I went back and forth on linking this one: as I’ve said before, I don’t really like ESPN. But this morning’s Linkswarm (with the Deshaun Watson article) pushed me into it.
Profile of Sabrina Greenlee, mother of Houston Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
Every time the Houston Texans play at home, DeAndre Hopkins’ mother, Sabrina Greenlee, sits in the same spot in the end zone, close enough to the field to hear the ball smack against the turf. It’s Week 2, and Houston is playing the Jacksonville Jaguars; she’s flanked by her two daughters, sitting perfectly still as the countdown clock ticks down to zero. When it’s time for the home team to run through the gate, a massive flamethrower erupts nearby. Greenlee recoils, and her eyes, which are the same cloudy shade of white as an overcast sky, glisten from the heat. A few minutes later, Hopkins emerges from the tunnel — he’s always the last player on offense to come out, Greenlee explains — and she smiles.
She can’t see her son, but she knows he’s there.
This is old, but still interesting, and it just came across the Hacker News Twitter: I survived the “Destroying Angel”.
Amazingly, the author lived. Without a liver transplant.
I think part of the reason I like this is that it reminds me of one of my favorite Berton Roueché “Annals of Medicine” essays: a first-hand account by a professional snake handler of being bitten by a red diamond rattlesnake. If you’re a subscriber, you can read that on the New Yorker web site here.