It attests to a fundamental stability in American society, a capacity to absorb difference.
While I do see what the author is saying, I can't fully agree with it. Yes, most of America may have "a capacity to absorb difference," but there's always that small percentage of people who are unaccepting, and just plain old mean, to people who are seen as "different."
"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."
I like that the author included this quote because it gives insight to the people who might not know much about Islam.
"You know you've worked hard. You know you've been faithful. And that makes you much tougher out on the field. You have to have a crazy mentality out on the field, and after fasting all day, you feel like a warrior."
I think that the author included this quote to almost show the audience how the players were able to stay so motivated through such a difficult time. The struggle made them work even harder.
Since Ramadan began in early October, the Muslim players have awakened at 4:30 for the predawn breakfast, shahoor; gone through an entire day of class without sustenance; resisted the temptation of a water break during practice; and started most of their Friday night games before full darkness allows for the evening meal of iftar.
Here the author is showing us what the players had went through together. Even though it was difficult, they always had each other to keep themselves motivated.
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 is really admirable. The fact that he stayed true to his beliefs, all while doing something so physically exhausting and demanding, really shows the kind of person Ali is.
- AT 5 o'clock in the morning on game day, maybe the last game day of his football career, Ali Ahmad walked from the overnight darkness into the gleaming marble heart of the Golden Bakery. He wore his letter jacket from the Dearborn High Pioneers, with an orange chevron on each shoulder for his two years on the varsity and the stitching on the back spelling out his nickname, Flea.
The author starts off the article with both imagery and foreshadowing. These are really good techniques to keep the audience on edge, and make them want to continue reading on.
“They are trading money for brain cells,” he said.
This simple line couldn't be anything but true. The players really are risking their sanity and their lives, all for a bit of cash.
But the league has shown little interest in ending on-ice fighting.
Even after Boogaard?? Is it because they're afraid to lose money?
The degenerative disease was more advanced in Boogaard than it was in Bob Probert, a dominant enforcer of his generation, who played 16 N.H.L. seasons, struggled with alcohol and drug addictions and died of heart failure at age 45 in 2010.
This really surprised me. Why was Boogaard's case so bad?
“I had to hold him,” Len Boogaard said of Derek. “It was like when he was younger, when he was a little kid growing up. He just sobbed away uncontrollably.”
He was becoming depressed, yet he still refused to admit it directly. This probably worsened his drug and alcohol addiction.
But any concern the Rangers had was outweighed by their eagerness for his brand of toughness and intimidation. They needed an enforcer, and they wanted the best.
They were using him, at a time he was most unstable, for their own benefit. And they knew it too. Horrible.
He missed the start of the season while in rehabilitation, and his contract was to expire at season’s end.
The way that Boogaard went to multiple rehab programs just shows how he really wanted to change. He knew that he wasn't the person he'd used to be. Unfortunately, however, his troubles outweighed his desires.
“He knew it, too, so he would give them to me to hold, and I would hide them around the place, and he’d come to me when his back was hurt — or whatever was hurting him.”
Boogaard believed that the drugs would help him with the emotional pain, along with the physical.
Boogaard was embarrassed and worried that news of his addiction would shatter his reputation.
I feel like this shows a good example of work and play, and how difficult it is when one finds their career and enjoyment in the same place. Things clash. While the average person may be able to take a break from their "work" by going to their "play," it's not the same for Boogaard. He never gets a break.
The scientists on the far end of the conference call told the Boogaard family that they were shocked to see so much damage in someone so young. It appeared to be spreading through his brain.
I'm sure that with all of these issues there was a lot of pain involved, yet he still refused to tell a soul. This shows how much he truly loved hockey. Out of fear of losing something he loved, he kept his pain to himself. I'm sure this was really hard.
The pieces of Boogaard’s brain were labeled as SLI-76. They were placed into large, deli-style refrigerators with glass doors, next to dozens of other brains.
I don't know why the author is comparing Boogaard's brain to food, but it's pretty disturbing.
That hand was, until the end, what the family worried about most with Boogaard. How would he write when he got old?
I’m kind of confused why that is his family’s first concern. Hockey is such a dangerous sport. Why aren’t they worried about the more serious things like concussions and permanent brain damage? What makes writing, specifically, so important?
“He’s such a big guy,” Boogaard’s brother Aaron said. “The doctor told him it took about twice as much medicine to knock him out as for most people. He’d go through 30 pills in a couple of days. He’d need 8 to 10 at a time to feel O.K.”
I noticed that the author uses a lot of foreshadowing. I remember in the first article, the author only briefly talked about Boogaard's drug addition, Now, we are finally figuring out how it started.
The rest of the damage, physical and mental, he liked to hide.
I have a feeling that this is what caused his drug addiction. It's impossible for someone to keep all of these things to themself without going completely insane. It isn't healthy.
