Doyle approached him and said, “Do you know there’s a retired number in Williams football?”
“Williams doesn’t retire numbers,” Quinn replied.
“Apparently it does,” Doyle said.
On the Monday after that game Quinn called Boyer and asked, “Williams has a retired football number?”
“I don’t know about retired,” Boyer said, “but there’s this box down here.
“The Forgotten Hero.” — Tim Layden, Sports Illustrated
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Doyle approached him and said, “Do you know there’s a retired number in Williams football?”
“Williams doesn’t retire numbers,” Quinn replied.
“Apparently it does,” Doyle said.
On the Monday after that game Quinn called Boyer and asked, “Williams has a retired football number?”
“I don’t know about retired,” Boyer said, “but there’s this box down here.
“The Forgotten Hero.” — Tim Layden, Sports Illustrated
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Longreads Pick
Doyle approached him and said, “Do you know there’s a retired number in Williams football?”
“Williams doesn’t retire numbers,” Quinn replied.
“Apparently it does,” Doyle said.
On the Monday after that game Quinn called Boyer and asked, “Williams has a retired football number?”
“I don’t know about retired,” Boyer said, “but there’s this box down here.
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Published: Nov 7, 2011
Length: 27 minutes (6,766 words)
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It’s been two autumns now since Russell last played a down of organized football. This fall, when capable quarterbacks have been in high demand and short supply, he’s gotten no calls. The Raiders lost his successor, Jason Campbell, to a broken collarbone on Oct. 16, and last week they acquired 31-year-old Carson Palmer, who had chosen to retire rather than play for the Bengals. Oakland sent Cincinnati a first-round pick in 2012 and a conditional second-rounder in ‘13, and will pay him a guaranteed $7.5 million over the next two years. Yet Russell still counts himself among Mobile’s legion of unemployed.
“The Man Who Isn’t There.” — L. Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated
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It’s been two autumns now since JaMarcus Russell last played a down of organized football. This fall, when capable quarterbacks have been in high demand and short supply, he’s gotten no calls. The Raiders lost his successor, Jason Campbell, to a broken collarbone on Oct. 16, and last week they acquired 31-year-old Carson Palmer, who had chosen to retire rather than play for the Bengals. Oakland sent Cincinnati a first-round pick in 2012 and a conditional second-rounder in ’13, and will pay him a guaranteed $7.5 million over the next two years. Yet Russell still counts himself among Mobile’s legion of unemployed.
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Published: Oct 31, 2011
Length: 17 minutes (4,254 words)
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“Now, thanks to that pampering, upon his retirement in the winter of 1988 as the NFL’s alltime leading rusher, Walter Payton found himself burdened by a realization that had struck thousands of ex-athletes before him: I am bored out of my mind. When strangers asked, he talked about how thrilled he was to be free of the burdens of football. ‘I’m not going to miss the pounding,’ he told ABC’s Peter Jennings. ‘And the getting up at six and working out until dusk.’ The words were pure fantasy. He would miss it desperately. ‘He went from an abnormal existence as an athlete to a normal one,’ says Brittney, now 26. ‘How does anyone do that?’”
“The Hero No One Knew” — Jeff Pearlman, Sports Illustrated
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The secrets of Moneyball, eight years later. “The young men had heaps of fun, working crazy hours and, to blow off steam, knocking golf balls around the office, playing football among the cubicles and celebrating big wins with postgame refreshments at Boston watering holes. Then one day in 2002, a best-selling writer by the name of Michael Lewis walked into the Red Sox offices and knocked the smile right off Epstein’s face. Lewis was working on a book about baseball’s nascent information age, but Epstein wanted nothing to do with him. ‘I can’t believe Billy is letting him write this book,’ he told his colleagues. Billy Beane, Oakland’s general manager, had granted Lewis access to his front-office operations, which meant revealing how the A’s were mining information from statistical analysis, a tool used extensively at the time by only the Athletics, Indians, Blue Jays and Red Sox. ‘He’s handing out the blueprint,’ Epstein told Hoyer.”
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Published: Sep 21, 2011
Length: 18 minutes (4,711 words)
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So it was, then, with great and satisfying surprise that almost immediately upon arriving at the party, I found myself locked in enthusiastic conversation in a corner with two other writers, all three of us, we discovered, solitary, isolated viewers of the NBC series Friday Night Lights. We spewed forth excitedly, like addicts—this was no longer a secret habit but a legitimately brilliant drama. Though the title might make the uninitiated think of shabbat candles, the show is actually about football in Texas, a state that I felt just then had not been this far east since the Bush administration.
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Published: Aug 18, 2011
Length: 13 minutes (3,274 words)
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Longreads Pick
Deindividuation is what happens when we get behind the wheel of a car and feel moved to scream abuse at the woman in front who is slow in turning right. It is what motivates a responsible father in a football crowd to yell crude sexual hatred at the opposition or the referee. And it’s why under the cover of an alias or an avatar on a website or a blog – surrounded by virtual strangers – conventionally restrained individuals might be moved to suggest a comedian should suffer all manner of violent torture because they don’t like his jokes, or his face. Digital media allow almost unlimited opportunity for wilful deindividuation. They almost require it.
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Published: Jul 24, 2011
Length: 15 minutes (3,808 words)
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