Dribbling in the Dark
What it’s like to be 14 in a new school, a new city away from home—and the wrong ethnicity in a divided country.
sports
A collection of 109 issues
Powerlifter
Traditionally ostracized in the weight room, women who dare to lift weights discover strength they were previously denied.
How to Drink in Qatar
The World Cup and its drunken fans are about to crash head-first into a repressive, restrictive society, where alcohol is illegal mostly everywhere.
The Economic Benefits of Alien Abduction
According to economists, if intelligent life elsewhere wants to kidnap earthlings, there must be a reason—and a business model.
All the Bikes We Cannot See
A record number of injuries and disqualifications in this year’s Tour de France is being blamed on addictions to contemporary fiction.
Union Square Sports Bar
An adventure of food and drink in San Francisco naturally expands to include Ornette Coleman, Mexican wedding cookies, and a pet monkey admiring the ocean.
This Will Be the Year That Was
If you can't wait to find out what 2015 will bring—from John Galliano's Cosby sweaters to Jenny McCarthy getting polio—wait no longer. (Spoilers ahead.)
Grading the President
As President Obama enters his final days in office, a proper assessment of his tenure requires a variety of measurable, non-political categories: golf, offspring, homebrewing, and more.
Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar
In the city of Irvine, in the county of Orange, in the state of California during a season of sports, sometimes America reaches maximum volume.
Back to Skol
NFL star Randy Moss is now a high school coach. A Vikings fan explains how watching one childhood hero move on with his life helps him say goodbye to another.
The Iron in Man
How a book, booze, and a guilty hangover brought an admittedly non-athletic man to the starting line, and what happened next.
The Vegan Love Palace Bike Tour Test
Nobody stands between one cyclist and her cheese on a vegetable-fueled bike tour through Eastern Europe.
The Art of Swimming
Three near-drownings elucidate the wisdom of a 17th-century guide to swimming safety and technique.
Glad I’m Not You
The instinct to applaud boot-strapping and the comeback kid is as American as apple pie. So why does schadenfreude make us feel so good?
Day of the Goose
Small towns around Europe host goose-pulling days—contests to snap the necks of birds at high speed. In the name of sport and pride, a tradition from the Middle Ages prospers, criticism notwithstanding.
Poor Sochi
Our Russia hand submits a roll-up of all the corruption, crises, ill-preparedness, highways paved with French luggage, and other #sochiproblems surrounding Putin’s graft-gutted Winter Olympics.
League Loves All Women
For decades, the NFL has been supported by ads that degrade women. But something changed in 2013—and it’s got everything to do with concussions. Prepare for the battle of mama-friendly beer spots.
This Will Be the Year That Was
At the dawn of 2014, we anticipate what will happen in our new year. This is what will happen.
Editors' Favorites From 2013
The staff choose their most-liked pieces published in 2013: a trip to Patsy Cline's divided hometown, the complete biography of North West, a cold case of hit-and-run, and no shortage of great quotes about dead bodies.
Dancer in the Dark
An American ballerina makes headlines when she says the Bolshoi Ballet wanted a bribe to let her perform. The company denies her accusation. But a small library in Virginia knew about it first.
Let Football Live
Cracks are appearing in football’s helmet—injuries to athletes, injuries to the game. For one former high school and college player, the damage has gone too far.
The Cyclist’s Dilemma
Afternoons in the big city are terrible. Sunsets are horrifying, nights are long and anxious. Other people have choices, but not you. Then suddenly, a bicycle.
No One Is Innocent
Think baseball today is rotten from drugs and punks? A century ago, things weren’t much better. A brief history of baseball's dark traditions—cheating, substance abuse, obscenity, violence—and the colorful players who brought them to life.
How Der Boss President Changed Baseball
In the late 1870s, baseball was at risk of dying out before it even got started, strangled by a teetotaling, law-abiding, church-going new league. Then a German saloonkeeper in St. Louis got involved.
We Are the Resurrection
A reporter spends a season trailing one of London's most infamous soccer clubs while its soul is rebuilt from scratch. A cautionary tale—for New Yorkers, especially—of super fans, gonzo money, and the doctrine that is "organic football."
Overhand Right
Boxing belongs to the young. For an off-and-on wannabe, back in the ring and facing down The Chainsaw, the stakes are higher than they’ll ever be.
