How They Saved Hamlin’s Life
Much has been made about the Bills’ Damar Hamlin collapsing in cardiac arrest in Monday’s NFL game between the Bills and Bengals, and much has been said about the dangers of football. Somewhere in the middle of this story was what appears to be a pretty excellent example of medical professionals being prepared for the worst at an NFL game. This account walks us through the incident from the POV of the emergency response team onsite. After reading—and hearing—the story, you’ll understand why there’s an old joke about the best places to have cardiac arrest is either at the airport or football stadium.
While it appears Hamlin is heading in the right direction towards recovery, this story makes it very clear just how precarious the situation was and how quickly a team of medical personnel jumped into action.
Cool story to shine a light on the folks that brought Hamlin back to life. – PAL
Source: “‘We’re Going to Need Everybody’: Recordings Captured Response to N.F.L. Crisis,” Ken Belson, Alan Blinder and Robin Stein, The New York Times (01/05/23)
Sports Hate Is So Funny
God bless Drew Magary. He’s a longtime Vikings fan, a pretty solid writer, and he hates Aaron Rodgers so, so, so much. After the Packers demolished the pretend-good Vikings to get one win away from the playoffs in a season that was toast in November (4-8), Magary’s sports hate just flows so perfectly in this column.
To whit:
The Packers haven’t lost since November. Once December hit, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur — who looks like a sniveling Frenchman up to no good — said to his team, “Hey, maybe we should have meetings together as an offense instead of trying to hash everything out by bitching to sweaty podcasters.” That was apparently all that a hateful God needed to let Rodgers and the Packers rip off four straight wins, capped with a 41-17 demolition of my team, the Minnesota Vikings, just a few days ago. I’d tell God that he owes me, but I just know he’d end up letting me down anyway. He always does. Least reliable god there is.
The only thing better than the Packers losing next week, thereby teasing its wretched fans with hope, would be for them to actually make the playoffs, then get pulverized by the Niners. I’m not the biggest Vikings fan, but I’m right there with Magary on this sports hate for Rodgers. – PAL
Source: “Please, God, Let This be the End of Aaron Rodgers,” Drew Magary, SFGate (01/04/23)
TOB: Magary obviously comes to his Aaron Rodgers feelings from the opposite direction as I do. Magary is a Vikings fan, and Rodgers has played for his team’s rival for his entire career – and most of Magary’s adult life. That’s easy sports hate.
My sports hate is very conflicted. Until recently, Rodgers was my favorite player of all time. Top 3, at least. The first time I saw him throw a pass I predicted he would win the Heisman (didn’t happen, but 4 NFL MVPs is a pretty nice consolation for my prediction).
For me, Rodgers is like that local band you saw at Battle of the Bands. You recognized the talent and star power immediately, and admired them as they rose to the top. Sure, along the way the lead singer said some things and did some things that you weren’t thrilled about. But it was fine! It was nothing major. And god damn did they kick ass. And then it wasn’t fine. Rodgers is an anti-vaxxer. He intentionally misled the public about his vaccination status. He has turned into a complete embarrassment for me. I no longer claim him as my own.
Even sports hate is too strong, though. I’m like a disappointed father, waiting for his kid to apologize and right his wrongs. Come back, Aaron!
The World Cup Was Awesome
A little late here, due to holiday travel. But the World Cup was freakin awesome, right? And it was capped off by the best soccer game I’ve ever seen, and one of the best games of any sport, I’ve ever seen. Here’s Brian Phillips, quickly rising up the ranks of my favorite writers, on how incredible this game was:
But I need you to know exactly what you are getting, as Joan Didion once wrote, and what you are getting is a man who cannot feel his face. My hands are still shaking. There are tears in my eyes. I’m writing this less than 10 minutes after the end of the greatest World Cup final ever, which Lionel Messi’s Argentina won on penalties over Kylian Mbappé’s France, and I do not believe it is recency bias that makes me think that this match was the single most thrilling sporting event I have ever witnessed. Every game is a story. And when you consider the stakes, the performances, the history in the balance, the refusal of either side to lose, the moments of astonishing play, the sudden reversals and wild swings of momentum, the knife’s-edge uncertainty of the outcome, and the epochal significance of a result that brought the career of the world’s best player to an almost magically perfect climax, it is hard to imagine a story more overwhelming or more satisfying than this one.
There’s something so pure—I want to say so innocent—about a story like this. It’s a story that feels lifted from a children’s book, a story unblemished by the disappointments and compromises and hypocrisies inescapable in adult life. This is, in a way, the essence of sport’s appeal to us. It lets us escape, for a few hours at a time, into a better world.
