Dispatches, Vol. 2 (February 2024)
Thrill Shot country, let's appreciate thoughtfulness and show up to live games.
Near the end of every month, I’m going to send out a Dispatches edition of Thrill Shot that collects the most meaningful bits of sports content and experience that float my way.
This month, we’ve got dopamine culture versus thoughtful insights and being there live, a story about a frail former champion from one of the best sportswriters out currently writing, some goofy NFL offseason content and the most surprising undefeated football team in the world.
Thrill Shot, sports journalism, and post-entertainment culture (Or, appreciation over addiction)
“We’re witnessing the birth of a post-entertainment culture. And it won’t help the arts. In fact, it won’t help society at all.”
I didn’t know what Ted Goia meant by “post-entertainment” when I read that phrase in The State of the Culture, 2024. We’re surrounded by entertainment options, available live in ever-more-impressive venues or produced for big screens and little screens.1 How can we move beyond that?
Here’s Goia’s description of what post-entertainment looks like:
Even the dumbest entertainment looks like Shakespeare compared to dopamine culture. You don’t need Hamlet, a photo of a hamburger will suffice. Or a video of somebody twerking, or a pet looking goofy.
Instead of movies, users get served up an endless sequence of 15-second videos. Instead of symphonies, listeners hear bite-sized melodies, usually accompanied by one of these tiny videos—just enough for a dopamine hit, and no more.2
Goia argues that we’re in an economic shift away from standard media formats. The shift hasn’t happened fully yet, but dopamine culture is moving us collectively past art and entertainment that we choose to engage with, into an era of distraction by and addiction to ceaseless streams of short stimulus bursts.
The only place sports shows up in Goia’s treatise is at the top of this graphic that he uses to compare cultural shifts in segments of our culture.
When I read those blue arrows, I wondered, where is sports journalism? And where does Thrill Shot fit? I’m launching a newsletter in a scrolling world. Is that a bad idea?
Thrill Shot don’t fit in the light blue arrow on the right, “gamble on a sport.” This project is not about picks or predictions. The beauty of contending, of playing to win the most important games, is that we don’t know what will happen. We might be certain that Patrick Mahomes will score a touchdown, but we don’t actually know until he does. Sports history is full of legendary moments that we see but don’t believe, that feel miraculous.
What about the dark blue arrow on the left, “play a sport”? We’re not all athletes, but I want to include the perspectives of those in the arena. I’m working on a couple of stories based on hearing from champions about what it took to claim a title. (Hint: “slow culture” applies because it’s a long process.) In my interviews with athletes and coaches so far, I’ve learned that the perception of the participants emphasizes different aspects than what might show up as commentary angles, talk show takes or statistical analysis.
And what about “watch a sport” in the middle? Here’s three ways to describe Thrill Shot’s approach to being a thoughtful spectator.
Thrill Shot is for slowing down to appreciate moments. Ohtani & Trout in six pitches feels more like a play every time I watch it over. The sequence feels crafted like its own story arc written by a novelist and placed at the climax of the entire tale. And I fell in love with taking pictures of the Asian Cup on my television because the blurs and screen lines captured the energy bottled up in every instant of tense anticipation or wild celebration. Think of any great moment you hold on to — my first home run, Mario’s Miracle, etc.3 — and how you can live it over and over. Expect to pause in the frenzy to live new moments again with me.
Thrill Shot is for taking the time to explore how and why. Highlight channels can keep you updated on every game you missed, which is probably most of them, in the grand scheme of the sports calendar. But watching extended highlight video after extended highlight video doesn’t tell you how those people got there, or how they hatched that strategy, or why the tactics succeeded or failed. In a recent interview with a college soccer player for an upcoming story, we talked about how his most viral highlight was made possible by years of playing with the same coach and teammates. Expect to dig into the process with me.
Thrill Shot is for the experience of being there. Live sports are magical. Go to a local match of a lower-level soccer club and listen to the coach shout, the players chatter and the fans heckle. Go to a hockey game, feel the crunches and the slaps, and throw your arms in the air when the siren glares and the horn blares. Be a part of the crowd, watch a baseball soar, a shot hang in the air, and be alive in the moment together.
These images are from Charlie Waldburger, friend, subscriber and Washington State alum, who took his family to see the second-place Cougars play the first-place Arizona Wildcats in a showdown that should influence who claims the final Pac-12 basketball title.
I asked Charlie about his thoughts on being there to see the Cougars pull off a second-straight road upset against the Wildcats. Here’s what it was like for an away fan of the underdog to see his team jump into first place in the league:4
I just kept thinking, “That’s why they play the game.” Tommy Lloyd was 42-2 at home since he started at Arizona. Now they have three losses and two to Wazzu.5
Even in warm-ups, Arizona looked like an NBA team. So big, so physical, so chiseled. Like a team of Marvel superheroes. They ooze athleticism, while [the] Cougs are a bunch of lightly recruited, blue-collar type guys with a chip on their shoulders.
They simply wouldn’t go away, and on a night when their two best guys were struggling, [Jaylen] Wells, an NCAA D-II transfer, channeled his inner buttery smooth Ray Allen and just shot lights out.6 It’s the epitome of team ball. Physical, smart, efficient. McKale was vibrating when [Caleb] Love got that weak and-1 call at the end. This Coug team doesn’t fold.
That’s why we love that they play the game. Vibrating crowds. Teams not folding.7
So where does Thrill Shot fit on Goia’s cultural graphic? We’re embracing the thoughtfulness of slow culture, taking advantage of the technology of modern culture and pushing back against quick dopamine hits to appreciate a sport, explore a sport and experience a sport.
Here’s an invitation: if you go to an event, especially one with championship implications, send me some photos and your thoughts at thrillshot@substack.com. I’d love to include your adventures in a future story.
