Dan Wetzel is an

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

, documentary film producer, podcaster, and national columnist for Yahoo Sports and Yahoo.com.

Career

As a sports writer, he has worked as the national columnist for Yahoo Sports and Yahoo.com, covering events around the world, including the NFL,

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

, the NBA,

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

, MLB, NHL,

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incor ...

, men's and women's World Cups and the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. His columns appear In the sports section of

Yahoo.com Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Mana ...

. He's appeared repeatedly in the anthology the Best American Sports Writing, been honored more than a dozen times by the Associated Press Sports Editors and is regularly a finalist for "National Sportswriter of the Year" which is awarded by the

National Sports Media Association The National Sports Media Association (NSMA), formerly the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, is an organization of sports media members in the United States, and constitutes the American chapter of the International Sports P ...

. At Yahoo! Sports he has been part of major investigative stories on pro and college sports, including scandals at Miami, Ohio State, Connecticut, Oregon, USC, the IOC, FIFA, various sports agencies and with in the NCAA itself. He also specializes in sports crime, including covering high profile cases and trials of Jerry Sandusky, Larry Nassar, Aaron Hernandez and others. As a screenwriter he cowrote the 2014 movie ''

Life of a King ''Life of a King'' is a 2013 American drama film directed by Jake Goldberger. The film stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Dennis Haysbert, and LisaGay Hamilton. Plot The film tells the true story of Eugene Brown (Cuba Gooding Jr.), an ex-convict who starts ...

'', starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and

Dennis Haysbert Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the '' Major League'' film trilogy, Secret Service agent Tim Collin in the political thriller film '' Absolute Power'' ...

. He is an executive producer of three part Netflix three part docu-series '' Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez'' about the life, crimes and death of former New England Patriot

Aaron Hernandez Aaron Josef Hernandez (November 6, 1989 April 19, 2017) was an American football tight end. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons with the New England Patriots until his career came to an abrupt end after his arrest ...

. It is in conjunction with Blackfin Entertainment and Momentum Content, both in New York. He also appears in the series. He cohosts a weekly radio show on Yahoo Sports Radio with

Pat Forde Pat Forde is a sports journalist who is a national columnist for ''Sports Illustrated''. He previously worked for ESPN, ''The Courier-Journal'' in Louisville, Kentucky, and ''Yahoo Sports''. Personal life and education Forde is a native of C ...

. He was a fill-in host on ''The Sports Inferno'' in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

AM 1270 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1270 kHz: 1270 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency. In Argentina * LRA20 in Las Lomitas * LS11 Provincia in La Plata, Buenos Aires In Canada * CJCB in Sydney, Nova Scotia - 10 kW, t ...

. He anchors the twice-weekly College Football Enquirer podcast with

and Ross Dellenger. It consistently ranks as one of the most listened to college football podcasts in the country. New York Times best-selling author who has written several sports-related books, including the Epic Athletes series of biographies for children. Wetzel is a native of

Norwell, Massachusetts Norwell is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,351 at the 2020 United States census. The town's southeastern border runs along the North River. History Norwell was first settled in 1634 as a part of ...

and a 1994 graduate of the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

, where he was editor of the campus newspaper (The Daily Collegian) and majored in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

Bibliography

* ''Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed and the Corruption of America's Youth'' about sneaker companies and AAU Basketball. * ''Glory Road'' with Don Haskins, about the 1966 Texas Western Miners, the first college basketball team to start five African-American players. It was turned into a 2006 Disney movie also titled ''

Glory Road ''Glory Road'' is a science fantasy novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (July – September 1963) and published in hardcover the same year. It was nominated for ...

''. * ''Runnin' Rebel: Shark Tales of "Extra Benefits," Frank Sinatra, and Winning It All,'' with former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. * ''Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph'', with Alonso Mourning, chronicling the life and recovery from a kidney transplant of the Hall of Fame player. * ''Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series,'' with Josh Peter and Jeff Passan, an investigation into the college football bowl industry and system formerly used to determine the national champion.

Epic Athletes

Biographies for young readers * ''Stephen Curry'' * ''Alex Morgan'' * ''Serena Williams'' * ''Tom Brady'' * ''LeBron James'' * ''Lionel Messi'' * ''Simone Biles'' * ''Kevin Durant'' * ''Patrick Mahomes'' * ''Zion Williamson''

Views

Dan Wetzel is a passionate opponent of the BCS system for determining the

NCAA Division I FBS National Football Championship A national championship in the highest level of college football in the United States, currently the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), is a designation awarded annually by various organizations to their selection of the best co ...

. He regularly writes on the desirability of a playoff to determine the national champion, and has co-authored a book entitled ''Death to the BCS''. On March 18, 2013, Wetzel authored a series of articles on the

Steubenville Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from Fort Steuben, a ...

High School rape verdict that quickly went viral. That included a final article on the sentencing of two teenage boys. It differed starkly in tone from other coverage of the case, eschewing sympathy for the rapists' "ruined lives" and instead emphasizing the pervasive rape culture that permitted the rape to go forward, including the potential culpability of witnesses to the rape. Numerous media outlets and advocates for the prevention of sexual assault advocated that Wetzel's coverage should win awards "for going beyond the obvious ... victim-blaming." Poynter called it an example of "exactly the kind of reporting we need more of."

Criticism

On February 22, 2014 Dan Wetzel posted an article on Yahoo entitled: "Deal with it, South Korea". The article was criticized in South Korea for affirming the result of the ladies' singles figure skating event at the XXII Olympic Winter Games, a result that the South Korean Olympic Committee formally protested.

References

External links

Brief bio on Yahoo!
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wetzel, Dan Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Yahoo! employees People from Norwell, Massachusetts University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Social and Behavioral Sciences alumni American sports journalists American columnists American male journalists American male screenwriters Screenwriters from Massachusetts Sportswriters from Massachusetts