The cold at Paul Brown Stadium that winter day, as I sat there shoulder-to-shoulder in utter climate shock, was the kind that instantly stiffens muscles and sinks so deeply into bones that it takes months to ooze out. Every exhale, every scream from the hardened crowd produced a cloud. Applause, when there was any, was… Read More Cincinnati … Super Bowl
One late July day in 1999, months after the end to another spectacular season in his Hall of Fame career and just weeks before he was to report back to Detroit for his 11th year in pro football, Barry Sanders fired off a fax (remember those?) to his hometown newspaper (remember those?). “Today,” Sanders wrote,… Read More That Time
When the topic of my high school athletic career is raised, certainly never by anyone but me, I don’t gin up some story of teen glory. I don’t pretend I was a scrappy point guard on the basketball team, or a good-glove no-hit cog on the baseball team, or (as if anyone would believe it)… Read More Fathers, Sons & Brothers
At the end of just about every NFL game, with about five minutes remaining, the sweaty, mustard-stained denizens of the press box are escorted down to the playing field. This is not, much as it might seem to some, a perk for the hard-working men and women of the fourth estate. It’s not an attempt… Read More They Call it a Miracle
My annual golf weekend with my brothers is officially in the record books. Officially: Most curse words on one hole. Most pathetic shots out of one sand trap. Most trees abused by mishit golf balls. Biggest slice on an impossibly high drive. Most 7s on one nine. Most 3-foot putts missed. Highest frustration level. Ever.… Read More Driving me nuts
From our start, we struggle with the idea of being perfect. We are taught that “practice makes perfect,” but that “nobody’s perfect.” Philosophers tell us, wisely — they’re not philosophers for nothing — that “perfect is the enemy of the good.” Yet the pursuit of perfection is widely expected. It’s considered noble. Nobody aims to… Read More Scenes from my bulletin board: Being Perfect
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