Here’s a request: if you know someone who appreciates thoughtfulness in a quick culture, share this newsletter with them. I’d love to find more people who want to understand the players and teams vying for titles more deeply.
And here’s my gratitude: the first two months of Thrill Shot have been incredibly fun. I’m thankful that you clicked the subscribe button. We’re almost to 50! That feels like a huge deal over here where I’m brainstorming, researching and typing. I’ve got a long list of ideas stored in a Google doc, and we have one of the greatest months in sports on deck.8
A Bear blinks once: Sam Borden on Steve McMichael
ESPN Senior Writer Sam Borden taught one of my master’s program classes at St. Bonaventure. Right before The Art of the Sports Interview kicked off, I heard a familiar name on ESPN Daily talking about covering Pelé’s funeral in Brazil. In class Zoom’s, Sam told us about canceling New Year’s plans to fly down and capturing the crowd audio in the podcast episode on his phone. He also lived in France to cover Victor Wembenyama’s origins before the San Antonio Spurs selected the now-rookie sensation first overall.
Sam’s latest story covers Steve McMichael, a Super Bowl champion with the 1985 Chicago Bears, who chose to live longer with advanced ALS in order to hopefully hear that he was chosen to join the Pro Football Hall of Fame. If you know about those Bears, one of the few teams that reached mythical status in NFL lore, you probably know less about McMichael than other stars on the team. Sam weaves together the current struggles and past glory to show a champ surrounded by his community at his weakest point.
No algorithm brought me Sam’s story. He once told me that I should give serendipity some help, so I’m including this because I read it and wanted to share it with you.
The NFL offseason: In which we ponder alternate timelines and encourage each team in their own special way
Here’s a couple of quick hits from my Reddit algorithm because of my Chiefs research.
Who is the GOAT QB if every Super Bowl result is flipped? I sometimes wonder about legacies as we know them being altered by the smallest of moments happening differently. This r/NFL post makes it more specific. Right now, Brady is the Greatest Of All Time with six rings and Patrick Mahomes chasing him down. Flip every result, and suddenly Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills have four in a row. Brady’s count flips to losing six times and winning three, including the only undefeated season (since the 1972 Miami Dolphins would now be 15-1). This conversation gets at what we value in individual performers and team results. Also, they’re big on Rex Grossman having a ring now.
Russell Wilson catchphrases for all 32 teams. Russell Wilson made this green screen promo video before his first season after moving from Denver to Seattle. He was probably just saying what the social team asked him to say. But saying “Broncos country, let’s ride” and then, well, not riding didn’t work out well and the video became a meme. Now, in 2024, we’ve got options for every fanbase. The best versions? Saints. Steelers. Bears. 49ers.
Reactions to Kansas City trading up to draft Patrick Mahomes in 2017. I’m posting this as a time capsule and example of how we don’t know what will happen until it does. Risk. Winning at previous levels. Intangibles. Fear. Terrified. Leader of men. I’m not trying to call the commentators out. I also had no idea who Mahomes would become, either. I just knew him from that bonkers game against Baker Mayfield in college. This is a reminder that projections are just that. If your team drafts a surefire savior, they might not be. If your team signs a player with questions and upside, they might be all upside.
Neverkusen or Now-verkusen?
I’ll leave you with the coolest story in European football. Bayer Leverkusen top the Bundesliga standings by eight points, zero losses and 11 matches to go. They could be the first team not called Bayern Munich to win the German title since 2012. Xabi Alonso, their second-year manager, is already rumored to go to the usual league leaders (he won three titles as a player in Munich) or Liverpool (he won a famous Champions League title there and could take over after Jurgen Klopp steps down after this season). One star is on loan from Bayern. Others will probably be sold after the season. This is normal in the world football hierarchy.
This team is a comet streaking through the football sky, on its way up and already out. No one will expect a repeat. No one expected contention. But here we are. They could win their first title ever, permanently discontinuing the “Neverkusen” nickname. This is why they play the games.
In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the technological antagonist is a room with screens as all four walls — not on the walls, but as the walls themselves — that sucks in all attention toward mindless content with no plot or meaning. I’ve always been impressed that Bradbury captured so much of the future of entertainment culture in 1953. He missed out on the fact that we would value small screens and carry them everywhere with us, but the size of those wall screens correctly portrays the magnitude of the influence of endless content streams in our pockets and bags.
This description sounds like Bradbury’s Professor Faber, the lone intellectual who gives his own state of the culture address when Guy Montag, the fireman, wants to know why he burns books instead of reading them.
Mario Chalmers hit a three for Kansas at the end of regulation in the 2008 national title game against Memphis. I immediately fell on the floor in shock and joy. And we still had overtime to go. And I hit two home runs in my high school baseball career. I can remember them both vividly.
There’s something else. Washington State isn’t leaving the Pac-12. They’re one of two schools in left-behind mode, so it seems like winning the final title over the traditional, current and likely future powerhouse program would be even more cinematic.
Charlie also attended last year’s Cougars-over-Wildcats upset in McKale.
Wells earned D-II All-American third team honors at Sonoma State last year. He shot 9/16 on field goals, 6/10 from three and 3-3 from the free throw line against Arizona. Oh, and he drained a corner three and a free throw for a 4-point play with about 26 seconds to go.
Okay, I know there are Arizona fans reading this. It’s not that great from your perspective. But, objectively, this is why we watch all the sports. And, as of publication, there are a couple weeks left, so you’ve still got time to hope your team doesn’t fold, either.
March Madness. Spring training. Basketball, hockey, and soccer seasons all coming down the home stretch (unless you’re MLS, then it’s just starting). F1 will start soon.