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New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Why I Joined: After a life in soccer, an opportunity I could never have dreamed of
(Editor's note: This week, The Athletic's US soccer department made a pair of key moves, adding former men's national team forward Charlie Davies as expert contributor, plus leading soccer journalist Henry Bushnell as senior writer, as we continue to expand our coverage of the sport in this country leading up to the men's World Cup in 2026. Here is Charlie's introductory column, explaining why he joined our award-winning team). Advertisement Some people in soccer get to live out their childhood dream. I'm a bit different … I'm living out something I never could have even imagined. When I was a kid growing up in Manchester, N.H., my mind was set on making it as a soccer pro. But if you had told me then about all the things that would come next, I'd have said you were full of — well, you get the picture. My playing career was a wild adventure. It took me to Hammarby in Sweden, Sochaux in France, Randers in Denmark, plus MLS clubs DC United, the New England Revolution and the Philadelphia Union. Of course, there was also the national team and incredible moments like the 2009 Confederations Cup final and the chance to score for the United States in a World Cup qualifier at a cathedral such as Mexico City's Estadio Azteca. My pathway to the 2010 World Cup ended with a serious car accident that would change the trajectory of my life and force me to reinvent myself in ways I never could have foreseen. Through that experience, I needed to find strength I didn't know I had, but the personal trials were not over. In 2016 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer, while my precious twin boys were born three months prematurely. My wife, Nina, has been the very definition of resilience and inspiration in my life. She knows what it means to fight, having been treated for Stage 4 cancer, Hodgkins Lymphoma, by the same incredible doctors at Dana-Farber who saved my life when I was diagnosed with a rare liposarcoma cancer. Nina stood by me through my rehabilitation after the car accident and during my battle with the disease. She carried our family and reminded me on days when it felt impossible that we would make it through. Her strength has been my strength, and I would not be here without her. All of it – the good, the bad, the emotional – has made for an incredible journey. This week, I start a brand new one. Advertisement Joining The Athletic is a thrilling new step, and I cannot wait to get started. I began my post-playing media career in 2018, but this feels like I'm headed to Broadway. Or, if we're using soccer analogies, joining the Champions League of journalism. Just like when I was privileged to compete against Xavi, Kaká, Messi and my idol Thierry Henry as a player, I'm getting the same sort of vibes from having my content featured alongside some of the greatest and most insightful writers in the business. This chance to reach America's passionate, knowledgeable and still-growing soccer audience shakes me to my core. The U.S. soccer community has a hunger for genuine insight and honest opinions, and that is what I am committed to bringing. This period of time we are in, with the magic of a World Cup coming to home soil, is an incredible opportunity for the sport. This kind of moment demands honest, committed, dedicated media coverage. Ever since I joined the media space, I have promised to give the readers, viewers and listeners the real experience, taking them behind the scenes and into the mind of a player. My opinions are based purely on how I feel and what I've been through. They come from the life I've lived and the career I've had on both sides of the lines. I care deeply about the current and future success of American soccer, but I'm not a homer. I firmly believe that when praise is earned, it should be wholeheartedly given. On the same note, when standards are not met, criticism is warranted, not with personal agenda or spitefulness, but backed up by facts. I experienced huge highs and desperate lows in my playing career. I can empathize with the players when things are difficult, but also know there are duties and expectations that come with being a top pro and can't be overlooked. Pride in the jersey — that's an absolute must. Advertisement Transitioning from a player to a proud member of the soccer media has been a ride in itself. I've had so much help along the way, given with generosity, from some of the best in the business. Veteran producer Shaw Brown was the first person to tell me I had a media future. My great friend Stu Holden opened his playbook and showed me the ropes. Dave Cherubin gave me my chance at NBC Boston, and Joe Tolleson, Tony Meola and Brian Dunseth did the same at Sirius XM. MLS's Jason Saghini, Simon Borg and Greg Lalas offered their time and honesty. On the TV side, industry legend Amy Rosenfeld, Dalen Cuff, Brad Feldman and the late, great Paul Mariner were all instrumental in building my experience. More recently, my current position at CBS has become a success thanks to the network's soccer coverage mastermind, Pete Radovich, bringing me into the family and trusting me to play such an instrumental role in its coverage, with invaluable day-to-day support from my Morning Footy producer, Mike Nastri. And here we are now. This is my debut byline for The Athletic, and while this is great, I can't wait for my first 'official' piece, where I'm talking about some of the biggest topics in American soccer, rather than myself. It is not overhyping to say that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the USMNT and the sport in this country. I'm lucky to be a part of telling that story, and I respect the responsibility that comes along with it. (Top photo of Charlie Davies: John Dorton / Getty Images for USSF)
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tony Reali delivers a heartfelt message after Around The Horn's end date was announced
