In 1979, Zimmerman moved to Sports Illustrated, where he wrote a weekly column and game predictions, and awarded the magazine's yearly All-Pros until his stroke.
Zimmerman provided the site with a weekly column - "Power Rankings" - of his estimations of the relative strengths of each NFL team, as well as a reader mailbag feature, in addition to his other contributions to the magazine.
He wrote in a stream of consciousness style rather than a simple question-and-answer, liberally sprinkling in tidbits of football history, pieces of popular culture, quotations, admittedly bad jokes and puns, rants, and wine advice.
Annually, Zimmerman rated the performance of television NFL sportscasters, criticizing those announcers who did little more than hype the stars while making inane comments on the game, ignoring the strategy or play of the game, or generally making mistakes in their commentaries.
Zimmerman also praised the sportscasters who provided meaningful, intelligent commentary for football fans.
Zimmerman responded, controversially, "The player of the '90s will be so sophisticated that he'll be able to pass any steroid test they come up with," ending his television career.
Before the season, he accurately predicted all six division winners and all four wild-card teams, and he also nailed the Super Bowl result, the Giants over the Broncos.
[3] In January 2008, Zimmerman correctly predicted that the New York Giants (an overwhelming underdog) would win Super Bowl XLII over the previously undefeated New England Patriots.
[5] Zimmerman described George Orwell as his "literary idol,"[6] and his writing shows some thematic similarities with that of the late novelist.