you know, it's the confluence of like the myth of football as quote unquote escape from a situation

where you might not have a lot of options. It's the fact that the teams are really big and they can

handle a lot of people. And it's the fact that they have a disproportionate number of black

boys and men who would be at a high risk for this kind of violence anyway. So it's like it's a weird sort of the intersection of those factors made it to me a very

interesting lens through which to look at gun violence in America.

Yeah. Welcome to the Edge of Sports podcast.

I'm Dave Ziron.

This week we're talking to journalist Natalie Weiner from SB Nation.

She wrote an amazing, amazing long read called The Line of Fire, Gun Violence, High School Football, and what coaches are doing to keep their players safe.

It's a harrowing read, and I wanted to break it down with her.

Also, I've got some choice words about what happened last week with Colin Kaepernick and his refusal to bend to Roger Goodell's will.

You're not going to want to miss that.

I've also got Just Stand Up and Just Sit Your Ass Down Awards, but first let's talk to Natalie Weiner.

What put you on the trail of this topic?

Well, basically, I was just sort of like looking for

stories as you do. And while I was still at Bleacher Report, I came across, um, Trayvon

Richardson, who's one of the names that you can see at the bottom of the piece. Um, you know,

kind of what I would soon realize was like a typical story. You know,

he was 18. He had just, like literally just graduated from high school, was about to go to college

on a football scholarship, was held up for his graduation money, like just like the night before

or after his graduation, I can't remember in Atlanta.

And I was like, this is terrible. You know, this is an alarming tragedy, you know, and it was

...