Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Summary: Gladwell speaks with an ex-veteran offensive lineman who played in the NFL. Kyle Turley, who played for the St. Louis Rams as the article indicates, says that an offensive lineman in the NFL calibre can not do his job without "using his head." Turley explains how in his position, there is collision after collision at every snap of the ball, and there is no way to avoid it: thats the job. He explains that at the times the offense put together a long drive of a 15-18 play series, starting from the team's own 5-yard line and fighting all the way to the goal line, he would be seeing spots by the time the drive was over because his head was getting wacked. Turley remembers a game when he was playing the Green Bay Packers, and he got hit in the back of the head by a guy's knee and fell unconscious. He was completely lost, "f*cked up" as your team mates would call you on the sidelines, according to Turley. That thursday, they cleared him for practice even though he felt he shouldn't have been. Turley explains: "Thats football. You're told either that you're hurt or that you're injured. There is no middle ground. If you are hurt, you can play. If you are injured, you can't, and the line is whether you can walk and if you can put on a helmet and pads."
What I learned about writing: By reading a sports-related article this week in The New Yorker, instead of Sports Illustrated, I noticed how the author told more of a sports "story" rather than listing of facts and stats in a story. Its more intriguing, personal... enjoyable. I mean, I could turn on the TV and turn to SportsCenter or Sportsnet Connected and find exactly what I'm getting from SI: the big stories in the sports world, for example, the upset of the Kansas City Chiefs over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The New Yorker focused on a specific story of one player's experiences: something that sports networks don't always do. You know what I really liked though, this guy, Kyle Turley... I don't have a damn clue who he is or that he even played in the NFL. Its great because I learned about him, about the guy who you wouldn't see in headline sports news. Lets be real, the majority of the time you're only getting the "big names" in the high-end sports networks, like SI or SportsCenter. You hear the Brett Favres, the Alexander Ovechkins, the Lebron James, but never the "smaller" guys... the Kyle Turleys. I mean, afterall, the offensive lineman are the people who give the chance for a quarterback like Brett Favre to throw that 80-yard TD pass. They are just as much a part of the game, but never get enough credit.
I liked how Gladwell gives the article to Turley in a sense. It is Turley who seems to be writing the article because of how many times he is quoted to bring life to this "different" kind of sports article. I find it awesome that I find a sports story like this in The New Yorker (which clearly does not specify in sports) but if I was to write about SI again this week, you would probably be looking at a blog post about the Denver Broncos' demise. Isn't this cooler anyway? I learned this week that there is the other side of writing to sports. You just need to go looking "behind the scenes."
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