1. “The Roscommon border crossing is just beyond the ball alley in Brackloon North. Travel a barrel of tar and a dumper load of blinding chips stretch of road and you’re in Gorthaganny. It was to here Mayo native Peadar Earley came to take up a teaching post in the local national school. Martin Walshe from Errew remembers the day of Peadar’s arrival in the classroom because it also coincided with his first day at school.
Little could he or even the greatest visionary have envisaged all those moons ago the lasting legacy Peadar’s son Dermot would bequeath to this tiny outpost. Gorthaganny became home to Dermot Earley, soldier and footballer. The young Dermot was a few classes ahead of Martin but it was in this school playground a friendship that lasted a lifetime was first forged.”
2. “Swanson, who was 42 years old, divorced, unemployed, and living with his girlfriend after selling his condo, was about to embark on his journey to South America, he said, because he wanted to “break away” from life as he knew it. He called his expedition ‘Breakaway Brazil.’ In an introductory video he posted on YouTube and Facebook, Swanson talked about how his layoff from a graphic design job left him feeling ‘a little bummed out.’
‘One of the things I’d always wanted to do was go and see the World Cup,” he said. “And not really feeling like I was in a position at that time to do it, you know, not having a job and not having really any income coming in — and plus being a little irritated about the whole situation — I said to myself, I should just walk to the World Cup. And, you know, kind of, Screw what happens! I don’t even care! Take off out the door and start hoofing it. Head south!’”
3. “I’m not out to change the world or the NFL or what you believe. My plan is to change me and how I operate. Beyond the period at the end of this sentence, I intend never to use the word redskin again. I say “intend” instead of “vow” because I very well could slip up and accidentally say it again in casual conversation or during an interview. For any sports fan, the word simply falls from the lips without thought. And that’s the problem with uttering a racial slur so cavalierly over the years: We don’t think about the R-word’s meaning anymore. We must not take for granted anything so harmful to other people.”
4. “The whole thing starts on a sideline out-of-bounds situation with 14 on the shot clock. The Spurs try to run a Parker/Splitter pick-and-roll with 10 seconds left, but the play is shut off because of poor spacing from Kawhi Leonard. By standing under the basket, Leonard has allowed James to position himself under the rim, preventing a lob pass to Splitter for a layup.”
5. “There’s a great line in the movie Quiz Show … well, there are a lot of great lines in Quiz Show, but the one I think of now is when investigator Dick Goodwin delivers a subpoena to the fraudulent but thoroughly likable Charles Van Doren. Goodwin has figured out that Van Doren, who had gained nationwide fame as a quiz show contestant on Twenty One, was given the answers in advance. He had also wanted to keep Van Doren out of the investigation, in part because he liked Van Doren. Then Van Doren double-crossed him, pleaded his innocence publicly, and Goodwin had no choice but to bring out the subpoena.
“I can’t decide if you think too much of me or too little,” Van Doren says.
“Charlie,” Goodwin says, “I want to think the best of you. Everybody does.”
There are some people in life — in sports, in entertainment, in politics, in your personal world — who just fit that line. Sometimes they are called “Teflon,” as if bad things just slip off them, but I don’t think that’s quite the image I see. It’s a deeper thing with some people — they have this certain kind of charisma that inspires other to think the best of them. We give them the benefit of the doubt. We emphasize their virtues and overlook their deficiencies. We see in them what we want to see. This, I think, was what made the Bert Blyleven-Jack Morris Hall of Fame discussion so interesting.”
Joe Posnanski has appeared on these pages more than me at this stage. Here he is again.
Dermot Earley, Quiz Show and the man who walked to Rio: the week's best sportswriting
1. “The Roscommon border crossing is just beyond the ball alley in Brackloon North. Travel a barrel of tar and a dumper load of blinding chips stretch of road and you’re in Gorthaganny. It was to here Mayo native Peadar Earley came to take up a teaching post in the local national school. Martin Walshe from Errew remembers the day of Peadar’s arrival in the classroom because it also coincided with his first day at school.
