The beginning of the Winter Olympics, coupled with the focus the host country’s anti-gay laws, reminded me of an excellent GQ piece by Mary Rogan in which she tells the story of a hockey legend who became an unlikely advocate for gays in a macho sports culture. “Brian Burke is tormented by how much terror you can squeeze into ten seconds. Ten seconds in a car careening into oncoming traffic on a stretch of Indiana highway just shy of the Ohio border. Ten seconds sailing sideways through sheets of falling snow, straight at a reinforced truck. Ten seconds with the same unthinkable ending every time.” This is a moving and inspiring piece: Out on the Ice.

+ Grantland: “With an ocean of new statistical information available, the NBA could be on the verge of understanding the value of every single movement on the court.”

+ Oliver Emberton: Life is a game. This is your strategy guide. “The first 15 years or so of life are just tutorial missions, which suck. There’s no way to skip these.”