“It was the fierceness of his brand and the gentleness of his character,”
It’s ironic how someone so intimidating on the ice is actually really sweet and gentle underneath it all.
“When a team scores, the fans of the team that scored will get on their feet. But when there’s a fight, everyone gets on their feet.”
From this I can assume that the majority of people who go to watch hockey games only do so because of the fights, rather than for the actual game itself.
No sticks. Hands must be bare. Face-protecting visors are not worn by most enforcers to indicate that their face is open for business.
It surprises me how there are so many unspoken rules about the fighting side of hockey. It seems strange to me. Almost as if the fights are planned. As if the players are not only encouraged to fight, but are expected to.
That interpretation of justice, now Rule 46.14, still stands. It has never been much of a deterrent.
Why do they do it if there is a penalty against it? Is it just to impress the fans?
He was already established as a fan favorite in Minnesota
Was he a fan favorite because he was good at hockey? Or because he was good at punching?
It made them alter their strategy and doubt their fighting acumen.
A question that’s been plaguing me ever since we started this unit was, “Why is violence such an essential part of hockey?” I know it’s because of my ignorance of pretty much all sports, but I pretty much thought that all one does during a hockey game is hit a puck into a goal. Apparently it’s much more than that. Has it always been this way?
The biggest kid in class, shy and without many friends, Boogaard was often tagged as a troublemaker and dismissed as a distraction.
Throughout the article, the author many times brings up the fact that Boogaard was shy and bullied during his school age. I feel like the author uses this repetition rhetoric to almost emphasize the irony in all of it. I mean it's really ironic how he was seen as amazing on the hockey field, but he was seen as the complete opposite in the classroom. Almost like he was living a double-life. Thanks Quianna!
He heard the whispers of parents saying that this oversize boy — too big, too clumsy — had no rightful place on the team.
This relates to earlier in the article where he said he played as a "vengeance against a lifetime of perceived doubters." Even parents used to bully him because of the way he looked at a kid.
even the addictions that ultimately killed him in the prime of his career.
If he was in the prime of his career, and he apparently loved what he was doing, then why would he have such a horrible addition?
On May 13, his brothers found him dead of an accidental overdose in his Minneapolis apartment. Boogaard was 28.
They say accidental, but in reality they have no way of knowing. Maybe the stress of constantly being under the spotlight, and the stress of playing the game itself, got to him.
but it always came back, like the flame of a trick candle.
The author uses a simile here to show how quick the fear can come an go.
They knew the choreography that precedes the violence.
The author is making it sound like a full-on war is about to ensue.
He felt a tug on the back of his jersey. It was time.
At this point, I'm still wondering why Boogaard is doing this to himself. It's mentioned before that he hadn't slept, so he's obviously under some stress. At the beginning of this article it's said he knew he must fight, but the question why has yet to be answered.
“I’m going to kill you,” the player said.
The way the player said this so openly really surprised me. I know some people take sports seriously, but serious to the point of death threats?? Is that common??
Opportunity and obligation had collided, the way they can in hockey.
This is a direct example to the double-meaning rhetoric that we've been talking about in class. The author used the word "collided," one way in a literal sense, and another in figurative sense.
After 10 straight days of digging through the rubble, it wasDanny who found Tommy. One last time, Danny pulled Tommy out ofthe pile.
While discussing the possible theme for this text with my partner in class today, we put together the reoccurring topics of friendship and tragedy. When people go through traumatic events together, it strengthens their bond, becoming even closer than they were before.
But how?
Throughout this text, the author asks many rhetorical questions, including the one in this example. Others include, "Who's going to kick now that Billy Johnston is gone?" and, "How will they even get a play off?" along with many others. I believe he does this in order to create a dramatic effect. Asking a rhetorical question gets the audience thinking, and maybe even creates suspense, as the questions often time don't get answered. This tactic also shows how interested the author is in the topic itself. He wouldn't ask all of these questions if he didn't care.
"We all go to each other'sweddings, christenings, graduations. I broke your brother in,and your dad broke me in, and I carried your son out of thepile. We're all brothers."
When reading this section I was instantly reminded of my own experiences on a team. When you are on a team, there is a good chance that your fellow teammates are your closest friends. These are the people who you are pretty much always with, multiple hours a day, almost everyday of the week. There's no doubt that with all of that time, you are bound to become a family.
Came the first team meeting, and the club didn't get anywherenear its usual 60 guys. It got 120. All the lineup holes werepatched. Guys who had retired signed up again.
This small section was very interesting to me. It really shows the reality in the fact that traumatic events really bring people together. There is a saying that says,"You don't realize how much you love something until it's gone," and this is a prime example. The people had lost their beloved players, and in order to honor them, they showed up to the first team meeting in order to make sure that their legacy will go on.