04/26/24
May 05, 2016
One Night in Leicester: ESPN sent Wright Thompson to Leicester on the day the Premier League title was clinched. He found a city among the most demographically mixed in England, with different groups who kept to themselves until an impossible run brought them together: "For some lifelong Leicester fans, this season is a kind of requiem, the glory reminding them of glories past, one more piece of their pre-World War II lives that never returned after the bombs stopped falling and the nation buried its dead. 'They're in their estates,' [local sociologist John] Williams said. 'They're in the Saffron Lane area and the Braunstone area. They're in the white housing projects on the edge of the city, and they used to be connected to the game and now they're disconnected. They can't afford to go, and other people have come in to take their places.'"
I don't think Thompson's piece was cliched. There were a few places where he oversold the premise and got excessively magazine-y, but on the whole he found great stories to tell from people who lived there. My favorite was the sad one about the 58-year-old granddad who died during the season.
posted by rcade at 11:20 AM on May 06, 2016
So maybe maudlin is a better word?
posted by tahoemoj at 01:14 PM on May 06, 2016
I know Leicester pretty well. There was more insight in the Adrian Mole diaries. The ESPN piece might as well have said "Ooooooh look, ethnic people. Poor working class Brits. Housing estates." Which is so much bullshit.
There's a better perspective on what it's like to bea fan from Julian Barnes:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/06/julian-barnes-leicester-city-premier-league-stupid-love
posted by owlhouse at 11:32 PM on May 06, 2016
Leave no cliche unused.