Football Archives - Page 30 of 41

What is the red zone in football?

Dear Sports Fan,

What is the red zone in football? The announcers during football games are always talking about one team or another being “in the red zone.” What does that mean? Do the rules change when a team is in the red zone?

Thanks,
Sammy

— — —

Dear Sammy,

The red zone is a term used to refer to the area from the twenty yard line to the goal-line of the side of the field that the football team with the ball is trying to score on. A team that is “in the red zone” is one that has the ball and is less than twenty yards from scoring. The red zone is purely a convention, it has no implication on the rules of football at all.

Wikipedia writes about the red zone, that it, “is mostly for statistical, psychological, and commercial advertising purposes.” In terms of psychology and statistics, you’ll often see statistics about how often a team scores once they are in the red zone and what percent of those scores are touchdowns versus field goals. Fans feel like once their teams are in the red zone, they should score. Missed “red zone opportunities” are seen as disappointing and as potentially pivotal to the result of a game. This psychological understanding of the red zone is true of at least some football players as well. Reporter Sam Borden asked a football player about the red zone in an article on the topic from 2012:

Tight end Martellus Bennett says the irritation a unit feels when a red zone trip goes unconsummated is unique.

Initially, Bennett hesitated when asked to describe the emotion that came with walking off the field with the ball so close to the end zone. “I’m not sure this is printable,” he said. He ultimately offered a “cleaned-up” analogy that likened it to the frustration felt by an anxious, apprehensive man who spends hours working up the courage to talk to a pretty woman and then is only steps away when another man sidles up and slips his arm around her.

Sports statisticians have looked into the red zone and, for the most part, come up empty. As you might expect, there’s nothing magical about the 20 yard line that makes scoring easier or more likely once it is crossed. The best visual proof of this comes from NFL Stats Blog and it shows likelihood to score based on first down field position. Note that even the terms of this chart belie the red zone as a simple statistical reality because, of course it’s better to have the ball at the 22 yard line on first down than the 19 yard line on third. The likelihood to score curve is relatively smooth all the way down the field. A team in the red zone has a better chance of scoring as a team out of the red zone but there’s no statistical cliff that supports making a big deal over it. (As an aside, the most interesting part of the graph to me is that a team that gets a first down on the 11-15 yard line is more likely to score than if they get it on the ten yard line. This matches my instinct about football — it’s hard to go a full ten yards to get a touchdown — it’s better to at least be able to get another first down on the 1-5 yard line than have to score in one set of downs.)

No one seems to know exactly where the term comes from. One popular theory, which has floated to the top of this question on the sports question & answer portion of Stack Exchange, is that the term has military origins and means, “generally close to the enemy (red having been a symbol for danger for a long time).” I buy that as an explanation. Football has a long history of emulating the military. The same New York Times article from above, related a story about longtime New York Giants coach, Tom Coughlin, who early in his career:

Decided a psychological change of language was in order. Instead of describing the area as the red zone, Coughlin said, he consciously switched it to the green zone when referring to his team’s offense. His reasoning was simple.

“Green is go and red is stop,” he said. “What are you trying to do in the green zone? You’re trying to score. It’s not the red zone. If you’re on offense, it’s green.”

Coughlin’s got an interesting point. If you follow the analogy closely, the team in question seems to be the defending team, not the team playing offense. I think at some point, as football itself flipped to being far more about successful offense than successful defense, we flipped how we use the term red zone. My guess is that originally, the red zone was used primarily to describe the last twenty yards a defending team had to concede before allowing a score.

The red zone is a made-up concept but it’s a compelling one. Hearing that a team is in the red zone makes most football fans look up from their nachos (if they’re lucky!) and attend to the game. Some programming genius at the NFL thought about this and realized there was an opportunity to be had. The NFL created a television network called the NFL RedZone that springs from game to game on Sundays, showing every red zone trip all day, sometimes multiple games simultaneously. It’s a smashing success and will be the subject of a Dear Sports Fan post soon.

Until then,
Ezra Fischer

Why is an NFL star driving a 1991 Mazda?

If you’re watching the Thursday NFL game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, you might be thinking that the Washington running back, Alfred Morris, seems pretty cool. He is! Here’s an excerpt from a great story you should read about him — Why Redskins Star Alfred Morris’ Dream Is This Humble 1991 Mazda 626 by Patrick George for Jalopnik.