Sick and Famous
Colds and flus happen—but as pop stars, stage actors, and athletes know all too well, that’s rarely enough of a reason to call in sick. How they cope when the show must go on.
Midfield
Your opponents have something to prove, certain wishes they want fulfilled. Also, they really hope their knees don’t blow out before halftime. Welcome to over-40s soccer.
Games Kittens Play
How to play, how to win, and how to act like you won whether you did or not.
Game Over
The NFL is an emperor with no clothes, no morals, and vaults of gold. As we prepare for Super Bowl XLVII, author Dave Zirin explains how greed and corruption have ruined the game, endangered players, and fleeced the public.
Twilight on the Tundra
How do you see what mushers see? You mush. An adventure on the Beringia, a dog sled race stretching over Russia’s easternmost tundra. If in the process you see more than you ever expected—more of humanity, more of yourself—then thank the people of 685 miles of snow.
Submerged
Every four years, the world rediscovers swimming—that pleasant recreation turned into a furious race of hulks. But not everyone watches simply as a fan. The former competitive swimmer is never fully a land-bound mammal.
How to Attend the Olympics Without Really Dying
Rules are strict. Instructions are confusing, intimidating. Are your possessions “unclean” and therefore banned? Will you survive? A guide through the rules and corporate yatter of London’s sparkling Olympic mess.
The Bull Passes Through
Every summer, many are injured when bulls run the streets in Spain. A report from inside one man’s skull before the rocket goes off.
Primera Vez
The thing you’ve come to Sevilla to see is the ritualized killing of bulls. What you also see: ancient architecture, handsome crowds, enormous animals, glittering suits, red capes, long swords, tradition.
Big Blue Nights
Victory has many faces—some of them just happen to be painted. A story of violence, true love, the road from New York to Lexington, and the religion that is college basketball.
How to Not Kill a Cyclist
A plea for safety from cyclists to motorists.
Our Future National Pastime
Predictions for the baseball season ahead from someone who hasn’t paid attention to sports statistics since the 1992 Orioles.
Rebellion Rules in a Conformist World
Last year, our correspondent entered a March Madness pool with brackets filled out by his mother, who knows nothing about NCAA men's basketball. He won. Now it's time for lightning to strike twice.
Diary of a Post-Adrenaline Junkie
Some decisions are best made heedlessly, based on the chance for an epic story—and some people think like that all the time. A report on what it’s like to slide down a volcano on a piece of sheet metal at 55 mph.
Yoga for Presidential Candidates
Running for president is stressful and allows little time for exercise. But a special set of yoga positions, from the Downward-Facing Spiral to a Soaring Newt, can offer just the break from routine that a candidate needs.
The Procreant Urge
Ted Williams’s last game for the Red Sox was almost a flop. But it provided fuel for one of the best sports essays of all time—until the author started tinkering. On baseball, “The Simpsons,” and the creative impulse to never stop.
PAX Primer
Every year, tens of thousands of gamers descend on Seattle to attend a convention that began as a webcomic, and has grown into the epicenter of gaming culture. An account from this year's event, which encompassed nearly every imaginable game genre—and a few never before imagined.
Cosa Nostalgia
How Hyman Roth's quip in The Godfather: Part II picks up on a cinematic pastime, and exposits layer upon layer of information about his character.
Man-barrass Your Way to Love
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week, we show you how a well-chosen nickname can bend your mate’s will.
Define the Ratio of People to Cake
After the world’s oddest job-interview questions, from companies like Citigroup and Facebook, were revealed, our writer decided to take all of them to prove he’s hirable anywhere.
What the Fuck Cricket Is
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week, we solve one of Earth’s trickiest mysteries involving bats, balls, and scuttlewicks.
Hedgestrong
Accused of fraud and perjury, Lance Armstrong is under fire from federal prosecutors. But, well, Wall Street got off. Options for the cyclist from a banker’s point of view.
The Butler Beats the Old Dominion to a Metaphorical Pulp!
March Madness is not self-explanatory. To assist our coverage, a mother and son discuss over instant-message how college basketball works.
Six and a Half Billion People Are Absolutely Right
The N.F.L. is corrupt, baseball's a distant dream, and March Madness is only one month long. Here's why any true sports fan watches soccer.
