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Addicted to Golf
Outside the Lines (Sunday 9 a.m. ET, ESPN)
ESPN.com
The game of golf is loved by millions but, as Shelley Smith reports, for some it’s too much of a good thing. Driving a fairway too often may drive away family. When golf crosses a line into obsession, it can impact lives and loved ones in extreme ways.
“I wouldn’t say my dad is golf obsessed. However, when my first child was about to be born and I was going into labor, he had a tee time that he wasn’t really ready to break. So he said, ‘I’ll see you afterwards, OK honey? Good luck,’ and gave me a kiss. At least it wasn’t my husband.” – Cynndie Hoff, who created “The Golf Widow Club,” a website for wives and girlfriends of golfers who feel neglected at the expense of golf
“There’s definitely a physical and psychological side to it. Physical being when you just catch it flush out the center of the face. That feeling is absolutely amazing. And when you’re talking about a substance addiction, you have a psychological dependency, as in you want to feel that high just like in golf.” — Jiro Nakazaki, a PGA instructor with a background in psychology
“I’ve allowed it to take family, jobs. It was my drug of choice. Addiction, obsession, compulsion, the little white lies that turn into pretty big lies.” – Doug Johnson, 61-year old golfer
Why FIFA Needs Female Leadership
espnW.com
FIFA was founded in 1904. In 2013, Lydia Nsekera of Burundi became the first woman elected to the 24-member FIFA executive board. Kate Fagan writes:
“As all eyes look toward the future, the conversation will inevitably return to the same question that so many people were asking in the months leading up to the World Cup: How can FIFA be fixed? And yet for all the talk about how to repair FIFA’s reputation — everything from dumping embattled president Sepp Blatter to abolishing the entire organization — one obvious approach has drawn hardly any attention. FIFA needs to include more women.”
Nothing to See Here
ESPN The Magazine (The Body issue, on newsstands now)
ESPN.com
The team shower is a place of celebration, fellowship and naked dance-offs. What it’s not? A place hostile to Michael Sam. David Fleming reports.
“Michael Sam just wants to be clowned on and made fun of just like everyone else. And that’s what has happened.” – James Laurinaitis, Michael Sam’s teammate and Rams captain
Video: ESPN The Magazine: Accepting Openly Gay Football Players
The Power of Healing – ESPY Day
SportsCenter (Wednesday, ESPN)
While hospital rooms and doctors’ appointments can be terrifying to a child battling cancer, sports can offer a piece of solace in the struggles and uncertainties of their lives. On the inaugural ESPY Day, an expansion of ESPN’s 21-year effort to help find a cure for cancer, Tom Rinaldi explores how cancer patients and survivors find healing through sports and how superstar athletes are changed when they step up to offer a moment that creates lasting memories.
“She’s like my little sister now. Whenever she needs anything or her family needs anything, they know I’ll always be there for her. She’s helped me grow as a person more than I could ever imagine.” — A.J. McCarron, on his relationship with five-year old cancer survivor Starla Chapman
“When they walked in he kind of lit up and Chris came right over to him. But what was cool about it was so did every one of the other players and they were joking with him and they were having fun with him.” — Fran McCaffrey, Iowa basketball head coach, on his son, Patrick, who had a malignant tumor on his thyroid removed, meeting Chris Paul at a Clippers shoot around
“He made me feel a lot better and he was really funny, just fun to be around.” — Patrick McCaffrey, cancer patient, on meeting Chris Paul at a Clippers shoot around.
“Our reporter group is truly unparalleled for any sporting event,” Jed Drake, ESPN Senior Vice President and Executive Producer, said of ESPN’s World Cup coverage prior to the tournament. “We are more than ready to take on the important stories of this World Cup in Brazil that will need to be told.”
One example of Drake’s notion playing out came last week when reporter Jeremy Schaap with producer Jim Witalka in the field worked with news editor Sandy Rosenbush at ESPN’s Brazil office to break news from the host country impacting the U.S. team.