Morris, a Pensacola native, said he bought the 626 from his pastor for $2 back when he was playing for Florida Atlantic University. (The car still has an expired parking sticker from the college on its windshield.)

Morris is a cheerful, affable, down to earth guy. Even though he’s an NFL star with an NFL salary, he said he had more reasons to keep The Bentley than to get rid of it.

“This is my baby, man,” he said. “It’s more than just a car. I didn’t grow up with a lot. This helps me remember where I come from and where I’m going.”

Do Not Watch This Game 9.27.14 Weekend Edition

For sports fans, the weekend is a cornucopia of wonderful games to watch. This is particularly true in the fall with its traditional pattern of College Football on Saturday and NFL Football on Sunday and Monday. As the parent, child, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, husband, wife, roommate, or best friend of a sports fan, this can be a challenge. It must be true that some games are more important to watch than others but it’s hard to know which is which. As a sports fan, the power of habit and hundreds of thousands of marketing dollars get in the way of remembering to take a break from sports and do something with your parent, child, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, husband, wife, roommate, or best friend. To aid all of us in this, and just because it’s fun, I’m going to write a weekly post highlighting a single game that is ideal for skipping. Use this to help tell yourself or someone else: “Do not watch this game!”

Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET, NFL Football, Baltimore Ravens vs. Carolina Panthers. It’s on CBS but do not watch this game!

I’ll start this week by copping to the truth about this game — there is a reason to watch it. There’s a single plot that will be played out on Sunday that’s almost fascinating enough to make the game worth watching. Steve Smith Sr. was a wide receiver on the Panthers team for 13 years. He’s their all time leader in basically every receiving statistic out there. He was also the heart of the team for more than a decade. At 5’9″, he’s a lot smaller than you’d expect for a player of this reputation, but what he lacks in size, he’s made up for in furious intensity. He’s a great player. Over this past summer, the Carolina Panthers let Steve Smith walk. He walked right into the Baltimore Ravens starting lineup and has been one of their best players this year. Now, he gets to play against his old team. This story is the focus of this game — the Charlotte Observer called this “Steve Smith Week.”

You know what? That’s going to make for a really frustrating game to watch. Revenge fantasies very rarely come to fruition in sports, especially not in football where there are so many players on each team and so many factors which go into winning or losing. Smith is likely to have a couple big plays that, if you want to, you could point to as being a big narrative deal. But no one player, not even Steve Smith, can decide the outcome of a game. There are larger issues at hand — can Cam Newton’s offensive line keep him from adding another injury to his bruised ribs and sprained ankle? Who will run the ball for the Panthers since their running back core looks like an ambulance corps? Can the Panthers’ defensive line win over a Baltimore offensive line that hasn’t allowed a sack in two games?

The coverage of this game is going to be so slanted towards the Steve Smith story that it’s going to be frustrating to listen to and a let-down to watch. Do not watch this game!

Of course, if you or the fan in your life is a Baltimore Ravens or Carolina Panthers fan, this isn’t a good game to skip. As an alternate, skip the Sunday early afternoon game between the New Orleans and the Dallas Cowboys. Why? Because the Cowboys have the worst pass defense in the league and the Saints are going to feast on them like they’re étouffée.

How are punts in football exciting?

Dear Sports Fan,

I don’t get why some people find punts exciting. Isn’t a punt basically a negative thing? It happens when a team decides they can’t advance the ball anymore and instead of trying, they punt. How are punts in football exciting?

Confused,
Connie

— — —

Dear Connie,

You’re absolutely right that punts only happen when one team decides they cannot advance the ball anymore and instead of risking giving the ball to the other team where it currently is, they choose to trade field position for possession and give the ball up. This doesn’t mean it’s not exciting though. In fact, I think the punt is one of the most exciting plays in football and I’m happy to explain some reasons why. If you missed our post yesterday on how punts work, you might want to brush up on that before you read this one. Don’t forget to come back though!

Why the punt is exciting for the receiving team

The receiving team starts out pretty excited about the punt because it means they’ve succeeded on defense. They prevented the opposing team from scoring or even moving the ball ten yards to get a new first down. It’s also exciting because it means they’re about to get the ball back. The excitement doesn’t stop there though, because if they play the punt return right, they might even score on that play!

Although it may look a little chaotic, every player on the field while their team returns a punt has a very precise mission. First, the receiving team tries to worm through or around the guys protecting the punter to see if they can block the punt before it gets going.

