Quotes from Jeff Pearlman

Dyan Favre, Brett's nephew, is also a gem. Not just a favorite person from the book - a favorite person, period. I actually wound up writing this about him. Simply a good, righteous man.

Donald [Driver] is a good guy, a righteous guy. I have no beef with him. But I have multiple sources on this; people not connected with one another who verified it.

Everyone loves a success story," says Newton. "And once you succeed, everyone loves tearing you down.

O'Neal bit his tongue and said little. Years later, however, he admitted that the anger was real. "Do I hold a grudge about that? Yeah—I do," he said. "Some fucking dickhead kept me from being the first unanimous MVP. Some asshole who doesn't know shit gives his vote to Iverson and fucks up history. I never forgot that.

The hullabaloo passed, but days later an even bigger bombshell hit the Staples Center: Kobe Bryant was engaged. To be married. To another person. With a pulse. Really.

Recalled Chuck Clanton, a junior cornerback: "When I saw him the first time I was like, 'Jesus Christ, what the fuck is that?' When he walked, his thighs naturally rubbed together. There was no fat. None. He had Earl Campbell thighs. But he was faster than Earl Campbell. If he had three percent body fat, that'd be a lot. He was all muscle. Like a tank from the future.

Jackson hung the piece of paper in O'Neal's locker without uttering a peep. When the Los Angeles big man saw it, he smiled widely. He had recently given himself a new nickname—"the Big Deporter"—for his treatment of foreign-born centers like Divac. Now he spun and told a reporter standing nearby, "I hear and see everything. I'm the police." Translation: It's on.

College? Who needed college. Kobe Bryant had decided to take his talents to the NBA.

Because sports and mythology often intertwine, the Game 6 narrative has often been one that evokes the best of a cheesy feel-good Hollywood production. Not only did Johnson take the jump ball, he won it, dribbled down the court, did a 360-degree midair flip and dunked over Julius Erving—blindfolded while eating a slice of cheesecake. Not quite.

paled on the bizarre-o-meter, however, compared with what happened on September 30, 1983, when the roster of the Chicago Blitz and the roster of the Arizona Wranglers were traded for each other. Yes, traded for each other. It was, unofficially, the largest singular professional sports transaction of all time. Wrote

Still, Trump was given an early pass. He was new and eager, and sometimes a person's thoughts don't come across correctly.

I was a big Doug Plank fan," said Tim Ehlebracht, a Blitz wide receiver. "Then my first day of practice I come over the middle, he hits me, and I end up in the hospital after landing on my head.

O'Neal, however, didn't take care of himself—and everyone knew it. With each Laker season he seemed a bit slower, a bit less athletic, a bit more injury prone—still otherworldly 85 percent of the time, but not 100 percent of the time, as once had been the case.

Basketball is a young man's game, unkind to ancient legs.

The Orlando Magic didn't know their assholes from a hole in the wall.

The good news for the Washington Federals is they do not have a quarterback controversy. The bad news is they do not have a quarterback.

At one point during the season the Giants were visiting Colorado when Bonds was tapped on the shoulder by a Rockies clubhouse employee. "I'm friends with Brian Fisher," he said. "Remember? He was a pitcher with you on the Pirates." Bonds sighed dismissively, but continued to listen. Fisher's son Kyle had

Regardless, the growing chorus of Laker fans who wanted more Kobe and less Eddie was confounding, because the third-year guard was playing the best ball of his lifetime. But Bryant was on the verge of legitimate greatness—a greatness that Jones (talent be damned) would never touch.

Landry returned to school following the war and played fullback and defensive back for the Longhorn squads that won the 1948 Sugar Bowl and, his senior year, the 1949 Orange Bowl.

I was at a party in Beverly Hills, and everyone in sports was there. Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Kareem. And I spotted my idol—Hank Aaron! I walked up to him and introduced myself. He said, "I know who you are. You made a great decision going to the USFL." I was shocked. Then he leaned in and whispered, "Tom, you always have to get the money. Get the fucking money. Because they don't care about you." —Tom Ramsey, quarterback, Los Angeles Express

You had to clearly choose. Shaq was jealous of Kobe. Kobe wasn't jealous of Shaq. Kobe just wanted to kick everybody's ass.

There are varying motivations for becoming a professional athlete, from the money to the fame to the women to the drive to the competition. But on this night at this singular moment the Mets remembered what it was like to do something for pure love. They had accomplished the baseball impossible, and the result was euphoria.

during film sessions..."He would embarrass you deliberatley... run the play you messed up back and forth, back and forth for everyone in the room to see 100 times.

History also shows that salaries never go back to an old level. All this reminds me of the old commentary that goes, 'When a man with money meets up with a man of experience, the man with experience usually ends up with the money and the man with the money ends up with experience.' I have no intention of going bankrupt signing wealthy players.