Alas, Lawrence Taylor is yet another sports figure (or celebrity or politician) in the news for horrible behavior. At The New Yorker Michael Shapiro however, gives us a glimpse of what made Taylor a special athlete. An excerpt:
I was working on a story for the Times Magazine about his sudden legend and had arranged to meet him at his home in Upper Saddle River, but before I went I spoke with Harvard professor Howard Gardner, who had written on levels of intelligence. Gardner postulated that Taylor’s brain worked like those of great artists or composers: rather than process information in steps, it did so in clusters. As a result, he did not need to watch and practice a play repeatedly to be able, at game time, to anticipate what was going to happen. Just once, and he’d remember and be able to recall it with a speed that eclipsed the cognitive powers of lesser souls.
It’s an interesting brief read.
Elsewhere, Charles Pierce thinks Ray Lewis has no business criticizing Tim Tebow. Again, an excerpt:
Here’s a tip. Maybe people are going out of their way to help Tebow because he’s white, and handsome, and famous, and a notorious god-botherer of the kind that makes me run away and become an animist healer. Or, maybe, people are going out of their way to help him because he hasn’t yet, you know, been within blood-spattering distance when people got stabbed.