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junker-town · 4 years

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51 reasons it’s time to stop treating women and girls in football like sideshows

Girls have been playing football for years. Let’s celebrate that.

Surprise: Girls play football.

As participation by boys continues to slip, the number of girls playing high school football has doubled in the past decade. Specifically, 2,404 of them have hit the gridiron nationally at last count — a tally that is probably less precise than it looks, but still substantial.

There is an interesting story in that, but it’s not the one we keep telling. Even in 2019, girls who play football — thousands of them — are singled out and treated as exceptional with feel-good features centered around words like “first” and “only”. Those words, and the increasingly specific descriptions to which they are attached, are a way to make newsworthy something that just fundamentally isn’t: girls playing football.

We (members of the press) have been telling the same story for literally over 100 years. From 1911:

From the Santa Ana Register, 1911

From 1935:

From the Associated Press, 1935

Some of the words have changed, but the tone is more or less the same: “Would you believe it? A girl is playing football!” It’s a tone that looks like a celebration, but upon closer consideration is actually quite patronizing — to think that a girl playing football is newsworthy, you have to operate from the assumption girls don’t or even can’t play football. As these 51 players and their thousands of forebears prove, they do and they can.

What they also show is why telling these stories and spotlighting these players is so seductive. If we keep insisting they’re breaking barriers, we’ll keep getting to feel good about how progressive we are. It is inspiring to hear them speak, to hear them say over and over that girls can do anything boys can do — but a big part of why it still means so much to hear them say that is because we insist on always framing their participation as transgressive. As a result, it stays that way.

Kiaira Smith, freshman; Bristol, Pennsylvania

Smith is a running back, linebacker and kicker for Bristol High School’s varsity football team. “I can catch, I can kick and I’m good at tackling,” she said in an interview with Philadelphia’s WPVI. “I want to be different,” Smith added. “I want to be the first female to get into the NFL.”

Baylee Fry, senior; Richmond, Indiana

The Centerville High School starting kicker, Fry also plays on the varsity soccer team — and placed fifth at the last state wrestling meet. “When I need a crunch kick, I’m not worried about it,” her coach Kyle Padgett told the Richmond Palladium-Item. “Whatever she sets her mind to, she’s good at. I’m just glad she picked football.”

Phoebe Neher, junior; Richmond, Indiana

Neher, a wide receiver and cornerback, is following a family tradition by suiting up: her older sister Sophie was Centerville’s kicker, and is remembered for winning homecoming queen the same night she went 5-for-5 on extra points. According to her coach, Phoebe has become one of the team’s leaders. “She is one of the most driven people I have ever taught or coached,” Padgett said to the Palladium-Item.

Elena Alvarado, freshman; Albany, Louisiana

Alvarado plays offensive and defensive line on the Albany High School varsity team.

Olivia Davis, junior; Springfield, Louisiana

Davis is a kicker for the Springfield High Bulldogs.

Lila Roberts, sophomore; Belchertown, Massachusetts

Roberts is a running back and middle linebacker for the Belchertown High Orioles, and has been playing football for years. As she explained to the Amherst Bulletin, she prefers playing defense because she likes to hit. “She’s one of us, she’s part of the group,” Orioles captain Hunter Klingensmith told WWLP. “If you didn’t know she was a girl off the field, you wouldn’t even know. She’s a phenomenal player and a great athlete.” Not that anyone’s let her forget: “I think it’s ridiculous, but every time the coaches say ‘boys’ they add ‘and girl’ at the end,” Roberts told the station. (Roberts clearly has great taste: she’s a fan of Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, despite living in Patriots territory.)

Kandis Orns, senior; Battle Creek, Michigan

Orns was scouted from the varsity soccer squad to fill Battle Creek Central football’s kicker position (she also plays basketball). “Girls are constantly proving that they can do whatever they put their mind to,” Orns told Fox Sports Detroit. “A girl can lift just as much as a boy, a girl can be on a football team and do just as good as the boys. A girl can do anything a boy can do, and a boy can do anything a girl can do.”

Homecoming Queen Homecoming History pic.twitter.com/9h8jJFnEF7

— Kandis Simone Orns (@kandis_orns) September 28, 2019

Sandra McComb, freshman; Salt Lake City, Utah

“When I play defense, I have been able to sack the quarterback a couple times,” McComb, who plays offensive and defensive line on the Logan High School freshman team, said in an interview with KSL.com. “That’s my favorite thing.”

Issy Pita, junior; Eagle Lake, Florida

Pita is a kicker for the Lake Region High Thunder. This season she’s wearing No. 22 to honor Sophie Delott, who played running back and safety for nearby Seminole High School before she was killed by a suspected drunk driver earlier this year.

Molly Martin, sophomore; Davenport, Florida

Martin made the all-state soccer team as a freshman at Ridge Community High, so when the football team needed to supplement their roster of specialists, the sophomore got the call. She made her first extra point, and nine since.

Liz Heistand, junior; Wrightsville, Pennsylvania

The Eastern York High kicker was pressed into service from the soccer team when football coach Josh Campbell noticed her offseason dedication to the weight room. Even though she’s still playing soccer, she hasn’t missed participating in the football team’s two-a-days. “Campbell said I didn’t have to go to it, but I wanted the team to trust me,” Heistand told the York Daily Record. “I didn’t want them to think, ‘Oh no, she hasn’t put in any work.’ Now, they’ve seen me there so much they know I’m part of the team.”

She missed her first attempt, but made the next two. “It wasn’t an experiment, we knew what she could do,” Campbell said to the York Dispatch. “Like everyone else — there’s 22 guys on the football field, typically, and they all make mistakes.”

Alicia Dickerson, freshman; Powhatan, Virginia

“What do you love about football?” Terrance Dixon, a reporter for CBS affiliate WIFR, asked Dickerson. “I can hit people,” replied the JV offensive guard and defensive lineman, who started playing in Pop Warner before becoming Powhatan High School’s second girl player. “Just follow your dreams,” she added by way of encouragement to other girls. “Just go do it, it’s fun.”

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Maggie Shafer, sophomore; Noblesville, Indiana

“Typically the girl on your team is the kicker,” Noblesville coach Justin Roden told WTHR. “On the soccer team, kind of there part time. What’s different about Maggie is she’s here everyday. She wants to be treated just like everybody else.”

Shafer is a wide receiver for the Noblesville High junior varsity team, and started playing in middle school. “Proving people wrong takes a lot of time and effort, but ultimately if I can do it, other people can too,” Shafer told the station. “People started telling me I couldn’t do it, and some family members weren’t very positive towards it. I was just kind of like, ‘You know what? I don’t care what you say, I’m going to beat the odds.’”

Her dream is to play for the University of Florida. “My goal is to make it to college,” she said. “If I could make it to the NFL, that would be amazing. But I mean, you never really know!”

Elizabeth Drelich, senior; Portland, Maine

Drelich was already one of Deering High’s most prolific athletes, playing field hockey, basketball and softball. But football had always intrigued her, so she decided to try it out as a senior. Now, having never played before this year, she’s a linebacker for the JV team with a shot to take snaps on varsity. “It felt good to finally be able to hit because it’s something that’s never allowed in girls’ sports,” Drelich told the Portland Press Herald.

”I hope to hopefully inspire other people the same way I’ve been inspired,” she added. “Not just women or young girls, but anybody who maybe wants to step out of their comfort zone, or society’s comfort zone, and try something new.”

