So, a lot of terrible things are happening in the NFL right now. As this helpful piece from CNN breaks down, there are currently six players who have been punished for very recently doing awful things to their loved ones.
If you were to surmise that this recent spate of stories of abuse and subsequent arrests were just a symptom of a larger, league-wide problem, you’d be right! USA Today actually has an NFL Arrests Tracker, which, if it’s entirely accurate, shows that there have been nearly 40 arrests made on NFL players in 2014 alone. I mean, the fact there is a need for such a tracker is ridiculous, but what has the NFL been doing to combat these problems? Fining players for bad behavior, I guess, but what’s a three-to-four figure fine to someone making millions of dollars? Luckily, while the NFL’s inept administration takes weeks to figure out how to “do the right thing,” Jon Stewart is on the case. (The sad thing? This video is already out of date. And it was recorded and aired yesterday.)
Luckily sports aren’t always such a bummer. (Though, for the lives of many high schoolers, they will always be the seeds of nightmares.) This past Sunday, Buzzfeed ran an essay by Sean Wilsey that mixes his own skateboarding origin story with the history of the iconic skating mag Thrasher. (Also, Isaac Fitzgerald tweeted about it incessantly which, good job, Isaac, that’s why it’s now here.) This is one of those magical sports essays that is not so much a sports essay, but instead an examination of the sport as something deeper, something almost intrinsic to one’s being. That sounds kind of phony, but this essay is not. It is real! It features skinheads, broken bones, hamburger hands, and so much more. It is one of those rare pieces of writing that can transform what was once your hardened opinion of something. It is to skateboarding what David Foster Wallace’s essay on Federer was to tennis.
And, if anything, at a time when sports news is facing a deluge of rightfully negative press, it’s nice to have a reminder that sports have the potential to transcend all of that.
In other news:
Love it or hate it, the trend of “whoa,” “ho,” and “hey,” as vocal centerpieces in pop songs is going nowhere soon. Ever wonder who was to blame for the relatively recent resurgence of these shout-fests? Look no further.
My brother and I used to have Goosebumps speed-reading competitions, so it was a nice treat to see this Q&A with the series’ author, R.L. Stine, over at the A.V. Club. I would’ve paid more than ten bucks to be terrorized in one of his books, though.
And lastly, for a little fright in your afternoon, check out the trailer for the latest installment of the classic horror game franchise Silent Hill. Starring The Walking Dead‘s Norman Reedus, and produced by Guillermo Del Toro and video game legend Hideo Kojima, Silent Hills looks atmospherically horrific.