Longreads Best of 2014: Sports Writing
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories.
我们要求一些作家和编辑在特定类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。
Here, the best in sports writing.
这里是最好的体育写作。
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Eva Holland
伊娃·霍兰
Freelance writer based in Canada’s Yukon Territory.
居住在加拿大育空地区的自由作家。
## Together We Make Football (Louisa Thomas, Grantland)
## 我们一起创造足球（路易莎·托马斯，格兰特兰）
It’s been a bad year for football: Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, the lingering Jameis Winston saga.
对于足球来说，这是糟糕的一年：雷·赖斯、阿德里安·彼得森、挥之不去的杰梅斯·温斯顿传奇。
And a bad year for football means a big year for think pieces about violence and football—I couldn’t tell you how many of those I read this year.
对于足球来说，糟糕的一年意味着关于暴力和足球的思考文章的重要一年——我无法告诉你今年我读了多少这样的文章。
But one of them stood out.
但其中一位脱颖而出。
In “Together We Make Football,” Louisa Thomas reflects on the uncomfortable relationship between the NFL, masculinity, violence, and women.
在《我们一起创造橄榄球》一书中，路易莎·托马斯反思了 NFL、男子气概、暴力和女性之间不舒服的关系。
She takes her time, building a case slowly and methodically, before driving home her point: that violence is inherent to, and integral to, the NFL.
她慢慢地、有条不紊地建立一个案例，然后阐述她的观点：暴力是 NFL 所固有的，也是 NFL 不可或缺的一部分。
That although the vast majority of football players don’t beat their wives, there may be no way to separate the bad violence—the off-field violence—from the on-field violence that we love.
尽管绝大多数足球运动员不会殴打他们的妻子，但可能无法将恶劣的暴力（场外暴力）与我们所喜爱的场内暴力区分开来。
Here’s Thomas:
这是托马斯：
Football is our culture’s great spectacle of violence, our version of the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome.
足球是我们文化中暴力的盛大场面，是我们版本的古罗马角斗比赛。
You can see signs of football’s celebration of amped-up manhood in the pageantry of our own bread and circuses: the military jet flyovers, the Built Ford Tough commercials, the shiny uniforms, the amplified crunching sound of hard hits, the big-knotted ties, and the pregame show special effects that seem like something out of Transformers 12.
你可以在我们自己的面包和马戏表演中看到足球庆祝男子气概的迹象：军用喷气式飞机飞越、“Built Ford Tough”广告、闪亮的制服、放大的重击嘎吱声、大打结的领带以及赛前表演的特效，这些特效似乎来自《变形金刚12》。
You can see it in the silver gladiator mask that Terrell Suggs wore during the pregame introductions when the Ravens played the Steelers last Thursday.
你可以从上周四乌鸦队对阵钢人队的赛前介绍中特雷尔·萨格斯佩戴的银色角斗士面具中看到这一点。
But those are only symptoms.
但这些只是症状。
Get rid of the truck commercials, get rid of the gun salutes, and you’d still have the violence on the field.
去掉卡车广告，去掉礼炮，球场上仍然会有暴力。
Get rid of the gladiator mask, and you’d still have Suggs.”Suggs, Thomas reminds us, has been accused on multiple occasions of assaulting his wife – with his fists, or, on one occasion, with bleach.
摘掉角斗士面具，你仍然拥有萨格斯。”托马斯提醒我们，萨格斯曾多次被指控用拳头袭击他的妻子，有一次还用漂白剂袭击了他的妻子。
He recently signed a $16 million contract and has never been suspended by the NFL.
他最近签下了一份价值 1600 万美元的合同，并且从未被 NFL 禁赛。
Football is our culture’s great spectacle of violence, our version of the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome.
足球是我们文化中暴力的盛大场面，是我们版本的古罗马角斗比赛。
You can see signs of football’s celebration of amped-up manhood in the pageantry of our own bread and circuses: the military jet flyovers, the Built Ford Tough commercials, the shiny uniforms, the amplified crunching sound of hard hits, the big-knotted ties, and the pregame show special effects that seem like something out of Transformers 12.