Keelyn Peacock, junior; Stillwater, New York

Peacock made the all-state soccer team last season, which also happened to be her first as the kicker for Stillwater High varsity football. She started kicking as a joke, but her talent was immediately obvious to the coaches. “When she said she wanted to kick, who would turn a winner down like Keelyn Peacock?” Stillwater coach Ian Godfrey told News 10. She has faced some criticism on social media, but Peacock brushes it off. “They’re just wasting their time,” she told the station.

Angel Celaya, senior; Visalia, California

Angel Celaya is 4’11 and 120 pounds — a stature that can be an asset in her wrestling career, for which she’s received scholarship offers. But on the Golden West football team, which she was dared to join by a friend as a freshman, it can be a little more of a liability.

“I play football because all my life, I’ve been told that I can’t do things because of my height and my gender,” Celaya told KSEE24. Other kids’ parents have told her she belongs in the kitchen, or on the cheerleading squad.

“I don’t know why, but [being hit on the field] just makes me happy. It shows that they treat me like everyone else,” Celaya said in another interview with the Sun-Gazette. “If they didn’t respect me then they wouldn’t hit me, they wouldn’t push me as hard as they do, or they wouldn’t tell me stuff trying to help me get better.”

“I’ve worked really hard, done a lot of things, and people always have told me I can’t,” the running back said earlier this season, shortly after scoring her first touchdown on the varsity team. “But I can, and I told them I could. Now I proved to myself, too, that I can.”

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Gracie Rodriguez, sophomore; Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Rodriguez is the latest in a long line of girls from Conant High to take their talents from the pitch to the gridiron. Jen Grubb became the team’s kicker in 1996, before going on to play soccer for Notre Dame. Drew Wentzel started in 2011, and the most recent crossover artist, Jess Smeltzer, graduated earlier this year.

Rodriguez saw Smeltzer kick last season, and immediately joined the freshman team. “I had heard of Jess through soccer and when I went to that football game, I thought it was so cool and awesome that Jess was doing the kicking,” she told the Daily Herald. “I wasn’t playing a fall sport, and I was thinking that I really wanted to be a three-sport athlete because I play basketball, too. So I went home and told my dad that I wanted to kick footballs. I thought I could do it, but I watched some videos first and then he and I went out to a park near my house that has goal posts and we started kicking.”

This year, she’s on varsity. “Seeing those videos of Carli Lloyd, I just thought it was so cool, and it makes me want to be as good,” Rodriguez said of seeing the USWNT star’s viral kicks with the Philadelphia Eagles. “For her to get offers to join the NFL, it made me realize that maybe I could do the same thing. It made me realize how far I could go with this if I really worked at it.”

Raeann Clayton, junior; Rolesville, North Carolina

Clayton is the starting kicker for the dominant Rolesville High Rams (they’re 8-1). “If you can help me win a football game, I don’t care if you’re straight, gay, male or female,” Rolesville coach Martin Samek told the local ABC affiliate. “If you can help me win a football game, I want you on my football team.”

“I just think it’s really important that they know they got beat by a girl,” Clayton told the station. “I just love when they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a girl. I just lost to a team with a girl on it.’”

Kayla Alexander, junior; Pasadena, Maryland

Alexander is yet another soccer convert, whose travel team won’t allow her to simultaneously play for Northeast High. So, she showed up for football tryouts.

“Some people might think I came out more for the media attention, but I didn’t really do that,” Alexander told the Capital Gazette. “I just came to kick and to be part of this team.

“She’s pretty consistent 37 yards and in, so we got a little more bang for our buck than we were expecting,” Northeast coach Brian Baublitz said in an interview with Pressbox Online.

”People think that girls can’t do the same things that guys can do,” Alexander told the site. “... I truly believe that if they have the talent and the will to do it, they can do it.”

Shaela Vogt, freshman; Corryton, Tennessee

Vogt, a right tackle and defensive end for Gibbs High School, is a football lifer — she’s been playing since she was four years old. She spent all summer working out with the team, and by August, another girl had submitted a physical to join the program.

“Girls can do it as well as guys, and if they really want to and put the work in, they can be better than the guys,” Vogt told WATE.

Emma Domka, senior; Becker, Minnesota

Domka has started kicking for the first time this season, after establishing herself as a star on the soccer team. “It doesn’t scare me,” Domka told the St. Cloud Times. “When I was a little kid, I wanted to play tackle football. Now, my senior year, I get to play it. I’m just enjoying it.”

Kaitlyn Reynolds, senior; Orlando, Florida

“My kicker kicks like a girl, and I can’t be more proud of it,” wrote Freedom High coach Robert Mahoney on Twitter just after Reynolds nailed a field goal to give her team its first win of the season in overtime last month. Reynold is pinch-kicking from the soccer team, but her consistency has made her a local sensation.

“I’m a girl so everyone expects you to not be able to do it, and then I do it, and they’re like, ‘Whoa, she can do it,’” Reynolds told Fox 35 Orlando. She was voted captain after the first game of the season.

“Everybody’s welcome at our table, and that means everybody,” Mahoney told the station. “Black, white, male, female, it doesn’t matter to me — if you want to be part of this sport, you can come be part of it.”

“Hopefully it opens up more eyes,” Mahoney continued. “Right now there are a lot of women in the game of football. There are coaches at almost every level, we have a young lady playing safety at a college in Colorado — for more people to see that this game really can be played by anybody, I think it’s important for everybody to know.”

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Nicole Konefal, senior; Wallington, New Jersey

The wide receiver and defensive back decided to start playing football as a frustrated cheerleader, watching from the sidelines and wondering why the players she was rooting for couldn’t get it together. She’s played all four years at Wallington High.

Zoia Safdar, senior; Wallington, New Jersey

Safdar also plays wide receiver and defensive back for the Wallington High Panthers, but her true passion is basketball.

Kohli Carruth, sophomore; Lincolnton, Georgia

Carly Carruth, sophomore; Lincolnton, Georgia

Gianna Anderson, sophomore; Lincolnton, Georgia

All three girls, who also compete in soccer and softball, are kickers for the Lincoln County High Red Devils.

Sophia Cunningham, junior; Basking Ridge, New Jersey

”I’ve always wanted to play football since I was in fifth grade,” Cunningham told Patch.com. “But since I was a girl I was never allowed to until Coach Tracy finally gave me a chance.” Now, the running back and defensive back is playing with the Ridge High JV squad, and has even convinced a friend to join the football team at nearby Morristown High.

Claire Gaston, senior; Middletown, New Jersey

Gaston is another soccer convert, kicking for the Mater Dei Prep football team. “I was excited because she’s a girl, they always say girls can’t do this, girls can’t do that,” her teammate Isaiah Noguera told the Asbury Park Press. “She really came out here and proved people wrong that she could do it.”

Angelina Schilling, senior; Deptford Township, New Jersey

Schilling couldn’t play soccer for her high school because it would have conflicted with the requirements for her club team. Instead, she joined the Deptford High football team — and in her very first game, she made five extra points and a field goal. “I was like, I know I can do this, and I know I can do it better than some guys,” Schilling told Chasing News.

Olivia Thompson, freshman; Louisville, Kentucky

Thompson, who plays on the offensive line for the Ballard High Bruins, started playing in middle school. There, as she explained to the Courier-Journal, she was bullied and excluded. “If I could go back in time, I would definitely tell them that just because I’m a female, they shouldn’t treat me any differently than they treat the other guys,” Thompson told the paper.

