The Yang Slinger: Vol. LXXXVIII

Four years ago, Tyler Dunne was an out-of-work NFL writer wondering how he'd survive a dying industry. These days, he's a model on how this business can still kick ass.

Four years ago, Tyler Dunne was fucked.

The Bleacher Report NFL writer was made aware that BR Mag—the website’s long-form bonus baby—was about to die, and with it his job as an NFL writer for the company would cease to exist.

At age 32, Tyler was in that place far too many journalists know of these days. He was old enough to be established, but young enough to still be on the rise. He was old enough to make a good salary, but young enough to still be building up the savings needed to support his green family. He was old enough to have a name in the biz, but young enough to not quite be in the Adam Schefter-Peter King stratosphere.

Again, he was fucked.

“Honestly,” he says, “it was a pretty scary time.”

The year is 2024.

Tyler Dunne is no longer fucked.

He is 36, married with two young children. Every so often he thinks back to Bleacher Report, but only when someone annoying (like me) brings it up. As you read this, Dunne is the president, CEO, head honcho, superchamp, superfreak, big guru, daddy mack and MC Ren of Go Long, the NFL-themed Substack that has emerged as a go-to spot in the ever-buzzing landscape of football information. Go Long is home to 3,600 paid subscribers (at $8 per month or $50 per year) and 21,400 free subscribers, making his production one of the most widely read sports Substacks on the planet. And if that doesn’t sound like a lot of people, it’s only because you’re likely thinking about the halcyon days of sports media, when 3.3 million folks subscribed to Sports Illustrated and every American over the age of 18 read at least one newspaper per day.

It is a lot of people.

I wanted to highlight Tyler this week because, well, I’m tired. And, I’m guessing, you’re tired. Tired of all the “We’re fucked” talk. Tired of the sagging shoulders and dismayed grimaces. Tired of telling aspiring college journalists that they’d be better served becoming an Uber driver or selling plasma. I’m tired of people like the Defector’s Tom Ley allowing this industry’s aspirants to drown in their own misery. I’m tired of the outlook that, if the NFL Network isn’t hiring, you’ll never work in football media.

I’m tired.

But here’s the amazing thing: Tyler Dunne isn’t tired. He’s optimistic. Really optimistic. Always has been. Back as a seventh grader in Salamanca, N.Y., Tyler visited the offices of the Olean Times Herald, the local newspaper. The sports editor was a man named Chuck Pollock, and Tyler, all of 13-years old, handed him his self-printed “draft guide.” The veteran journalist looked over the document and promised the kid, should he come back at 16, an internship would be waiting. “I called right there three years later,” Tyler says. The internship was waiting.

It was a sign.

“I’m doing what I love,” he says. “As far back as I can remember this is what I’ve wanted. If you can do something you love, and at the same time be a dad and raise a family, I mean … it’s pretty great.”

When Tyler talks, even via phone from his home in Western New York, you can feel the pep in his step. Think of the person you’ve met who walks with a neon halo above his head, and that’s Tyler Dunne. He’s been known as a positive sports media presence for a good chunk of time, dating back more than a decade ago to his time writing for the Fayetteville Observer, Buffalo News and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve never heard someone utter an ill word about the guy.

But warmth and success don’t always stroll side by side.

It takes vision.

And it takes guts.

When Tyler’s Bleacher Report time wrapped, he thought long and hard about what to do next. He applied for some jobs, put out some feelers. But … meh. It didn’t seem right. Did he really want to return to the grind of a newspaper beat? Did he really want to stand around Greg Van Roten’s locker, hoping for five minutes of scraps?

Around this time a pair of writing colleagues, Matthew Coller and David Gardner, told Tyler about Substack—”I’d never heard of it before that,” he said. And, indeed, it was a newish entity into the Internet landscape, hovering somewhere between revelation and fool’s gold. The Substack idea, in and of itself, seemed a good one: Be your own boss, control your own content, make money off of individual subscribers. Tyler had discussions with Hamish McKenzie, Substack’s founder, and was intrigued. “I’ve never viewed myself as a news guy,” he says. “I’m not Ian Rapoport or Adam Schefter and Albert Breer. Those guys are elite at breaking stories. But from my time covering the NFL I’d built up a pretty good Rolodex of players, coaches and executives. I had connections. That had to be worth something.”