你可以在我们自己的面包和马戏表演中看到足球庆祝男子气概的迹象：军用喷气式飞机飞越、“Built Ford Tough”广告、闪亮的制服、放大的重击嘎吱声、大打结的领带以及赛前表演的特效，这些特效似乎来自《变形金刚12》。
You can see it in the silver gladiator mask that Terrell Suggs wore during the pregame introductions when the Ravens played the Steelers last Thursday.
你可以从上周四乌鸦队对阵钢人队的赛前介绍中特雷尔·萨格斯佩戴的银色角斗士面具中看到这一点。
But those are only symptoms.
但这些只是症状。
Get rid of the truck commercials, get rid of the gun salutes, and you’d still have the violence on the field.
去掉卡车广告，去掉礼炮，球场上仍然会有暴力。
Get rid of the gladiator mask, and you’d still have Suggs.”
去掉角斗士面具，你仍然拥有萨格斯。”
Suggs, Thomas reminds us, has been accused on multiple occasions of assaulting his wife – with his fists, or, on one occasion, with bleach.
托马斯提醒我们，萨格斯曾多次被指控用拳头袭击他的妻子，有一次还用漂白剂袭击了他的妻子。
He recently signed a $16 million contract and has never been suspended by the NFL.
他最近签下了一份价值 1600 万美元的合同，并且从未被 NFL 禁赛。
## Dropped (Jason Fagone, Grantland)
## 掉落（Jason Fagone，Grantland）
Here’s the Holy Grail of sports writing, as I see it: Find an athlete, or a team, or a game, whose story resonates beyond the narrow world of a given sport.
在我看来，体育写作的圣杯是：找到一位运动员、一支球队或一场比赛，其故事能够在特定运动的狭隘世界之外引起共鸣。
Find a story that isn’t just enjoyable to read, and doesn’t just teach us something about that particular sport, but that teaches us something about the world and ourselves.
找到一个不仅读起来令人愉快的故事，不仅能教会我们一些关于这项特定运动的知识，还能教会我们一些关于世界和我们自己的知识。
It’s a tall order, and sports writing is full of over-reaches, stories whose writers stretched too far hoping to grasp that greater meaning.
这是一项艰巨的任务，而体育写作充满了过度的延伸，这些故事的作者伸得太远，希望抓住更大的意义。
Not every sports story needs to reach that far (sometimes I just want to read about the game, you know?) but when they do so successfully, I don’t forget it.
并不是每个体育故事都需要达到那么远（有时我只是想阅读有关比赛的内容，你知道吗？）但当他们成功做到这一点时，我不会忘记这一点。
And Jason Fagone’s “Dropped” has stayed with me since March.
杰森·法戈恩 (Jason Fagone) 的《Dropped》自三月份以来就一直伴随着我。
It’s a subtle, complicated story about the greatest juggler in the world, and his decision to retire and open a concrete resurfacing company.
这是一个微妙而复杂的故事，讲述了世界上最伟大的杂技演员，以及他决定退休并开设一家混凝土翻新公司的故事。
Fagone warns readers right at the start about what they’re in for: It really is a nearly 7,000-word story about juggling.
法戈恩从一开始就警告读者他们的处境：这确实是一个近 7,000 字的关于杂耍的故事。
But it’s also about so much more, and it’s worth the time.
但这还有更多的意义，而且值得花时间。
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Barry Petchesky
巴里·佩切斯基
An editor at Deadspin.
Deadspin 的编辑。
## Who Wants to Shoot an Elephant?
## 谁想射杀大象？
(Wells Tower, GQ)
（威尔斯大厦，GQ）
There’s no scoreboard, no clock, no winner, yet it’s impossible to argue that Wells Tower’s account of a single elephant hunt doesn’t play out with the drama and even the pathos of the best sports narratives, with the moral quicksand just a little closer to the surface.
