, I said, ‘Brittany, you must have been through a lot over the last 10 months. Here’s your seat. Please feel free to decompress. We’ll give you your space.’ And she said, ‘Oh no. I’ve been in prison for 10 months now listening to Russian, I want to talk. But first of all, who are these guys?’ And she moved right past me and went to every member on that crew, looked them in the eyes, shook their hands and asked about them and got their names, making a personal connection with them. It was really amazing. And then later on, on an 18-hour flight, she probably spent 12 hours just talking and we talked about everything under the sun.”

There has been criticism in some circles that the U.S. agreed to release Viktor Bout in a swap for Griner.

During a Sunday appearance on ABC News’ “This Week,” John Kirby, the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, told host Martha Raddatz, “He would have gone free anyway in 2029. He wasn’t serving a life sentence. … Nobody’s doing backflips over there about the fact that Mr. Bout is a free man six years earlier than he would have been. But we’re going to protect our national security. And if Mr. Bout decides to go back to his previous line of work, then we’re going to do what we need to do to hold him accountable and to protect our interests.”

As far as Paul Whelan, a former Marine who was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison in 2020 after being convicted of spying, Kirby told Raddatz, “It was clear, Martha, that they were treating Paul very separately, very distinctly because of these sham espionage charges they levied against him.”

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Bharara was the one who prosecuted Bout. He told moderator Chuck Todd, “(Bout was a) dangerous man. Look, everyone is happy. If you’re an American — or not an American — that Brittney Griner, who was I think unfairly, illegitimately detained in Russia, is back home with her family. We’re happy for her, happy for her family. At the same time, you might imagine that not as just a general prosecutor, but the prosecutor who oversaw the prosecution and conviction of Viktor Bout, has a view about how dangerous a person he was. As you said, (he was) someone who’s convicted at trial by a unanimous jury of conspiracy to kill Americans. He was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. He’s on tape with confidential informants, planning to sell hundreds of surface-to-air missiles to the FARC, also sell 30,000 AK-47s to the FARC for the stated purpose of shooting down American helicopters in Colombia. So he was a dangerous man then. I don’t know how dangerous he is now. People of good faith can in good faith ask questions and be concerned about it even when we're very, very happy that Brittney Griner is back in the U.S.”

Speaking of Griner, here’s a good story from The Washington Post’s Karin Brulliard, Joanna Slater and Alex Horton about what Griner might be going through next now that she has been released: “After the honeymoon, former detainees say, comes ‘surviving survival.’”

Sinema’s switch

Turns out, Raphael Warnock’s recent victory over Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate runoff might have been more consequential than we originally thought. Warnock’s victory gave the Democrats a 51-49 edge in the Senate, which includes two independents who caucus with the Democrats: Vermont’s Bernie Sanders and Maine’s Angus King.

But then came Friday, when Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent. She hasn’t said if she will caucus with Democrats, but she is expected to keep her committee assignments, which many see as a sign that she won’t throw the Senate into chaos and likely will vote with Democrats more often than not. She told CNN’s Jake Tapper last week, “I’ve never fit neatly into any party box. I’ve never really tried. I don’t want to. Removing myself from the partisan structure – not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it’ll provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country, who also are tired of the partisanship.”

Sanders, the independent, appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday and said, “I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on Senator Sinema. She has her reasons. I happen to suspect that it's probably a lot to do with politics back in Arizona. I think the Democrats there are not all that enthusiastic about somebody who helped sabotage some of the most important legislation that protects the interests of working families and voting rights and so forth. So, I think it really has to do with her political aspirations for the future in Arizona. But, for us, I think nothing much has changed in terms of the functioning of the U.S. Senate. The good news is that we now have 51 votes. We will have the majority on committees.”

Most seem to believe the switch is all about her political future in Arizona. Check out Geoffrey Skelley’s piece for FiveThirtyEight: “Why Kyrsten Sinema Left The Democratic Party.”

Media tidbits

• I wrote about this last week, but my Poynter colleague Barbara Allen has more detail in “The Stanford University president is under investigation, and student journalists are a large part of the reason why.”
• Mediaite’s Ken Meyer with “Pompeo Stonewalls Fox’s Bream When Questioned on Bolton’s Claim Trump Admin Refused Bout-Whelan Prisoner Exchange.”
• For Esquire, Sophie Vershbow with “The Murky Path To Becoming a New York Times Best Seller.”
• The Washington Post’s Kareem Copeland with “The members of Fox’s NFL pregame show have bonds deeper than football.”

Hot type

The Ringer staff takes a look at film, TV, music and the internet in general with “The Best Performances of 2022.”

From The New York Times, “Styles’s 93 Most Stylish ‘People’ of 2022.”

Another good list from Reggie Ugwu of The New York Times: “Best Podcasts of 2022.”

More resources for journalists

• Time for a new job? Your future employer is looking for you on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers. Search now!
• Discover quality online information in a flash. Learn how in MediaWise’s free 7-day mobile course, Find Facts Fast.
• How to Cover Gun Violence and the Gun Debate in America (Seminar) — Start anytime.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].