She Got Game

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I can’t say that I’m brimming with enthusiasm about the Super Bowl, what with (a) my team not being in it, and (b) the two-week break that precedes it, which really kills the post-season viewing momentum in the name of cramming in seven more days of bullshit corporate hype. Having said that, though, this seems an appropriate time to spotlight the work of Aditi Kinkhabwala, a real-life desi woman sportswriter, who had a Super Bowl-related piece this week at Sports Illustrated’s website. In it, she proclaims her love for Indianapolis Colts linebacker Gary Brackett, whose path to football stardom was several times barred by family tragedy:

Less than a week later, [Brackett’s father] Granville passed away, his heart finally having given out.

Brackett finished that season with 25 tackles. Then shortly after the Super Bowl, in February 2004, [Brackett’s mother] Sandra was rushed to the hospital for an emergency hysterectomy. She never left, an operating-table stroke putting her into what would be a fatal coma.

Brackett went back out to Indy that summer, until, just before mini-camp, he found out his brother Greg had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. Gary told head coach Tony Dungy the outside shot of staving off Greg’s leukemia was more important than fighting for a roster spot and he skipped the camp.

A few weeks after he made the donation Brackett fought his way onto Dungy’s roster. He again played special teams, before pounding Denver for 11 tackles in his one start in January. And before Greg, despite the transplant, succumbed to the cancer in February.

The other reason Aditi loves Brackett, besides his triumph over the odds, is that he played his college ball at Rutgers. In addition to her column at SI.com, Kinkhabwala is a staff sports writer at the Bergen Record in New Jersey, where her beat is Rutgers sports. She covered the unlikely success of the Scarlet Knights football team this past season, and is now deep in the men’s and women’s basketball seasons.Though she’s a perfectly fine beat writer, the sister’s most interesting pieces have been quirky ones on SI.com where she covers unusual athletic activities or angles. Her previous piece, two weeks ago, was about a grandmothers’ basketball league in Iowa. Check it out:

And it’s all done in the middy blouses, stockings and black bloomers women hoopsters wore in the 1920s.

“Are you kidding?” McPherson said when asked about this-century clothing. “The uniforms cover up all our flab. Who would want to wear shorts?”

Now at eight teams, the league plays roughly once a month from January through May, in high school gyms. Except for the Cedar Rapids Sizzlers — they play in a church.

The youngest player is 50, the oldest is 81. There’s the Hot Pink Grannies (yep, they wear hot pink socks) and the Ossian Good Old Girls and the Centre Point Curvaceous Chicks, who are sponsored by Curves. …

The league allows everyone to go to the “State Tournament” because, McPherson said, “in Iowa, every girl’s dream was to go to the state tournament.”

An archive of the sister’s stories is here. I’d be curious to know what other desis are out there covering sports in the US mainstream media.

73 thoughts on “She Got Game”

  6. Excellent post, Siddhartha. My younger sister just began her journalism career at a CA paper, so for ages I’d been searching for/pointing her to TOTBs in the field. Sure enough, in true desi-style, a brown friend of a brown friend of a brown friend is a full-time sports reporter at the Chicago Trib: Avani Patel. Here’s one of her latest. So badass.

    [TOTB = Think Outside the Box].

  7. I’m as big a sports fan there is, the only desi I could think of was Adnan Virk which already covered in post #3.

    I’m not a Colts or Bears fan, but due to Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy I will be pulling for the Colts. Manning is gonna end as one of the great Qb of all time, yet call him choker. And what can I say about Tony Dungy other then he is class man. All of ex-players speak highly of him, unlike the coach in New England Bill Belichick who may be a great coach, but is a lousy person. Just today I saw a major story about ex-pats LB Ted Johnson in the New York Times. It talks about how Belichick didn’t care that Johnson had a concussion and made him play. Now Johnson said due to health problems is life is a living hell.

  10. Raj Mathai is my hero.

    Yes, yes, I was thinking about Raj too. I met him once in an awkward place when he first got the gig. T’was at his girlfriend’s apartment (no, not like that) and Raj was in pj’s commenting on a college Indian culture show video. And no, I wasn’t delivering pizza’s =)

    Hold up. I saw a guy with not one but two Emmy’s in his pj’s! I hope 5 years from now someone comments on a blog about seeing me in my pj’s with an exclamation point. Then I’ll know I’ve made it baby.

