If you have a subscription to The Athletic (story link) or have access to it via a New York Times subscription, do not miss this one. The daily Athletic email to subscribers promoted the lengthy and well-written story below this way:
Nicole Auerbach and Brody Miller published an illuminating tribute to Buddy Teevens, the Dartmouth football coach who’s had an outsized impact on football at large and a contact list that “could rival the pope.” Teevens is fighting for his life after a tragic accident. Take some time for this one.
(S)uddenly so many are reeling from the horrific injury to one of the most important presences in football you may not know. Teevens is the coach who stared down the conventional football world at Dartmouth, his alma mater, and eliminated tackling at practice to make football safer. He was the first to hire women to his full-time staff. He swims and cycles – he biked across the entire country a few years back. He played an NCAA hockey Frozen Four straight from quarterbacking in the Blue-Gray Football Classic. He made weight on the freshman high school team by putting a 5-pound weight in his jockstrap. The former head coach at Maine, Tulane and Stanford helped launch the MPA and won 117 games along the way, too.
And now this Energizer Bunny of a human is fighting for his future.
“Not many people have contributed more to the game than Buddy,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, also a friend of Teevens, tells The Athletic. “It’s unique in that he’s had so many touch points into the future of the game as well as the past.”
And . . .
“I love that he just says, ‘This is the right thing to do, and we’re gonna do it,’” Dartmouth athletic director Mike Harrity says. “He exemplifies what college athletics can be at its best … and people will tell you that he’s one of the best educators that this campus has ever seen. His classroom just happens to be the football field.”
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Dartmouth football's social media shared this photo of Big Green quarterback Nick Howard at the Manning Passing Academy:
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EXTRA POINT
On my hike yesterday I listened to CBS Sunday Morning contributor David Pogue's Unsung Science podcast Inside the Lost Titanic Sub: An Update. Excerpts from his two previous podcasts detailing his attempts to visit the Titanic on the submersible are revealing. Even if you don't have a podcast app, you can listen to the updated program in your browser by clicking on the arrow under the Unsung Science graphic HERE.
I learned a few days ago that the brother of a good friend was invited to visit the Titanic on the submersible last summer, and actually was invited to come along on what would prove to be the vehicle's ill-fated final trip. Scary.
