- Jan 2019
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www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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Dearborn defeated Crestwood,
This shows the mental toughness they had. Although they may not have had a lot of water or food they still were tougher mentally, which helped them as a team.
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"We fast so we can feel for the poor people, to know how they feel," said Khalil, 16, a junior. "I'm going through this hunger and thirst for 12, 13 hours. They're going through it for a lifetime."
This helps put Ali’s perspective in to view. It helps us understand why they fast and the commitment they have. Even with grueling practices in hot weather they still don’t eat or drink water.
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As much as football meant to him, as much as it mattered to win, those things only counted for Ali if he was also staying true to Allah.
This sentence helps in understanding the balance Ali has between religion and sports. I think this is a very strong statement because he made sure to stay true to his beliefs and didn’t let a sport ruin that.
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But the league has shown little interest in ending on-ice fighting. The message is decidedly mixed: outlaw an elbow to the head during play, but allow two combatants to stop the game and try to knock each other out with bare-knuckle punches to the head.
The league doesn't want to end the fighting because this is what keeps fans coming back to games. This is what excites them. If they ended the fights all together there would be less and less people that went to the games. They feel that they would rather have injuries than not have money.
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Boogaard skated, expressionless, to the penalty box.
The way Branch makes this one sentence its own paragraph makes this stand out. The word expressionless also stand out in this sentence. I think that it shows that Boogaard is done with this fighting its a constant thing for him but it also makes him money.
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When it arrived at a laboratory at the Bedford V.A. Medical Center in Bedford, Mass., the brain was vibrantly pink and weighed 1,580 grams, or about 3 ½ pounds. On a stainless-steel table in the basement morgue, Dr. Ann McKee cleaved it in half, front to back, with a large knife. Much of one half was sliced into sheets about the width of sandwich bread.
Branch compares Boogaard's brain to food in this paragraph. I am confused as to why he is doing this and what it is supposed to tell us. In this paragraph he also describes the dead brain.
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“It just dulls you right out,” he said. “Totally numbs everything. You don’t feel anything. You’re in no pain, but you’re not yourself. There’s no senses. Nothing. My wife was like: ‘This is creeping me out, man. You’ve got to stop taking those.’ And so I stopped.”
This paragraph helps us imagine how Boogaard felt. It suggest that Boogaard felt no pain, which I feel is a double meaning, in not feeling pain physically and mentally.
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Never had Boogaard felt such love. And it was not because he had smashed someone’s face. It was because he could have.
Boogaard had never experienced love. His definition of love is twisted due to never being exposed to it. He feels power knowing that he could have smashed someone’s face in so his definition of love is having ultimate control and power.
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When Boogaard closed his right hand, though, it was a weapon, the most feared in the N.H.L.
The word weapon is used to describe something that hurts someone else, it can be words, etc. In the NHL Boogaard was a weapon of his own. His fists held so much destruction and made anyone who played him fearful.
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Boogaard started to win fights.
I think there is a double meaning with the word fights. He won fights on the ice but also won fights with himself, mentally.
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Repeating the word "it meant" throughout this paragraph helps put emphasis on what youth hockey in western Canada was. This helps us readers to imagine what it was and how it was for Boogaard.
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DEREK BOOGAARD was scared. He did not know whom he would fight, just that he must.
In hockey there is a lot of fighting, you get into fights over the puck and with other players. He MUST fight makes me think that is not something he wants to do but has to, so he can entertain the people watching the game.
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www.si.com www.si.com
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Some holes are easier to patch than others.
This one sentence explains a lot. Some people grieve in different ways. Their love for the sport is what kept these people together even after losing so many people. The new firefighters that join won't replace the ones they lost. However, all they can do is show their love for the sport as well.
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You cry together at enoughfunerals, you figure you can bleed together on a football field,too. One thing about firemen, they don't let each other fightbattles alone.
This displays the idea of how strong a team can be. When you see these people everyday and have to play games with them your bond has to be strong, you have to work together. They may have started off as teammates but they now have a bond that will last for a long time.
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Most of the guys on the team have a nasty case of the WTC cough,which is what you get from digging week after week, up to 18hours a day, and inhaling dust, smoke, glass particles, asbestosand, indeed, microscopic remains of their fallen comrades. Butthe guys are playing.
This shows the dedication that these people have towards a sport they love. What stood out to me is when the author says "but the guys are playing." This shows that they don't care if they are sick or not, no matter what they will keep playing and love it.
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