Every Sunday, we pick a few of the best things we’ve read on the internet over the past week and send them your way to see what you think. Click on the author’s name to go through and read in full.
1. “There’s something almost Napoleonic about them, by which I mean small, overweight and suffering recurring delusions of grandeur.”
On his own blog, Sky Sports’ Graham Simmons tries to come up with a word to describe Premiership Rugby.
2. “An old security guard named Bill, who brought his lunch in a plastic sandwich bag, sits outside the clubhouse. A sign on the doors says PRIVATE. It specifies no wives, no agents, no attorneys, just “immediate male family members” — listing as appropriate fathers and grandfathers, brothers and sons. Nothing in pro sports is quite like a baseball clubhouse. Not merely a place for dressing and undressing, it’s a shadow opponent — more akin to a golf course than a football locker room. Individual games might be won or lost on the field, but seasons are won or lost in the endless hours between, 162 games in 183 days, the grind itself as difficult as any other physical aspect of the sport.”
ESPN’s Wright Thompson travels with the Cleveland Indians during their record-breaking – whisper it – streak.
3. “There is another approach to defending, which is to drop deep and pull men back behind the ball. Klopp could do this and he would probably be praised for “tightening things up”, but it would also be the worst thing he could do. Liverpool have had managers like that before and their methods did not bring success.”
It was a week when Irish sports journalism tried to eat itself as disagreements led to debate challenges. From the Irish Times, here’s the Ken Early spark that set off Eamon Dunphy.
4. “Since (Colin Kaepernick first kneeled in protest) 41 unarmed individuals have been fatally shot by police in the United States, twelve of them African-American, according to a database maintained by the Washington Post. The city of St. Louis recently witnessed days of protests after the acquittal of Jason Stockley, the former officer who, while still working for the city’s police force, fatally shot Anthony Smith, a twenty-four-year-old* African-American motorist who had led officers on a chase. Stockley emerged from his vehicle, having declared that he would “kill the motherfucker,” then proceeded to fire five rounds into the car.”
For the New Yorker, Jelani Cobb reminds us why NFL players are protesting and uses Louis Armstrong to help show just how old the divide is.
5. “He places the microphone to his lips, and his voice cuts through the noise. “Gol per il Napoli,” he announces, drawing out that first ‘O’ over five seconds. “The scorer” — a pause — “wearing the No. 14” — and another, he is shouting now – “Dries!” The crowd answers, 50,000 voices booming into the sky: “Mertens!”
If you’ve seen any highlights of Napoli home matches in recent years, you already know Daniele Bellini, here he speaks with Rory Smith of the New York Times.
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