“IT WAS PROBABLY oddly fitting that the match that would prove so transformative for the quality, glamour and scope of the competition, however, was a poor game played in front of nobody. Described by Mundo Deportivo at the time as a “cold” occasion where the players were “orphaned” on the pitch, it did heat up between the teams. Both squads probably took Maradona’s demand to “go and batter them!” a bit too literally. Many kicks and apparently punches were traded, a bag of ice was thrown at Real manager Leo Beenhakker, and Napoli’s Salvatore Bagni later claimed the Dutch coach and some of his players had called him “mafioso”.”
“You can watch all of Conor McGregor’s fights in an afternoon. Even if you’re not an MMA fan, I would encourage doing this. It’s like watching a caterpillar become a butterfly become the bolt gun used by Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. He is a genius of timing. He finds ways to hit people when they are least prepared to be hit. He seems calmer in a cage than many of us are in the grocery store on a Tuesday afternoon. He fights with his hands up, almost in apology. His right hand tends to reach out and repeatedly grab air, like he’s looking for a light switch in the dark. His left hand lowers opponents to the floor.”
“If he was nervous, you couldn’t tell,” recalled Bob Friend, one of his playing partners that day. “Tiger carried himself like a senior in college, a four-time first-team All-American. Very calm, very cool, a lot of moxie, a lot of poise. He was a gentleman the entire time. You play with some guys who haven’t played in a pro event and they’re standing in your through line or their bag is in the wrong place. But he was great with all of that.”
“The changes in the architecture of sportswriting also changed the profession’s great dilemma. For a century, even sportswriters who had curious minds felt the narcotic pull of the toy department. (It took the carnage of the ’68 Democratic National Convention to shock Red Smith into consciousness.) Then — once woke — the sportswriter faced a second problem: What do I do? Try to sneak politics into my column? Abandon the good salary and Marriott points offered by sportswriting to do “real work” on the front page?”
“My postgame interview after a 3–0 loss to Middlesbrough only made matters worse. I said that we needed to show more resilience “on the road” (the English prefer the word away), and referred to a penalty kick as a “PK.” People on social media screamed that American sports terms had no place in the Premier League. By the time we returned home to the Liberty for our next match against West Ham, I knew the pressure was on.”
The game that changed the face of European football and this week's best sportswriting
“IT WAS PROBABLY oddly fitting that the match that would prove so transformative for the quality, glamour and scope of the competition, however, was a poor game played in front of nobody. Described by Mundo Deportivo at the time as a “cold” occasion where the players were “orphaned” on the pitch, it did heat up between the teams. Both squads probably took Maradona’s demand to “go and batter them!” a bit too literally. Many kicks and apparently punches were traded, a bag of ice was thrown at Real manager Leo Beenhakker, and Napoli’s Salvatore Bagni later claimed the Dutch coach and some of his players had called him “mafioso”.”
The Independent’s Miguel Delaney tells the story of the ‘super match’ between Emilio Butragueno’s Real Madrid and Diego Maradona’s Napoli in 1987 and how it changed the face of European football with the birth of the Champions League.
“You can watch all of Conor McGregor’s fights in an afternoon. Even if you’re not an MMA fan, I would encourage doing this. It’s like watching a caterpillar become a butterfly become the bolt gun used by Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. He is a genius of timing. He finds ways to hit people when they are least prepared to be hit. He seems calmer in a cage than many of us are in the grocery store on a Tuesday afternoon. He fights with his hands up, almost in apology. His right hand tends to reach out and repeatedly grab air, like he’s looking for a light switch in the dark. His left hand lowers opponents to the floor.”
Ireland’s UFC lightweight champion gets the GQ cover treatment from Zach Baron. As usual, the interview has divided opinion.
“If he was nervous, you couldn’t tell,” recalled Bob Friend, one of his playing partners that day. “Tiger carried himself like a senior in college, a four-time first-team All-American. Very calm, very cool, a lot of moxie, a lot of poise. He was a gentleman the entire time. You play with some guys who haven’t played in a pro event and they’re standing in your through line or their bag is in the wrong place. But he was great with all of that.”
ESPN senior write Jason Sobel looks at how a 16-year-old Tiger Woods measured up versus the pros.
“The changes in the architecture of sportswriting also changed the profession’s great dilemma. For a century, even sportswriters who had curious minds felt the narcotic pull of the toy department. (It took the carnage of the ’68 Democratic National Convention to shock Red Smith into consciousness.) Then — once woke — the sportswriter faced a second problem: What do I do? Try to sneak politics into my column? Abandon the good salary and Marriott points offered by sportswriting to do “real work” on the front page?”
In The Ringer, Bryan Curtis on how sportswriting became a liberal profession.
“My postgame interview after a 3–0 loss to Middlesbrough only made matters worse. I said that we needed to show more resilience “on the road” (the English prefer the word away), and referred to a penalty kick as a “PK.” People on social media screamed that American sports terms had no place in the Premier League. By the time we returned home to the Liberty for our next match against West Ham, I knew the pressure was on.”
Bob Bradley lasted 70 days in the Swansea job and the American coach has written a piece on his short-lived spell in the Premier League for The Players Tribune.
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