It's the end of an era at ESPN that now has an official end date: Around The Horn will leave the airwaves at the Worldwide Leader on Friday, May 23, 2025. After 23 years on the air, we're saying goodbye to Tony Reali and the group of amazing sports journalists who debated the biggest headlines of the day. But there are still a couple months of shows to enjoy before then. Advertisement INSIDE ESPN'S AROUND THE HORN WITH TONY REALI: Read our feature about the show from 2019 Reali tweeted on X (formerly Twitter) after the announcement with a heartfelt message: "Thank you guys, I'm overwhelmed but I'll try to give FaceTimes to you all!" Then, he quoted Rocket Queen by Guns N'Roses: "All I ever wanted was for you to know that I care." This article originally appeared on For The Win: Around The Horn end date has Tony Reali thanking fans of ESPN show
New York Times
21-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
NHL prospects I was wrong about, 2025 edition: Lian Bichsel, Brad Lambert and more
Be honest, you won't hurt my feelings: this is your favorite article of mine every year. You enjoy it when I have to take my lumps. It's OK, I can take it. The 2025-26 season will be my 10th hockey season working for The Athletic, and I've learned, over the years, that many of our readers enjoy reading about how we do our work on the prospects side as much as the actual work itself. To that end, I try to pull back the curtain on my work, acknowledging that if you're going to spend money to subscribe to our coverage, you deserve to know exactly what you're getting. I want my work to be authoritative and more well-sourced and well-researched than you can find anywhere else. In order to accomplish that goal, it needs to be trustworthy. And transparency breeds trust. Advertisement In an effort to build that trust and get better at the work I do, I regularly review old lists, highlight my mistakes and check my biases. My guide to scouting, updated annually, details how I do my job, from my process to how I watch games, the things I look for in players, potential blind spots and everything in between. My annual ranking reviews (my 2022 review will be out later this week) measure my track record relative to the actual draft and are meant to hold me accountable. And this piece looks back at the why and how behind the players I've gotten wrong over the years in an effort to better understand what I missed or over-/under-emphasized in my evaluations. As you can imagine, after a dozen years of doing this work, there's a long list to choose from. Here are five more players I was either too high or too low on. Just try not to enjoy it too much. Previous editions: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 Drafted: No. 94 My final ranking: No. 29 Perron is a smaller winger, and smaller wingers need to have a defining quality that can carry them. I thought his hockey IQ piece and the high level at which he thought the game inside the offensive zone were that for him. But he has looked much more like the mid-round pick he was than the late-first/early-second I viewed him as in the two years since, and after pedestrian freshman and sophomore years at North Dakota, he has now transferred to Michigan for his junior season. I think there's a path at Michigan for him to become a point-per-game player there as an upperclassman under that coaching staff and in the top-six usage he's going to get, but I don't see more than an AHL offensive zone navigator at this point/future AAAA type. He's still just 20, too. But because of the way the Steel played and what he could get away with at the USHL level, I don't think I gave enough attention or weight to some of the predictable struggles he'd face up levels as an average athlete who is a little soft. He looked like he was checked out in some games at North Dakota last year, and he needs to play much more competitively if he wants to become a successful pro player with his profile. The sense, feel and problem-solving remain assets, but he hasn't taken enough steps with the rest. Advertisement I think this is one where I let what people in the USHL thought about him have a little too much sway on me as well. They thought he was an elite thinker with the Steel, and while I'm always careful when it's a player's own team that's saying those things, several other prospects from opposing teams also told me during my survey that year that he was the most purely talented player they'd played against and there was probably a little confirmation bias for me when his peers echoed the Steel staff. His type has a tougher time than I accounted for on this one. Drafted: No. 30 My final ranking: No. 8 This is one where I didn't get the player wrong, but more the risk-reward calculus on the slotting. I knew exactly what Lambert was, and my actual evaluation and scouting report on him at the time was bang on. I knew the work he had to do, the warts he had, the top-six-or-bust potential and the complicated, mercurial player and person. I'd sat down and talked with him about it all. I talked to a ton of people who'd been around him. I knew and reported that he was going to go in the late first. But I also didn't like the draft class, and I felt a lot of its other first-round forwards had flaws or projection issues, and so I decided to bet on his skating-skill combination to win out and for him to become a productive second-line forward. He still might become that, too. But I should have set the threshold for when I was going to be comfortable making that bet and taking on that risk lower than I did because his development was always going to come with some ups-and-downs and require the right roster spot being available with the right coach at the right time (after making some important development progress in a few areas, some of which he made real progress on and some of which he's still working toward). Advertisement There have been plenty of times over the years when I would have stuck my neck out for guys I liked at draft tables and been right. But I wouldn't have even done that with Lambert, where I had him ranked at the time. I outsmarted myself with the placement at No. 8. Drafted: No. 18 My final ranking: No. 51 Bichsel is another player whose scouting report I got right, but whose slotting I got wrong. I worried about his weight and heaviness and what it would mean for him as he got older, and while that's