Best of 2017: Sports Writing

They cruise down the dusty, open road, the teacher and the pupil, the making of history only months away.

He has been called the most talented player since Roger Federer. But does he even want to win?

This Deadspin tale is nothing short of bonkers. (The site is owning the sports-catfishing beat.) Adler reports that at age 13, Becca Schultz assumed the false online identity of Ryan Schultz, a married father of two — and an aspiring White Sox blogger — who was studying to become a pharmacist. While masquerading as Ryan, Schultz trolled women online, inflicting real pain on some, and was cradled by the “exploitative ecosystem of online sportswriting, which created the conditions for her to get her enviable opportunities without much interrogation from editors…” Adler’s tale illustrates the…

Any given weekend, being allowed to enter the Vintage Lounge seems highly probable, so long as you are 21 years of age and follow the rules of the sign on the door: no ball caps and no beanies, no loose-fitting T-shirts or oversized T-shirts, no baggy pants or baggy shorts, and no saggy pants and no saggy shorts and no sleeveless shirts and no biker vests and no sportswear. The Vintage Lounge is not open on Sundays.

Popovich, the NBA’s curmudgeonly genius, as tactician, teacher, policy wonk … and commander in chief? One of the most interesting profiles on the NBA’s most interesting coach features anecdotes and insights that really give you a lens into his personality.

In college, Kaepernick began a journey that led him to his position as one of the most prominent, if divisive, social activists in sports.

Take an inside look at the White Sox’s experiment with Justin Jirschele, the youngest coach in professional baseball.

How do you move on after losing the love of your life? One year after the tragic death of his wife, Monty Williams tries to answer that question.

Cowboys owner’s cartoon personality masks a shrewd businessman who recognizes trouble — and opportunity — before others do.

Brazilian soccer player Helio Nampier Neto’s had a premonition of a plane crash followed by his own inexplicable survival. Then a plane ferrying the player and his teammates to a storybook final match goes completely silent 11 miles from the runway before crashing. Seventy-one people on board die, including nearly all the members of the Chapecoense team. Neto is one of only six survivors.

Kate Maston takes off from third base, barreling toward home plate. Waiting for her arrival is the opposing catcher, a 12-year-old boy who is a year older and almost a foot taller than she. He's also in her way. No big deal. She's quick and she's nimble. She's also unafraid. In a race to beat the throw and the tag, Maston instinctively gets low as she closes in on home plate. So low that she slides her slender 5'0" body feet-first through the catcher's legs. A cloud of red dirt engulfs the catch

It’s imperative to cut through the noise surrounding Colin Kaepernick’s current unemployment, and nothing is noisier than the idea that NFL teams will not sign Kaepernick because he is a “distraction.” It’s football’s laziest cliché, a catchall for anything or anyone a team might not like. Stop hiding behind code. Stop trumpeting the idea that […]

Every living sportswriter wanted a good Aaron Rodgers story. I got pitches for at least three during my time at Esquire , always with a long list of caveats about the topics his reps considered out of bounds (the most interesting ones, of course). So when he finally agreed to a profile without restrictions, and insisted the interview be conducted in the writer’s home, it should have been a recipe for the type of bland mush that makes up so many athlete profiles. Except the writer was Mina Kimes, so the story was filled with so much insight that I had to read it twice to catch all the perfe…

In Neiko Primus, the basketball world sees a phenom. His mom sees a kid with only one chance to grow up.

What the U.S. Olympic Committee can — and can’t — do about sexual abuse