How ‘The Fridge’ Lost His Way

His day consists of watching television and eating three or four meals prepared by his heart-broken wife, Valerie. She nags him to exercise, but says she gets “cussed out” for it. She bugs him to take his medication but says she gets ignored over it. Her new trick, just to get him on his feet, is to tell him he has to come to the kitchen to eat his lunch. That’s her best way to get “The Refrigerator” to walk near the refrigerator. Of course, then when she least expects it, her husband will hobble out the door and into his car. She knows exactly where he’s headed: to the liquor store. Because every day ends with William Perry needing a drink.

Author: Tom Friend
Source: ESPN
Published: Feb 6, 2011
Length: 25 minutes (6,324 words)

On Homophobia and Recruiting in Women’s College Basketball

Emily Nkosi, who as Emily Niemann hit five three-pointers for Baylor in its 2005 title win against Michigan State, remembers that when recruiters came to her Houston home, as they did by the dozens in 2002, they had to pass a test. “On home visits,” Nkosi says, “my dad was assigned the question: ‘Do you have a bunch of lesbians on your team?'” Nkosi says her youth coaches abetted the process, vetting programs with their own inquiries about a “healthy climate” and the like. “You know,” Nkosi says, “the code words.” This line of questioning was especially fraught for Nkosi because, deep down, she knew she was a lesbian. But she was also a fundamentalist Christian who feared the religious repercussions of that reality.

Source: ESPN
Published: Jan 26, 2011
Length: 12 minutes (3,053 words)

Jason Taylor Dedicates The Rest of His Season to His Agent, Gary Wichard

Every NFL player has a first phone call. He’s on the team bus, the game is over, his body’s a wreck and he needs to tell someone about it. Some call their wives or their girlfriends or their buddy or the pizza man. Jason Taylor always calls his agent. After the New York Jets upset the New England Patriots, Taylor—a Jets —called him again. Taylor was on the team bus, wrung out. On one hand, he was now one game from the Super Bowl, a dream come true. On the other hand, his agent, Gary Wichard, hadn’t been sounding well or looking good. He dialed his agent’s number. It played a song by Journey, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” then went to voice mail. Something had to be wrong.

Author: Tom Friend
Source: ESPN
Published: Jan 21, 2011
Length: 11 minutes (2,778 words)

Game of Her Life

[Profile Writing] She’s 14, lives in the slums of Uganda and is just now learning to read. But Phiona Mutesi’s instincts have made her a player to watch in international chess. “News eventually spread around Katwe that Katende was part of an organization run by white people, known in Uganda as mzungu, and Harriet began hearing disturbing rumors. ‘My neighbors told me that chess was a white man’s game and that if I let Phiona keep going there to play, that mzungu would take her away,’ she says. ‘But I could not afford to feed her. What choice did I have?'”

Source: ESPN
Published: Jan 10, 2011
Length: 20 minutes (5,103 words)

The Blown Call That Haunts Major League Baseball Umpire Jim Joyce

He gets to home plate to exchange the lineup cards, and that’s when Armando Galarraga appears out of the dugout. The crowd stands and applauds, and when Galarraga hands Joyce the lineup card, Joyce can’t even read it, the names a fuzzy blur through the tears. The images from that moment, captured live and broadcast across the country, will change how Galarraga and Joyce will be remembered.

Source: ESPN
Published: Jan 6, 2011
Length: 11 minutes (2,918 words)

The Sports Infidelity Equation

John Nazarian, a former police officer, has been a private investigator for 20 years. He says that on average, he has about a half-dozen pro athletes a year as clients. Usually, it’s because they were involved in extramarital affairs and the mistress is seeking money for her silence. He says he recently had an athlete have GPS devices put on his wife’s car, not because he was worried about his wife’s infidelity, but because he wanted to make sure that when he was with a mistress, his wife was nowhere near. “He’d go online and see where she’s at,” Nazarian says.

Source: ESPN
Published: Nov 25, 2010
Length: 11 minutes (2,971 words)

A Home for Two

San Diego Chargers running back Ryan Mathews’ mother Tricia gave birth to him when she was 16. The child’s father abandoned them. With no place to go, mother and newborn son lived for fours months in a 1969 Oldsmobile. Tracing his path from homeless to the NFL.

Author: Tom Friend
Source: ESPN
Published: Nov 10, 2010
Length: 25 minutes (6,487 words)

Fifth and Goal

Twenty years ago, a perfect storm of events led to arguably the biggest blunder in college football history

Author: Tom Friend
Source: ESPN
Published: Oct 1, 2010
Length: 28 minutes (7,208 words)

The Tortured Life of Eric Show

Pitcher who gave up Pete Rose’s record hit lived, and died, with heavy burden

Author: Tom Friend
Source: ESPN
Published: Sep 11, 2010
Length: 35 minutes (8,993 words)

Dr. Gasol? Pau’s love outside basketball

He focused on his studies, but as the years passed, he grew to 6-feet-nothing and then 6-foot-something. The sport of basketball had always been in the equation, but now that he was pushing 7 feet, now that he towered over most everyone in Barcelona, he would have a decision to make soon. He tried balancing both basketball and medicine at first — and, the truth is, he wasn’t the better for it. By day, he was an 18-year-old, first-year med student at the University of Barcelona; by night, he was a pivot man on the FC Barcelona club team.

Author: Tom Friend
Source: ESPN
Published: Aug 6, 2010
Length: 17 minutes (4,289 words)