Little could he or even the greatest visionary have envisaged all those moons ago the lasting legacy Peadar’s son Dermot would bequeath to this tiny outpost. Gorthaganny became home to Dermot Earley, soldier and footballer. The young Dermot was a few classes ahead of Martin but it was in this school playground a friendship that lasted a lifetime was first forged.”
This is a lovely piece in the Mayo News by Willie McHugh about a GAA legend. Worth a read.
2. “Swanson, who was 42 years old, divorced, unemployed, and living with his girlfriend after selling his condo, was about to embark on his journey to South America, he said, because he wanted to “break away” from life as he knew it. He called his expedition ‘Breakaway Brazil.’ In an introductory video he posted on YouTube and Facebook, Swanson talked about how his layoff from a graphic design job left him feeling ‘a little bummed out.’
‘One of the things I’d always wanted to do was go and see the World Cup,” he said. “And not really feeling like I was in a position at that time to do it, you know, not having a job and not having really any income coming in — and plus being a little irritated about the whole situation — I said to myself, I should just walk to the World Cup. And, you know, kind of, Screw what happens! I don’t even care! Take off out the door and start hoofing it. Head south!’”
Grantland’s Robert Andrew Powell pieces together the sad story of the man who tried to walk to Rio but made the headlines for the wrong reason recently.
3. “I’m not out to change the world or the NFL or what you believe. My plan is to change me and how I operate. Beyond the period at the end of this sentence, I intend never to use the word redskin again. I say “intend” instead of “vow” because I very well could slip up and accidentally say it again in casual conversation or during an interview. For any sports fan, the word simply falls from the lips without thought. And that’s the problem with uttering a racial slur so cavalierly over the years: We don’t think about the R-word’s meaning anymore. We must not take for granted anything so harmful to other people.”
Tim Graham of the Buffalo News — we take it every morning — takes a small but admirable personal stance on the Redskins debate in the US.
4. “The whole thing starts on a sideline out-of-bounds situation with 14 on the shot clock. The Spurs try to run a Parker/Splitter pick-and-roll with 10 seconds left, but the play is shut off because of poor spacing from Kawhi Leonard. By standing under the basket, Leonard has allowed James to position himself under the rim, preventing a lob pass to Splitter for a layup.”
Here comes the science bit… SB Nation takes a scalpel to THAT LeBron block.
5. “There’s a great line in the movie Quiz Show … well, there are a lot of great lines in Quiz Show, but the one I think of now is when investigator Dick Goodwin delivers a subpoena to the fraudulent but thoroughly likable Charles Van Doren. Goodwin has figured out that Van Doren, who had gained nationwide fame as a quiz show contestant on Twenty One, was given the answers in advance. He had also wanted to keep Van Doren out of the investigation, in part because he liked Van Doren. Then Van Doren double-crossed him, pleaded his innocence publicly, and Goodwin had no choice but to bring out the subpoena.
“I can’t decide if you think too much of me or too little,” Van Doren says.
“Charlie,” Goodwin says, “I want to think the best of you. Everybody does.”
There are some people in life — in sports, in entertainment, in politics, in your personal world — who just fit that line. Sometimes they are called “Teflon,” as if bad things just slip off them, but I don’t think that’s quite the image I see. It’s a deeper thing with some people — they have this certain kind of charisma that inspires other to think the best of them. We give them the benefit of the doubt. We emphasize their virtues and overlook their deficiencies. We see in them what we want to see. This, I think, was what made the Bert Blyleven-Jack Morris Hall of Fame discussion so interesting.”
Joe Posnanski has appeared on these pages more than me at this stage. Here he is again.
6. And an extra one for luck? This is so much more than words….
Everything you need to know about the Confederations Cup
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Editor's picks GAA Reading Rugby Sports writing