My favorite recent sports pieces covered a number of different subjects: a skydiver, NBA player that's improved both professionally and personally, NFL team chaplain, and players from the old USSR hockey team juggernaut.
By Michael Graff for the Feb 2015 issue of Charlotte Magazine was "Grounded," a fantastic story of competitive skydiver, and former Army Golden Knight, Cheryl Stearns and the accident she suffered just prior to her 20,000th skydive.
The first of two Sports Illustrated stories to note here was by Lee Jenkins with "Michael Kidd-Gilchrist's jump shot, voice remain a work in progress," on the Charlotte Hornets player and his diligent efforts to overcome both a stutter that began in childhood and problem in his game.
The second SI piece was "Red Army: Spirited documentary about Soviet hockey goes deep" by Ben Reiter about the recently released in theaters Red Army. Just an awesome trip down memory lane for someone who remembers the great Soviet team of the 1980s.
Written for ESPN was "Love in the Time of Deflategate" by Seth Wickersham on New England Patriots team chaplain / character coach Jack Easterby. Very cool and heartwarming look at a different aspect of the NFL world that Wickersham has written well about so many times.
