“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds on its ability to engage you, make you think, and give you a glimpse into someone else’s head – even if you decide that’s a place you don’t want to be.” – Malcolm Gladwell, from What The Dog Saw
“Just Get Open” – How a Non-Traditional Background in Football Helped Mike Leach Change College Football
On a cool fall night in Lubbock, TX, Mike Leach’s Texas Tech Red Raiders football team had eight seconds to pull off the unthinkable. The year was 2008. On the opposing sideline stood Mack Brown – head coach of the number one ranked Texas Longhorns. Three seasons ago, Brown hoisted
How the 1954 Mad Bomber case illuminated a critical mistake that almost cost this NFL team their first overall pick
Back in 1956, the New York Police Department was desperate. Over the past two years, the city had become victim to 10 different bombing attacks. The events were recognized not as isolated incidents, but a series of interrelated crimes traced back to one elusive man. The man responsible became known
Minnesota – Let’s Get to Work.
It was about a year ago I read something that stopped me in my tracks. I read it in Tom Verducci’s book The Cubs Way – a behind the scenes look at how the 2016 Chicago Cubs finally won it all, breaking their infamous 108-year World Series drought. Theo Epstein
“Man Boobs” and Moneyball: The origin of a story that goes much further than sabermetrics
In the early 2000s, Michael Lewis was investigating a theory. In 1999, he published The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story. Born from his experiences working at Salomon Brothers – American multinational bulge bracket investment bank – Lewis detailed the growing entrepreneurial culture just south of San Francisco at the
Travel Baseball & The Triangle Offense: How My First Summer Coaching Resembled Phil Jackson’s Greatest Challenge
The fourth quarter of the 1991 NBA Finals was about to begin. Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers and Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls were deadlocked at 80 in a decisive game five. Jordan, over the first seven years of his career, had established himself as one of the most dynamic scorers
How these two prospects showed us “stats are really for losers” – but in two distinctly different ways
The 1999 MLB amateur draft was approaching. Tampa Bay – coming off their first ever season in franchise history – owned the first overall pick. They had their eyes on two particular prospects. Both were high school prospects hailing from the Southeast part of the country; one a right handed