'The Iliad' includes some snappy sports reporting, and writers ever since have been probing athletes for signifiers, for metaphor amped by grit under pressure.

I know that some of the finest writing I've ever read has been sports writing, whatever the topic was, whatever the sport they were writing about. It seems to be an area where people are allowed a little more leeway than when they're reporting on traffic jams and city-council meetings.

Sports is a metaphor for overcoming obstacles and achieving against great odds, ... Athletes, in times of this kind of difficulty, can be important role models.

We planned for weeks and weeks on this. If you want to use a sports metaphor, you'd say we left it all on the field.

The things we do to our children - most of the evil in the world is not done with bad intentions but with the best intentions ever.

If sports are supposed to be good for you, how come athletes are over the hill at 31?