still a concern and something he's going to have to stay on top of as he ages, he was always going to become a strong and unique NHL defender because of it and his strong mobility underneath it. I still think he has some limitations, and he's still a player I probably wouldn't have taken at No. 18, even with the hindsight I now have and some of the adjustments I've made to what I value, but No. 51 should have been pretty clearly too low as well. There are guys in the 20s-40s who I can live with having ahead of him at the time, but there are at least 10 in there that wouldn't be palatable to me as an evaluator now and shouldn't have been ranked higher even then. Drafted: No. 51 My final ranking: No. 29 Hughes was the youngest player in college hockey in his draft year and had a respectable freshman year for a 17- and 18-year-old, registering 16 points in 39 games to finish fourth among the 14 under-19 forwards who played college hockey that year (behind Chaz Lucius, Jack Devine and Dylan Duke). I saw a player with a respectable statistical track record who seemed to make his linemates better, had legit hands and played center. I felt that profiled as late-first/early-second and kind of just assumed that he'd take a step as a sophomore. But I think how early he entered college (he was through his four years by 21) worked against him ever getting to that next level, even after a transfer from Northeastern to BU for his junior year. He was also of average size and lacked hardness. The result is a player who didn't get an entry-level deal out of college and will have to start his pro career in the fall on an AHL contract with the Ontario Reign. I think he probably becomes a middle-six AHL contributor now, but I don't see a clear identity or role for him at the next level. Drafted: No. 71 My final ranking: No. 30 There is a difference between a good junior player or a good mid-tier pro and a good NHL player, and every scout will tell you about players they've liked over the years who looked really solid in their age group, or even played up levels earlier than some of their peers, but they should have known didn't have that next level in them. Robertsson is one of those players. He played and scored in the SHL the year before his draft year and was a solid player pre-draft for Sweden's 2003 age group, wearing a letter at U18 worlds. But if you look at his stats page, you'll also see that he then bounced between Sweden's junior level and its two top pro rungs in the HockeyAllsvenskan and SHL for four years, remaining a solid young player but struggling to take a step. He was signed as a third-round pick, which in and of itself is a win for the Blues, and played last season in the AHL as a solid player there as a 21-year-old rookie as well. Advertisement But he was always going to have a pro career, and that doesn't mean you give him a late-first/early-second rating necessarily. He's also the classic average-sized, average-skating, average-skill, decently versatile, decent play-driving winger who wasn't a clear power play or penalty kill option, or a clear skill guy or checker, and was naturally going to likely settle in as more of a potential call-up or organizational depth than a full-time NHLer with a clear role. I even knew it at the time, too, I just didn't move him accordingly. Those ones hurt. This was in my report: 'Recent viewings (both before and into U18s) did leave me feeling like he was missing the defining skill.' That there are three players ranked 29-30 on three different lists included here has me wondering if I'm being too cute with the last couple of spots in the first round on my lists as well (though I think it's also probably indicative of where lists generally begin to teeter off into a tier of prospects who by and large don't become full-time NHLers). (Photos of Lian Bichsel and Brad Lambert: Michael Reaves / Getty Images and Darcy Finley / NHLI via Getty Images)
BBC News
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Football fan travels from India to see Brigg Town play
A football fan who travelled 5,000 miles to see lower league side Brigg Town play on Saturday, said he was "overwhelmed".Rohan Chowdhury, 27, from Kolkata in India, became a fan of the Lincolnshire club during Chowdhury, who watches every game online, said the sport brought people together, "making the world a smaller place".After a tour of the club, he travelled to North Ferriby where he led Brigg Town out on to the pitch for their pre-season friendly against Hull Utd, which they won 4-2. Mr Chowdhury, who is a sports journalist in India, was visiting England for the first time to cover the cricket series and took the opportunity to visit the club."I'm a huge football fan", he said."I have always had a fascination with non-league football in England."Brigg Town competes in Northern Counties East League Division Chowdhury began chatting with managers at the club from afar and was soon helping out with their social media channels."Everyone was quite surprised that someone from Kolkata was actually interacting on social media on a regular basis and it was quite fun," he said. Jim Huxford, the club chairman, met Mr Chowdhury at the railway station at the start of his visit."It's nice when you get attention from half the way across the world," Mr Huxford said."I'm quite emotional anyway, so I had a little tear in my eye. I gave him a big hug."The stadium at Wrawby Road has recently undergone a £1.5m refurbishment, with the work due to be completed soon."I think it's such a lovely connection that sports bring to you," Mr Chowdhury said."I am from a different country altogether and there's no physical connection, so this friendship gives you a message that's also much bigger than the sport itself."It brings people together and makes the world a much smaller place," he Chowdhury said he intends to return to Lincolnshire to watch the club play to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
Washington Post
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Is stadium food too fancy?
Sports Is stadium food too fancy? July 18, 2025 | 1:51 PM GMT Ava Wallace and Jerry Brewer confront one of the most pressing topics in sports: Have stadium concessions gone too far?
