Drew Magary


Drew Magary is an American journalist, humor columnist, and novelist. He was a correspondent for GQ, has written three novels, and formerly was a long-time columnist for Deadspin. He currently writes for Gen.Medium.

Early life

Andrew Schuyler Magary was born in Sydney, Australia. He moved with his parents to the U.S. at the age of four months and grew up in Minnesota and Connecticut. He attended the University of Michigan before transferring to Colby College where he majored in English and participated in the drama club. Early in his career, Magary worked in advertising.

Career

Journalism

Magary was one of the contributors to the NFL humor website Kissing Suzy Kolber. He later became a contributor to the sports website Deadspin and became the site's columnist, providing commentary and answering reader mail in an irreverent and often profane style, reminiscent of Bill Simmons's mailbag editorial feature. In addition to the main Deadspin site, he also contributed to its culture sub-site The Concourse and humor sub-site Adequate Man. His annual "Why Your Team Sucks" columns were featured on Deadspin, in which he roasts every NFL franchise and mocks the weaknesses of both the team and its city. He announced his departure from the site via a post on his personal Kinja page on October 31, 2019.
Magary has worked frequently as a correspondent for GQ magazine. In 2013 Magary interviewed Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson for the magazine and the article became widely covered for several comments made by Robertson, particularly concerning homosexuality. He has also written articles for NBC, Maxim, Rolling Stone, Comedy Central, New York, ESPN, Yahoo!, Playboy, The Atlantic, and Penthouse.

''Chopped''

In 2012, Magary applied to appear on an amateurs episode of the cooking competition show Chopped. He posted the answers to the application's questions in an installment of his humor column on Deadspin.
In April 2015, Magary appeared on the ninth episode of Chopped's 22nd season, which featured other amateur home cooks, and won the episode's $10,000 prize. After the episode aired, his Deadspin colleague and former NFL player Chris Kluwe posted a satirical review of the episode.

Accident

On December 10, 2018, Deadspin editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell made an announcement stating:
Irredeemable Vikings fan and beloved voice of Deadspin Drew Magary has been moved to the injured reserve list after an accident last week. He is receiving the best possible care, is surrounded by his family and friends, and is doing well under the circumstances.
When asked to elaborate on what happened, Greenwell stated, "We’re not giving details out of respect for his family’s privacy. Thanks for understanding."
The last time Magary tweeted before his accident was on December 5, 2018 at 10:22 p.m. EST — the same date as the annual Deadspin Awards he attended, which took place at the Irving Plaza in New York.
On December 19 at 1:54 EST, two weeks to the day after his accident, he tweeted for the first time, stating, "Good evening. Greetings from Manhattan where I am currently NOT dead".
On December 21, Magary tweeted, "So I'm drinking and singing bad karaoke and I pass out, then I start choking on my blood," which was part of a thread in which he explained that he needed emergency neck surgery and stayed in a coma for a week.
Magary later described the tweets as “an incoherent, blazingly inaccurate summary” written while still disoriented from the medically-induced coma.
The tweets were all subsequently deleted. On Christmas day, his wife tweeted the following from his account, "Hey universe. Drew’s wife here. He wanted me to pass on MERRY CHRISTMAS! He is doing better. Wanted to clarify what happened to him as he falsely tweeted last week while cooped up in a rehab bed. He was not drunk when he suddenly collapsed. He is on his way to recovery."
On April 25, 2019, Magary for the first time disclosed accurate details in his annual pre-NFL Draft Jamboroo column: "Nearly five months ago, I suffered a severe brain hemorrhage while I was just standing around at a work party. When I collapsed I fractured my skull. That fracture tore through the inner ear on the right side of my head, rendering it inoperable for good."
On May 16, 2019, Magary authored an editorial which laid out the details of his accident and his subsequent recovery.

Resignation from Deadspin

On October 31, 2019, Magary announced his resignation from Deadspin. Since the purchase of Deadspin in April 2019, editorial and journalistic staff had complained about mismanagement, which culminated in the departure of the entire editorial and journalistic staff during October and November 2019.
Magary and other former Deadspin writers formed Defector Media in 2020.

Fiction