Deadspin 2013: All The Stuff You Didn't Have Time To Read

Here are the best longish stories we published this year. You probably didn't have time to read them the first time around, so take a a few moments now to dive into some of our best stuff. Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax Did you enjoy the uplifiting story, the tale of a man who responded to adversity by becoming one of the top players of the game? If so, stop reading. Read… Jameis Winston Isn't The Only Problem Here: An FSU Teacher's Lament One of Derek's better-adjusted athletes said it wasn't the practices or the physical abuse that bothered him, but how the coaches force-fed him and his teammates. "They watch me clean the plate," the player told Derek. "'You let that settle and then go lift.'" That's in addition to the supervised supplement-swallowing, the pills and powders of who the hell knows what. "He looks down at me, this monster man, this beast, and now he's got kid eyes," Derek tells me, "and he says to me: 'Mister Derek, sometimes I'm not hungry anymore. Read… Unspinning The Mythical Gyroball, The Demon Miracle Pitch That Wasn't That supernatural title implies the gyroball shouldn't exist, but does. The truth is that it can exist, but functionally doesn't. The gyroball is theoretical, born on a computer and only appearing in the real world as a faint and usually inadvertent simulacrum. Without an actual gyroscope inside a baseball, the odds of a pitcher throwing a ball with perfect, perpendicular spin is effectively nil. A pitcher can come close to perpendicularity, and produce a ball with minimal break, but not consistently, and not as a true gyroball with zero Magnus force. Read… My Injury File: How I Shot, Smoked, And Screwed My Way Through The NFL Exacerbating the brutal demands of the game of football is the industrial approach to training for it. In the off-season, when we might have been resting, we lifted like Olympic weightlifters. We ran like track runners. We threw enormously heavy weights around at angles that compromised our already misaligned bodies. And we did it to the steady soundtrack of "C'mon, Nate! Harder!" That's the football way. And in many ways, it's necessary. You need to be explosive and powerful to play the game at that level. But training that way has its downside. It kept me sore all year long. It also neglected the tiny, important muscles of the body to focus on the big, showy, powerlifting muscles. When those fatigued, as they always did as the practices and seasons wore on, it left the work to the smaller muscles, which were underdeveloped. The result was injury. Read… The One-Legged Wrestler Who Conquered His Sport, Then Left It Behind Robles was suggesting, in essence, that as long as he didn't dwell on the nuisance of missing a leg, he could go about the business of becoming a champion wrestler. It was a preposterous remark, except that it turned out to be true. An absence isn't a weakness if you make it someone else's problem. Read… The Man Who Doesn't Exist: How Canelo Álvarez Became A Myth Saúl hasn't been seen here in years. His presence is confined to television and to whispers around town; it takes the form of reporters like me, coming to sniff around his past. But even from Guadalajara or Big Bear or Las Vegas, Saúl Álvarez remains the most powerful person in Juanacatlán. His importance here can be measured by the weight of his absence. Read… Dead Wrestler Of The Week: Chris Benoit Chris Benoit was a world champion, and he murdered his wife and son and killed himself. The latter act doesn't actually erase the former, but it suffocates it. In the arena of professional wrestling, when all the world's a stage, when the crowd's response determines wins, positions, and entire careers, a reprehensible act is enough to purge reality from the record. Benoit was only ever a star because the fans screamed for him to be. Now they withdraw those screams, and Benoit's legacy is nullified. If any of this makes sense, I would say it makes a certain kind of sense. Read… Can Diamond Dallas Page Save Wrestling's Walking Dead? It's hard not to watch Hall and Roberts's lives unfold on YouTube and wonder if you are being deceived, or if they themselves have been deceived by Page. Has Page sold them a false promise for the purpose of strengthening his personal brand and selling yoga DVDs? Or has this wrestler-turned-foul-mouthed-Yogi somehow found a way to bring peace to two men who have spent their adult lives battling addictions that have brought them to the brink of death numerous times? Read… The Long Con: How The Manziels Conquered America It turns out the Manziels are a much more colorful and interesting bunch than any of the profiles thus far have indicated. Their fortune was indeed made in oil—wildcatting, specifically—but there were also family sidelines in cockfighting, small-time grifting, match-fixing, and, if you believe the federal indictments, cocaine-trafficking and murder. In fact, the first great sporting success under the family name wasn't Johnny Football; it was the Manziel grey gamefowl, bred by Johnny's great-grandfather. The Manziels arrived in Texas after cockfighting was outlawed, but they wound up with a breed named after them anyway. Read… How My Foolproof Scientific System Got Us Onto Goateed Producer notes my beard and tells me I have a little mountain-man thing going on. I tell him I like to think of it as having a little Cliffhangers thing going on. See, dude, I know the show and the games played on it! I care!!! I'M KNOWLEDGEABLE AND FUCKING PSYCHED. My girlfriend, sister, and brother-in-law all follow suit. Excitement, banter, youth—we nail it. One of us absolutely is getting on this goddamn show. Read… The Nassau Coliseum Was Not A Dump: What The Isles Are Leaving Behind As the clock winds down on the first Islanders home playoff victory in 11 years, several Isles players attack