没有记分牌，没有时钟，没有赢家，但无可否认，威尔斯塔对单一大象狩猎的描述与戏剧性甚至最好的体育叙事的悲情不相符，道德流沙只是更接近表面。
This piece could have gone wrong in so many ways, but by avoiding the traps so many manly-man writers spring on themselves—overwriting in a futile flail at getting at “what this all means,” or, conversely, underwriting in a sad Hemingway impersonation—Tower acts as a spiritually faithful stenographer to a moment he accepts he can’t possibly do justice.
这篇文章可能在很多方面都出了问题，但通过避免许多有男子气概的作家给自己设置的陷阱——为了理解“这一切意味着什么”而徒劳地重写，或者相反，以悲伤的海明威模仿来进行书写——塔尔扮演了一个精神上忠实的速记员，直到他承认自己不可能公正地行事。
## For Jared Remy, Leniency Was the Rule Until One Lethal Night (Eric Moskowitz, Boston Globe)
## 对于贾里德·雷米来说，宽大是规则，直到一个致命的夜晚（埃里克·莫斯科维茨，波士顿环球报）
Jared Remy, son of the Red Sox legend, murdered his girlfriend after a lifetime of second, third, and 14th chances.
红袜队传奇人物贾里德·雷米 (Jared Remy) 的儿子在一生中经历了第二次、第三次和第 14 次机会后谋杀了自己的女友。
The Globe’s dive into Remy’s troubled past is infuriating because it never makes the outcome seem inevitable.
《环球报》对雷米麻烦不断的过去的深入报道令人愤怒，因为它从来没有让结果看起来是不可避免的。
Were this not a sports story, it might still be the most immaculately reported crime story of the year—but, with overtones of Penn State and FSU, there lurks the sense that Remy was free to do what he did only because of the deference of a sports-crazed city.
如果这不是一个体育故事，它可能仍然是今年报道得最完美的犯罪故事——但是，带着宾夕法尼亚州立大学和佛罗里达州立大学的色彩，潜伏着这样一种感觉：雷米可以自由地做他所做的事情，只是因为这座热爱体育的城市的尊重。
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Mary Pilon
玛丽·皮隆
Sports reporter at The New York Times.
《纽约时报》体育记者。
## The Ride of Their Lives (Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker)
## 他们一生的旅程（Burkhard Bilger，《纽约客》）
It feels like a cop-out to choose something from the New Yorker, but Bilger completely teleports readers into the world of youth bull riding, a dangerous pastime that still draws child competitors—and critics.
从《纽约客》中选择一些东西感觉像是一种逃避，但比尔格完全将读者带入了青少年骑牛的世界，这是一种危险的消遣，仍然吸引着儿童竞争者和批评者。
The contrast between the extremes of rodeos and coming of age today in rural America is completely absorbing and invokes classic questions about humans and their relationships with animals and high-risk athletic endeavors.
竞技表演的极端与当今美国农村的成年之间的对比完全引人入胜，并引发了有关人类及其与动物的关系和高风险体育活动的经典问题。
The black and white photography by Jonno Rattman provides a stunning compliment to Bilger’s economical prose of broken bones and rugged dreams.
乔诺·拉特曼 (Jonno Rattman) 的黑白摄影为比尔格关于骨折和崎岖梦想的简洁散文提供了令人惊叹的赞美。
## How Self-Appointed Experts Rule the Autograph Industry (Jake Rossen, The Dallas Observer)
## 自封专家如何统治签名行业（杰克·罗森，达拉斯观察家报）
I’m a sucker for the off-field sports stories that point the lens to where readers wouldn’t even think to look.
我很喜欢场外的体育故事，这些故事将镜头指向读者甚至不想看的地方。
Anyone with an ounce of nostalgia for baseball cards, or even a dribble of the hoarder’s gene, would appreciate Rossen’s careful examination of the characters that make the seemingly humdrum third-party autograph authentication business into a fascinating underbelly.
