Howard Bryant

Howard "Howie" Bryant (born November 25, 1968) is an American author, sports journalist, and radio and television personality. He writes weekly columns for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine, ESPN, and appears regularly on ESPN Radio. He is a frequent panelist on The Sports Reporters and since 2006 has been the sports correspondent for Weekend Edition with Scott Simon on National Public Radio.

A native of Boston, Bryant began his career in 1991 with the Oakland Tribune covering sports and technology, before moving to the San Jose Mercury News from 1995 to 2001. In San Jose, Bryant covered the telecommunications industry before returning to sports to cover the Oakland Athletics. He then reported for the Bergen Record from 2001 to 2002, covering the New York Yankees, before joining the Boston Herald as a columnist from 2002 to 2005. Bryant left the Herald for the Washington Post, where he covered the Washington Redskins from 2005 to 2007. He joined ESPN in August 2007.

In 2011, Bryant agreed to a plea deal of six months pre-trial probation, after he was arrested and charged with domestic assault and battery, assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest, following an incident with his wife.

According to a Massachusetts State Police report, witnesses claimed they saw Bryant place his hands on his estranged wife's neck and push her into a parked car outside a pizza parlor, while his 6-year-old son was in the back seat.

The state trooper wrote in his report, “Per the witnesses, the black male (Bryant) released the female when he observed my cruisers emergency lights.”

However, as part of the deal, Bryant's attorney and prosecutors agreed that a review of the evidence did not support witness allegations of violence, but Bryant admitted that police had probable cause to arrest him.

Bryant also apologized for giving the impression that race was a factor in the actions of police (Bryant is black and his wife is white) - an allegation initially leveled by his attorney.

In 2002, Bryant published his first book, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, which won the CASEY Award for the best baseball book of 2002 and was a finalist for the Society for American Baseball Research's Seymour Medal. In 2005, he published Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball, which was New York Times Notable Book of 2005. The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron was published in 2010, which also won the CASEY Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2010.

• Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston (2003) ISBN 0807009792
• Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball (2006) ISBN 0452287413
• The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (2010) ISBN 0307279928