It was. As a kid who grew up absorbing ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated bonus pieces, Tyler had a passion for the Gary Smith/Rick Reilly/Seth Wickersham approach to storytelling. Which is to say—long, in-depth pieces that don’t merely provide the halfback’s stats, but introduce you to the halfback’s autistic brother. He decided he would take that philosophy to Substack. Readers of Go Long probably wouldn’t use the site for breaking news on the Lions’ free-agency plans. But if you loved football and the stories behind the stories—this would be your spot.

So, with nowhere else to go and a need to create, on Nov. 24, 2020 Tyler launched Go Long.

To no readers.

And no subscribers.

It wasn’t easy. Substack’s people can talk a good game about income potential and radical growth outlooks, but it takes time and repetition and attention to detail. It takes social media hype and word of mouth. It takes asking for favors and asking for subscribers to, well, subscribe. “It’s a daily battle,” he says. “You have to feed to beast all the time. You can’t slack.”

Roughly one year into its existence, Go Long was sorta stuck. Tyler had topped out at 300 paid subscribers—solid, but not enough to sustain long term. “It was a rough time,” he recalls. “You had Covid, the economy wasn’t great.” He posted some pieces that generated mild buzz (including this dandy on the Bills nearly drafting Patrick Mahomes), but nothing groundbreaking.

Then, out of the blue, God’s chosen son came along and handed Tyler the gift of gifts of gifts.

His name was Aaron Rodgers: Pro Douche, and he was holding the Green Bay Packers hostage.

Tyler had covered the Packers. He knew the inner workings of the organization, and—thanks to being his own boss—had the time and wherewithal to devote all his energies to finding out what was really happening inside Green Bay headquarters. “I was hearing a lot of things, in regards to Aaron, Jordan Love, the direction of things,” he says. “So I went after it—hard.”

On May 7, 2021, Tyler published LET THE JORDAN LOVE ERA BEGIN IN GREEN BAY, a deep, deep, deep, deep sizzle into what went right (and wrong) with the Packers’ handling of their quarterback mess. It began thusly …

Well-written and doggedly reported, the article blew up and, for the first time, put Go Long on the map. It exemplified everything Tyler aspired his site to be—a place football fans would turn to when they wanted to grasp the details behind the information. Later that year, he pumped out THE AUTOPSY, PART I: HOW IT GOT SO BAD, SO FAST FOR THE NEW YORK GIANTS—which, a la the Rodgers-Love piece, was reported like a motherfucker and chock full o’ enticing and titillating nuggets. For example …

And to cite the ol’ P.T. Barnum line, “Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.” Breaking news puts one in the news—and those two articles were the springboards Go Long required to enter the national football conversation. Before long, Tyler was slinging gold bars like IT’S A NEW DAY FOR THE MINNESOTA VIKINGS, PART I: CULTURE SHOCK and this exquisite 2021 profile of Bills safety Damar Hamlin—an article that blew up after Hamlin’s paralysis against the Bengals. By the time Go Long brought forth THE MCDERMOTT PROBLEM, PART I: BLAME GAME late last year (the first in a series of three on the shit-show going down in Buffalo), NFL fans seemed to not merely know the name Tyler Dunne, but the brand Go Long.

“Which,” he says, “is sort of the goal.”

Tyler Dunne needs to make something clear: The Substack model works, and he’s a huge fan. He wants journalists to keep being journalists. Wants writers to find ways to write. He often thinks back to his boyhood, when his father Steve broke off from the corporation he worked for to start his own petroleum business, Plateau Energy. “Instead of going with [the standard path],” Tyler recalls, “he went out on his own. That took guts.”

Tyler like the idea of being gutsy. Go Long, after all, was insanely gutsy and not without risk. His wife, Gina, is home with their two children, Ella (4 1/2) and Sonny (2 1/2). Kids eat food. Wear (until recently) diapers. Food and diapers cost money.

So, again, it was gutsy. Gutsiness paid off.

But …

“You have to be smart about this,” he says. “You need a plan.”

Tyler doesn’t just write. Go Long features a podcast. It features subscriber-only Zoom sessions with athletes, executives. It features digital chats with Tyler—all questions taken. “You have to think outside the box and creatively,” he says. “Sell shirts, have events. Whatever it takes.”

For people who plan on entering the Substack business, he strongly recommends finding a niche. Go Long isn’t a football site—it’s a one-of-a-kind long-form, in-depth football site MCed by a dude with the background to pull it off. The world doesn’t need a broad, oh, New York Yankees Substack or Taylor Swift Substack. Start a Substack about the Yankees’ history with lefty relievers. Start a Substack about Taylor Swift’s shoes. About rappers from Milwaukee. About weird fruit. About John Oates’ mustache. “Think narrowly,” Tyler says. “You learn that in journalism as a writer. Find your focus.”