But she stuck with it, and has found a considerably warmer welcome with her high school team. “My goal for this season is to get as many plays I can get in as possible. I want to block the defense. I want to get the tackles. I want to get the pancakes,” Thompson told the paper. “If I don’t succeed, then there’s another game the next week.”

Isabel Kaiser, senior; Louisville, Kentucky

Kaiser is a long snapper at Kentucky Country Day. “It always looked like a really fun game, and since it’s my senior year, I finally had the courage to go out and try to play on the football team,” Kaiser told the Courier-Journal.

Shaelin Warner, senior; Shepherdsville, Kentucky

Warner is a kicker for the Bullitt Central High Cougars, which has another girl, Alyson Boman, on its freshman team.

Emily Amaya, junior; Louisville, Kentucky

”I know I’m tough,” Amaya, a wide receiver and defensive back for the Atherton High Rebels, told WLKY. “I get hit by full-grown guys all the time, and I get back up. I know I’m tough, or else I wouldn’t be playing this game.” She joined the team after seeing a girl on the team during her freshman year, and after spending a season on the JV squad, is hoping to catch a TD this year.

“I do want to play in college, if I get the opportunity,” she told the Courier-Journal. “I’m not going to expect much of field time, but it’d be cool to be part of a college team in an advanced level.”

Taylor Thompson, freshman; Indianapolis, Indiana

Thompson is a kicker for the freshman team at Ben Davis High. “I feel like if I mess up, they’re going to be mad — but they all tell me that they mess up in games so I can, too,” she told WISH TV.

Emily Tassara, freshman; Williamsburg, Virginia

“I’d been asking my parents if I could play football since the third grade,” Tassara, who is a running back, cornerback and kicker for Bruton High School, told the Virginia Gazette. “Last year, they finally caved, and I tried out for the team at Queens Lake ... it was like a dream come true.”

“I like to run, but I also enjoy the physicality of the sport,” she added. “I really enjoy getting to tackle people. I smile every time I hit the field — practice, scrimmage, it doesn’t matter.”

Isabelle Caulford, freshman; Williamsburg, Virginia

Caulford started playing in middle school, when a coach desperate for players quipped to the student body that he was looking for anyone willing to play — “even girls.” She took him up on it, and has continued on the JV team at Lafayette High School as a quarterback, cornerback and safety.

McKenna Gervais, senior; Hortonville, Wisconsin

Gervais is another soccer player-turned-pinch kicker for the Hortonville High School Polar Bears. “It’s made my high school experience much more fun,” she told the Waupaca County News. “I feel like I’ve gained confidence in myself.”

Sofia Molina, sophomore; Cooper City, Florida

Molina, a kicker, got a fair amount of attention for being Cooper City High’s first female player — but she was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. “Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it,” she told WPLG. “You can do it, it doesn’t matter if it’s a girls’ or a boys’ sport — anyone can do anything.”

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Brynna Nixon, junior; Fife, Washington

Nixon was inspired to start playing football after watching her first Seahawks game in second grade; almost 10 years later, she threw a touchdown pass in a playoff game as the backup QB at Fife High School. “Like every game, people are like, ‘Oh my God, it’s a girl,’” she told Q13 FOX. “I just see myself as a high school kid playing football and doing a sport that I love and have fun doing.”

Emma Kessler, sophomore; Effingham, Illinois

Though she wanted to play offensive line because she liked the movie The Blind Side, Kessler realized she just wasn’t quite big enough. So instead she’s playing defensive line for the Effingham High Hearts.

“I still don’t want to mess up, but I don’t get really nervous anymore,” she told the ET Sports Report. “Being faster and stronger would help a lot. But I try hard and I try to never take a rep off. I’m determined to do my best on every play. And with our coaches, I get the same shot as everyone else.”

Sydney Alloco, senior; Hilton, New York

“There are going to be people who don’t want to hit me because I’m a girl, or who will want to hit me because I’m a girl,” Alloco, a kicker for Hilton High, told WROC. “But I have trust in my teammates ... and if I get hit, I get hit. It’s football.”

Samantha Segura-Veliz, senior; Wildomar, California

“There was a time when a young girl came up to me after a game and said she wanted to be a football player like me. I was really moved by that. It made all the stress I’d gone through worth it just for that one moment,” Segura-Veliz, an offensive guard and defensive end at Elsinore High, told the Press-Enterprise shortly after she’d been crowned homecoming queen. She’d joined the team not just because she loves the game, but also because she wanted to prove that there’s no reason girls can’t play.

“Never listen to people that say you’re not capable of playing sports or doing something different in life because of your gender,” she said. “I would have never played football if I listened to everyone who doubted me.”

Claudia Muessig, senior; Paw Paw, Michigan

Before she started kicking for the Paw Paw High team, Muessig was on the sidelines as a cheerleader. But she’s also captain of the soccer team, and as such was pressed into service when their former star specialist moved out of state — since, she’s made 31 of 34 extra points and a 24-yard field goal.

Brooke Musgrove, senior; Florence, Mississippi

Musgrove just finished three seasons as the kicker at McLaurin High School.

“I’ll be quite honest with you I had not coached a girl in football before,” her coach, Sid Wheatley, told WJTV. “So it was a different experience. But the thing that I noticed right off the bat is that she was doing everything the guys were — we’re talking about flipping tires, bench press, squatting, everything like that — so she immediately gained my respect with the work she put in.”

Jah’veya Davis, sophomore; Grand Forks, North Dakota

Davis plays on the offensive and defensive lines for the JV team at Red River High School. “My older brother played football, and I used to be a cheerleader,” she told the Grand Forks Herald. “But I always thought it would be cool to play. It looked fun. And I wanted to see what it was like to wear a uniform.’’

Over her two seasons playing, Davis has already seen some changes in how she’s been treated by her peers. “Last year, at first it was like, ‘Oh, no, it’s a girl,’ like they needed to back off,’’ she said. “I didn’t want that. Now I think it’s harder hitting. And I like it when I’m just another lineman out there. I like to hit. They’ll hit me; I’ve been hit pretty hard sometimes.’’

Marcella DePaul, junior; Berkley, Michigan

Janay Lakey, junior; Ecorse, Michigan

Azia Isaac, senior; Detroit, Michigan

Depaul is a free safety and receiver, Lakey is on the offensive line and Isaac is a running back — all play for different schools, and were featured in a Detroit News article about the growing number of girls playing football in Michigan.

“As a girl, I get targeted,” Isaac said. “But to me, that’s beneficial to our team — because they’re too focused on me and not what’s going on in the game, so it leads to us having bigger plays. They say inappropriate stuff sometimes.”

Bela Beltran, senior; Corpus Christi, Texas

Beltran is also in band and on the soccer team, but that didn’t keep her from becoming part of the Veterans Memorial High kicking corps.

Aurora Fuhs, junior; Ames, Iowa

Fuhs, a receiver for the Ames High Little Cyclones, has a more unlikely football conversion story: she started in marching band, and just really enjoyed watching the games.

“I was like, ‘Dang, I want to be on the field and play — I want to get a touchdown,’” she told the Ames Tribune. “I want to play for the team, not cheer on the team.”

