Thumbing His Way Back Home
Retirement is calling, and Bobby Cox has the Braves in first place (again). How has he managed to win so many games? Maybe by getting ejected so often
The Unexpected Hero
Former Broncos back Floyd Little and ardent fan Tom Mackie each helped the other fulfill his lifelong dream
The Magical Season Of The Macon Ironmen
In 1971 a team from a tiny high school in the Midwest with an unorthodox coach, whose job was saved by his players’ parents, went all the way to the state final. Hoosiers, anyone?
Soccer Savior
Africa’s greatest star, Didier Drogba, didn’t single-handedly end his country’s civil war, but such is the respect he commands that when he called for Ivorians to look beyond what divided them, the people listened
The Hangover: Roethlisberger
An NFL superstar’s repulsive behavior, the ultimate expression of athletic entitlement run amok, has forced even the most diehard fans to question their team and their football faith.
Gareth Thomas … The Only Openly Gay Male Athlete
He’s 6’3″ and 225 pounds of muscle. He’s broken his nose five times, fractured both shoulders and lost eight teeth. He’s drunk his mates under the table and brawled by their side. He’s been named to the Welsh national rugby team more times than any other man. And, among active players in major professional team sports, he’s …”Wot, butt? You come to this tiny village in this tiny country and tell me that I’m the only gay man in a major team sport who’s out of the closet?” … “All the diversity in America, and no one there has done this?”
Beyond Belief
For a quarter century Bernhard Langer has lived by the faith he discovered after winning the Masters, yet to many he remains the game’s man of mystery
Sometimes The Bear Eats You: Confessions of a Sportswriter
In those halcyon days there was still a lot of booze in journalism. Writers were understood to be two-fisted drinkers. You wrote a story, you wrote a chapter; then you went out and bellied up to the bar. When I was The Kid, I was regaled with tales of the sportswriter who covered for his tosspot buddy by filing a story for him; the punch line was invariably that the sober writer’s editor called him the next day and asked him why he couldn’t write as well as his rival—when, of course, he had written the rival’s story himself.
The Hero Who Vanished
Sixty years ago the U.S. upset mighty England in the World Cup on a single goal by Joe Gaetjens. In most countries Gaetjens would have been idolized. But in the U.S. he was ignored, and in his native Haiti he was marked for death.
Brand Of Brothers
The Emerald City produces some of the nation’s best basketball players, a proud fraternity whose alumni in the NBA are dedicated to mentoring younger talents through high school and college.