the Penguins stars in that same corner, by the wobbly glass. Travis Hamonic holds down Evgeni Malkin by the jersey, and Islanders fans throw beer bottles at him. The Islanders and the islanders, at last together again in a bar fight. Read… How Big Brown's People Nearly Pulled Off Horse Racing's Biggest Scam Dutrow had a thing for fame and the big score, and he finally got it with Big Brown. The late-blooming bay colt was his first Derby starter, and leading up to the race Dutrow crowed that he had the winner, pledging that he would make a huge wager on Big Brown. He didn't bet much in the end, but he was right. Read… My Week With The North Korean Hockey Team One South African player told me that the team wasn't that social, that the players were always serious. He also told me they hated when you referred to their country as "North Korea." You were supposed to call it the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. When they arrived at their dressing room before the first game, the sign on the door said "North Korea." They tore it down immediately and threw it in the trash. A hastily made DPR Korea sign soon appeared in its place. Read… The Helmet Con: How To Make A Buck Off The Concussion Crisis "I can't think of a single reason why installing Kevlar would protect the brain in a collision," he said. "It's the egg-yolk-inside-the-shell analogy. Making the shell stronger will still scramble the yolk." Read… Can Dirtbags, Pretty Ladies, And Twitter Save Horse Racing? A former model who now designs dresses—and is wearing a dress of her own design—boards the bus with a blogger boyfriend. She speaks nearly inaudibly and demurely and then she puts on a rubber horse mask and starts posing for pictures. She eventually pulls the stuffy mask off and giggles, the warm sound of it spreading in the tiny space, until Dale is laughing, too, with great bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks, and talking about the dress she's wearing in a way that I don't understand. Read… Never Give Your Kid A Cold Shower: Advice From The Worst Dad On Earth She screamed again. The screams had successfully gotten me to direct all of my attention toward her. The fact that it was negative attention—white-hot, furious attention— didn't matter to her. Kids don't give a shit. They're little trolls. If they've riled you up, they've done their job. Read… No Punter Left Behind: How One Guru Made The Art Of Kicking A Science Sailer was once again teaching himself by trial and error, a gifted student learning to read by studying the classics. He cross-referenced the NFL kickers with the best technique—Gary Anderson, Morten Andersen, Adam Vinatieri, and maybe his personal favorite, David Akers—against high school kickers, asking himself, Why does the high school player suck? What is he doing wrong that this pro's doing right? What are the differences? Read… Why Do Tennis Players Say "Come On!" So Much? Whatever their purpose, come on and vamos and allez are now simply a part of tennis, just as surely as a blue court and a yellow ball are a part of tennis. Why? The answer to that question requires a circuitous trip back to days that were, in their way, both more demure and rather less. Read… Finding Gillooly: What Happened To Figure Skating's Infamous Villain? The whole experience, even as bad as it was and going to prison and living that, it was a good life lesson for me, I think. And I think I'm grateful for having experienced something like that. Not many people can say that they have experienced that kind of, well for one thing, public embarrassment, and to have people looking into your life was interesting, and I've become grateful for that. I'm a much more assertive person and I'm much more at ease with myself than I was back then. Read… The Deferential Spirit: How Peter King Became The NFL's Bob Woodward In King's formulation, the NFL is the happy sum of the good faith and benevolence of powerful, well-intentioned men—commissioners, GMs, coaches, quarterbacks. His column will give you exclusive quotes, color you'll find only by reading him, and the human story behind the box score—gossip, sunny-side up. Actual insight into the business of pro football? King is a tabula rasa, by design. Read… The Mostly Sexless Sex Scandal That Shook ESPN Four minutes later, he wrote: "Bring two towels. I am expecting a big gush or two or three." Read… The Chargers' Doctor Is A Drunk Quack. Why Haven't They Fired Him? In August 2012, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office released the findings from Seau's autopsy. (It can be found at bottom.) His toxicology report revealed the presence of Zolpidem, the prescription sedative commonly sold as Ambien. More Ambien was found in Seau's house. The "investigative narrative" notes that Seau was under the care of Chao. Read… An Encounter With La Salle's Lionel Simmons, Last Of The Local Gods The first thing I did when I met Lionel Simmons was tell him he was the reason I'd gone to La Salle. "I feel proud," he said, smiling and somehow not running for the closest security guard. "I'm humbled, and I'm obviously very, very appreciative, It's just a good feeling for somebody to say that. It's a humbling feeling." Read… 76 Years Later, Maryland Tries To Right A College Football Wrong "As a Hindu," Carter wrote, "Maryland was willing to play against a Singh, but as an American-born colored youth, no! A thousand times no! I thought about this incident Monday when the missing report flashed over the wires and wondered what Maryland athletic authorities who barred Singh back in 1937 would think when they learned that this same guy crashed while preparing to try to save the democratic way that they denied him." Read… Why SI's Oklahoma State Series Sucked: The Inside Story "The Dirty Game" was ultimately as shallow and cross-sectional as its reporting. SI couldn't use individual grievance to illuminate