Sometimes opposing teams, or even her classmates give her guff. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I do (play football). If you have something to say, say it,’” she said. “But it doesn’t really bother me because they’re just people in the stands watching, and I’m on the field playing.”

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yourdailykitsch · 7 years

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Your blog is phenomenal. You are just wonderful and incredibly informative That Interview magazine article just wrecked me, what a truly beautiful and sensitive soul Taylor is. Do you happen to have the entire article? I'd love to know more as I am completely lost and new in the world of fandom. Thank you for your time and all your efforts in promoting and sharing your love of Taylor.

Thanks for the blog love! Always love sharing Taylor information with new fans.

The Interview Magazine article is probably the most he’s ever opened up to date. Sometimes he’s super guarded in interviews and other times he really opens up. It’s interesting

Here is the entire article, it’s long:

When I told a female friend I'd be interviewing Taylor Kitsch, the actor who broke out as the hard-nosed, brooding fullback Tim Riggins for five seasons on NBC's Texas high school football melodrama Friday Night Lights her jaw actually dropped. Kitsch's rugged looks - he's a former model and junior hockey player - and world-weary onscreen demeanor, often have this effect on women; another friend referred to him as a "classic hunk." But the 32-year-old British Columbia native possesses a surprising absence of vanity. Kitsch bought a home in Austin while filming FNL, and still lives there, ducking the Hollywood spotlight as much as possible. When I met up with him in New York, he wore a T-shirt and jeans to a luxury hotel lounge and asked if I was planning to "get some grub." He's remarkably grounded, with a ready laugh and a tendency to pepper his speech with the word fuckin'. The lack of pretense shows in his latest effort, the gritty drama Lone Survivor, which happens to be Kitsch's third collaboration with director Peter Berg (after FNL and the big-budget action pic Battleship, 2012). Based on former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's nonfiction book, the film, which co-stars Mark Wahlberg, Eric Bana, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, and Alexander Ludwig - depicts a botched 2005 mission in Afghanistan. Kitsch playsLieutenant Michael Murphy, one of four SEALs drastically outnumbered by Taliban forces. The protracted gunfight at the center of the movie is unsparing, graphic, and hyper-realistic, but Lone Survivor surrounds it with moments of unsentimental tenderness among its band of brothers.Lest you think Kitsch is only interested in stoic roles as athletes and soldiers (he was also a Civil War veteran transported to Mars in 2012's John Carter), he's subverting his image with upcoming turns as a gay activist in a TV-movie adaptation of the 1985 Larry Kramer play The Normal Heart, and as a doctor in the Canadian comedy The Grand Seduction. And he recently wrote, directed, and produced a half-hour short about small time criminals, Pieces, which he's planning to adapt into a feature. I sat down with Kitsch to talk about the movie, his time spent sleeping on subways in New York and his car in Los Angeles, and inevitably, how he reacts to his female admirers. (To my awestruck friend, and other aspirants: he's single - but read on for how not to approach him.)TEDDY WAYNE: I didn't really know the story behind Lone Survivor. What, other than Peter Berg's involvement, drew you to it?TAYLOR KITSCH: There's not a day that goes by that you don't think about it, really. [Marcus] Luttrell's become a great friend of mine now, and I was talking to him about it. It's not even the responsibility of just the performance or just the memory of Murph being part of the SEAL community - this is a torch I have for the rest of my life. How often in this gig do we get to have that, and want it? You didn't know of the book or the story, and now you're going to think of my performance when you think of Mike Murphy, and that's an incredible responsibility.WAYNE: How much of that is solely inspired by the real figure and how much of the work is purely fictional?KITSCH: I think so much of it is that it actually happened, that these guys are still out there doing it. When you meet guys who were buds with Murph, guys that fought right next to him, you really do see how much it means to them that the film's done right. You have the opportunity to be like, "Okay, let's see what I'm fucking made of here, let's see what I'm capable of doing," and training to do it.WAYNE: So what was the training?KITSCH: There's a workout called the Murphy that he created when he was in the SEALs. It's, like, a mile run and then a hundred pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 sit-ups, then another mile run, with a 40 - to 50-pound weighted vest. Some guy claims to have done it in under 30 minutes. I couldn't get there. I was under 35, which is a fucking insane time. I was in the best shape of my life.WAYNE: How about the weapons training?KITSCH: We went to Albuquerque. We had guys who had fought with Luttrell to teach us the weapons systems. And that's live fire; it's not like standing there and just shooting at a target. They call it bounding, and all these other things these guys do as a team. Murph was the leader of the guys, so he's making the call, and you really do see it kind of seamlessly int he film. When he makes a call of "peel right" or "peel left" or "get on line," it's those things that the SEALs fucking love. We got the technical part of it.WAYNE: Was there any improv?KITSCH: Absolutely. Some of this funnier stuff - when I'm in the hide with Mark [Wahlberg] talking about a girl and a Coldplay concert, that was roughly scripted and we just went with it, and Mark is fucking on it. That guy has endless energy, he's quick. Pete would call cut, and the whole crew would burst out laughing. Or we would even have a bit of a camera shake because the camera guy's dying, you know?WAYNE: You were a junior hockey player in Canada before you injured your knee at age 20. Do you feel like you were on the path to professional hockey?KITSCH: Yeah, at least semi. I was hopefully going to go on a scholarship and turn pro. If I even scratched the lineup, it would've been fourth line, up and down from the minors, but, I mean, a minor career was a dream as well.WAYNE: When that injury happened, was it clearly career ending?KITSCH: In retrospect I think it was career ending. But at the time, it was that denial of, "fuck it, I'm gonna recoup it." But then I recouped it, and my first game back it blew out again.WAYNE: So what were you thinking in terms of life plans?KITSCH: Oh, it's over. I was devastated. It really is close to art simulating life in the sense of what FNL was - if you wreck your knee, that's it, everything is gone. Obviously it's not; it's a blessing in disguise, but at the time I remember my best friend came and took me off the ice and I was a wreck. My mom was in the stands and she was a mess, and then I was in the dressing room and I refused to take my gear off. I just knew the second time I did it - like, buddy, uh-oh.WAYNE: So did you do any acting by that age?KITSCH: I loved it. I always grew up winning all these public-speaking competitions in school.WAYNE: Did you move to New York soon after the injury?KITSCH: Yeah, at 21.WAYNE: I read that you were, at points, homeless and sleeping on subways - is that true?KITSCH: It's true. Only for a couple weeks. It wasn't like I was walking around with a grocery cart. I didn't have a visa; I couldn't get fucking work. I wish I could've waited tables. I was taking classes for free with my acting coach, Sheila Gray - she's been amazing, and so I finally paid her back after the first movie I did - and then I just ran out of money. I was staying at my best friend's place. He sublet a bedroom in a big family house, and I was sleeping on his floor, then I wore that out, and I leased a place up on 181st Street in Washington Heights, pretty fucking sketchy area, and I couldn't get electricity because, one, no money, and two, I had no Social Security. So from that best friend, I would take his girlfriend's blow-up mattress and use candles. And then that wore out, got kicked out of there, and I would go back to my buddy's place, and at midnight or whenever, he wanted to go to bed, I'd be like, "All right, I'm gonna go stay at" - make up somebody's place - or a gal's place or whatever, and then that ran out. [laughs] Quite literally. And then I'd sleep on the subway until 5:30, 6 in the morning, and I'd go to the gym and work out for god knows how long and have a shower and just loiter.WAYNE: And you were also a model at this point?KITSCH: Yeah, but I was completely out of work. Didn't work, really. And I was living in a spot that they give you, and by the time you get a job, you owe them so much back end that you're in debt anyway, so then I left that because that was just stupid to just keep building debt.WAYNE: What was your first big break?KITSCH: While I was homeless, I met my manager through one of the guys at the modeling agency. She's like, "Yeah, I'll take a meeting, whatever," just being nice to him. So I had a meeting, and 10 minutes in, she's like, "Okay, I'll take you on." Then my first reading - still homeless - I got but I couldn't do because I didn't have a fucking visa again. So I stayed and studied more and then I moved away to Barbados to work with my dad and dig ditches, and that was the most time I ever spent with my dad in my life on a one-time basis. I made like, 6K. Then I bought a little - it's called a Firefly or a Chevy Sprint, which is like a 12-inch wheel hatchback car that lives on fumes. It'll go forever, and so I bought that when I got to Vancouver - moved back - moved down to L.A., sublet a room for two months. That money ran out, and then I lived in my car.WAYNE: So you had two homeless stints. And both times you picked the transportation choice of the city you were in - subway in New York, car in L.A.KITSCH: Yeah, that's a good point.WAYNE: You need to be in a seaside place for a while and live a few months in your boat.KITSCH: I know! I was super-angry one day in L.A. - my car's a piece of shit, and then the front window wouldn't go down, and so I'm screaming at the handle, forcing it down, the window shatters, and it's the bigger one, 'cause it's a hatchback. So now I'm fucking homeless and I got a plastic bag with duct tape. So I stayed over at my best friend Josh Pence's place, and I'm like, "I think I'm gonna go home," and his mom overheard it, and she's like "You're not