If that doesn’t work, and it normally doesn’t, the players switch over to slowing down the opposing team’s players so that their punt returner has room to catch the ball and doesn’t need to call for a fair catch. Then, once the punt returner has caught the ball, the other players on his team turn into blockers — trying to prevent the kicking team’s players from hitting him and also trying to shove them around to create running lanes for the returner. This sounds like a thankless job, and a lot of times it is, but once in a while, someone blocking for a punt returner will make a block so spectacular that the crowd roars in appreciation. Of all the hits in football, hits while blocking for a returner can be among the most violent because of the speed and the potential to hit someone who is focusing on something else. Here’s an example of a player getting “decleated” on a punt return:

Once a returner catches the ball, he takes off like a wild deer and sprints upfield, dodging and spinning and hurtling until he’s either caught and tackled or scores a touchdown. Punt return touchdowns are among the most exciting in the game. Take a look at this one from the Dallas Cowboys and watch how all the players on their return team block for punt returner Dez Bryant:

Sometimes, even when the blocking fails, a supremely talented and fearless punt returner can create a touchdown on his own. These are the most exciting punt return touchdowns. This one from Dante Hall in 2003 has stuck in my memory as being one of the best I’ve ever seen:

That type of return is few and far between, but the potential is there on every punt. That’s what makes the punt so exciting for the return team.

Why the punt is exciting for the kicking team

The punt can be very exciting for the kicking team because they have clear goals that take extreme coordination, precision, and often a little bit of luck. They also have things that they don’t want to have happen. The good outcomes are often incredibly close from the bad outcomes. For instance, the punting team might be aiming to kick the ball out of bounds at the two yard line because then the opposing team has to start from their own two yard line on offense. If the ball flies an extra two yards, and goes out of bounds in the end-zone, it’s a touchback and the receiving team gets the ball on their twenty yard line. The same thing holds with a punt that bounces around within the field of play. If it goes into the end-zone, the receiving team starts on the twenty. If it stops on the one… that’s a nineteen yard advantage for the kicking team. Here, the kicking team can do something to aid their own cause. If they can run down the field in time to do it, they can grab the ball before it rolls into the end-zone or even bounce it back to one of their teammates. This can be an exciting adventure because it involves players trying to control a frustratingly oblong bouncing object after sprinting for fifty or sixty yards. Here’s a great example of a punt that the kicking team saved from bouncing into the end zone:

Another strategy is to aim for a corner of the field so that it either goes out of bounds or it’s harder for the punt returner to find space to dodge around the guys trying to tackle him. This strategy is called a “coffin corner” punt. Here’s a great example of a successful one:

Playing on the unit that covers punts for the kicking team can also be exciting because you and your buddies get to (if all goes well) tackle the punt returner. If you like playing football, it’s probably in part because you like to hit people in a completely sanctioned way. It’s pretty satisfying to watch too unless it gets too violent. Here’s a prime example of good punt coverage that ends in a decisive but not cringe worthy hit:

How do punts work in football?

Dear Sports Fan,

How do punts work in football?

Thanks,
Sara

— — —

Dear Sara,

The punt is a unique and important play in football. Punting is the most common way that possession moves from one team to the other. As such, it’s a transitional moment, and like many transitional moments, it’s fascinating because it has so many different possible outcomes.

To understand the punt, it’s important to have a quick refresher on how downs work in football. In the National Football League, whenever a team has the ball, they have four downs or attempts to move the ball ten yards. Thus, first down and ten means they are on their first chance of four to move the ball ten yards. If they run the ball two yards on their first try, the next down will be called second down and eight (to go). If they try four times and don’t travel ten yards, the other team will get the ball wherever the first team had it when they failed to get those last yards. Instead of allowing that to happen, a team can (and often does) choose to kick the ball. If they are close enough to their opponent’s end-zone, teams will usually try a field goal (kick the ball between the uprights, get three points.) If not, they usually make the decision to punt the ball.

When a team lines up on fourth down to punt the ball, instead of a quarterback behind the center, there’s a specialist player called the punter back there. Being a punter in the NFL is pretty awesome. Last year, punters in the NFL made between $495,000 and $3,250,000! It’s a nice job, but there are only 32 of them around. Punters don’t have quite the pressure on them that field goal kickers do but, like their field goal kicking brethren, they rarely get hit. The punters job is to stand about fifteen yards behind the line of scrimmage, catch the snap that comes spiraling back to him, and then punt the ball.