    By the way, as a kid I was convinced that I was going to be the first Indian in the NBA. Then I got to high school and realized that in park & rec leagues you don’t learn a damn thing about defense. Feh. Who needs defense when your nickname was Air Jeet.

  14. Totally off topic, but had to say it. Rest in peace Molly Ivins. “She loved Texas like a parent loves her child even after that child has gone on a three-state killing spree.”

  15. Trying to raise my own little Aditi, I bought Miami Dolphins season tickets for my daughter and me two years running. The first year was highly unpleasant because of the drunks uttering foul words at every Dolphins mistake, of which there is no shortage in our underachieving home team. The second year we moved to the family section, where drinking is not permitted but arriving drunk is. To make matters worse, my little ABD never took to football.

    So now this football fan has switched to a giant screen TV at home. A lot cheaper, no foul words except those in my head, no alcohol except the occasional single malt that goes oh so well with football.

    Can’t wait for tonight. As an ex-Chicagoan, I still am in love with the Bears. Who would have thought that this team would go to Superbowl again? Hooray for the Midwest, too. Two Midwestern cities only 180 miles apart are in the Superbowl.

    If there is any “sepia mutiny” reason to cheer tonight, it is that two African American head coaches are in the big game. In a sport dominated by African Americans, the brainstrust has always been white. This is how glass ceilings are shattered.

  16. If there is any “sepia mutiny” reason to cheer tonight, it is that two African American head coaches are in the big game. In a sport dominated by African Americans, the brainstrust has always been white. This is how glass ceilings are shattered.

    You said what’s been on my mind for years. Enjoy the game.

  17. Read the Home News Tribune for all your Rutgers updates. Aditi Kinkhabwala writes for a competing paper of mine. So boooo.

    Just Kidding! Just Kidding!

  20. There’s too much parity in the NFL these days. Every team is really 8-8, give or take a few games. No one dominates. The colts and the bears have some serious holes in their game, especially the bears at the all-important QB position. I miss the days of the dominant steelers of the ’70’s, who were not only all-around great, but had great competion bringing the game to new levels…the cowboys, vikings, broncos, and raiders. The weak teams died early and did not live to make the playoffs like the pathetic ny giants.

    but the nfl rewards mis-management with revenue sharing, poor play with easy schedules. The result is 2 seriously flawed teams in the super bowl. european football is more capitalistic. will someone please tell Tagliabue the berlin wall is no more.

    in an age where there are no michelangelos, and random dots of paint on a canvas is considered profound, we look to sports to fill the void by illustrating human greatness, dominance, and conquest…as in jordan and the bulls, federer, or bernard hopkins. the nfl disappoints.

  21. Manju, I have to disagree with you, I think the balance in the NFL is what has made it great and has passed baseball as America game. 20 years ago baseball was the National game, but now it is the NFL. Just ask fans in Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee/Green Bay about how they have more faith that there NFL teams to win then they do with there baseball teams.

    Just look at the American League East in baseball. I think for the last 8 or 9 years it been the Yankees, and Red Soxs with the 2 biggest payrolls always that are always winning. The other 3 teams Toronto, Baltimore and Tampa Bay have fan bases that think that there teams have no chance of winning and that why’s those 3 teams are in bottom of baseball in attendance.

  22. Manju #20 “as in jordan and the bulls, federer, or bernard hopkins. the nfl disappoints. “

    Of course! I, too, miss the era of the dynasties because the dominating teams had organically evolved due to their own efforts, which is what sports should be. NFL today is first and foremost a business, and all its recent rules of free agency and salary caps – especially salary caps – are designed to promote the conglomerate that is NFL, with monetary fallouts disbursed to all teams regardless of their merit.

    “european football is more capitalistic” I would say European football is more individualistic. It is NFL that is more capitalistic. The ultimate goal of capitalism is the propogation of the “company,” not the individual franchises, with the assumption that the benefits will definitely trickle down to the lowest rungs.

