Trent Gilliss, online editor
Malcolm Gladwell’s article has been garnering a lot of attention in the media lately for his comparisons of football players and dogs fighting in the ring. It’s a fine piece, but Jeanne Marie Laskas’ investigative work that appeared earlier in GQ is better. A bold statement for me considering how much I enjoy reading Gladwell’s work.
Laskas focuses on the human toll of those forgotten players who suffer in solitude, the ethic of a multi-billion dollar industry who buries its head in the sand, and the fight of an outlier to seek truth according to his personal morality and his religious convictions. Laskas’ article is a blue-collar testimony to great journalism. She puts the human being and the moral dilemma at the center of the story, which, I hope, moves powerful interests to act for the good of those former NFL players who are suffering and have little means to live the rest of their days in relative comfort.
(photo: “Headless” by Albert Cesario)
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