Lots of things can happen once a team begins to punt:

If it goes out of bounds, the team that didn’t punt (the receiving team) gets the ball wherever it left the field, no matter how high above the ground it was.
If the ball lands on the field and no one from the receiving team touches it, the punting team will race down the field and touch the football. The receiving team gets the ball wherever the punting team first touches it.
If the punt lands in the end-zone or goes out the back of the end-zone, it is a touchback and the receiving team gets the ball on the twenty yard line.
If a player from the receiving team catches the punt (or picks it up from the ground) he can run with the football. Wherever he gets tackled or goes out of bounds is where the receiving team gets to start with the ball. Normal rules apply to this runner, so if the kicking team can knock the ball out of his hands, that’s a fumble and fair game for anyone to pick up.
If someone on the receiving team tries to catch the ball but he flubs it and it falls to the ground, or if the punt just bounces off anyone from the receiving team, then the kicking team can grab the ball and they get it back for their offense! There’s usually a wild free-for-all when this happens.
Because it’s potentially pretty dangerous to be looking up in the air to catch a punt while players from the kicking team are sprinting at you trying to hit you as hard as they can, the player from the receiving team who is tasked with catching the ball can call a Fair Catch by waving their hand up in the air before catching the punt. If they call a fair catch, the opposing team is not allowed to hit them but they cannot run with the ball either. The receiving team gets the ball wherever it is caught.
The punt can be blocked by the receiving team before it gets going. When this happens, there’s a scramble to grab the ball. If the receiving team, which blocked the ball, gets it first, they can run with it as far as they can. If the kicking team gets it, they give up possession wherever they get control of the ball. In the odd case that the kicking team catches the blocked punt before it hits the ground, they can run with it!

Football is all about technicalities, isn’t it? They’re more fun when you understand them. Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at how punts can be exciting for each team.

Thanks for your question,
Ezra Fischer

The history of football team names

If the sports fan in your life loves football and history, this beautiful and comprehensive The Genealogy of Football Teams poster from HistoryShots might be a perfect gift. The 40″ by 21″ poster tracks the names, locations, divisions, conferences, and existence of all of the professional football teams from today all the way back to around 1900. Here are some of the historical highlights:

St. Louis named their team the All-Stars in the 1920s. It folded after a couple seasons.
Boston’s first football team, in the 1930s, was named the Braves. They changed their name to Redskins and then moved to Washington D.C. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the Patriots came into existence. Between the Redskins moving to Washington and the Patriots being created, the only time Boston had a team was during World War Two when they had a team called [gasp] the Boston Yanks!
World War Two created a shortage of players, so some teams merged during that time, often with rivals. My favorite tidbit is that the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles merged to become the “Steagles.” Try that one out at a cocktail party in Central Pennsylvania soon!
Then there’s just great names that haven’t survived, like the Los Angeles Dons, the Providence Steam Roller, the Staten Island Stapletons, and the Dayton Triangles.

HistoryShots is the product of partners Larry Gormley and Bill Younker. Their stated goal is to “create visual stories about subjects and topics by combining deep amounts of data with thoughtful designs” and I think they’ve succeeded with this poster. Nice work, guys! Go buy it on their website here.

Cue Cards 9-23-14

Cue Cards is a series designed to assist with the common small talk about high-profile recent sporting events that is so omnipresent in the workplace, the bar, and other social settings.

Yesterday — Monday, September 22

The Bears ground the Jets — There’s really only one thing in the sports world that happened yesterday which will create conversation today, and that’s the Chicago Bears beating the New York Jets 27-19 on Monday Night Football. It wasn’t an unexpected result, the Bears seem like they are pretty good and Jets seem like they’re tragically flawed in many of the ways they often are: mediocre quarterback, unreliable wide-receivers, slightly dysfunctional organization. The most notable aspect of the game last night was how many injuries there were on particular positional groupings. By the end of the game, the Bears were scraping the bottom of the barrel for their defensive backs but the Jets were missing their best wide receiver so it was hard for them to take advantage of it.
Line: [Jets quarterback] Geno Smith shows just enough promise to keep luring you in without delivering.
Fantasy, fantasy, fantasy — Tuesdays after otherwise quiet Mondays are the perfect time for fantasy football owners to crow or gripe about their teams. They “absolutely crushed” their league this week or they “lost by a fraction of a point because [name of player] had a touchdown called back because of [penalty, usually offensive holding]” or because they started [player] when they should have started [other player.]
Line: [Nod head, make sympathetic noises, and then launch into telling them about your hobby of fishing/crocheting/model trains/historic reenactment. Fair is fair.]

