Category Archives: Portfolio

Sports Illustrated

Rantland

Fútbol fever in a World Cup year? Hah! Don’t tell that to John Oliver and Keith Olbermann. The hosts, respectively, of HBO’s Last Week Tonight and ESPN’s Olbermann each issued seething soccer screeds this year, Oliver ripping into the dark side of the Cup and Olbermann telling us how to Americanize the sport. Funny as those diatribes were, SI couldn’t help imagining the two going head-to-head on the sport. Here, a mash-up of their actual arguments.

KEITH OLBERMANN: I’d like to preface this by saying that I don’t care whether soccer succeeds or fails in this country.

JOHN OLIVER: In America, soccer is something you pick your 10-year-old daughter up from, but for everyone else, it’s a little more important.

(full article published in Sports Illustrated, December 22, 2014)

Sports Illustrated

BSX introduces new level of athletic analysis tracking lactate threshold

Alison Kreideweis sat nervously on the edge of a treadmill at Finish Line Physical Therapy in New York City, on Dec. 1. She’d volunteered to help demo a new wearable device that measures an athlete’s lactate threshold, but slipping on the BSX Insight was the easy part—the device, which uses near-infrared light to measure blood oxygen levels in muscle, tucks into a compression sleeve worn on the calf. BSX Athletics president Dustin Freckleton wanted to compare the old and his new lactate threshold tests side-by-side, which meant drawing her blood at three-minute intervals as she ran.

“Do nerves play any part in this?” Kreideweis asked. “Affecting test results?”

An athlete’s lactate threshold is the pace or power they can achieve before lactic acid starts to build up in their muscles. This lactic acid is produced when muscle fibers can no longer get sufficient oxygen for aerobic respiration, and must generate their energy anaerobically. The build-up causes the burn felt in muscles when exercising at high intensity, and above the lactate threshold the athlete will begin to fatigue quickly.

(read more…)

Sports Illustrated Kids

Ask the Professor

Got a question about the science of sports? Let our expert help you pump up your sports IQ

Q. Can a team’s jersey color help it win?

The Prof says: Back in the 19th century, Santa Claus used to wear red, green, or even blue, but red won out in the end. Red wins in sports, too. Take baseball for example. Out of all the color combinations, teams in red have won two of the last five World Series: the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. The other three Series were won by the Giants, who wear orange — a mixture of red and yellow.

(full article published in Sports Illustrated Kids, December 2014)

Sports Illustrated

A teen from the Congo finds a new home on a South Bronx soccer team

Bakary Coulibaly was angry. His South Bronx United under-18 teammates already made fun of him, and now, at a New York Red Bulls clinic in summer 2013, one of the under-16 kids was teasing him, too, saying he wasn’t good at soccer. Bakary trained harder than anyone else, but still they taunted him.

He lashed out and hit the kid. Another under-16 boy jumped into the fight, and Tenzin Yeshay, assistant coach of Bakary’s team, had to step in to calm Bakary down. All three players were sent home.

When someone teased you in Mali, you fought back. That was how you earned respect. I want them to start listening to me. This is how they’ll listen to me, Bakary told SBU’s executive director Andrew So a few days later. So wanted to understand what had happened; Bakary was a quiet and respectful kid, not the type of player who would snap like that. Then Bakary got into another fight; this time with one of his teammates, Iyayi Imade.

(read more…)

Sports Illustrated Kids

Crunch Time

When the game is on the line, you want a clutch performer on your side. Here’s what sets the coolest customers apart.

It’s the final inning. Your team is down by a run. The bases are loaded, but there are two outs. You stand at home plate, eyes locked on the mound, bat ready, waiting for the next pitch.

You’ve hit thousands of baseballs before. You know the routine. Get your stance right, your body balanced. Don’t grip the bat too tightly; stay loose. Keep your eye on the ball. Step forward, shift your weight, take a strong cut, and follow through.

But the last thing you want to do is think about any of that.

