My first piece for Play, the New York Times’s quarterly (or so) sports magazine, publishes this Sunday, Nov. 2 (but you can read it online now). It’s about the venerable Rooney family’s attempt to sell the Pittsburgh Steelers:

In 1933, a boxing promoter and horse-racing handicapper from the North Side of Pittsburgh named Art Rooney paid $2,500 for a franchise in the young National Football League. The team wouldn’t play for, let alone win, an N.F.L. championship in its first 40 years.

But then came Franco Harris and the “Immaculate Reception,” Terry Bradshaw and Lynn Swann and four Super Bowl titles in six seasons. The Pittsburgh Steelers earned a national following and a reputation as an elite organization. The year before his death in 1988, Rooney composed a letter on team stationery to his five sons. “Time is starting to run out on me,” he wrote. “I would like to reach some kind of an understanding so that there will be no questions or complications regarding my estate.” Rooney left each son $200,000 and an equal share of his 80 percent stake in the team.

Read more. . .

That’s the incredibly clever name I’ve given to my new weekly post on The Fifth Down, the New York Times’s NFL blog. As you might have guess from the title, I’m writing about–what else?–kicking.

My introductory post assesses the incredible season  that kickers are having thus far.

Post No. 2 is about why icing the kicker is a waste  of time.

Today’s entry begins like this:

As I was scanning the N.F.L. field-goal stats the other day — yes, I do that — something popped out. Old guys are doing remarkably well this season.

John Carney, the 44-year-old Giants kicker who is in his 20th season, has made 18 of 19 attempts—the lone miss was a ridiculous block against San Francisco — and leads the league in scoring. Jason Elam, 38, in his first season in Atlanta after 15 in Denver, is 16-for-17 with a 50-yarder. Carolina’s John Kasay, who has spent 18 of his 39 years on Earth in the N.F.L.—is a perfect 16-for-16.

Read more. . .