Is your team mascot offensive?

In today’s New York Times, there’s a very enjoyable little guide to determining whether your team’s mascot is offensive. By Neil Irwin, I recommend reading, “ A Super-Simple, Step-by-Step Guide to Determine if Your Team Mascot Is Offensive.” Like the best comedy, there is essential truth lying underneath. My favorite part was his second step:

Step 2: Is your team mascot an inanimate concept? You’re in good shape here, too. If you are the Boston Red Sox, your name is fine because it is a color of footwear. Miami Heat? You are named for thermal energy, which does not have an opinion on whether it is an appropriate name for a basketball team.

Week Three NFL One Liners

On Mondays during in the fall, the conversation is so dominated by NFL football that the expression “Monday morning quarterback” has entered the vernacular. The phrase is defined by Google as “a person who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event.” With the popularity of fantasy football, we now have Monday morning quarterbacks talking about football from two different perspectives. We want you to be able to participate in this great tradition, so all fall we’ll be running NFL One Liners on Monday. Use these tiny synopses throughout the day:

Week 3

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, AT 1:00 P.M. ET

San Diego Chargers 22, at Buffalo Bills 10

After beating the defending champion Seattle Seahawks last week, the Chargers went on the road and subdued the undefeated Buffalo Bills. Buffalo fans are up there in terms of nervous fan bases, so prepare to do some comforting if you’re friends with a Bills fan.
Line: The Chargers might be for real this year.

Baltimore Ravens 23, at Cleveland Browns 21

Heartbreak for the Cleveland fans after their team gave up a late lead to big-brother-rival Baltimore Ravens.
Line: Cleveland deserves good things after the way they’ve started this year. I hope this is a bump in the road, not a fall into the same old pit of despair.

Tennessee Titans 7, at Cincinnati Bengals 33

The Chargers might be for real, the Bengals ARE for real. This game was no contest. The Titans might as well have saved themselves the trip if it weren’t for the frequent flier miles they racked up. (NFL teams have chartered planes, there are no frequent flier miles.)
Line: The Bengals are for real.

Dallas Cowboys 34, at St. Louis Rams 31

The drama-drama-drama Cowboys went down 21-0 before stumbling back to a close victory over a team starting its third quarterback of the year.
Line: Sure, the Cowboys won, but they shouldn’t feel good about winning like that.

Green Bay Packers 7, at Detroit Lions 19

The Packers are normally the victor in games against the Lions but they weren’t able to keep their star quarterback, Aaron Rodgers upright consistently enough to win this week.
Line: Do we give the Packers too much respect on reputation? Maybe they’re not that good this year.

Houston Texans 17, at New York Giants 30

The heretofore horrible Giants took out their frustration on the undefeated Texans.
Line: In past years, the Giants have been like one of those horror movie villains that just won’t die. Can they pull it off again?

Indianapolis Colts 44, at Jacksonville Jaguars 17

The Jaguars are terrible. Our “good cop” was right though, we did see rookie quarterback Blake Bortles get his first NFL playing time in this game. He looked half-decent and has already been announced as next week’s starter.
Line: It’s Week 3 and the Jaguars are already playing for next year.

Minnesota Vikings 9, at New Orleans Saints 20

The Saints were desperate after losing their first two games and they showed it, jumping up to a 13 point lead and never really letting the Vikings back into the game.
Line: Okay, the Saints are back!

Oakland Raiders 9, at New England Patriots 16

This game was way closer than most people would have expected. The Patriots, although 2-1, are not inspiring a lot of confidence the way they’re playing.
Line: What is going on up there in New England? They only beat the Raiders by seven?

Washington Redskins 34, at Philadelphia Eagles 37

This game was an offense lover’s paradise, with both teams scoring a lot and failing to defend very much. There was a rare bench-clearing brawl between these two teams which resulted in not much other than a couple of ejected players.
Line: [Former Eagle] Desean Jackson may have gotten some revenge by catching a long touchdown but the Eagles had the last laugh.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, AT 4:05 and 4:25 P.M. ET

San Francisco 49ers 14, at Arizona Cardinals 23

The Cardinals were widely thought of as the best team to miss the playoffs last year. The 49ers have made it at least to the conference finals the last three years. If the results of this game are to believed, things could be turning around in their NFC West division.