fucking driving 23 hours to Vancouver with a plastic bag," and so I went to the junkyard and got it replaced for, like, $75.WAYNE: I thought she was going to say, "No, you should stay here and fulfill your dreams," but she was just making sure you got a new window.KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah! When you're doing it, it's not like, "Oh, man, I'm really paying the price." You just did it. I'd go to Trader Joe's and get a big thing of cottage cheese and brown rice cakes, like, four bucks - that's all I'd eat. And I'm a nutritionist, so I'm like, that's probably the best bang for my buck. I've got protein, carbs..."WAYNE: You start doing the protein-price ratio. Split pea soup is good for that, too.KITSCH: Yeah, garbanzo beans-WAYNE: Tuna fish.KITSCH: Yeah, the cans, that was New York. The Sunkist cans?WAYNE: Starkist, right? But it should be Sunkist - just drinking Sunkist orange soda all day long.KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, have diabetes at 25. So she gave me the money, I got the thing, drove from three in the morning till midnight, straight. Back at home with mom and then my first or second reading was Snakes on a Plane [2006]. Got it. And then The Covenant [2006] and then Friday Night Lights.WAYNE: In the first few episodes of FNL, Riggins seems to be a secondary character.KITSCH: He was. I was told he wasn't gonna last.WAYNE: What happened? People started responding to you?KITSCH: Yeah, I guess. Whatever it was, people clicked to me, and the studio loved him and what we were doing with him.WAYNE: Most of the humor comes from Riggins off-the-cuff moments.KITSCH: Yeah, the dry humor that Riggins has - that's mostly improv. I played hockey my whole life. I was just hanging out with a bunch of pro-hockey players who were good friends. Calling everybody six, seven, two, zero - that's Riggins. Calling that whole apology on the field, all of it was made up on that day of.WAYNE: You mentioned digging ditches with your father was the most time you ever spent one-on-one. You were raised by your mom for the most part?KITSCH: Yeah, for the most part, with my two bros. I'd see my dad every Christmas for the most part growing up, but he left when I was one-ish, and then I'd spend a couple weeks over Christmas with him. I remember going fishing with him; I remember snow-mobiling. I remember him carrying me around on the ice because he played hockey growing up, too. I remember those flashes, and I don't know if it's made up in my head - but I do remember blips, and being super pumped that he's letting me, at 6 years old, rip on the open lake in the snowmobile.WAYNE: Riggins didn't have a father around. Not to get too precious about it, but did that inform the role?KITSCH: Absolutely. I had no doubts when I was going to play it. It just felt super-organic.WAYNE: Do you see your dad more often these days?KITSCH: No, maybe once or twice a year. Not even. I haven't seen him in years. I've stayed in contact via e-mail, but I don't reach out as much as I should, I guess, but I don't have that - this may gut him, but I don't have that...where I'm like "I want to know what's going on," or "Why did you..." My brothers and I talk about it a lot but - and sometimes it's joking, you know, but...I think it's affected them more, especially one of them a bit more, just because he was older - he was 8. And my mom was with an older guy, and he was a super-sensitive man, and he connected more with me than either of my two brothers. So I think I got a lot of that sensitive part that allows me to be that kind of actor through him. My mom and he split up when I was 12, and I wanted to go live with him, and then I would still go spend weekends, neither of my brothers would, but I'd go spend a weekend with him as much as I could. And he was getting older, and I was not conscious of that either, and then my mom told me he'd died not long ago - man, and it was shitty that I couldn't have reconnected before he did, because it had been five, six, seven years from the last time I saw him. And he was just the softest soul.WAYNE: You live in Austin now. What were your thoughts when you first got there for filming FNL?KITSCH: I didn't even know where Austin was. Quite literally, I'm like, "We're going where to shoot this fucking thing?"WAYNE: You thought it was Boston? "Massachusetts Forever."KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, totally! Which doesn't have the same kind of tone does it? And Austin was like nothing what it is now. It's, like, the fastest-growing city in the U.S. now. But I bought a place end of second-season, and that's my place now, just a little 1,000-square-foot condo.WAYNE: What's your life like there?KITSCH: I golf a lot. I'm in a men's hockey league. I've made some great friends there. I'm on my motorcycle a lot. Kyle Chandler [of Friday Night Lights] lives there, so whenever we can make time, we'll go on these long rides together. Had a great gal there. Southern belle.WAYNE: "Had," you said?KITSCH: Yeah, it's been tough lately. You never know how it's going to turn out. But I was with her for years.WAYNE: And she was from Austin herself?KITSCH: From Corpus [Christi]WAYNE: How did you meet her?KITSCH: Through my stunt double. He's like, "You gotta meet this gal; she's ridiculous active." She's a yoga instructor now, but she wasn't when we met. But just a super-sporty Southern belle, you know? Great.WAYNE: I don't want to embarrass you, but I told a female friend I was interviewing you, and she was momentarily stunned. I feel like male actors don't often discuss this, but does it ever get almost boring, or do you ever feel objectified if women respond this way? I mean, it's a good problem to have, but is there ever a point where it's like, be careful what you wish for?KITSCH: You're conscious of it. I mean, I'm never going to be like, "Oh, this attention from women sucks." It's flattering 99 percent of the time. After the premiere screening in L.A., there was a young woman, beautiful, mid - to late, twenties, and you're pretty crushed after this movie, it hits you hard, and I was talking to a guy who had served. All of a sudden this girl comes up and she's like, "Hey, I just gotta say this movie was this-and-that, but that fucking scene of you walking down the hall [in which Kitsch is shirtless]..." And then it inevitably went to, "What are you doing later tonight? Can I give you my number?" I kind of took offense to it. That's the one shitty experience out of it, but it's still flattering. Out of every thing in that fucking movie, that's what you took?WAYNE: Is dating a non-actor much more appealing to you?KITSCH: Absolutely. I mean, it's hard because you're all in or I'm all in, and I become super-myopic with work and kind of shut everything else out, and I don't know anything different because that's what's gotten me this far, so I live a pretty unbalanced life. And it's tough because the gal can't really relate in that sense. It doesn't mean she's not supportive, but that part of it wasn't relatable. She didn't understand, "Oh, okay, this guy's gonna be off the grid basically for whatever it is."WAYNE: That'd be tough no matter what.KITSCH: Yeah, it is, but if you're dealing or dating another actress or whatever who goes through that same process, then maybe they might have a bit more acknowledgment of it.WAYNE: But you seem pretty divorced from the Hollywood scene. You're not tabloid fodder that much. How do you safeguard your privacy?KITSCH: Austin helps. No Facebook. If anyone ever thinks I'm on Facebook or Twitter, it's not me, for the record - it's never me.WAYNE: But you are on MySpace right?KITSCH: [laughs] Totally.WAYNE: It sounds like you've preserved your lifestyle pre-acting, pre-fame as much as possible.KITSCH: I try. When I'm in L.A., I'm with one of my best friends, who's an actor coming up, and it's good to have that dialogue. In Austin I don't have that a lot. So that's one of the downfalls of being in Austin, if there is one, that I don't have another couple artists to bounce shit off. It's great to decompress, but it's tough because it goes from a hundred miles an hour living this fucked-up lifestyle to you're in your apartment, dead silence, and you're like, "Oh, what do I do today?" I guess I go for a coffee by myself and just read a couple scripts or something.WAYNE: You're doing a couple different movies this year - The Normal Heart, The Grand Seduction. Far different from Battleship and John Carter. These are more in an indie direction.KITSCH: I was always on that track, from The Bang Bang Club [2011], which is one of my proudest things I've ever done in my life. And that's kind of my personality, too. I'm going to keep swinging for the fences. I'm not going to play another Riggins - that's done. I can go and now try and disappear into Normal Heart. I was just talking to Ryan Murphy about it, the director, who took a fucking leap of faith with me to go and play this, another true story - that's a bigger risk than what John Carter was, because if you don't go in there and nail that role, this could be a fucking career-ender.WAYNE: Do you have any ambitions beyond acting?KITSCH: I wrote and directed a short [Pieces] that Oliver [Stone, who directed 2012's Savages] has seen, that Berg has seen, that [John Carter director Andrew] Stanton has seen, all the producers of John Carter have seen, and I just got two to four million bucks to make it into a feature. So I'm going to hopefully write it in January, February. Pete's mad for it, and Pete will tell you - man, he'll fucking rip it in half - but he's been incredibly supportive, so hopefully, I'll go shoot that in Detroit and Texas.WAYNE: Can you see yourself transitioning at some point to someone who directs, like Peter Berg did?KITSCH: Absolutely. I'd be fucking stupid not to be taking notes from a Stone or a Berg. The way I direct is open. I want to empower you as an actor, and when you're not on track, I'll tell you, but when you are, I want you to fucking just go with it. And so I cast Derek Phillips, who played my brother in Friday Night Lights - he's unrecognizable in the film. And then my best friend in L.A. [Josh Pence], whose mom gave me money for the window, he plays the other guy in the short.WAYNE: Would you ever do an over-the-top comedic role?KITSCH: I'd love to, it's just got to be the right one. When I work, I take it super-seriously, but when you get to know me, man, I'm not - I laugh as much as possible. Growing up, I was that guy at school getting kicked out of class every day to make someone laugh. Voted funniest guy in the school twice.WAYNE: Just twice? What happened the other times - you finished second?KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, totally! Last. The jokes didn't hit that year. I was off.

