I actually read this last week (yesterday). And, it's almost a year old.

But, so what?

It is still great and jogged my mind to a time more than a decade ago when I was a full-time sports journalists and covered the Washington Huskies. 

My main beat was covering the football team -- which was unquestionably the worst Pac-10 team over the years I covered it. (Now, that doesn't matter at all. What does? The amazing people I covered, telling their stories, the memories made on road trips.) 

But, I remember this game. I never saw it. I remember being with a handful of former players, and texting, and saying, "Oh my God, is the game still going?" and checking in with other friends for updates. I remember thinking that Danielle's arm was going to fall off. 

Reading this was a walk down a hallway with old photos hanging on the wall. And it was a blast. 

I've rooted for Heather Tarr and the Huskies since leaving Seattle. She overcame early doubts and skepticism. She let go one of her friends. And she has proven to be a legendary softball coach who, by all accounts, had done it the right way. Without condescension, I'm incredibly proud of her. 

There isn't much more fun than a well done oral history and Graham Hays hits this one over the park... and beyond Amanda Fleischman's glove. It's the best thing I read this week. 

Admittedly, I've spent most of this week consumed with course preparation, editing and watching way too much coverage of the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, but I did get a little reading done. And, the best of it, I read this evening after dinner while waiting for the UConn-Tennessee basketball game. 

Mike Freeman is a great sports columnist. This past fall, Freeman became the sports race and inequality editor at USA Today. Thank goodness we still get to read his work. 

Eric Bienemy, the offensive coordinator for the defending Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs, has yet to be hired as a head coach. Meanwhile, a bunch of other guys -- all who happen to be white -- are getting hired. 

This is a short column. It makes its point succinctly. Still, it is long on impact and it is the best thing I've read this week. 

Roxane Gay has long been one of my favorite writers. Her essays and short stories are typically stark and clear about dark, awful things. Making the ugly so crystal clear is a gift.

She also has a gift of humor, of sensitivity, but her ability to make us really see life's underbelly is primary.

Wow. And are we ever in an ugly time... willfully ignorant, indignantly racist, angry and loud, violent and unforgiving. 

So, leave it to Dr. Gay to so vividly describe "the ugly truth about America." She does so in her periodic column in the New York Times, this one published Jan. 7, a day after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol during the counting of the electoral college votes. 

I hope you'll read it introspectively.