The Kid Who Wasn't There
An investigation into the true identity of a high school basketball player.
Great articles, every Saturday.
An investigation into the true identity of a high school basketball player.
Wright Thompson ESPN Apr 2012 Permalink
The story of former Vikings linebacker Fred McNeill and the lasting impact of his concussions.
Jeanne Marie Laskas GQ Mar 2011 Permalink
The alchemy of predicting professional success, from quarterbacks to teachers.
Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker Dec 2008 25min Permalink
In 1999, “original superagent” Leigh Steinberg represented 86 NFL athletes. His life today:
At age 63, Steinberg -- for years hailed as the real-life Maguire -- now finds himself a bankrupt, recovering alcoholic, plotting a comeback from the bottom. And before 10 p.m. tonight, as mandated by the California Bar Association, he must show that his urine is clean.
Daniel Roberts, Pablo S. Torre Fortune Apr 2012 15min Permalink
The inside story of Pennsylvania’s governor and the fall of Joe Paterno.
Don Van Natta Jr. ESPN Apr 2012 25min Permalink
How a con-man convinced Los Angeles that he was prepared to purchase the Dodgers from the now-bankrupt Frank McCourt.
Gene Maddaus LA Weekly Mar 2012 Permalink
An oral history of the Pacers/Pistons melee in 2004.
Jonathan Abrams Grantland Feb 2012 55min Permalink
On the “unfair significance” of Jeremy Lin.
Jay Caspian Kang Grantland Feb 2012 10min Permalink
The story of a high school star who died minutes after hitting a game-winner to end an undefeated season, and the family and friends he left behind.
Thomas Lake Sports Illustrated Feb 2012 25min Permalink
A former first-string tackle considers the green zone as a war zone:
Just as football has evolved in accordance with the evolving business ethic of American society, so has it evolved in accordance with the changing strategic assumptions about war. The development (or rebirth) of the T-formation in football coincided almost exactly with the development of a new era of mobility and speed in warfare best exemplified in the Blitzkrieg tactics of the German armies in Europe in 1939-40. The T-formation soon overwhelmed the “Maginot Line” mentality of traditional football, based as it was on rigid lines and massive concentrations of defensive and offensive power.
Wilcomb E. Washburn The New Republic Jul 1977 10min Permalink
How the game gets made.
Tom Bissell Grantland Jan 2012 30min Permalink
On Clifton “Pop” Herring, the then-26-year-old high school basketball coach who famously left Jordan off the varsity squad as a sophomore.
Thomas Lake Sports Illustrated Jan 2012 30min Permalink
Bill Russell, race, and the NBA of the 1960s.
Gilbert Rogin Sports Illustrated Nov 1963 20min Permalink
On the death of a high school basketball star in New York City.
Jonathan Abrams Grantland Nov 2011 20min Permalink
A profile of Joe Paterno.
Jeanne Marie Laskas GQ Oct 2007 25min Permalink
The Green Bay Packers are a historical, cultural, and geographical anomaly, a publicly traded corporation in a league that doesn’t allow them, an immensely profitable company whose shareholders are forbidden by the corporate bylaws to receive a penny of that profit, a franchise that has flourished despite being in the smallest market in the NFL—with a population of 102,000, it would be small for a Triple A baseball franchise.
Karl Taro Greenfeld Businessweek Oct 2011 15min Permalink
On the Red Sox’s historic implosion:
Drinking beer in the Sox clubhouse is permissible. So is ordering take-out chicken and biscuits. Playing video games on one of the clubhouse’s flat-screen televisions is OK, too. But for the Sox pitching trio to do all three during games, rather than show solidarity with their teammates in the dugout, violated an unwritten rule that players support each other, especially in times of crisis.
Bob Hohler The Boston Globe Oct 2011 20min Permalink
A profile of Bob Fishman, the impresario of CBS’s NFL production crew.
Mark Bowden The Atlantic Feb 2009 20min Permalink
The original article on Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s, published a month before the release of Moneyball.
Michael Lewis New York Times Magazine Mar 2003 35min Permalink
Eight years after Moneyball, nearly every MLB front office has integrated statistical analysis into its strategic process. So where does that leave a former wunderkind like Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein?
Tom Verducci Sports Illustrated Sep 2011 20min Permalink
On the battle between Shaquille O’Neal and his former IT guy, who’s in control of much of O’Neal’s archived (and often damning) correspondence.
Gus Garcia-Roberts The Miami New Times Sep 2011 20min Permalink
A profile of Barry Bonds published as the steroid talk intensified.
David Grann New York Times Magazine Sep 2002 30min Permalink
An attempt to sort out whether Vick is truly a changed man or simply a very gifted football player who was bound to be forgiven.
Will Leitch GQ Sep 2011 15min Permalink
An 11-month investigation ends with a booster, now in prison for a Ponzi scheme, going public with details of how he spent millions on college athletes from 2002 to 2010.
[Shapiro] said his benefits to athletes included but were not limited to cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play including bounties for injuring opposing players, travel and, on one occasion, an abortion.
Charles Robinson Yahoo! Sports Aug 2011 30min Permalink
On FIFA’s history of scandal.
Brian Phillips Grantland Aug 2011 15min Permalink