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fanaste · 7 years

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Evil does not enjoy chicken tenders

Title: Evil does not enjoy chicken tenders. Or a brief discussion on the psychology of food enjoyment.

Fandom: OMGCheckplease

Pairing: Larissa ‘Lardo’ Duan / Shitty Knight

Rating: PG13 (for language)

Word Count: 1361

Part 1 of The Shitty and Lardo Chronicles. Also on AO3

He doesn’t know how it happened. Love snuck up on him.

Literally.

“What are you doing in here?��

Shitty turns on his heel, vision swimming in reds and greys as he spins towards the voice.

“Woah fucking warn a gay before you sneak up on him.” He laughs down at the compact dark haired female with curious glinting eyes.

The girl tips back on her heels, not a retreat, just a pull back to better give him a slow suspicious once over.

Shitty fidgets under her stare. “I came for a cup.”

“A cup?”

Shitty shifts his weight from left to right. “Yeah ya know…for my junk.”

A small twitch of her lips, barely a smile but still it transforms her face into something that makes Shitty wants to blush. He does blush.

“Yeah dude I didn’t think you’d wanna drink out of it.”

“Not after last time.” He exhales.

“Last time?”

“Holster made me drink out of his after a practice because I couldn’t score against Johnson. Like, the dudes a brick wall and I was hanging like a pair of cheap fucking drapes but I’m not one to back out of a bet.” He shudders, “It was horrifying. But it didn’t taste that awful once you got over the smell of crotch sweat.”

She grins, and if the quirk had been a thing this was a whole other thing. “You’re on the team?”

“Yeah.”

She cocks her head to the side, “You’re a little short.”

This is a sore spot for Shitty who is not the shortest person on the team but with the way the guys go on about it you’d think he was an Oompa Loompa. “I’m 5”10!”

“Yeah but the others.-“

“I will not be held to the outdated stereotypical jock expectations of masculinity. I make my own way in the body I was born with and I will not be called short but someone who barely grazes my shoulder. Besides it’s rude to ask a dude his height when he doesn’t even know your name.”

The girl, unfazed, quirks an amused, perfectly shaped brow. She really is gorgeous. “It is?”

“Societal rules dictate an exchange of monikers.”

“Larissa.”

Shitty sticks out his hand to shake hers. “Pleased to meet you I’m B-“

“Shitty!”

Holsters voice booms down the hall, “Come on! There’re chicken tenders in the dining hall and Jack’s getting antsy.”

There’s a muffled reply and then a bark of laughter.

Ransom stops in the doorway. “Dude that’s tacky. Hooking up in the closet? What are you, in high school?”

Shitty flushes. “Just meeting the new manager.” He scratches the back of his neck cos is it getting warmer in here or is it just him?

“Oh yeah Jack told me to find you. We’re going for chicken tenders you gotta come. Team bonding.”

She grins. “Sweet.”

Shitty’s had crushes before, never so instantaneous, but he can hold his own when it comes to wheelin’ and wooing chicks. But Larissa has him wondering what the heck he used to do because the idea of sharing a meal with her has him breaking out in an excited and nervous cold sweat. She’s their manager which is an automatic hands off but that only puts her in that awful forbidden fruit area that means he’s going to be watching himself so closely around her that everyone will know what’s up. Ransom will be the first to clock it because he’s freakishly intuitive and Holster will tell everyone because he’s a chirpy asshole.

“Shitty?”

“Yeah?” He ruses. Have they been staring at him that way for very long?

“You ready bro?”

Larissa turns around and hands him a cup. “For your junk.” She smirks.

