I think it’s the real world. The people we’re writing about in professional sports, they’re suffering and living and dying and loving and trying to make their way through life just as the brick layers and politicians are.

For 350 years we have been taught that reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man. Football’s place is to add a patina of character, a deference to the rules and a respect for authority.

It was an ideal day for football – too cold for the spectators and too cold for the players.

It’s no accident that of all the monuments left of the Greco- Roman culture the biggest is the ballpark, the Colosseum, the YankeeStadium of ancient times.

Unlike the normal pattern, I know I have grown more liberal as I’ve grown older. I have become more convinced that there is room for improvement in the world.

Today’s game is always different from yesterday’s game.

Ninety feet between home plate and first base may be the closest man has ever come to perfection.

Writing is easy. Just sit in front of a typewriter, open up a vein and bleed it out drop by drop.

It was an ideal day for football - too cold for the spectators and too cold for the players.

Unlike the normal pattern, I know I have grown more liberal as I've grown older. I have become more convinced that there is room for improvement in the world.