    Manju, you mentioned the Steelers of the 70’s. I once shared a table with Rocky Bleier in 1996, when he was long retired and on the speaking circuit. He entertained us all evening with stories of the 70’s Steelers including one of the most famous plays in football, “The Immaculate Reception.” He confirmed that Terry Bradshaw was never too bright. He just knew how to win games. He also told us that as famous a running back as he was in 70’s, his salary was never more than $50,000 a year, in a job that comes to an end when one is not even 40. He was on the speaking circuit (I think his rate was a mere $5,000 for the gig) just to put food on the table.

  23. Manju, I have to disagree with you, I think the balance in the NFL is what has made it great and has passed baseball as America game. 20 years ago baseball was the National game, but now it is the NFL. Just ask fans in Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee/Green Bay about how they have more faith that there NFL teams to win then they do with there baseball teams. Just look at the American League East in baseball. I think for the last 8 or 9 years it been the Yankees, and Red Soxs with the 2 biggest payrolls always that are always winning. The other 3 teams Toronto, Baltimore and Tampa Bay have fan bases that think that there teams have no chance of winning and that why’s those 3 teams are in bottom of baseball in attendance.

    Clueless,

    I have to disagree with you, and you just hit one of my favorite pet peeves. A lot of studies (Baseball Prospectus does it best) have shown that: a) there is more parity in baseball than ever before in its history; b) given the construct of the game (smalelr number of teams in the playoffs), there is more parity than any other professional sport in the USA.

    The reason why teams like Kansas City, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh have horrible records, and attendance is down is because of gross mismanagement. St. Louis, for example, has the same market size as these three franchises but has had much more success and a higher payroll potential because of Walt Jocketty and how well he’s managed the team. There were period of time not that long ago when Baltimore and Toronto had bigger attendances and payrolls than the Yankees until their teams were mismanaged.

  24. The parity in baseball is overated. Look at some of the teams like the Marlins and Diamondbacks won one year and then didn’t do anything else. Two small markets teams like Minnesota and Oakland have been in the playoffs alot the past few years but if they were in the same divison as the Yanks and Soxs the teams would finish 3rd.

    Look at the A’s they had the big 3 of Mulder,Zito and Hudson. But they could not afford to keep any of them.

    Before the salary cap started in 94 you had the Cowboys and 49ers play 3 years in NFC champship game and those 2 teams were better then everybody else, and it made the NFL not as fun as it is now.

    From 1983 to 1994 only 2 of 12 super bowls were close. The other 10 super bowls were blowouts.

    From 1995 to 2005 5 of the 11 super bowls want down to the final minute and 3 other super bowls were 1 score games before the winning team scored late to win by a safe score margin. And only 3 of the 11 super bowls have been blowouts.

  25. european football is more capitalistic.

    I think Manju nailed it here. NFL is a beautiful synchronization of market forces and welfare state though Manju of course does not like the outcome.

    I would say European football is more individualistic. It is NFL that is more capitalistic. The ultimate goal of capitalism is the propogation of the “company,” not the individual franchises, with the assumption that the benefits will definitely trickle down to the lowest rungs.

    Not really. The companies here are the 32 NFL teams. NYGiants dont gain squat by sharing revenues with Cincinnati Bengals. Revenue sharing, draft choices, salary caps, collective bargaining agreements with players are all designed to run the NLF like a Scandinavian welfare state.

  26. Kahani recently did a story on Sweeny Murti. He’s a reporter with WFAN, the 24-hour all-sports radio station in NYC. His beat is the Yankees baseball team. As a Red Sox fan, it oh so pained me to publish his story…

    PS: Sweeny is short for Srinivas

  29. One thing about the NFL is with parity, is more fans still caring about there teams, it means higher Tv ratings which lead to higher tv revenue and that means more money for every team.

  31. Hari the Yankees can make a bad signing and if does not workout they can just write it off. But if team like Kansas City signs a big player and he a bust, then they are screwed.

    Also if Yankees lose a star like Jeter or A-Rod they can just trade for the best player avilable no matter what the cost.

  32. Clueless,

    The same revenue sharing exists in baseball too. It’s a different story that the David Glasses of the world prefer not to plow that money back into the team and are happy to pocket it. And let’s not even start about how being horribly run as a franchise has more to do with the Royals abyssmal play- they have no decent system for valuing players and get screwed over in trades. The Royals did have a great run a couple of years ago, btw.

