“I want to introduce white America to people who they might never have met, and I want them to fall in love too.”
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A Meditation on Pain
“Once, when the pain came, I grabbed for a knife, my fist tight around it, contemplating digging out my right eye. I was twenty-one.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. * * * 1. The Boy with Half a Brain Michael Rubino | Indianapolis Monthly | Aug. 26, 2014 | 19 minutes (4,866 words) words) Jeff […]
What Peyton Manning Learned from His Older Brother Cooper
But it was Manning’s older brother Cooper who put his neck injury in the proper context and cured him of any self-pity. Cooper had been an athlete equal to anyone in the family, an all-state wide receiver with a scholarship to Ole Miss, when he began experiencing numbness and atrophy in his right bicep. The […]
When Richard Sherman Met Pete Carroll
I was a high school junior when I first met him. I got pulled out of class unexpectedly to see him waiting in the hallway—Pete Carroll, national championship-winning head coach. We stood and talked there by the lockers for a few minutes. I’ll never forget that—USC’s head coach coming to recruit me at Dominguez High […]
Five Stories About Sports for People Who Hate Sports
OK, “hate” is too strong a word. But I fundamentally do not get sports. Playing them, yes, fine. But knowing players’ names, arguing that this one guy is better than that other guy, keeping a little Excel sheet of strikes and yards and rebounds in my head? Baffling. But that doesn’t mean, as it turns […]
Twenty Years After Infamous Bronco Chase, O.J. Simpson Is Still a Mystery
After riveting the nation with the Bronco chase and dividing it with the Trial of the Century, O.J. Simpson settled into a strange life as a celebrity pariah and ended up behind bars on unrelated crimes. Inmate No. 1027820 works at the gym. He supervises other prisoners who clean and set up for basketball games, […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. * * * 1. The Abortion Ministry of Dr. Willie Parker John H. Richardson | Esquire | July 30, 2014 | 33 minutes (8,280 words) words) […]
College Football Star Michael Sam on How He Was Treated After Coming Out to His Teammates
Mr. Sam played down any repercussions, saying he had the full support of teammates, coaches and administrators. One teammate, he said, accompanied him to a gay pride event in St. Louis last summer, and others went with him to gay bars. “Some people actually just couldn’t believe I was actually gay,” Mr. Sam said. “But […]
A Search for the ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ from Humans of New York
Why Humans of New York is so beloved: A writer for Sports Illustrated sees a photo of an anonymous construction worker who was once a “Defensive Player of the Year.” He goes searching for the person: The picture of Mr. Defensive Player of the Year sparked varied, frenzied, often contradictory reactions. Some saw work ethic; […]

