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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

Soraya Roberts

Arts And Culture

The Power Of The Big Suit Endures

Felix Kent

TORONTO, ONTARIO - AUGUST 09: Auston Matthews #34 and Mitchell Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs look on following their lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Qualification Round prior to the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on August 09, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photo/Getty Images)

Fans

How Bad Should I Want My Team To Feel When They Lose?

US actor Ben Stiller attends the premiere of Apple TV+'s "Severance" at the DGA (Directors Guild of America) theatre in Los Angeles, April 8, 2022.

Ben Stiller Explains How ‘Severance’ Became The Rare Streaming Show That’s Actually Good


<p><a href="http://Feldman.cool" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brian Feldman</a> is a software engineer living in Brooklyn.</p>


Brian Feldman

Life's Rich Pageant

A Brief And Fruitful Quest To Find Neil, Who Banged Out The Tunes

<p><a href="http://www.ddavisla.com"><span style="font-weight: 400">David Davis </span></a>is the author of <i>Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans From World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation</i> and <i>Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku</i>. He lives in Los Angeles.</p>
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David Davis

History

The Mostly Untold Story Of How The Sports Bra Conquered The World And Tore Its Inventors Apart

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<p>Charles P. Pierce is a writer at <em>Esquire</em> and the author of four books, most recently <em>Idiot America</em>, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.</p>
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Charles P. Pierce

Elder Wisdom

The Coach Who Made Fencing Fun

Tiger Woods celebrates on the eighteenth green after winning the 1997 Masters tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, on April 13 1997. Woods finished with a record eighteen-under-par. / AFP PHOTO / Timothy A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

Golf

Tiger Woods, But Not Me, 25 Years Later

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<div>Casey Taylor is a writer living and working in Pittsburgh. He is currently writing a book for St. Martin&#8217;s Press about cannabis religions, Haile Selassie I, and the Cold War in the Caribbean. He also writes a free newsletter called <a href="https://weedchurch.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://weedchurch.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1709306863919000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1mVH2xiID6S0zvlyj6yHco">Weed Church</a> covering foolish spiritual things that occur to him. His work has appeared in The New Republic, WIRED, New York Magazine, and a sports blog he can’t currently recall the name of. You can <a href="mailto:caseyt7@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">email</a> him if you’d like.</div>
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Casey Taylor

The statue of Saint George as he vanquishes the dragon of nuclear war is made of actual pieces of Soviet SS-20 and United States Pershing nuclear missles which were destroyed as a result of their historic disarmament treaty. AFP PHOTO TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

This Family Has Tattooed The Holy Land For Centuries

Still image from the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Defector At The Movies

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Is Where The Chaotic, Splintered Universes Of Modern Life All Collide


<p>Jasper Hutson is a lapsed journalist.</p>


Jasper Hutson

The All-Black League That Invented Hockey As We Know It

Protesters from Students For a Democratic Society demonstrate on the University of Utah campus against an event where right wing writer and commentator Ben Shapiro is speaking on September 27, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Campus authorities have increased security ahead of the appearance by Shapiro, a former editor-at-large for Breitbart News. Around 500 people marched across campus, chanting and giving speeches.

I Watched A Ben Shapiro Movie By Accident

Ben Tippett

Politics

The International Community Worked Hard To Make Putin’s Illegal War Permissible


<p><a href="https://twitter.com/BKBlick" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brian Blickenstaff</a> is an American writer based in Heidelberg, Germany.</p>


Brian Blickenstaff

Schalke players Ko Itakura and Darko Churlinov wearing Schalke jerseys that notably do NOT have former sponsor Gazprom's name on them.

Soccer

FC Schalke Is Trying To Lose Its Russian Accent

American actress Dagmar (1921 - 2001) reading a book of 'Comic Characters of Shakespeare' by John Palmer, circa 1950. (Photo by Graphic House/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Reading Is Easy, TV Is Hard


<p>Lori Teresa Yearwood is a trauma-aware and trauma-sensitive journalist currently covering the U.S. housing crisis for The Economic Hardship Reporting Project. A former reporter for the <em>Miami Herald</em>, the <em>St. Louis Post Dispatch</em> and the Syracuse Newspapers, she has always written stories about people from populations that have been marginalized.</p>


Lori Teresa Yearwood

How Are You Coping With That?

Finding The Connection Between Trauma And Chronic Homelessness

<p>John Loeppky is a freelance writer and theatre artist currently based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His work has appeared for outlets such as FiveThirtyEight, CBC, and <em>Maclean’s</em>.</p>


John Loeppky

Parasports

Inside The Athlete Uprising That Brought Down A Wheelchair Hoops Legend

Olympics

The Skier Who Fell To Earth And The Photographer Who Got Out Of His Way

Screenshot from the TV show 'And Just Like That..."

And Just Like That, I Watched An Entire Season Of ‘And Just Like That…’

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<p class="sc-77igqf-0 bOfvBY">Vince Guerrieri is an award-winning journalist and author in the Cleveland area. He likes Lake Erie perch sandwiches, Jim Traficant and long walks on the field at League Park. His website is <a class="sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 kGbjEv js_link" href="http://vinceguerrieri.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;http://vinceguerrieri.com/&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]">vinceguerrieri.com</a>, and you can follow him on Twitter <a class="sc-1out364-0 hMndXN sc-145m8ut-0 kGbjEv js_link" href="https://twitter.com/vinceguerrieri" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https://twitter.com/vinceguerrieri&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]">@vinceguerrieri</a>.</p>
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Vince Guerrieri

Boxing

Don King Comes Home

A group of teenagers having fun in a convertible car in the 1950's. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)

Life Lessons

This Is Not Actually An Endorsement Of Ditching Your Childhood Friends


<p>Noelle Mateer is a writer in Pittsburgh. Her work appears in Wired, The Baffler, The Guardian and more. Her Substack is <a href="https://pathenewsletter.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://pathenewsletter.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1786567070811000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1LOAnbsGrpau8RvDRBu5SF">Pennsylvania: The Newsletter</a>. </p>


Noelle Mateer

I’ll Never Let You Go, Beijing Olympics Listserv

We Don’t Need Joss Whedon’s Cover Story

A Grocery Store Clerk Keeps Living

Promo picture of the stars of the TV show Yellowjackets.

In ‘Yellowjackets,’ The Old Eat Their Young


<p>Chip Chantry is a television writer and stand up comedian. He has written for <em>Crazy Talk, </em>a comedy/talk series for NBC Universal and the syndicated series <em>Whacked Out Sports</em>. He most recently wrote on the NatGeo series <em>Howie Mandel’s Animals Doing Things. </em>In 2012, he released his first live comedy album, ACROSS FROM THE ADONIS. His second album, SWINGERS PARTY, debuted at #1 on the iTunes Comedy Charts in March 2019.</p>


Chip Chantry

&lt;&gt; on March 15, 2010 in Hollywood, California.

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