Senior writer Peter King is one of America's premier pro football writers and his Monday Morning Quarterback column on SI.com, which began in 1997, has become a must-read for fans, league insiders and anyone who loves the NFL. On some weeks the column generates more than 1,000 e-mails. You can follow him on Twitter here.

King joined SPORTS ILLUSTRATED as a staff writer in 1989 -- he celebrated his 20th anniversary at the magazine on June 10 -- after spending nearly a decade as an award-winning newspaper journalist. He appears frequently as a commentator on radio and TV talk shows across the nation and for the past two years has served as a reporter for NBC's Football Night in America studio show. He also co-hosts (with Bob Papa and Randy Cross) Sirius Radio's The Opening Drive, which airs weekdays from 8-11 a.m. ET. King served as a halftime analyst for ABC's Monday Night Football in 1994 and 1995 and was also the primary NFL commentator for CNN's NFL Preview and CNN/SI, the now-defunct 24-hour sports news and information network. He joined HBO's Inside the NFL in 2002 as managing editor, and after his arrival, the program won its first Emmy for Outstanding Studio Show. It won three sports Emmys during King's tenure.

Born in Springfield, Mass., and raised in Enfield, CT., where he was the captain of his high school baseball and soccer teams, King earned a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Ohio University in 1979. (On June 14, 2008, King delivered the commencement address for his alma mater.)

From 1985 to 1989, he covered the NFL for Newsday and from 1980 to 1985, he covered college athletics and pro football for the Cincinnati Enquirer. King has won several awards throughout his distinguished career, including two Associated Press Sports Editors Awards for excellence in sports journalism. In 2009 he won the McCann Award given to Professional Football Writers of America members who have provided long and distinguished service to the profession. King is one of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's board of selectors.

King has written six books, the most recent being Monday Morning Quarterback: A Fully Caffeinated Guide to Everything You Need to Know About the NFL. Prior to that King authored Inside the Helmet: A Player's-Eye View of Pro Football, which examines the inner lives and jobs of some of the NFL's biggest names, and Football: A History of the Professional Game, which profiles the teams, players and events of the NFL's first 75 years.

King lives in Boston with his wife, Ann. The couple has two adult daughters, Laura and Mary Beth.

EXTRA POINTS

• Favorite SI Vault story: He Has the Strength (Dec. 14, 1992). "I'm choosing my story on Dennis Byrd because I never interviewed him and I wrote a pretty good story about a guy who America didn't know and who was paralyzed. Also, Paul Zimmerman on Jack Lambert. He brought me into Lambert's world better than anyone could."
• Writers who have inspired your work: "Richard Ford, Myron Cope, Tex Maule and Paul Zimmerman. All take me places I can't go."
• Person you would most like to interview: "Barack Obama. We'd talk nothing but sports."
• Favorite TV show character: "Seinfeld's George Costanza. He eats éclairs out of the garbage, something we'd all like to do."
• Hobbies/interests: "Coaching softball, watching baseball, playing rotisserie baseball."
• Favorite movie: "North By Northwest. I love traveling, I love intrigue. I love trains. Eva Marie Saint is not bad, either."
• Greatest team you've seen in person: "The 1989 San Francisco 49ers."

Updated 21 October 2009