the university's failings—and, ultimately, show how those are rooted in the conceptual bankruptcy of amateurism—because it had hardly investigated the university. The magazine couldn't describe the pathologies, mechanisms, and structures of power because it had barely looked into them; the best view it got was from the conference room of Whitehurst Hall. At the exact point where the hard work started, SI stopped. Read… How A Stoned Canadian Changed Sports History But even though he'd become an icon, he never actually cashed in. Rebagliati may not have been stripped of his gold medal, but in the view of companies he'd hoped might sponsor him after his Olympic victory, he was untouchable. "Marijuana was just too controversial still," he said. "Combining it with sports was just too much to swallow, corporately." Read… The Art Of Screwing Up: How NCAA Refs Live With Their Mistakes The truth is, Corbett was in position to blow that call last year only because he gets so many other calls right. There is an art to that. Turns out, there's an art to getting calls wrong, too. Read… The Story Of "Wrong Way" Willie And The Buzzer-Beater That Lost A Game "We were running off the court," Donald said. "And then we heard a whistle, and the ref said the basket was good. I was like, What?" Fans were delirious. Washington's crowd "sank through the floor," the Star reported. Carter collapsed in a heap. A group of Northwest players ran over to him and attempted to lift him up on their shoulders. They were trying, as McCoy put it, to carry him around "like a hero." They didn't get very far. Read… "I'm Down For Drinks, Laughs, Sex": The Sexual Harassment Claims That Brought Down Toledo's Running Coach "It was weird, very weird," Andrea said, explaining she was scared of facing repercussions if she didn't play along. "I didn't know what to do about it. I was just really scared people were going to find out out, and I didn't know what they were going to think. I just kind of ignored [the advances] with him. I knew it was wrong when it was going on. I just didn't have an outlet to say anything because I wasn't sure anybody would believe me." Read… Searching For Anything But Bobby Fischer At School Scrabble Nationals He props the two little scraps of paper up on the board and then runs off, leaving it there. He's like Banksy fleeing the scene after painting something incredible on the side of bridge. I stand in front of the board, jaw agape. And then I do what I imagine Andy intended for me to do: I point out his masterpiece to other people. Read… "What Do You Want Me To Say?": A Day In The Publicity Machine With Adrien Broner, Boxing's Newest Star "What do you gotta do to get to the next level?" the producer asked. "Keep knocking guys out." "Say it." "What do you want me to say?" "'In order to get to the next level, I have to …'" "Oh. In order to get to the next level …" Read… America's Most Important Soccer Player Conquers The Old World Let's be clear about one thing, though: Bradley had a better chance of making it as a soccer player than almost any American kid of his generation. That he did is worth celebrating, but not because he bootstrapped his way past so many obstacles. From a very young age, he recognized the opportunity available to him and maximized it. Each day. Every week. That degree of focus is a different quality, one no less admirable. It requires an appreciation for thankless, incremental effort. And in the Bradley family, that's what chasing a dream looks like. Read… Chael Sonnen, The UFC's Skip Bayless, Race-Baits His Way To The Top From a certain angle, positioning him as one of the faces of the company made no sense: His fights with Stann and Bisping did poor business, and while the Silva rematch was hugely successful, that probably had more to do with Sonnen having been the only UFC fighter ever to lay a hand on the champion than anything else. The workings of sports broadcasting are mysterious, though, and Fox loves him. "Nobody argues that when Chael Sonnen opens his mouth that it's not entertaining, that it doesn't make you want to watch the fight," Eric Shanks, the head of Fox Sports, once told me when I asked him what the deal was. "Fighting is fighting, but it's also entertainment." Read… What's The "War On Football" About, Anyway? My Day On The Frontlines There were occasional jokes to placate the crowd ("To me, this put the BS into PBS"). But nothing about Flynn's presentation was totally unreasonable on its face—good scientists have said many of the same things. And he didn't let the NFL off the hook, either, saying at one point, "The NFL has done a bad job taking care of its players." Mostly, he presented himself as someone who loves football and only wants the hysteria to die down so that all the proper studies can be done in an intellectual climate more conducive to sober-minded scientific inquiry, and so that people can see all the GOOD that the game produces. Read… Who Killed Nugget II? Solving The Death Of Southern Miss's Mascot The mystery was solved. Nugget II wasn't a picky eater; he just wasn't fed for a full week before his death. Read… How Quinnipiac Tore Up And Rewrote New Haven's Hockey History The fights helped New Haven fall in love with the Blades. But the rest of the city's affection came from the closeness necessitated by the Arena. The locker rooms sat on the arena's concourse; the players would have to walk through the fans to get to their benches. And no glass separated the fans from the benches. They could jabber freely at players. After the games, the players and the fans would drink at the same bar, the Arena Grille next door. The town owned the team, and the team owned the town. Read… Relatedbetting sites for footballbetting sites for nflcollege football wageronline nba betsmlb online betting sitesbetting sites for nhlbetting on ufcbest soccer betting sitesbest online copa america betting sites