You, the average sports-loathing homosexual Gawker reader, might be surprised to hear that as of late 2007, ESPN Magazine pap merchant Rick Reilly was the highest-paid writer in the country. But he's finally shutting up (a little). Thank god.

Reilly got paid $17 million to jump from SI to ESPN mag back in 2007, when certain media entities still had money. Reilly, whose writing style is best described as "Mitch Albom, but writing about sports, but in a more hackneyed way" had been vomiting forth back page columns in ESPN mag along the lines of—just to take the first one off Google—"Dad played golf and drank-a lot. But he taught me a lot too." Yea. So now, as Deadspin heard last month, Reilly is officially pulling his awful shit column out of the magazine, in order to do more TV and online work for ESPN—platforms he is even less qualified to work on. Cue ESPN mag editor's quote to Keith Kelly:

"It's a loss, but the success of our new 'Player X' column proves that we can always create unique concepts to inform and entertain readers."

The "Player X" column is dictated by some secret pro athlete, in which the anonymous athlete "writes" a column on explosive topics like how some guys cheat on their wives with groupies, sure, but that's dangerous, man. So Rick Reilly's column, we see, was even less popular than a ghost-written screed by a lunkhead spouting platitudes 20% less common than the average locker-room interview.

I paid one dollar for my current ESPN Magazine subscription, and I was feeling ripped off, due to Rick Reilly. Good riddance, bum.

[Please consult Deadspin for a full accounting of why Rick Reilly sucks.]