This story is a powerhouse of facts, statistics and emotions. 

Natalie Weiner and SB Nation make me thankful that there are still writers who can report the heck out of a story, and that there are publications that make time and space for it. 

The reporting of this story is fantastic because, not only does it reveal information I did not know until I read it, but it also evokes fantastic quotes and narratives from the subjects. The writing is descriptive and sharp without being overdone, without the writer inserting herself. Weiner lays bare the language of tragedy and triumph, all while vividly bringing her audience into a world most of us don't know. 

My students would learn much about style and reporting if they read it. I'm better for having read it. We all should read it. 

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I read this column years ago and happened upon it this week. It is so brilliant, simple, perfect. 

It sings of the glory of Jim Murray, a man I never met but felt like I knew.

It makes me remember the words he wrote and where I was when I read them, how I felt right at that moment. It makes me miss living in Southern California and being part of the Los Angeles Times organization, even if for just a small outshoot in Orange County.

It makes me think of the Dodgers, and the Lakers, and the blackened chicken burritos at Taco Mesa in Costa Mesa. 

It makes me remember my sports writing career -- watching Carson Palmer, then a senior in high school, playing volleyball, sitting at the Laguna Beach High School baseball field wondering how I got to be so lucky. It makes me recall watching the Steelers' offensive line clear a path to my left that Willie Parker streaked down in Super Bowl XL, remember watching Ichiro throw a ball to third base from right field. 

Brilliant, simple, perfect. 

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Trigger warning: The story to which I link this week includes graphic and emotional accounts of rape. 

A few years back, I read this ProPublica/Marshall Project collaboration by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong. Armstrong was a former Seattle Times reporter and I became familiar with his work when he and a colleague, Nick Perry, wrote about the University of Washington's football program (2008) while I was a beat reporter for the P-I. Their work was phenomenal. They turned it into a book that I used to assign students. Armstrong also won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the shooting of four police officers.

Suffice it to say, the guy is freakin' great. 

But the story I'm writing about today topped them all. It came out in late 2015 and is one of those stories you remember where you were when you read it. It tells the story of a troubled young woman who was raped in her home outside of Seattle. As so often happens, the police -- and others -- didn't believe her story. It also tells the story of how police departments work in silos rather than collaboratively. It tells the story of good cops trying to get to the heart of the matter, as well as lazy cops who give up in frustration. It tells the story of the emotional roadblocks of reporting sexual assault. 

The story was so riveting that Netflix produced a miniseries called "Unbelievable" that is based on it. It just dropped this week and I got through a few episodes last night. It's heavy, but exceptionally well done. 

It reminded me of just how damn good that article was. So, I read it again. I encourage you to do the same.
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