As he speaks, Tyler pauses to step out of one room and head for another. He’s in his home in Boston, N.Y.—where he divides his energies between Go Long and Two Kids. It’s a nonstop blur of activity. If he’s not trying to potty train Sonny, he’s planning his upcoming 25-mile trek to Buffalo to sit in the Bills’ draft room. Football and kids are always on his mind. Or kids and football. “I love it,” he says. “This is exactly what I wanted.”

Four years ago, Tyler Dunne was a sports writer without a job in an industry without hope.

Now, he’s a dude searching for Sonny’s pull-up.

Calling the shots of his own life.

Ask Jeff Pearlman a fucking question(s)

From Colin: Is sports journalism a dying field or is it that we don't yet fully understand how it's changed? Is that because it is still largely a white male-dominated space and when people of color or the opposite gender work in a different way, it scares us to think that "the way" we created might not last forever? Or even that it might not be the best way to engage with readers? I realize journalism can be broad. We can talk specifically about writing. Or about how to use social media. Or how to podcast. But I see journalism as any way to present information and tell stories so I don't think there is just one singular way to do it (i.e. write) or one singular way to get your content out and connect. What say you? I'm always interested in what you have to say because I feel like you are truly introspective with your thoughts and replies, even if I don't always agree with you. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.: Well, that’s a loaded question, and I appreciate it, Colin. So, on the one hand, yes—sports journalism seems to be a dying field, in that journalists (as we think of them) aren’t really valued as we once were. That’s primarily because of social media, and athletes feeling comfortable controlling their own message, putting out their own product, massaging what is said about their performances. You’d think, intellectually, content consumers would be dissatisfied with such a narrow scope—but they don’t seem to be. As a result, why wait to read, oh, Bill Plaschke when Mookie Betts will Tweet his feelings after the game?

Now, that being said, I do agree that journalism comes in many shapes and sizes, and just because print dies doesn’t mean, oh, podcasting also dies. So I do believe there are myriad ways to tell stories—including many we have yet to discover.

But … are times grim?

Yes. They are.

The Quaz Five with … Mitchell Robinson

Mitchell Robinson is a member of the State Board of Education in Michigan, as well as a longtime music teacher. You can follow him on Xitter here.

1. Mitchell, you're on the State Board of Education in Michigan. It sounds awful. So ... why?: Because public education in Michigan—and across the country—is under attack. I’m tired of school board members and teachers being targeted with made-up ALEC-created talking points about CRT, litter boxes in school bathrooms, and porn in school libraries. It's exhausting and counter-productive.

And it’s all because the other side of the aisle has no positive vision for public education--because their real goal is to destroy it, or at least sell it off for parts via vouchers and "tax credit scholarships". 

I ran for the State Board of Education because we need serious people talking about serious issues:

Like how to strengthen public institutions, like our schools.

Providing a high quality education for all children (an education that includes music, art, sports, advanced courses—all the things the most well-to-do parents want for their kids, not just those who grow up in the suburbs).

And I wanted to defend my colleagues in the schools who are doing tremendous work under very difficult conditions.

2. Do you feel like Moms for Liberty are still a threat/force? Do you worry about them? Or have they been full exposed and dismissed?: Moms for Liberty (M4L) is an astro-turf group that is probably not actually made up of many moms and is definitely not about liberty. Let’s be clear—the issue here was never about not porn in school libraries. Groups like M4L tried to use this “manufactured crisis” as an excuse to demonize LGBTQ kids and teachers, accuse teachers of being pedophiles and groomers, and weaken the reputation of public schools among the members of their low-information voting base. This is nothing more than a classic, if lazy, attempt at distraction and reframing.

Now that their “schtick” has been exposed, Moms for Liberty is growing increasingly desperate—and we can see this in their rhetoric, which has become even more disjointed and unhinged. I think their leadership—such as it is—probably knows their time is coming to an end, and their power is waning. No serious persons take them seriously at this point, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous. It only takes one anti-public school board member to throw sand in the gears of the governance of a school system.

3. You've spent decades teaching music to students. What's your greatest success story, where you look back and think, "I REALLY made a difference"?: I’ve had lots of “success stories” over the years—students who have won jobs with major symphonies, or have become wonderful music teachers themselves at all levels from pre-K to college teaching positions.

