Ernie Palladino

I am a sportswriter with four decades of experience, the last 22 years as a New York Giants beat writer. In a 33-year career at The Journal News (Gannett Westchester) I covered just about every sport imaginable, on every level. But telling the story of the New York Giants has easily been the biggest thrill of my pro career. Since I started on the beat in 1989, I covered a dozen Super Bowls, including three with the Giants starting with their victory in Super Bowl XXV, or “Wide Right” as Giants fans have come to know it, as well as the loss to Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV, and the stirring victory over the then-undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII that was highlighted by “The Catch” by David Tyree. I have won numerous writing awards, including my newspaper's Mighty Pen end-of-the-year award for my coverage of Super Bowl XXV, several national Gannett Well Done awards, and several New York Associated Press Sports Editors Association plaudits. I have also covered the Yanks and Mets, where my infamy in bringing torrential rains upon the proceedings was matched only by my fame in entertaining readers with compelling writing. My crowning achievement, much to the dismay of my Yankee Stadium colleagues, was the 7 1/2-hour rain delay we sat through in 2009 as a 1:30 p.m. start against the Washington Nationals turned into a 9 p.m. first-pitch. One writer offered to pay my salary for the day if I would just go home. Heartwarming bunch, those guys. I also broke three ribs at the Roberto Duran-Davey Moore fight at Madison Square Garden in the mid-1980s, and grew close to legendary St. John's coach Lou Carnesecca during my years covering that school and college basketball in general. An educator as well, I am a frequent guest lecturer in college journalism course, most notably at my alma mater, Fordham University. I taught his own sports writing and basic reporting classes at Long Island University for 10 years between 1986 and 1996 and was regarded as one of the toughest, though fairest, professors in the journalism department. Among my several success stories were Daily News assistant news editor Rocco Parascandola and Hall-of-Fame fantasy football writer Scott Engel of Rotoexperts.com. Since departing from the Journal News in August of 2009, I have been busy freelancing for such publications and services as AM-New York, the Staten Island Advance, and the Associated Press, among others. I currently serve as publisher and editor of Ernie Palladino's "The Giants Beat" website (http://nyg.scout.com) on the Scout.com network, a subsidiary of FOXSports.com. "Lombardi and Landry" marks my debut as an author. I hold it as my proudest career achievement.