I love Bob McGinn.

That may come as a surprise to anyone who has heard the things I’ve said on Blue 58 or read the things I’ve written at The Power Sweep, Acme Packing Company, The Packer Perspective, Packer Chatters, or anywhere else, but it’s true.

Bob McGinn is unique in sports media today, a living throwback to a far different era of journalism. If old-line newspaper writers are dinosaurs, McGinn is a coelacanth: long thought extinct but actually thriving in the modern world.

Calling his journalistic acumen impressive is an understatement. His recall for details is impeccable and his sourcing for stories operates at a level no one else can touch.

His Super Bowl book (I own an autographed copy) is a masterwork in in-depth football writing and should be required reading for anyone attempting to write about sports at any level.

Though I’ve certainly disagreed with him on a few things, I also learned something every time I read one of his pieces. Few writers in any field, sports or otherwise, can claim to put out such high quality work on a regular basis.

Beyond his contributions to Packers coverage, one of the best things about McGinn is that he treated writing about the Packers like a job, not a hallowed calling. Any regular listener to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel podcast knows of McGinn’s many interests outside of football, from high school sports to country music to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Stepping away from a job that he did well for many, many years should give him plenty of time to pursue those interests, and knowing that he did such an excellent job in his chosen career should make his next trip to Escanaba all the sweeter.

That Packers fans were able to consume his work on a weekly if not daily basis is an incredible gift, and his departure from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel leaves a gaping hole in the Packers beat writing community that can never be filled. Nobody can replace Bob McGinn.

Nobody should try.