Choosing the best writing and reporting in a given year is an impossible task, as well as an entirely subjective enterprise. But it’s also fun and fulfilling because you get to re-read so many great pieces.

I have annually at the end of the year posted the pieces that impacted me as a reader. This year I changed it up a bit and did a mid-year piece featuring 129 pieces that impacted me through the first part of 2021. Here is that piece in the event you missed it. (That compilation includes this brilliant piece of writing by Patrick Freyne of The Irish Times.)

Below, are my choices for the second half of the year. The pieces are a reflection of the publications and writers I read or follow on social media. Your list and your publications will obviously be different than mine, so if the publication isn’t your cup of tea, my advice is to bypass it. The stories are not ranked, nor categorized. It is not a competition. Sports and non-sports stories are listed below. I could have chosen many more. I’m sure I left out many great pieces, and I intentionally did not include those from my colleagues at The Athletic.

• What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind: Twenty years after their son’s death on 9/11, a family still searches for him in the words he left behind.By Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic.

Source: https://theathletic.com/3018691/2021/12/20/the-best-writing-and-reporting-of-2021-from-sports-and-beyond/