The precarious existence of NFL placekickers.

Ted Williams grows old.

Catching “the world’s most prolific criminal fixer of soccer matches.”

Live from the World Series of Poker.

The complicated post-retirement life of Joe DiMaggio.

Per Mertesacker walks away.

In the 1980s, Billy Ray Bates, once dubbed “the Legend,” drank himself out of the NBA and ended up playing in the Philippines. For a few wild years, his legend grew—both on the court and in the bars.

How infighting splintered a group of players once unified in the movement started by Colin Kaepernick.

Five years after they leave the league, 60 percent of NBA players have nothing left. In the NFL, it’s closer to 80 percent after just two years. On the economics of professional sports.

How Shane Battier could score zero points in an NBA game and still be the most important player on the floor.

On former Knicks savior Stephon Marbury and his post-NBA life playing in China.

How a rugby legend came out.

On being—and playing for—Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt.

A bullfighter’s comeback after a brutal goring.

What it feels like to get hit by a major league fastball.

The first piece of gonzo journalism, annotated.

“Robert Victor Sullivan, whom you’ve surely never heard of, was the toughest coach of them all. He was so tough he had to have two tough nicknames, Bull and Cyclone, and his name was usually recorded this way: coach Bob “Bull” “Cyclone” Sullivan or coach Bob (Bull) (Cyclone) Sullivan. Also, at times he was known as Big Bob or Shotgun. He was the most unique of men, and yet he remains utterly representative of a time that has vanished, from the gridiron and from these United States.”

The comeback of Marty Reisman, the most flamboyant figure in the history of table tennis, and the self-proclaimed greatest hardbat player ever.

A profile of the NBA sideline reporter as he battled cancer.

Mykal Riley’s last-second three-pointer kept thousands of fans out of the path of a tornado. Just as remarkable? That Riley was there to take the shot in the first place.

The last vestiges of a sporting powerhouse.

A profile of Jimmy Connors on the eve of the 1978 U.S. Open. His legendary confidence, honed by his mother since childhood, was in free-fall. (He would go on to win the final in straight sets.)

On the mysterious death of a high school basketball star in Dallas.

The life, death, and ghost of a catcher.

A playoff push. A torn Achilles.