(full article published in Sports Illustrated Kids, October 2014)

Sports Illustrated

Ties between NFL, Mueller’s firm raise serious questions about investigation

On Sept. 9, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell hired former FBI Director Robert Mueller to run an independent investigation into the league’s handling of the Ray Rice affair. But independent is hardly the way to describe the probe, given the deep connections that exist between the NFL, Mueller’s law firm — WilmerHale — and Rice’s former team, the Baltimore Ravens. How deep do those bonds go? The president of the Ravens was a partner at the firm that became WilmerHale for 31 years.

On WilmerHale’s website the firm boasts that “our expansive alumni network includes many former WilmerHale attorneys who have moved on to highly respectable positions after leaving the firm — for example … in-house counsel for National Football League teams.” An article in The American Lawyer from February 2006 paints the law firm as a production line for sports executives, particularly in the NFL. The article is available on WilmerHale’s website.

Former WilmerHale lawyers who hold senior positions within the NFL front office or with NFL teams include the league’s finance counsel, Jay Bauman, and both the Browns president, Alec Scheiner, and executive vice president, Sashi Brown. Partner David Donovan also served as general counsel for the Washington Redskins from 2005 to ‘09, before returning to WilmerHale in ‘11.

(read more…)

Columbia Journalism School

The Wrong People

No one was lining up outside the blue-framed door. The gold oval marked “SL” in the center of the glass panel was scratched and worn. Crumpled brown paper obscured the view inside. Lights glowed from the stairs leading down towards the basement.

Late on Saturday night, the border of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District buzzed with quiet activity. A steady stream of taxis cruised along West 14th street, tires rumbling on the cobblestones. A light breeze blew. Car headlights and taillights lit up the darkness. Small groups of young adults, bundled in dark coats against the cold, wandered past. High heels chattered along the sidewalk and the smell of cigarettes hung lightly in the air.

A silver SUV pulled up outside what had been the Simyone Lounge, or SL. The driver opened his door to tidy his car and dropped a brown paper bag of trash out onto the street. This had once been among the hottest and most exclusive destinations in town, first as Lotus, and then as SL. It had survived the bleak aftermath of 9/11. It had recovered after being shut down for serving underage drinkers. But then the it crowd, the people its owners had worked so hard to lure, started heading elsewhere.

(read more …)

Columbia Journalism School

You are what you drink

This map created by splitcitynyc shows that while Dunkin’ Donuts locations (red) are spread evenly across all five boroughs, Starbucks locations (green) are clustered heavily in Manhattan, the richest borough. Starbucks appears to be a symbol of wealth.

So are Starbucks drinkers richer than those who drink Dunkin’ Donuts coffee?

Perhaps. In 2013, a map of the types of smartphones used in New York City showed a similar trend, and raised a similar question: Are iPhone owners richer than Android owners?

(read more …)

Columbia Journalism School

Chef by day, guitar builder by night

Chef Mike Decker originally moved to New York City to open a restaurant. Six years later, above Mulberry Street in Little Italy, the Louisiana native has turned his knife skills to handcrafting custom wooden guitars.

His tiny apartment has become a workshop packed with rosewood and spruce, and woodworking tools made from old chef’s knives. The air is full of the smell of sawdust and naphtha, and his stove is more likely to be used for melting hide glue than cooking up a meal.

(see/read more …)

Columbia Journalism School

Espada is a factor — Even from prison

His conviction has turned off some Bronx voters.

Pedro Espada Jr. paused in front of the door to the New York State Legislature’s chambers in Albany. He turned back towards the chanting protesters, took a handful of dollar bills out of his right pocket, crumpled them in his hand and angrily threw them at the crowd. He then disappeared inside.

It was early August 2010 and the incident was caught on camera by one of the protesters. The senate majority leader and state senator for New York’s 33rd District was embroiled in a corruption scandal, accused of misappropriating $14 million from the Soundview Health Center in the Bronx. A month later he would lose his primary bid for re-election and on December 14 would be indicted on charges of using taxpayer money from the Soundview clinic to fund a luxurious personal lifestyle involving expensive cars and lavish dinners. He was stripped of his political powers and titles on the same day.

(read more …)