    As far as Oakland & Minny finishing 3rd in the AL East, a team’s record is a function of the league they are in. E.g., the AL West is more competitive than the AL East, so teams there will on average have worse records than the AL East where everybody beats up on TB & BAL due to the unbalanced schedule which sees you play 19 games with each team in your division. You can’t extrapolate as you have…

    Sorry for the rant, but I love the incredibly statistical game of baseball and get POed any time I see it compared unfavorably to the “parity” of the NFL.

  33. Even if David Glasses put all his money in the Kansas City Royals there is still only so much he could spend to compete with the Yankees. Yes I agree that management is important, but I team like the Yanks and Soxs could make mistakes that smaller market teams.

    Also the Twins’s and A’s don’t play in the AL East. If you put Oakland/Minnesota in the same divison as the Yanks/Soxs. The Yanks and Soxs would be in huge advantage over the twins/a’s.

    Last year when the Yanks traded for Bobby Abreu, they also had to take Cory Liddle contract as part of the deal. For the Yanks it was no big deal. But alot of smaller market teams could not make that deal.

  34. Clueless:

    My second paragraph dealt with the AL East/West issue. Have you seen the Sox/Yankees record vs AL West teams? Not quite the blowout you’ll expect.

    If you want to find fault with payroll parity, it’s more in the bench- the Red Sox and Yankees can have slightly washed up grade A players on their bench because they can afford it. The KCs of the world cannot afford that which is why even when they have a great young core, they’re done in by September when their regular young players are tired/injured and they have AAAA players on the bench who can’t really get it done (many Cinderella stories in MLB end badly because of this).

    Anyway, sorry all for the threadjack- back to Indian sportswriters.

  39. Go Bears.

    I am pulling for the Bears too, (in the spirit of underdog) but looks like they will lose.

  40. hehe. COLTS baby. SUPERBOWL Champs!!!

    The best Colts Player: Grossman ;). Kudos to Manning and double kudos for Dungy being the class act that he truly is.

  41. Whatever. At least they should have given the MVP to Joseph Addai, who was the key to Indy’s season and playoff wins, as well as their key offensive player today.

  43. all i gotta say is that the colts play slip and slide fairly well…and manning shut up all the non believers, including the ehem.. patriot fans.

  44. Addai and Rhodes ended up taking votes from each other for MVP. Look at Brady in super bowl 36 he won MVP by passing for 146 yards and he won MVP. Manning had 100 yards more today when he won MVP then Brady had in super bowl 36.

    I bet Manning get less then 50% of the votes the award.

    I like at the end when the Colts carried Dungy off the field. I can’t ever recall Belichick ever being carried off the field.

  45. I just want on the espn nfl message board, and New England fans are having a heart attack. I never understood there hate for Manning. It like a disease or something.

  47. agreed it was sloppy football…the rain added to the craziness of it all… with prince in an aunt jemima kind of hairwrap… (thank god he took it off midway, ironically during purple rain)… but the final outcome was what i wanted, so i’m not complaining…manning got what he deserved, and tony dungy shows that nice guys can finish first and retain their classiness…(albeit the bears coach is a good guy as well)

  48. Why all the hate towards the Patriots? If anybody should hate the Pats, its me. I hate the Pats. I hate them even though the Pats have been a patsy franchise for 6/7 of their existence. Remember this logo? It’s weaksauce. Like I said, I hate the Pats. I hate them so much I don’t even have to mention my team to clue you in to my hatred. I just have to say ‘Tuck Rule’. Nonetheless, I give mad props to the Pats for what they have accomplished in the modern NFL. Brady is our generation’s Montana. And I hate Montana.

    The Pats are good. It took a record comeback for them to lose. It’s only 2007, there’s probably 3 more Super Bowl’s in Tom Brady. But I still hate the Pats.

  49. I am getting a little sick of Dungy and his public expression of his hyper religiosity. Its really tiresome. The creeping religiosity in sports is such a turn off. In Dungy’s words, the Super Bowl had ‘two Christian coaches’, Yippie! I am presuming Jesus didnt really hates Lovie Smith as his team lost.