The Languid Dirge of the Hippo Father
While “Tiger Moms” may pour their energies into rearing successful children, Long Island offspring are learning to beat the tiger cubs at Halo.
Get High or Die Trying
If you read Outside, stay home. When we celebrate a hiker who sawed off his hand, we pay tribute to an idiot and ignore countless smarter climbers.
Oh, the Games Adults Play Now
Children play games for fun. Adults play games to crush and humiliate. An analysis of behavior on the grown-ups’ playground.
Bright Sun, Long Shadows
As the Cardinals fought for a playoff berth in August, I watched my father-in-law in his own personal battle. A tale of victory and loss.
The High Is Always the Pain and the Pain Is Always the High
Gambling addiction is a simple disease. Living the addiction is a bit more complicated. A chronicle of dependency in seven parts—about poker, “Lolita,” and how to lose $18,000 in less than 36 hours.
We Three Kings of HGH Are
For many sports fans, steroids ruined professional baseball. Luckily, Roger Clemens is pitching a cream-and-clear sitcom to cure their blues.
Why I Don’t Run
Runners run, readers read, and some even do both at the same time. A bookish guide to outpacing your insecurities.
Paper Tigers
Sports are stupid. Beautiful. Dull. Transcendent. Most of all, they're more than just games. We assembled sports writers, critics, freaks, and authors to tell us why.
In Tennis, Love Means Nothing
A pro author challenges a pro tennis player to a tournament. A story of dueling, drumming, and one extraordinary victory.
I Blew the Call
Whether ruining a perfect game or mistaking your mother-in-law for a man, you can’t be expected to get every call right.
Gaming Confidence
MIKE Deri Smith summarizes recent news, studies, and gaffes concerning overconfidence, from competitive running to the N.F.L. draft, even socialist firemen.
Carolina Blues
A year after winning the championship, the University of North Carolina's men's basketball team is suffering its worst season in recent history. A New York-based Tar Heel laments.
What It Takes to Make the Sainthood
Saturday is election day. Sunday is the Super Bowl. From Mardi Gras nights to mayoral panels, our writer surveys two big fights in New Orleans to get things right.
How to Hunt
Those who can't do, learn. In this installment of our series in which the clueless apprentice with the experts, we get licensed, wake up very early, and track turkeys in the woods.
Prodigies, Peons, and Purple People Eaters
The wide world of sports is full of fallen angels and exhausted stories. A season of discontent condensed into five brief acts, with prayers for a glorious summer.
Tattooed Drunk Diamond-Dusted Kentucky Derby Fan
Churchill Downs is like no other sports event, considering sports are barely involved. Our writer attended her first Derby last year with a family of committed fans and survived to tell the tale.
The Blame Game
Flipping through A-Rod’s catalog of the perps who caused him to take steroids.
Letters From Cousin Yuri
When Alex Rodriguez identified his cousin Yuri on Tuesday, the media had a new fall guy for A-Rod’s steroid problem.
2008
From unearthed media to otherworldly technology to reflection on a personal and economic level, the year was filled with things of every shape, size, and significance. THE WRITERS give us the best of what they noted.
Where Amazing Happens
The current NBA playoffs—including the elderly, surprising Celtics—are offering up some record-breaking basketball. From 2008, an ode to professional players, including Kevin Garnett and friends, and why pro ball is the best ball of all.
The Secret Journal of Levi Johnston
In just a few short weeks, vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin's future son-in-law has traveled from the hockey rink to the political arena. What happened in between?
The Fierce Urgency of Preseason Rankings
To help you reverse the failed policies of your previous defensive lines, the presidential candidates offer last-minute fantasy football drafting advice.
Stomp and a Wink
The worlds of professional wrestling and contemporary fiction aren’t so far apart. Our writer immerses himself in the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Federation, to the point of being flung across the ring.
March Sadness
Your NCAA brackets have fallen apart; you are not alone. Devised with lessons learned from the tournament thus far, a set of rules to ensure a perfect prediction from here on out.
The Third-Inning Blooper Reel
Contract disputes, managerial changes, players testifying on Capitol Hill about steroid use: With only a month until spring training, baseball didn’t get much of a rest this off-season.