But the most gratifying stories for me are when I see a former student’s own children playing an instrument, or singing in a chorus, and I get to see the joy in that parent’s face. That brings me a great deal of satisfaction and joy—it’s when I feel like I may have played some role in building a love for music that’s now living on in families, and through generations. That’s a pretty great feeling.

4. What's your all-time worst experience as a teacher?: I lost a student to cancer when I was a high school band teacher, many years ago. But I think about her, and her love of music, almost every day. Her memory helps me to remember what’s most important as a teacher—to help every kid find their voice, their passion, and their confidence in who they are. How lucky are we as teachers to have that privilege?

5. Tennessee is about to pass a law where public school teachers can be armed, and don't have to let parents know. Can you see some value in this, as far as deterring violence? What are your thoughts?: This is a big issue for me, so I have a lot to say here …

My son was in the Michigan State University Student Union when the shooter opened fire last year, and my wife and I were terrified for 4.5 hours that night, waiting to find out if our child would be safe. But perhaps the most frightening thing I heard him say was “You know, Dad, I knew exactly what to do—we’ve been having ‘active shooter trainings’ since I was in Kindergarten.”

I got this note from a teacher friend the other day: “I started my day with online “Stop the Bleed” training, then had a “shelter in place” drill, and finished my day with active shooter training. We then passed out tourniquet kits.”

Tourniquet training in elementary schools…what the hell are we doing?

I want kids and teachers, and anyone who works in schools to be safe. But more guns don’t make anyone safer. 

In our efforts to “harden schools,” I worry that we are traumatizing our kids and their teachers over and over again, and am concerned about the long term impacts of these measures on the mental and emotional well being of everyone who spends time in schools. If we need to strengthen security at school entrances/exits, ok—but if we turn schools into prisons without ever addressing the root cause of school violence (the proliferation of guns in our society), are we really making anything better?

Unfortunately, teachers and school leaders are used to trying to solve problems that our politicians have ignored and allowed to fester and spread—and to do so without funding or support. 

In Michigan, our state legislature recently took meaningful action against the scourge of gun violence in our state and our schools by adopting common sense gun safety legislation for the first time in many, many years. 

But more guns in schools doesn’t make anyone safer—quite the opposite.

According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “the rate of deaths was 2.83 times greater in schools with an armed guard present (incidence rate ratio, 2.96; 95% CI = 1.43-6.13; P = 003).”

And a study out of Ohio State University finds that students and staff in schools that employ hi-tech security measures experience higher levels of fear. Furthermore, the authors could not point to any demonstrable gains in student safety through target-hardening - a startling conclusion given the immense financial costs associated with this approach.

“Instead of simply hardening schools against attack,” the researchers write, “educators should focus on building school environments characterized by mutual trust, active listening, respect for student voices and expression, cooperativeness, and caring relationships with and among students.”

So, I understand why parents are concerned about school safety--it's a legitimate issue.

But more armed resource officers in schools doesn't make schools, students, or staff safer--the research is clear.

And arming teachers—as is being discussed in Kentucky—is a non-starter.

We don't need to "harden" schools. We need a society that is kinder, healthier, and more welcoming—with better mental health care, less bullying, and fewer guns in the hands of those who shouldn't own them.

So what can we do?

Let’s start with background checks, safe storage laws, child access prevention laws, 3-day waiting periods, “extreme risk protection orders”, criminal penalties for buying firearms for another person, and preventing firearms sales to persons dangerous to themselves or others.

More school-based health clinics offering mental health services and screenings, more school social workers, nurses, counselors, psychologists.

Smaller class sizes would help build stronger relationships between students and teachers, and among students.

While I was grateful to all of our son’s teachers over the years for making sure he was prepared for this moment, I was also disgusted that we are subjecting our children, families, and teachers to these ALICE Drills instead of actually doing something to address the problem of gun violence in our society.

The sad truth is that every child, parent, and teacher lives under an ever-present fear that “today could be their day,” the day that someone armed with a deadly weapon will open fire at *their* school—and Feb. 13, 2023 was *our day* at MSU.

And why?

Because there has been a shameful lack of political courage in our nation for far too many years—a lack of political will to pass reasonable gun safety laws that are overwhelmingly popular with a large majority of US voters.

Instead, this is what we hear from the other side of the aisle… 

“It’s not the guns, it’s a mental health problem!”