任何对棒球卡有一丝怀旧之情的人，甚至是一点点囤积者基因的人，都会欣赏罗森对角色的仔细审视，这些角色使看似单调的第三方签名认证业务变成了一个迷人的弱点。
As Rossen says, the tale offers “a crash course in the new climate of memorabilia collecting, where letters of authenticity are more valued than the alleged pieces of history to which they’re tethered—even if that history was created yesterday.” You’ll never look at eBay the same again.
正如罗森所说，这个故事为“纪念品收藏的新风气提供了速成课程，在这种风气中，真品信件比它们所依赖的所谓历史片段更有价值——即使那段历史是昨天创造的。”您对 eBay 的看法将不再一样。
And here’s my completely biased, in-house New York Times selection:
这是我完全有偏见的《纽约时报》内部选择：
## Fixed Soccer Matches Cast Shadow Over World Cup (Declan Hill and Jere Longman, The New York Times)
## 固定足球比赛给世界杯蒙上了阴影（Declan Hill 和 Jere Longman，《纽约时报》）
Much digital and literal ink has been spilled around the World Cup this year and the continuing opera of FIFA’s corruption issues, but Hill and Longman masterfully weave the cinema of the off-field mayhem with raw investigative digging in this two-parter.
今年的世界杯和国际足联腐败问题的上演戏已经被大量的数字和文字墨水所溢出，但希尔和朗曼巧妙地将场外混乱的电影与原始的调查挖掘编织在这两部分中。
Their reporting not only showed how vulnerable soccer was to match fixing ahead of the sport’s biggest competition, but how easy it was for officials involved to sully the field.
他们的报道不仅表明足球在这项运动最盛大的比赛之前是多么容易受到比赛造假的影响，而且还表明参与其中的官员是多么容易玷污球场。
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Flinder Boyd
弗林德·博伊德
Sports writer and retired international basketball player.
体育作家和退役国际篮球运动员。
## Rice Case: Purposeful Misdirection by Team, Scant Investigation by NFL (Don Van Natta Jr. and Kevin Van Valkenburg, ESPN)
## Rice 案例：团队故意误导，NFL 缺乏调查（Don Van Natta Jr. 和 Kevin Van Valkenburg，ESPN）
Nothing captured the sports world’s attention this year quite like the Ray Rice case.
今年没有什么比雷·赖斯案更能引起体育界的关注了。
Anyone who saw the gruesome video inside the elevator on TMZ was horrified.
任何在 TMZ 上看到电梯内可怕视频的人都感到震惊。
That lead to a burning desire for more information.
这导致了对更多信息的强烈渴望。
What was the NFL’s role in the case?
NFL 在该案中扮演什么角色？
Who saw the tape and who didn’t?
谁看过录像带，谁没看过？
I was in England at the time the tape was released and even there I was asked similar questions over and over.
录像带发布时我正在英国，即使在那里我也被一遍又一遍地问到类似的问题。
The people, the world over, wanted answers.
全世界的人们都想要答案。
Then Don Van Natta Jr., and Kevin Van Valkenburg released their devastating article, “Rice Case: purposeful misdirection by team, scant investigation by NFL.” The piece is direct and succinct, and the reporting is so pitch-perfect that by the time you’ve reached the last line you’ll feel a range of emotions: anger, disdain, maybe even sympathy.
随后，小唐·范纳塔 (Don Van Natta Jr.) 和凯文·范法尔肯堡 (Kevin Van Valkenburg) 发表了他们的毁灭性文章：“赖斯案：球队故意误导，NFL 缺乏调查。”这篇文章直接而简洁，报道也非常完美，当你读到最后一行时，你会感受到一系列的情绪：愤怒、蔑视，甚至同情。
In short, it’s world-class journalism at a time when we needed it most.
简而言之，它在我们最需要的时候提供了世界一流的新闻报道。
## Sea of Crises (Brian Phillips, Grantland)
## 危机之海（布莱恩·菲利普斯，格兰特兰）
It was a phenomenal year for sports journalism.
对于体育新闻业来说，这是非凡的一年。
If someone were picking a collection of pieces, there’s little doubt that Wright Thompson’s heroic work on the World Cup would win in a landslide.
