Deep Reads: Football bonded them. Then it tore them apart.
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 November 2023
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
They were roommates and teammates at Harvard, bound by their love of football and each other. Then the game — and the debate over its safety — took its toll. This Deep Reads episode is part of a collection of occasional bonus stories from “Post Reports.”
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This story is part of a collection of occasional bonus episodes you’ll be hearing from “Post Reports.” We’re calling these stories “Deep Reads,” and they’re part of The Post’s commitment to immersive and narrative journalism.
Today’s story was written by sports writer Kent Babb, and read by Michael Satow for Noa: News Over Audio, an app offering curated audio articles.
Subscribe to The Washington Post via Apple podcasts here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Kent Bab, a sports writer for the Washington Post. |
| 0:05.0 | And I've got the next story for you in our Deep Reed series here on Post Reports. |
| 0:10.0 | These occasional weekend stories are part of the post commitment to narrative journalism. |
| 0:15.2 | I wrote the story you're about to hear. It's read by a narrator from our partners at the app, NOAA, News over audio. |
| 0:23.0 | It's a piece about a group of former Harvard football players |
| 0:25.9 | who've struggled with what the violence of football |
| 0:28.4 | has meant for their friend group and for the sport itself. |
| 0:32.1 | It was really sensitive because I was having to juggle |
| 0:34.9 | not just the death of a very close friend |
| 0:38.5 | and the former Harvard football team captain, |
| 0:41.2 | but a widow who had lost her husband and the father of her four children |
| 0:46.0 | and this was just like the linchpin of this friend group he was the best of them |
| 0:51.1 | he was the superstar the superstar, the smart one, the charismatic one, the charming one, and suddenly he was just |
| 0:58.5 | gone and after a long deterioration, some believe through football, |
| 1:06.4 | they were left not only to grieve for their friend, |
| 1:10.0 | but to ask themselves why |
| 1:12.0 | and what football had played into this death. |
| 1:14.9 | There are people in this friend group who think that CTE is real. |
| 1:18.7 | And there are people in this friend group who think that it's overblown by the media. |
| 1:22.4 | And these are still a group of best friends and former. who think that it's overblown by the media. |
| 1:22.5 | And these are still a group of best friends and former roommates. |
| 1:26.5 | And I think it's extremely important to remember that this is super difficult |
... |
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