I was saddened to hear the news that Pro Football Weekly is closing their doors. When my love of football bloomed in the '70s, it wasn't long before I discovered the incredible pages of Pro Football Weekly. It was a beautiful thing to discover a newspaper devoted exclusively to professional football. Just incredible. There was Sports Illustrated but football was only one of many sports that graced those glossy pages. Pro Football Weekly was raw, newspaper print pages, and, best of all, just football. The other huge perk, really the biggest perk, was finding Minnesota Vikings news on a weekly basis. You couldn't find much in California, even during the season. None in the offseason. When I discovered those pages, I immediately got a subscription. The only problem that I had with Pro Football Weekly was the numerous pages devoted to the gambling side of football. I've never had an interest gambling. Certainly not as a kid. Outside of the always entertaining fantasy football league and occasional office pools, I never will have an interest in gambling on football. Pro Football Weekly was a pricey subscription. When I became a poor college student, that price became too high. Instead of subscribing, I'd read Pro Football Weekly's pages in the bookstore's and smoke shop's that I could find that carried it. One smoke shop that provided me a Pro Football Weekly weekly fix was conveniently located right across the street from the University of California, Berkeley campus. Perfect. For three years, I arrived at the shop to steal my Pro Football Weekly news. I didn't steal all my news. As an honest reader, I purchased their yearly preview magazine for years, decades actually.
As great as the internet is as a source of information and interaction, it's a damn shame that it's killing the printed world. Pro Football Weekly is not the only magazine or newspaper that's struggled through this technology age. I will always prefer the printed page to a screen. It's sad to see Pro Football Weekly fade away. I can't help but remember the excitement I always felt when that magazine showed up in the mail. Nearly forty years ago seems like yesterday right now. I also feel guilty about letting my subscription end. I feel even more guilty about stealing reads for decades. I'm going to miss seeing and reading Pro Football Weekly. It's a sad day.
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