Alexander Ovechkin piece in the WP magazine

Nice piece.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101807.html

Written by a journalist with 20 year's experience and this is her first sports story.

Pretty good, except for one jarring reference in the second graf. (Find it. )

Love this:

Scoring, of course, feels even better. "You can imagine a situation when you are running away from an angry dog," Alex explained. "You've got a bit of adrenaline in your blood, right? Combine that with a sense of accomplishment, and you've got a goal."

 

Ovechkin is a beast. I felt bad when he had refused the captaincy because his english wasn't up to par.

 

For my money, John Hannah's still the best offensive lineman ever, but he had terrible hands around the net.

 

Ovechkin will play for the Redskins on the Capitals' off weekends?

 

FB and Double J got it.

You have a major piece in the WP magazine and there isn't an editor in that place that doesn't catch that? No wonder no one shows up at their games. They're hockeyretards.

 

I'm pretty sure there was a version of this story on the wire a few days ago with all the fashion (and football) references left out. Interesting. Great story, though. Very rarely do I actually stay interested for the parts of profiles that go into detail about the parents' lives, but this was refreshingly interesting (and well done).

 

Erg ... there's also one word in this graph:

The instant the ball sailed over the plate, the crowd began to cheer. The ovation persisted as Alex made his way off the field and through the crowded lower stands. As he passed, fans lept up from their seats to offer high-fives. They lifted up cellphones to record his image. They screamed his name. One woman was so overcome by the sight of Alex that she forgot to swallow, and greeted him with a wide, gaping mouth full of popcorn.

 

Lept?

 

gaping?

 

Nope, Flash would know that one.

 

Cell phone?

 

Goddamnit.

First the Parcells story and now this. It kills me to read otherwise excellent stories that are, for me, ruined by ridiculous mistakes.

Psssst, NYT and WP. Next time you want to do a brilliant piece on a sports figure, LET YOUR FUCKING SPORTS COPY DESK HAVE A LOOK AT IT. Or at least find some chump off the street that likes sports -- the obvious errors you're making would be caught be damn near anybody.