Line: This might be the Cardinals’ year!

Denver Broncos 20, at Seattle Seahawks 26

I mistakenly turned this game off two separate times when I thought the Seahawks had conclusively won it. Instead, Peyton Manning led the Broncos back and back and back… and then lost in overtime.
Line: I’m not sure if losing this way is better or worse for the morale of the Broncos than losing by a wider margin would have been.

Kansas City Chiefs 34, at Miami Dolphins 15

Just when you think you know something about the NFL, the results of a game seem to prove you wrong. We thought the Chiefs were falling apart. We thought the Dolphins were strong. Now, we just don’t know.
Line: The more you know, the less you know.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, AT 8:30 P.M. ET

Pittsburgh Steelers 37, at Carolina Panthers 19

After looking like it was going to be a close, low-scoring game during the first half, the Steelers broke the game open with 28 points in the second half. Despite Carolina’s defense being thought of as one of the best in the league, the Steelers were able to run all over them. On the other side of the ball, the Steelers defense really beat up on Panthers quarterback Cam Newton.
Line: The Panthers better protect Cam Newton better if they want him to play for the rest of the year.

News Clippings: NFL in Trouble & Swimming Superheroes

One of my favorite parts of writing Dear Sports Fan is reading other great writers cover sports in a way that’s accessible and compelling for the whole spectrum from super-fans to lay people. Here are selections from some of the articles this week that inspired me. We start with two articles about the ongoing scandal in the NFL, and then move over to two profiles from Grantland.com, one about a champion Armenian fin-swimmer who became a hero when a trolley crashed into a lake and one about a teenager who may be one of the greatest athletes we’ve ever witnessed.

How Adrian Peterson Is Helping the NFL Avoid a Real Reckoning

By Bethlehem Shoals in GQ

In a lot of ways, Adrian Peterson has made Ray Rice less of a problem for the NFL. The narrative becomes one about violent athletes, not Roger Goodell’s backward attitudes and cold-blooded agenda.

The connection worth exploring isn’t the one between the behavior of Rice and Peterson, but the ways in which Goodell’s handling of the Rice situation—concealment, minimizing, double-speak, and dissimulation—mirrors the way the league continues to deal with the long-term effects of the sport on its athletes.

— — —

Giving Up on Goodell: How the NFL lost the trust of its most loyal reporters.

By Stefan Fatsis in Slate

In his book The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: The Financial Crisis and the Disappearance of Investigative Journalism, Dean Starkman describes two conflicting strains of American journalism: access reporting and accountability reporting. The former involves getting inside information from powerful institutions, the latter telling inside stories about them. “Access tends to transmit orthodox views; accountability tends to transmit heterodox views,” Starkman writes. Like Wall Street and other big institutions, the NFL prefers and—in the case of reporters like Schefter, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, and Sports Illustrated’s Peter King—facilitates access reporting. It’s good business.

With the NFL’s possible perfidy the biggest story in all of American media right now, accountability journalists will rush in from outside the sports beat to dig for dirt. And inside the league’s formerly cozy media bubble, the men and women with access are going to start demanding answers, too. If he wants to keep his job, Goodell better hope that the answers he provides are the right ones, no matter which reporters he’s talking to.

— — —

The Plunge

By Carl Schreck in Grantland

Just as Karapetyan reached the bridge, the sound of metal smashing against concrete tore through the cool evening air. He looked toward the commotion, through the blizzard of dust that had kicked up from the hillside below, and saw a trolleybus disappear below the surface of Lake Yerevan. Its two electric trolley poles poked up from the water like antennae. If Karapetyan gave any thought to his next move, he doesn’t remember it. He sprinted down the hill, ditched the weighted backpack, stripped to his skivvies, and dove into the lake.

— — —

This Is Katie F---ing Ledecky: A Thesis About Kicking Ass

By Brian Phillips in Grantland

There’s a special kind of lightness you feel when you realize you’re seeing a truly great athlete for the first time. When you understand that what you’re watching is not someone who is merely very good, or very tough, or very skilled relative to her peers, but someone to whom the normal rules do not apply. When your imagination runs the math on an athlete and returns an error sign.