1. “There will always be those who insist on pointing out that he could have won more, could have pushed his limits further by moving elsewhere. But how could a few measly medals ever mean more than doing all this in the service of your boyhood club?”
Paolo Bandini celebrates Totti’s curtain call, for The Guardian.
2.
Otto was up early. He was driving in search of a newspaper when he saw several police cars outside the Sheppards’ house. Asking an officer what happened, he received a staggering reply: Marilyn had been murdered, bludgeoned to death in the night.”
For Sports Illustrated, Mark Bechtel goes deep into a 1954 murder that gripped sports-obsessed Cleveland
3. It was the tumultuous summer of 1967 and the Dublin outfit were one of a dozen from Europe, Brazil and Uruguay invited to participate in the inaugural and only season of America’s United Soccer Association. It was a bizarre, overly-ambitious experiment, based on the belief that transplanting entire veteran professional team to various cities across the US would showcase the beauty of the game and grow an instant fanbase.
Dave Hannigan on Shamrock Rovers’ American conquest is in the Irish Times.
4. ”He won a gold medal at the Rio Olympics last year. This year, he has the second-best-selling signature shoe in the NBA, behind only his teammate, LeBron James. He has an ongoing series of commercials for Pepsi — several of which he directed — in which he disguises himself as an old graybeard named Uncle Drew and clowns random dudes on various playgrounds. He might think the earth is flat, among other opinions that some consider strange…”
It’s not easy making sense of the terrific Kyrie Irving. Read John Gonzalez in The Ringer.
5. Right before every match, I have same the routine. I stand in front of a mirror for five minutes and I block out everything. Then a movie begins to play in my mind. It is the movie of my life.
Dani Alves divulged his ‘secret’ in the Players’ Tribune ahead of last night’s Champions League final.
6. “They were by no means the most successful club in Cork, but for a magical period in the early 1970’s they captured the country’s imagination. They achieved something rare in Irish football – they were huge, they were box office.”
Cork Hibernians burned brightly but briefly, Gary Spain charts their history for BackPageFootball.
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