Let’s be clear—persons who struggle with their  mental health are far more likely to be the victims of gun violence than perpetrators—and the same folks trying to shift the blame for gun violence to “mental health” are still firmly opposed to improving our health care system.

Or “We need better school security!”  

I absolutely understand that parents want schools to be safe. But I don't think that "hardening" schools, or arming teachers, or more armed officers in schools should be our goals.

I don't want to turn our schools into prisons--instead, I want our society to become safer, healthier, and more welcoming. I want more school nurses, and counselors, and psychologists; and a society in which a person who has been bullied or holds a grudge doesn’t turn to a deadly weapon to solve a problem.

Or we hear “Why are you turning this into a political issue?”

Safer schools should be a bipartisan goal—So let’s get together and pass some reasonable gun safety legislation; legislation that a majority of Americans, including Democrats, Republicans, Independents, gun owners, and NRA members support.

Bonus (rank in order—favorite to least): Bobby Higginson, Gretchen Whitmer, chocolate-covered cherries, Daryl Hall, Rasheed Wallace. elks, lice, Mookie Wilson, "Bittersweet Symphony.": Big Gretch, chocolate-covered cherries, Rasheed (though I’m partial to Draymond …), Daryl Hall, elks, Mookie, Higginson, Bittersweet Symphony, lice, *Wolverines.

A random old article worth revisiting …

On May 20, 1980, the New York Jets traded quarterback Matt Robinson to the Denver Broncos for two high draft picks and Craig Penrose. It was the last big Jets-Broncos QB swap before this week’s Zach Wilson deal. George Usher of Newsday covered it.

The Madness of Tyler Kepner’s Grid …

So unless you’ve been living beneath a pebble beneath a rock beneath a big hunk of cheese, you’re aware of Immaculate Grid, the daily game that’s drawn thousands of nerdy sports fans (guilty!) to its ranks. And while the NBA grid, NFL grid, NHL grid and WNBA grid are all fun, this game is at its best when it comes to baseball—where the names are endless and the transactions ceaseless.

Over the past few weeks I’ve often discussed the grid with Tyler Kepner, the Athletic baseball writer. And now, for kicks, every week I’m gonna feature one of Tyler’s bonkers grid results. He’s the ultimate baseball geek (I say this with great affection), and his outputs blow my mind.

So …

Tyler thoughts …

• Dale Berra played for Houston in 1987, when Yogi was a coach there.

• Roger Mason is a pitcher I use all the time. Great for the Phillies in the 1993 World Series.

• Greg Gross was an outstanding pinch-hitter for the Phillies in the 1980s and had some good years for the Astros as a young player. When I was in high school, he was the coach for one of our rival teams.

• Scott Patterson made his debut for the Yankees when I covered them—it was at the Metrodome, I remember—and that was the only game he pitched for them. The Padres picked him up and used him a few more times.

• Keith Comstock had a 1988 Topps card I remember, and there's a building in my town named "Comstock," so I always think of him.

• Gerry Davis is a guy I met when I was in high school. He was working at a sports-apparel outlet store in Ewing, N.J., and we had a nice conversation.

• Johnny Mize was a Hall of Famer who isn't as well-remembered as he should be. Outstanding power hitter in the 1940s who helped the Yankees win a few World Series at the end of his career.

• Al Oliver played for the Giants in 1984, before they traded him to the Phillies for the pennant race.

• Steve Finley, believe it or not, played the third-most games in center field in Major League history, trailing only Willie Mays and Tris Speaker. Quietly excellent career.

This week’s college writer you should follow on Linkedin …

Joseph Ringer, Indiana University

Props to Justin Long of NBC Sports’ NASCAR Talk, who raved about Ringer and put him on my radar. In particular, Justin loved this piece, concerning the Little 500 men’s bicycle race. To quote Justin—“I thought he had a nice way of leading into the story and did a good job of telling it without overwhelming the reader with minutiae. I’m an Indiana University grad and I worked on the IDS my entire time there. I covered the Little 500 three years. It is not the easiest event to cover. There is a lot to learn if you’re not familiar with the sport. I wasn’t. I certainly learned a lot those three years. I don’t know if Joseph knew cycling or not but you couldn’t tell by the story he wrote and that impressed me.”

One can follow Joseph on Linkedin here.

Bravo, kid.