Hooking It Up
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we apply cold logic to a hot topic: How can pre-adolescent hockey players become sexually active?
Bringing It All Back Home
When the St. Louis Cardinals’ former stadium was demolished, fans rushed to pick up pieces from the ballpark where their memories were made. What they bought, and what it means to them.
Water to Burn?
Today is UN World Water Day, and for many of the planet’s residents, one of our most plentiful resources has become all too scarce. The rest of us are busy playing golf in the desert.
I Write Camille Paglia's Next Column so She Doesn’t Have To, Vol. 1: The UFC
For those who still don't grasp the subtext, reifications of Anna Nicole, Ultimate Fighting, and Eddie Murphy.
Fragments From Horse’s Mouth! the Musical
It wasn’t long into the nation’s mourning for Barbaro that Broadway’s top producers hatched a plan to preserve his fame. But who knew purgatory was meant for horses?
High-Fives So Hard They Hurt
January in Minnesota can be harsh, though rarely more than in 1999, when a Vikings playoff victory slipped away. From his vantage point next to a stack of commemorative newspapers, one man almost saw what could have been.
Being Christopher Hitchens
Living as a once-Trotskyist megaforce, now war-toting superstar can take its toll. Particularly when your personality subdivides into pro wrestlers.
Tricks, and Beer, Are for Kids
Adding another log to the public-relations pyre where several corporations recently burned, an exclusive, damning memo from Toys’R’Us.
Golf Is a Highly Mental Game
A guide to the major techniques, strokes, and hazards you will encounter during an average day on the links.
Barbaro Responds to Fans
The nation falls in love with an injured horse and a thousand weepy editorials and get-well cards salute his courage. Now our equine hero responds to his well-wishers via his assistant.
For Love of the Fame
Summer softball is every American’s right—unless you live in New York City where the fields are stocked with former pros. An insider’s story from the city’s elite leagues.
Raise the Woof
While Super Bowl XL was being beamed into taverns across Manhattan, bars showing Puppy Bowl II were a lot harder to come by.
One Possible Outcome of Super Bowl XL
The predictions have been made, the spreads have been laid. So who will reign supreme on Sunday? Anything is possible.
On the Occasion of My Retirement From Baseball
Today a short but glorious career on the base-paths drew to a close. And with it, the future of instructional league baseball appears hazy.
How the World Scores
Though people around the world may measure success in slightly different ways, there is a single scale that is universally accepted. Because, in the end, it’s all about how you made out.
No Yellow Jerseys Here
The thighs may be as thick, the spandex just as tight, the stench of grease and melting energy bars just as rank—but the 2005 Cycle Messenger World Championships is a far cry from the Tour de France. A story and photo gallery from the race.
How About Those Knicks? (January)
Your child's tastes--for a particular brand of peanut butter, or milk, or religion--are up for grabs once she's out of the womb. But what happens if she turns into a Knicks freak, Mr. No-Sports-Knowledge-Whatsoever? More notes on our writer's long nine months.
My Sporting Life
From the very first moment we suit up for gym, our physical abilities can influence who we become or reveal who we were meant to be: blooming star athlete or total band nerd.
Juiced
Can Congress get baseball to go cold turkey off steroids? And how many passionate pleas will it take? Our representative speaks, passionately and otherwise, rooting out those who seek enhancements of every kind.
What Would Teddy Do?
Last week Maine citizens voted on Question 2—whether or not to outlaw the “baiting, hounding, and trapping” of bears. So why didn’t such an apparently humane measure pass?
The Intramural Sports of Kings
The signup sheet in the break room wants you and your co-workers to meet at the park on Saturday for a game of softball. For some it may just be fun, but for others it'll be pure competition.
Olympian
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we look to this month's Olympic Games and give an overview of the athletic events involved and pick the sports you simply don't want to miss.
Swim
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we instruct you on the basics of swimming, with many of the most popular strokes explained in detail. Except for the double-trudgen--because come on.
Motherless Stadium
There's a good chance the New Jersey Nets soon will be playing ball in Brooklyn. There's also a good chance a lot of local residents will lose their houses to make way for Frank Gehry's dome.
The Pop-Off King
Though dancers occasionally kick one another, writers are alone among artists in using their craft to attack each other. A report on Stephen King's new decision to join the vipers.