“Dude.” Ransom snorts.

Larissa locks the store cupboard before they take off down the hall towards where everyone’s waiting. Some more impatiently than others.

“Jack loves only three things that I know of for sure.” Ransom explains as they walk. “Hockey, history and chicken tenders.”

“Pretty sure it’s a crime not to like chicken tenders.” Larissa says.

Shitty seconds her, “Only, fucking, terrorists or baby killers don’t like chicken tenders.”

“Hate to say it but I think even they like chicken tenders.”

Shitty makes a wounded sound. “I mean,” he grasps for words so moved by the outrage that thinking evil enjoys a snack that a man as pure as Jack Zimmermann enjoys, “sure they eat them but they don’t really enjoy them. There’s no way. Jack back me up!”

Up ahead the players, freshly showered after a vigorous practice, gather. Holster is roughhousing with Jack. When Jack looks up to answer Holster takes advantage of his distraction and hooks a foot around his ankle. He grabs Jack before he falls but it’s a clear victory.

“Foul!” One of the players shouts. “Distraction.”

“There are no fouls in parking lot wrestling!” Holster declares.

Jack grins carding his fingers through his damp curling hair, pushing it back to reveal those blue eyes that have the writers at the Swallow furiously looking up synonyms for piercing. “S’up Shits.”

“Back me up bro.”

Jack looks at him questioningly.

“Evil does not truly enjoy chicken tenders.”

Jack considers it then says seriously, “In an ideal world.”

Shitty’s hands begin to move signalling that he’s gearing up for an explanation the length and energy of which may suck all the oxygen from the atmosphere around them. “Man just think about how you feel eating chicken tenders,” when Jack doesn’t immediately start thinking Shitty pauses staring meaningfully. “Well?”

Jack tries his best to look like he’s thinking about it.

Satisfied Shitty continues. “Joy right? Pure unadulterated fucking joy at eating the tenderest of chicken strips. I know you live for these days Zimmermann.”

“Seeing as you know I live for them can we walk faster before the lax bros get there?”

“See what I mean?” He looks at Larissa who nods like she knows exactly what he means. “Only a man who feels that kind of joy would hurry eighteen fatigued Hockey players to the dining hall without apology.”

Without breaking stride – a very brisk stride- Jack sighs shortly, “Shits.”

“You are the purest man I know and you love chicken tenders do not fuck with my tenuous grip on reality and enthusiastic childlike faith in humanity by telling me evil enjoys chicken tenders, like really enjoys them.”

Jack doesn’t answer. Shitty decides it’s because he’s thinking it over, realising that he’s right and that only good people can enjoy their food.

Beside him Larissa says thoughtfully, “If you go with the science that says evil people are born that way because their brains are wired differently then it’s not wrong to say that they wouldn’t experience joy the same way someone else would. Then again people don’t always experience things the same way. Who’s to say there isn’t a good person out there who hates chicken tenders?”

Shitty shakes his head emphatically. “I can’t go down that road man. That’s a dark fucking road. If there is a person on this planet who is good who doesn’t like chicken tenders then I cannot know them.”

A pained look changes her face and she slows. “I guess this is a bad time to tell you I don’t like chicken tenders then huh?”

All the boys stop.

Even Jack.

Eventually Jack, because of course it’s him, the chicken tender king, says, “What?”

“No there’s no way.” Holster sounds haunted.

“Everyone likes chicken tenders.” Ransom says.

“Even serial killers.” Holster whispers.

Shitty would glower at him if he wasn’t so busy gaping at Larissa and wondering how he can still be so into a woman who has just admitted she doesn’t like the tastiest of foods.

“Dude.” Her face breaks and she sniggers pointing at them. “You should see your faces.”

Holster exhales in loud relief. “Do not play a bro like that.”

“How could you say that with such a straight face?” Ransom looks at her with terrified wonder.

Shitty blinks at her, once, twice, three times. “I almost believed you.”

Larissa snorts “Dude as if. Only terrorists and baby killers don’t like chicken tenders.”

#omgcheckplease #shitty knight #lardo #larissa duan #the shitty and lardo chronicles #jack zimmermann #adam birkholtz #justin oluransi #ransom #holster #pre bitty verse #omgcp #my fic

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junker-town · 7 years

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How Sidney Crosby's genius defines the Penguins

Crosby has been better before. But in some ways, he's as great as ever.

The goal that delivered the Pittsburgh Penguins to this Stanley Cup Final is the same goal they’ve scored a zillion times since 2005. Sidney Crosby went after the puck in the corner. He came away with it cleanly. A fortunate teammate moved to a prime shooting position. Crosby put the puck on a platter, and soon, it was in the net.

We want the Cup. http://pic.twitter.com/TBmwo3SZ90

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 26, 2017

It was similar to the first point Crosby ever scored in the NHL: an assist on a Mark Recchi goal in the third period of the rookie’s first game in October 2005. “Go get the puck. Find a window. Put the puck through it.” Wash, rinse, and repeat. Crosby is the greatest player of this generation, and he has many gifts, but none has wowed me more often in the last 12 years than his puck retrieval.

Whether he’s corralling bouncing rubber on the half wall on a power play, outmuscling someone for it beneath the goal line, or making a ricochetting reception and then turning on his edge to set up the game-winning goal in double overtime of Game 7 in a conference final, he’s making it look so easy. Here are two great examples, from 2010 and the first round of this year’s playoffs.

The numbers bare out Crosby’s ceaseless brilliance as a possessor of the puck. In his career, the Penguins have gotten 54 percent of the game’s shot attempts when he’s been on the ice at even strength — 4 percent better than the rest of his team. He’s also good at turning possession into goals. His 44 during the regular season won him a second Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal scorer. He has seven goals in these playoffs, out of 20 points in 18 games. Overall, he’s second in the league scoring race behind teammate Evgeni Malkin.

Crosby turns 30 this summer. He has captained Pittsburgh to two Cups. His quest for a third continues with Game 1 of the Final on Monday against Nashville (8 p.m. ET, NBC). It’ll be his fourth Final appearance in the last 10 years.

Crosby’s been better before, but he’s at the height of his genius right now.

There are people who will tell you that Crosby has never been better than he is right now. That is not true. Crosby’s peak was the first half of the 2010-11 season, when he averaged a preposterous 1.61 points and 0.78 goals per game at 23 years old. (The NHL’s career leader in goals per game, Mike Bossy, averaged 0.76 in an era that was far more high-scoring.) Crosby was filling the net at a historic pace for 41 games before a concussion robbed him of his season and a big chunk of the next one. We’ll never see a more dominant stretch.

Statistically, Crosby hasn’t improved a ton since he was an 18-year-old rookie. He’s settled between 84 and 89 points each of the last three regular seasons. When he was healthy earlier in his career, a Crosby 100-point year was as sure a thing as the sun rising in the east. The average NHL game featured 3.08 goals in Crosby’s rookie year. This year, the number was 2.77, and even that marks the highest total since the 2010-11 season that Crosby had been running away with. His totals have fallen off, too.

But he is still a mainstay at the top of the league scoring race. The next time Crosby plays more than 53 games in a season and doesn’t finish in the top six in points will be the first in his career. (He has done so during three presidential administrations and under four head coaches, with linemates ranging from Phil Kessel to Andy Hilbert.) He was second this year, beaten by the guy who’s going to succeed him as the player of the generation: Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. Other than McDavid, Crosby still trounces every young player in hockey.

