Esquire writer Luke O’Neil recalls playing tackle football as a kid, where “you can hit so hard that you knock yourself out.”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
What It’s Like To Navigate The NFL’s Concussion Settlement Hellscape
For a decade, George Andrie played defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys as a member of the “Doomsday Defense.” Now, at age 78, despite the fact four different doctors agree that Andrie’s dementia is linked to his football career, the NFL has twice denied his settlement claim in a “maddening labyrinth” of a process beset […]
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
When Your Social Worker Thinks You’re Ungrateful
Dina Nayeri’s patience is tried as she accompanies an immigrant family into a bureaucratic nightmare.
Posted inNonfiction
California Burning
A year after the Camp Fire, Tessa Love contemplates home, California’s undoing, and what it means to belong.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Quotes, Sports
The NFL Has Pimped Its Players for Too Long
The disturbing parallels between professional football and the business of pimping
Posted inNonfiction
Prince of the Midwest
For one Wisconsin farm boy, Minneapolis will always be the city of Purple Rain.
Posted inBlog Post, Current Events, Sports
Jemele Hill Was Doing Her Job
ESPN Sportscenter host Jemele Hill has been suspended for two weeks for simply doing what she was hired to do: provide commentary on the news.
Posted inUncategorized
Flagrant Foul: Benching Teen Moms Before Title IX
As a high schooler and new mom, Jane Rubel didn’t consider herself a feminist. She just knew that if husbands and fathers were eligible to play high school basketball, she should have been, too.
Posted inEditor's Pick
I Played Youth Football for Years. What Will They Find in My Brain?
A new study from Boston University suggests that youth aged six to 12 who play football are at a higher risk for irreversible damage to their brains. Even Mike Ditka — had he a young son today — wouldn’t let him play football. “I think the risk is worse than the reward. I really do.”
Posted inNonfiction
Where Am I?
After a lifetime of alienation, one woman discovered how her spacial disorientation could be a gift that connected her to strangers and made her less alone.