Phillips nails it. Particularly when considering all the stakes. It was not just a World Cup final. Think about what this meant for Messi.
Messi, the greatest player of his generation trying to cement his legacy by finally winning the big one.
Messi, trying to get the ghost of Maradona off his back.
Messi, facing his own club teammate and his heir apparent, Kylian Mbappe, trying to keep Mbappe from winning his second World Cup.
And he did it. It was an incredible performance by Messi, and by Mbappe.
Maybe it was that undisguised emotion that made this story feel so childlike. I’ve been writing about Lionel Messi, in one form or another, since he was 20 years old and practically a child. I’ve been writing about Kylian Mbappé since he was even younger than that. Watching them today, with Messi at 35 and Mbappé at 23, I found myself thinking about what it means to grow up, what it means to confront all those compromises and disappointments from which soccer gives us a temporary escape.
Look at Messi now. He’s no longer the wide-eyed elf who danced through defenses for Barcelona. He carries some marks of time on him. Not many—not after his singularly blessed and idolized life—but some. You can see in his eyes that he’s taken some knocks, that he’s aware of the possibility of failure, that he knows life is not always going to give him exactly what he wants. He looks at the ball, before running up to take a penalty, not with blithe confidence but with a sort of chastened determination. Everyone, even Leo Messi, has to learn that reality doesn’t revolve around him all the time.
Mbappé, by contrast, looks utterly convinced of his own destiny. He looks certain, the way a child is certain, that he is the hero of the story. He glares fearlessly at every challenge, because being young is like holding a magic feather; it means believing that you are the chosen child of the universe, and if you do your best, you will inevitably be rewarded with a win.
What a game. And man, Phillips is so good. -TOB
Source: “We Are All Witnesses,” Brian Phillips, The Ringer (12/18/2022)
What Happens in an NFL Halftime
49ers beat writer Matt Barrows set out to answer a question I’ve long had – what exactly happens in an NFL halftime. Luckily, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan let him be a fly on the wall. It’s a really fascinating read.
So what is an NFL halftime like? Well, surprisingly quiet, at least for the 49ers offense:
It’s like an advanced-level math seminar condensed to six minutes. Shanahan is on the left side of the whiteboard, scribbling down the eight or so pass plays he likes for the second half. On the right side of the board, run game coordinator Chris Foerster and tight ends coach Brian Fleury do the same for the run plays.
The players silently look on as the coaches write. There’s not much discussion on that side of the room. Shanahan expects everyone to concentrate on the board. None studies it more closely than quarterback Brock Purdy, who is making his first NFL start that day.
There’s more, and it’s worth a read. -TOB
Source: “Inside the 49ers’ halftime locker room: Bananas, bathroom trips and study time for Brock Purdy,” Matt Barrows, The Athletic (12/30/2022)
The Rising Cost of Youth Sports
Recently, the Washington Post had an article about the rising costs of youth sports. As a parent of a young athlete, I can tell you first-hand that it is a lot of money.
One of the families featured in the story stuck with me – the family of Kamiya Vasquez, a 12-year old basketball player from Michigan.
Kamiya is talented, but her family cannot afford to put her on a travel team:
Kamiya often asks her father if she can try out for local travel teams, some of which charge more than $1,200 just for registration. He explains that the family can’t afford it right now but that he and his wife, Summer, are saving as much as they can, putting away $20 or $30 each month from their paychecks.
“We could pay, but we would be hurting,” Juoquin said. “It’s like, ‘We’ll pay the fee, but can we attach the car payment to it?’ ”
It’s tough to read. I feel for this dad. But if a parent’s reason for spending this much money to get your kid a college scholarship, I can’t help but wonder if the return on investment is there.
Kamiya wants to play basketball at Michigan State. The average cost of attendance at Michigan State, after aid, for a family at their income level, is $6,927 per year, according tothe U.S. Dept. of Education. That’s about $28,000 over 4 years. If Kamiya’s family spends $3,000 a year on various sports (this could easily be higher) for 8 years (from age 10-18), then they’ve spent $24,000 – not including all the hidden costs, travel, hotels, etc. I get wanting the best for your kid. But a college scholarship is not a golden ticket and parents should consider how much they’re getting out of that investment. -TOB
Source: “In Youth Sports, Talent Helps But Money Rules,” Roman Stubbs, Washington Post (12/12/2022)
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