Drew Sharp, longtime Detroit sports columnist, dies at 56

DETROIT (AP) - The Detroit Free Press says sports columnist Drew Sharp has died. He was 56.

The newspaper says Sharp died Friday at his home in Bloomfield Hills, a Detroit suburb. No other details were immediately released.

Karen Sharp says her husband "loved his job more than anything." Sharp spent decades at the Free Press, joining the paper as a sports writer in 1983.

When he was named a columnist in 1999, Sharp told readers that his job wasn't to "blindly lead cheers" or simply "slam" people from his perch. But he said he had a responsibility to "raise questions and express doubts."

His last column this week was about Michigan State's basketball team. Sharp covered the Detroit Pistons for years before becoming a columnist. The team expressed condolences.

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