A few months ago, I overheard my sports-addicted sons — ages 15 and 11 — debating who was the best athlete ever.
As you might suspect, that conversation was heavily tilted to the athletes they had seen. LeBron James was mentioned. Patrick Mahomes. Shohei Ohtani. Lionel Messi. Katie Ledecky.
You get the idea.
I sidled up to them and said “You guys ever heard of Bo Jackson?”
As I expected, they had not. To make my case for Bo as the greatest athlete ever, I went to YouTube and pulled up this clip:
They were impressed. (I mean, who wouldn’t be? The dude ran up a straight eight-foot wall at full speed!!!)
And we spent the next half hour watching old clips of Bo — shedding defenders at Auburn, breaking a bat over his head and hitting a titanic (leadoff) home run in the 1989 All Star Game.
It was, in a word, awesome. For me, it brought back memories of watching Bo play — and how much joy he had brought me. For my kids, it was being introduced to someone they never knew existed -- but now could tell their friends about.
It was a bridging-the-generations moment. I get a little teary-eyed even writing about it now.
This is the power of sports. It can reach across time and space to connect us — to remind us that everything that is happening now has (probably) happened before.
But, we also live in a moment where our memories are shorter than ever before. The best (or worst) thing is the thing that has JUST happened. Events of even 5 years ago seem distant memories (if we remember them at all!).
Enter The Replay. Our goal here is simple: We want to use sports history to make our current sports debates better informed — and more fun.
You can’t talk about whether Caitlin Clark is the best women’s college basketball player ever unless you know about Cheryl Miller.
You can’t talk about whether the Russell Wilson trade was the worst in NFL history unless you know about Herschel Walker trade in 1990.
You can’t talk about whether Nick Saban was the greatest college football coach of all time unless you talk about Bear Bryant.
You get the idea. Our goal at “The Replay” is to look at the world of modern sports through the lens of history. To give you context. To make you smarter. To bring back the memories of great athletes, great plays and great teams. And to engage you and our other subscribers in lively debates about who were the best — and worst — of all time.
We’ll lean on YouTube, archival photos and a little bit of our own reporting to bring you a daily look at sports from an angle you won’t see anywhere else.
Our goal is to build a community around our common love of sports — and nostalgia. So in addition to pieces breaking down, say, the 5 biggest busts of the NFL Draft — this year’s draft is less than 2 months away! — we’ll also feature interviews with great athletes from the past, sports reporters (past and present) as well as polls and other ways for you to interact with us.
I’m launching this Substack with my friend Steve Hull, a longtime magazine editor and publisher who went to UConn and waxes poetic about the men’s and women’s basketball teams, but immediately changes the subject when anyone mentions the football team. As for me, well, I have always been a sports obsessive. I dreamt of being a sports reporter when I was a kid and have vigorously followed the ups and downs of the leagues (and the broader sports industry) as an adult. I wrote a book about sports and presidents — “Power Players: Sports, Politics and the American Presidency.” I even talk sports sometimes on “The Tony Kornheiser Show” podcast.
We are thrilled to be launching “The Replay” and eager to get your feedback.
So, subscribe! And join the conversation!
Intrigued to read more from the Substack before possibly upgrading to paid. I always tell people that I love March Madness because of the history...and the stats involved (I'm a data nerd). Hoping "The Replay" might expand my interest in sports or at least help me with the sports categories at trivia night.
Please talk a little bit about hockey, my true (sports) passion!