Assessing The Legacy of Katrina, Chocolate Thunder And The 'Meaning' Of Serena
Katrina remembrances have abounded this week, the 10th anniversary of the devastating hurricane, and its floodwaters that destroyed so much of New Orleans.
Some sports-related retrospectives have gone far beyond the realm of the games. Wright Thompson leads off a massive ESPN The Magazine package with a long, sweeping, deeply personal and humane look at the city and its people over the last decade.
At Grantland, Holly Anderson writes about the Tulane football team, not much of a powerhouse before Katrina, and the last 10 years haven’t been a lot of fun either.
A high school football team in the Lower Ninth Ward was preparing for a big season in late August 2005, but that dream was washed away by the floods. For Fox Sports, Flinder Boyd catches up with some of the players, whose lives have never been the same.
Even before the Saints won the Super Bowl in 2009, sports journalists had been writing extensively about how the long-suffering team became an even more treasured civic institution in helping the city recover from catastrophe.
Peter King rehashes all this at MMQB, and while his notion is a familiar one, it also has been disputed and routinely mocked.
In “Sports in the Aftermath of Tragedy,” Michael Galvin is among the skeptics, and he also is chastened by frequent media comparisons to Katrina and 9/11. Like others critical of the Saints-Saved-New Orleans meme, Galvin argued that the sports media in particular bypassed more difficult, complicated issues of race and poverty.
While simplistic tales of resilience and redemption were not hard to find, many Saints fans understood what the outsiders could not. That their team, in more than a minor way, did boost the spirit and morale of a battered region as citizens coped with the long travails of recovering their way of life. Barry Hirstius aptly explains this perspective and why it's served its purpose, on Fansided:
“But for the Saints as it is with so many of us that look back and reflect upon this day, it’s now time to move on.
“An entire decade has gone by now; and while we can never forget the tragedy that was Katrina, we have to move forward with our lives and go on to the next chapter in God’s plan (whatever that may be) for all of us."
Passings
Charlie Pierce on Darryl Dawkins, dunker extraordinaire and interplanetary citizen from his home base on Planet Lovetron, and “who brought funk to a disbelieving world.”
Michael Salfino of The Wall Street Journal on Al Arbour, coach of four consecutive Stanley Cup winners with the New York Islanders, “the greatest sports dynasty of the last 40 years.”
Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post on Jimmy Evert, who “taught tennis as an ethic” to his daughter Chris, an ideal example of a sports parent that seems quaint today.
Serena aims for the slam
There’s been far too much written about Serena Williams that purports to speak for her, or at least capture her essence. Claudia Rankine adds to this heaping pile in The New York Times magazine. The photography is lovely but at times the prose is overwrought and presumptuous.
Rankine obviously has strong access to her subject, who tells her “you don’t understand me. I’m just about winning.”
Obviously Williams is much more complicated than all that. But as the U.S. Open is set to begin, I wonder if it's asking too much to set aside all the “meaning” of Serena and just savor her tennis excellence.
At the Players Tribune, Billie Jean King writes about what Serena and other contemporary female players don’t have to worry about: Risking everything to build the Women’s Tennis Association and take on the sport’s chauvinist establishment. Before there was Title IX, there was the Original 9.
The Jewish Olympics and a Duke
At The Classical, Ron Kaplan indulges in an entertaining Q & A about his new history of the Maccabiah Games, “The Jewish Olympics.”
His questioner, David Davis, is the author of an upcoming biography of surfing pioneer Duke Kahanamoku.
Monumental honors
On Friday, Ed Temple, the legendary coach of the Tennessee State University Tigerbelles track team, was given his own statue in Nashville. The man who nurtured Wilma Rudolph into an Olympic champion long before women’s sports were fashionable has never gotten his proper due; what a remarkable gesture this was.
The city of Niles, Michigan, has created a commission to promote art and history tourism. Among the native sons considered for a sculpture as part of this program is Ring Lardner.
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