He’s achieved longevity through his preternatural talent, but also by endlessly renovating his game. For years, Crosby seemed to take at least one huge leap every season. One year it’d be faceoffs, and another it’d be his shot — his forehand, because Crosby emerged from the womb with the best backhander in history.

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

But by now, Crosby has nearly run out of things to get way better at. (Faceoffs, where he just had his worst season ever, are about it.) He is now in the business of continual refinement. His shot has gotten markedly better, for one example. Crosby added a thunderous slapper to his repertoire a few years ago, and he had his best shooting percentage since 2010-11. There’s luck in that stat, but Crosby is undoubtedly a sharper goal scorer than he used to be. He’s not quite the same chaos-creating setup man he was when he was in his early 20s, but he’s now the best finisher in the sport.

Crosby played the fewest minutes this year of any healthy season in his career. The Penguins have also worked harder than ever to deploy him in favorable situations. He started 61 percent of his shifts in the opponent’s defensive end, by far the most of his career. If you look hard enough, you can see that Crosby is past his prime. He’s just so good that “past his prime” only means he’s a top-three player on the planet. Crosby has beaten back time’s advance with a longer spell of greatness than almost anyone.

Crosby’s graceful aging raises a point: The Penguins are the luckiest team in the world.

In 2003-04, they were the NHL’s worst team. They totaled a laughable 58 points in the standings, played in front of fans dressed like orange seats at the decaying Mellon Arena, and finished dead last in the league. That netted them the best odds in the 2004 draft lottery, where the prize was a firecracker of a Russian winger named Alexander Ovechkin. He’d be the guy to save us, we had hoped.

That didn’t happen. Washington won the lottery, and the Capitals jumped the Penguins to pick Ovechkin first overall. This 10-year-old was devastated beyond measure. I shouldn’t have been. Missing on Ovechkin helped to save hockey in Pittsburgh altogether.

It’s not that Ovechkin hasn’t had a great career. He has. But the lockout-induced cancellation of the 2004-05 season created a perverse circumstance. The Penguins had been the league’s worst team, but for the 2005 draft, the league didn’t just award them the top lottery odds again. That wouldn’t have been quite fair, letting the same team have the most ping-pong balls in two straight lotteries.

To set its lottery odds, the NHL used a weighted system. There were 48 balls in a machine. The teams that got the best odds were those that missed the playoffs each year from 2002 to 2004 and didn’t pick first overall in any of those years’ drafts. By virtue of missing out on Ovechkin, the Penguins were one of those teams. They got three of those ping-pong balls. And then they got lucky.

While celebrating the Summer of Stanley, let's flash back to 11 years ago when the #Pens won a different prize.https://t.co/xR8gbNOURZ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) July 22, 2016

Crosby was as surefire a first overall pick there has ever been. He was hailed as the greatest prospect the sport had seen since Wayne Gretzky. He’s lived up to it. And because the Penguins lost the Ovechkin sweeps, they had a 6.3 percent chance to get Crosby instead of 4.2 percent.

If the Penguins win the Cup this year, that’ll mark three times in three Cups that Crosby has beaten Ovechkin to get there. He’s had tons of help every time from Malkin, the center drafted one pick after Ovechkin in 2004. The Pens got a two-for-one.

The player picked one slot after Crosby in ‘05 by Anaheim, current Senators winger Bobby Ryan, was standing at the side of the net as Chris Kunitz finished Crosby’s feed to end the conference final on Thursday.

The Penguins wouldn’t be here — maybe literally — without Crosby.

Mellon Arena, formerly the Civic Arena, had housed the team since it joined the league in 1967 and was open for a few years before that.

Mario Lemieux, the team’s greatest player ever, bought it in 1999. He exchanged his salary for his stake, saving the franchise from bankruptcy. The Penguins had what they viewed as an unfavorable revenue-sharing deal and tried for years to get out of the dome-shaped Igloo. They didn’t wind up doing so until 2010.

The Penguins demanded a publicly funded new arena and used other cities — especially Kansas City, which was opening a new venue in 2007 — as leverage. They made explicit threats about bolting. There were fits and starts that suggested the Penguins might get what they needed to stick around, including a proposed revenue partnership with a casino and a near sale to the guy who made the Blackberry.

State and local government eventually came around, as politicians who don’t want to be blamed for losing sports teams usually do. Lemieux said after the fact there “wasn’t a possibility” the team would leave, which is almost definitely untrue. The Penguins gave taxpayers a bath to make the new building happen, but they got what they wanted. They got what I wanted, too. Lemieux’s announcement to an Igloo crowd in 2007 that the Penguins wouldn’t leave town was an all-time sports moment for me.

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Where Crosby comes in: fan interest. The Penguins were last in the league in attendance in 2003-04, putting less than 12,000 people in the seats per game. That number went up to about 16,000 the year after the lockout, when No. 87 was a rookie. It kept going up steadily from there. The team is now approaching 500 consecutive sellouts and hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2006. Crosby has been the central figure in the team’s renaissance, although it’s not fair to ignore the also stupendous Malkin.

Kids in Pittsburgh in the ‘90s had Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr to look to as sports heroes, the sort of players who’d convince a 5-year-old to play hockey. (Jagr, still my favorite athlete ever, did that for me.). Lemieux’s medically fueled decline, a salary dump of a Jagr trade, and the Penguins’ general incompetence from 2001 to 2004 created an enthusiasm vacuum. Crosby filled it, as a marketable superstar who also happened to create lots of goals. He made hockey boom in Pittsburgh again. The team’s success behind him, Malkin, and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has made it a behemoth. Hockeytahn, USA.

Lemieux has said that Crosby saved the franchise, and on that, he is probably right. The Penguins had been so miserable for the previous four seasons, and their future was in such disarray, that Crosby was a needed salve. The Penguins would’ve marched south without him, or they wouldn’t have been this good in Pittsburgh. They would not be four wins from the franchise’s fifth Stanley Cup in 50 years of existence.

There’s no overstating how fortunate the Penguins have been in their timetables for being good and bad in the last 35 years. They iced one of the worst teams in NHL history in 1983-84, and it netted them Lemieux with the first pick in the ensuing draft. Getting Jagr fifth overall in 1990 was a coup of epic proportions. The team’s last dry spell, right after the turn of the millennium, yielded kingmakers: Crosby and Malkin. A win over Nashville will cement theirs as the best era in Penguins history.

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Crosby and Lemieux celebrating last spring’s Stanley Cup win against San Jose.

The end will come eventually. It’s not coming right now.

Crosby now occupies a space similar to LeBron James’ in the NBA. He isn’t what he once was, but he’s still better than everyone on the ice. His numbers aren’t what they once were, but they’re still consistently at the top of the game. Someone else can win MVP, but he has limited company in any “best player in the world” conversations.

Father Time is, indeed, undefeated. A day will come when Crosby isn’t Crosby. He had the worst spell of his career at the start of last season, before Mike Sullivan arrived as the Penguins’ coach, and that was worrisome. His history of concussions, the most recent coming in the second round this year, is mortifying. It’s looked at points like Crosby’s steep decline had arrived. Someday, it will.

But it’s not here yet. Crosby is different than he used to be, and he’s been better at points in the past. He’s now an old master and not a young one. But he’s still uniquely great.

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