如果有人要挑选一组作品，毫无疑问赖特·汤普森在世界杯上的英勇表现会以压倒性优势获胜。
But for a single piece, there’s nothing I enjoyed quite like Brian Phillips’s beautifully subtle “Sea of Crises.”
但就单曲而言，没有什么比布莱恩·菲利普斯 (Brian Phillips) 精美微妙的《危机之海》更让我喜欢的了。
On the surface it’s seems as if you’re reading a sumo wrestling story about the greatest wrestler of his time.
从表面上看，您似乎正在阅读一个关于他那个时代最伟大的摔跤手的相扑故事。
But throughout, Phillips takes us on a series of fascinating detours that weave and glide in directions you never quite expect.
但自始至终，菲利普斯都带领我们走上了一系列令人着迷的弯路，这些弯路在你意想不到的方向上蜿蜒滑行。
It’s quirky and unlike anything I read this year.
这很奇怪，不像我今年读到的任何东西。
At times I felt like I was time-traveling alongside the author into uncharted places and events.
有时我觉得自己正在与作者一起穿越时空，进入未知的地方和事件。
There’s a big sumo wrestling tournament, there’s a coup, there’s a search, and then there’s the ending—the perfect ending.
有一场大型相扑比赛，有一次政变，有一次搜索，然后就是结局——完美的结局。
Honorable mention:
荣誉提名：
## The Undefeated Champions of Defeat City (Kathy Dobie, GQ)
## 击败之城的不败冠军（Kathy Dobie，GQ）
Kathy Dobie’s “The Undefeated Champions of Defeat City,” is an article about a youth baseball league in Camden, New Jersey.
凯西·多比 (Kathy Dobie) 的《击败之城的不败冠军》是一篇关于新泽西州卡姆登青年棒球联盟的文章。
But of course, like any great sports story, that’s not really what it’s all about.
但当然，就像任何伟大的体育故事一样，这并不是故事的全部内容。
The story takes place in a city riddled with crime, but it doesn’t dwell on that.
故事发生在一个犯罪猖獗的城市，但它并没有详细讨论这一点。
Instead, it focuses on everyday lives; it’s a slow burner, but soon enough the reader is able to connect deeply with the subjects and understand their hopes and fears, and they seem like our hopes and fears.
相反，它关注日常生活；这是一个缓慢的燃烧过程，但很快读者就能够与主题深入联系并理解他们的希望和恐惧，而它们看起来就像我们的希望和恐惧。
As the piece winds its way down to the big finale, I found myself cheering alongside the parents and coaches for a group of pre-teen baseball players as they played their final game; I was overcome with emotion as it ended.
当这首曲子逐渐进入大结局时，我发现自己和父母和教练一起为一群青少年棒球运动员在最后一场比赛中欢呼；当它结束时，我激动不已。
Dobie seemed, somehow, to be telling us to open our eyes—victories happen every day.
不知何故，多比似乎在告诉我们要睁开眼睛——胜利每天都会发生。
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Longreads Editor’s Pick (Mark Armstrong)
长读编辑精选（马克·阿姆斯特朗）
## Jerry Football (Don Van Natta Jr., ESPN)
## 杰瑞足球（Don Van Natta Jr.，ESPN）
A sensational profile of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones by ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. It’s not just the access he gets—Van Natta finally corners Jones at an Atlanta bar in order to get an interview, and Jones then invites him to drink with him for the next three and a half hours—it’s how deeply he’s able to dig into the relationships in Jones’s professional and personal life, and what keeps Jones from the elusive next Super Bowl trophy.
ESPN 的小唐·范纳塔 (Don Van Natta Jr) 对达拉斯牛仔队老板杰里·琼斯 (Jerry Jones) 进行了精彩的报道。范纳塔最终在亚特兰大的一家酒吧里逼迫琼斯接受采访，琼斯邀请他在接下来的三个半小时里与他一起喝酒，这不仅仅是他获得的机会，而是他能够深入挖掘琼斯职业和个人生活中的关系，以及是什么让琼斯远离了难以捉摸的下一个超级碗奖杯。