Rick Telander played for Northwestern’s football team from 1968 to 1971 but is more famous for what he did after he left the gridiron. He joined Sports Illustrated as a sports writer in 1973, wrote the bestseller Heaven is a Playground in 1976 and went on to have an illustrious career that featured many successful books, more reporting and writing for SI and his current job as a columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times.
We sat down with Telander to discuss his memories of his time at Northwestern, his career that followed and what he expects will happen to college football this season.