Journalism musings for the week …

Musing 1: Lex Pryor of The Ringer wrote a really fun, insightful piece on Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. Headlined YOU MERELY ADOPTED THE GRIND. TOM THIBODEAU WAS BORN INTO IT, Pryor writes of the coach’s adjustment to both his players and the mojo of the modern NBA. Writes Pryor: “Bathed in glowering radiance, at 66, he no longer paces so much as ambles. Eyes twitch and protrude depending on a box-out’s efficacy. Turnovers leave his face contorted in disgust. These are all ways of saying that if Tom Thibodeau has had a common language throughout his wailing fistfight of a career, that language can be distilled down to conflict alone. This ain’t a secret. Since Thibodeau got his first NBA head-coaching gig—with the Bulls in 2010—he’s gained a rep as rough as his vocal cords. Press descriptions include ‘a growling, gruff hidebound,’ a ‘relentless taskmaster,’ and a less poetic, politically incorrect label: ‘a crazy person.’ He studies rather than sleeps. He crawls out from under the floorboards of practice facilities. Even in his 60s, on the hardwood, he is always barking.”

Musing 2: Donald Trump says he’s going to win New York. And I wonder—does he actually believe that? Or is he inhaling some crazy shit?

Musing 3: Wayne Coffey is one of the best (and most underrated) sports journalists of the last century, and his Substack—Coffey Grounds—is as beautiful as one might predict. He recently wrote an ode to former Dodger Carl Erskine that just … well, it’s art. Writes Wayne: “Long before he achieved fame in Brooklyn, Erskine was a standout baseball and basketball player at Anderson High School. In basketball, he and “Jumpin” Johnny Wilson, the team’s best player, led Anderson to the semifinals of the Indiana state tournament in 1944. Erskine and Wilson, an African-American, had been almost inseparable from the time they met as youngsters on a basketball court. The Ku Klux Klan was an active presence in Indiana in that time, and segregation was the societal norm. Erskine refused to play along. Johnny Wilson was one of his best buddies and everything else was irrelevant. It was no different when Erskine joined the Dodgers and became friends with Jackie Robinson. Wilson likely would’ve attended Indiana University, but the school did not accept Black students, so he wound up playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. Wilson and Erskine remained close the rest of their lives. On the side of a building in downtown Anderson, a new mural depicting Wilson in his Globetrotters uniform and Erskine in his Dodgers uniform, side by side, will be dedicated next month.”

Musing 4: It was easy to just pile on the GREGG DOYEL SUCKS bandwagon after the Indianapolis Star columnist embarrassed himself at Caitlin Clark’s recent press conference. But Candace Buckner of the Washington Post approached the subject with nuance and outside-the-box thinking that I always admire in her takes. A REPORTER’S GESTURE TO CAITLIN CLARK WAS DUMB. SO IS A LOT OF THE ANGER. is a valuable read.

Musing 5: So I had the Chicago Bears taking Delaware State defensive back Kahleef Jimmison first overall in my Mock Draft. Which is my way of saying—I am so fucking thankful the Draft has come and gone, and we can stop with the mocks and the mockage and the mocking. Jesus Christ, it’s tiring.

Musing 6: I’m not 100 percent sure what to make/say about the protests/riots/chaos going down on college campuses. On the one hand, I’m very pro-free speech. On the other hand, nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. What I do know is, even in the most trying of times, police cannot do this to members of the press.

Musing 7: I’m not a regular reader of the Prison Journalism Project, but if I’M WATCHING THE KNICKS’ PLAYOFF RUN FROM PRISON is indicative of the work, I should be. Darrell Powell, serving life without parole, writes beautifully of what it’s like to see his beloved basketball team soar as he dwells on the fringes of humanity. Writes Powell: “Like the Knicks, I’m searching for some comeback magic myself. I’m searching for a buzzer-beater shot at freedom. There are two possible avenues. I can be resentenced by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Or I can be granted clemency by the governor. In 2021, with the help of students at City University of New York School of Law, I submitted an exhaustive clemency application to the governor’s office. My application is stuffed with recommendations and accomplishments. My lawyer told me that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has expressed support to the governor’s office for my case for clemency; he recommends a sentence commutation that would make me immediately eligible for parole.  But the statistics show that I face long odds.”

Musing 8: What an amazing thread on Tom Anderson, the MySpace founder who got rich—and vanished.

Musing 9: The new Two Writers Slinging Yang stars Tommy Tomlinson, author of the outstanding new book, “Dogland.”

Quote of the Week …