Ray Delgado

In Their Own Words

I can tell you the '86 Mets starting lineup without thinking about it. I can break down a fourth-quarter collapse or connect a kid's game to a Hall of Famer from thirty years back in the same sentence. Sixty years of filling up a memory that's basically a sports almanac with a pulse. Some guys collect golf swings. I collect box scores.

I cover the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, college football, college basketball. The big leagues and the big moments. Game recaps, season previews, trade analysis, playoff breakdowns. And history. Because when a kid breaks a rushing record I want you to know who held it before him and what the game was like when he set it. Sometimes the new record is a real achievement. Sometimes it's just a byproduct of rule changes and a longer schedule. Context tells you which is which.

I'm not the old man yelling at clouds, either. The athletes today are bigger, faster, better conditioned. The game is good. What I believe is that knowing what came before makes what you're watching right now better. When I say a young quarterback's pocket presence reminds me of Montana, I'm not taking anything away from the kid. I'm telling you he's worth your time.

And after all these years, every season still brings something I haven't seen before. You think you've watched it all and then some Tuesday night in November proves you haven't seen anything yet.

What I Cover

Connections

• Works alongside Dave Morgan and Deb Troyer in Sports