Seth Wickersham spoke in the Moody College auditorium, delivering the Deford Lecture (sponsored by the McGarr Symposium on Sports and Society) on March 31. He is a senior writer at ESPN whose primary focus is long form enterprise and investigative work on the National Football League. His stories have appeared across ESPN platforms.

In more than two decades at ESPN, Wickersham has profiled the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Bill Belichick, John Elway, Sean McVay, Andrew Luck, Odell Beckham, Jr., Bill Walsh, Jim Harbaugh, Alex Honnold, Gregg Popovich and Y.A. Tittle, among others. Along with senior writer Don Van Natta, Wickersham has written critically acclaimed investigations on the NFL’s handling of the Spygate and Deflategate cheating controversies, the Rams and Raiders franchise relocations, the behind-closed-doors meetings on the inequality protests, the efforts by Jerry Jones to block Roger Goodell’s contract extension, the complicated tenure of NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, the efforts of Donald Trump to interfere with Senator Arlen Specter’s Spygate inquiry, and of Dan Snyder’s attempts to avoid being removed as owner of the Washington Commanders. A 2022 story about Snyder by Wickersham, Van Natta, and Tisha Thompson is widely credited with triggering the push for him to sell the franchise.