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.