Tom Kludt

New York

Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair

contributing editor @vanityfair, covering sports || last name pronounced "KLUTE," like the movie || email me: [email protected]

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Articles

Mike Tyson “Should Be Dead Many Times Over”: Why the World Hasn’t Knocked Out the Champ

1 week ago | vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

My earliest memories of Mike Tyson begin in the 1990s. I have a vague recollection of his release from an Indiana prison, where he served three years after being convicted of rape, though I wasn’t old enough to grasp the facts of the case.
Mike Tyson “Should Be Dead Many Times Over”: Why the World Hasn’t Knocked Out the Champ

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Tom Kludt

Mike Tyson “Should Be Dead Many Times Over”: Why the World Hasn’t Knocked Out the ChampIn his new book, Baddest Man, sportswriter Mark Kriegel charts the boxing phenom’s path from hardscrabble Brooklyn streets to the heights of 1980s glitz and glamour, where everyone from HBO execs to Donald Trump wanted a piece of the action. My earliest memories of Mike Tyson begin in the 1990s. I …
Veteran Sportswriter Pablo Torre Says the Bill Belichick-Jordon Hudson Saga Is More Shakespeare Than TMZ

2 weeks ago | vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

It’s nearly been a year since Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson went public with their relationship, but it feels like we’re only just getting to know them. The last month alone has brought a blitz of revelations. We learned that Hudson, nearly a half-century younger than the former New England Patriots coach, may have in fact been 19 when the two met in 2021––which may have also been why Hudson shut down a question posed to Belichick about their origin story in that interview.
ROMAN EMPIRE | Vanity Fair

1 month ago | archive.vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

ABOUT AN HOUR into our flight, Joe Anoa'i tells me a secret: Roman Reigns isn't going to win the Royal Rumble. As far as spoilers go, this is akin to finding out who was getting whacked on The Sopranos the night before an episode aired—and if James Gandolfini was tipping you off. Anoa'i, after all, knows Reigns the same way Gandolfini knew Tony Soprano. Or like Terry Bollea knows Hulk Hogan.
A Guide to Donald Trump’s Jockocracy: 100 Days of Sports and Politics

1 month ago | vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

When the Philadelphia Eagles visit the White House on Monday to commemorate their Super Bowl title, it will be just the latest photo-op for President Donald Trump and some of the country’s top athletes. Championship-winning teams have been fêted by presidents for decades, of course, but Trump’s athletic engagements have gone well beyond the customary. Since taking office nearly 100 days ago, Trump has been a frequent presence in the sporting arena—literally and figuratively.
Roman Reigns’s Quest to Be WWE’s Next Great Crossover Star

1 month ago | vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

About an hour into our flight, Joe Anoa’i tells me a secret: Roman Reigns isn’t going to win the Royal Rumble. As far as spoilers go, this is akin to finding out who was getting whacked on The Sopranos the night before an episode aired—and if James Gandolfini was tipping you off. Anoa’i, after all, knows Reigns the same way Gandolfini knew Tony Soprano. Or like Terry Bollea knows Hulk Hogan.
Can ESPN and Major League Baseball Still Play Ball?

2 months ago | vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

Peter Gammons is synonymous with baseball on ESPN. Never mind that he hasn’t worked there in more than 15 years. Gammons––like Dick Vitale and college basketball, or Chris Berman and the NFL––will forever be linked to the network’s coverage of the sport. When he was hired in 1988, Gammons was already regarded as one of the preeminent baseball reporters, with tenures at the Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated. ESPN, meanwhile, wasn’t even airing big league games.
“So Damn Depressing”: How the Luka Dončić Trade Left a Team and City Reeling

2 months ago | vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

Tim MacMahon’s book was finished. After three years of extensive reporting and travel, he had managed to write the definitive story of Luka Dončić’s time with the Dallas Mavericks––his ascendance to superstardom, the fluctuations to the roster, and, ultimately, the team’s emergence as a bona fide NBA contender.
How Trump’s White House Return May End Pro Golf’s Civil War

Mar 4, 2025 | vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

When Brandel Chamblee stepped on the course for a round of golf with Donald Trump, his reputation preceded him. “[Trump] said straight away, ‘I know you and I differ on LIV, and we differ on the Saudi involvement of the game,’” Chamblee told VF. “Differ” was probably putting it mildly. As a commentator for the Golf Channel, Chamblee has established himself as perhaps the most outspoken critic of LIV Golf, the breakaway tour bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s nearly trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund.
Tom Brady’s TV Chops Will Be Put to the Super Bowl Test

Jan 10, 2025 | vanityfair.com | Tom Kludt

In August, while looking ahead to his new job, Tom Brady saw parallels to his old one. “In some ways, now I’m just quarterbacking something a little bit different,” he told the commentator Stephen A. Smith during an appearance at Fanatics Fest in New York City. “But in the end, you’re sitting in that hot seat, you’re the one calling the shots, and that’s where I like to be. That’s where I’m most comfortable.”The seat in the broadcast booth has, in fact, been plenty hot.