Great sports writing on college football and tragedy

Two recent pieces of great sports writing about college football included a feature story for SB Nation and book excerpt published in Sports Illustrated.

The SB Nation piece was "The right thing to do vs. the state of Florida" by Michael Kruse about the death of 18-year-old Devaughn Darling during a 2001 Florida State University off-field practice and what's occurred since. Darling's family sued the state of Florida over the circumstances of Darling's death and agreed to a $2M no-fault settlement, with $1.8M of it still not paid to them as it's up to the discretion of the Florida state legislature whether they actually pay the settlement money. It was a maddening piece to read at times due to both the money and details around and after Darling's death, but Kruse wrote the story incredibly well.

The book excerpt by Anderson for SI was from The Storm and the Tide: Tragedy, Hope and Triumph in Tuscaloosa and a riveting account of the tornado that hit in 2007. The book followed up on a feature Anderson wrote for the magazine and posted to the SI website earlier this month from Anderson was "writing The Storm and the Tide was a deeply personal experience."