A businessman-cum-boxer struggles with the motives and attention of an unlikely mentor.

"We went from the weigh-in directly to the ring. We were introduced not only by name and by record but by salary, title, and time served with the company. I felt certain this was the wrong thing to do, but there was no one I could tell. Everyone was in the bag for Cory. The referee had his arm around him and was saying nice things about his father, comforting things. A woman in the front row had a sign that said 'A Good Employee Punches In' and, beneath it, a drawing of a boxing bell."

A young boy observes life through the actions of his father and of former Knick center Patrick Ewing.

"'We’re not leaving till you make five free throws in a row,' my dad says. Even at ten, I get it. He thinks I’m going to make the shots quickly. He thinks I’ll make five free throws in a row and be reborn confident and new, my anemic offense rebooted in a single stroke of coaching genius. But then I remember Patrick Ewing, the doom of his body, how he never pulls up for a jumper, how he always runs headfirst into his trembling opponents. "

The story of a rookie clinging to his dream, as told by his uncle.

The story of the 1944 German national soccer championship game.

The relationship between Buffalo and its team.

The gamblers and teenage cons who haunted New York City’s 60s-era all night bowling alleys.

Dunks, drugs, and disappointment: an oral history of the 1980s Houston Rockets.

A high school baseball team responds to a loss.

A profile of Jeremy Lin.

Captain Iván Castro, who lost his vision in Iraq, runs the Boston Marathon.

In Argentina, where the fútbol underworld controls everything from t-shirt vending to murder, and “rowdy gangs” have turned the stadium into a battleground.

On the strange relationship between Lionel Messi and his Argentinian hometown.

Catching up with the controversial radio host, who recently returned to the air after years away.

The evolution of cheating in chess.

A profile of the cyclist by his former mechanic and assistant.

A sport in flux.

The evolution and economics of English football.

Escalating competitions between two boys take an unexpected turn.

"Most of my losses, though, were at the hands of the son, Jimmy Knockwood Jr. Two years older than me, Jimmy wore a hint of Iroquois aristocracy in his cheekbones, and some part of his body was usually sheathed in a dirty plaster cast. He beat me at every sport we had equipment for. At 13, he had arms like a man and could throw a baseball with such force that after playing catch with him you couldn't turn a doorknob. Once, when we were wrestling, he put me in a choke hold that made my vision go white. I cursed Jimmy's mother, and he rubbed a toad into my teeth. Seeing me in tears afterward, my father asked why I put myself through the disgrace of playing with Jimmy. He had forgotten the infatuation a boy has no choice but to feel for a peer who is good at everything."

“What follows is my attempt, based on a few increasingly hostile exchanges and a close reading of his terrible book, not only to examine why Mariotti is currently jobless but to explain why, in a sane world, he should forever remain that way. I present this as a cautionary tale for other sportswriters, both young and old.”

A new chapter for Ohio State’s football coach.

Life as an elite Scrabble player at the “first-ever four-day, 54-player, 24-match $100,000 Scrabble Superstars Showdown.”

Professional daredevils in love.

June 4, 1974: the first and last 10-cent beer night in Cleveland Indians history.

On distance running and the art of exhaustion.

On the scene of the darkest games in Olympics history.

Part of our Olympics primer, on the Longform blog.