Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. Late on the evening of Dec. 3, news broke that a high school football player from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas had rushed and leveled a referee after being ejected from a game. Video of the vicious hit spread rapidly, and the player was jailed and charged with misdemeanor assault. As a sports reporter for The New York Times, I had written a story weeks earlier, from telephone interviews, about how the pandemic had dimmed Friday night lights in the Valley, where high school football anchors communities along the border with Mexico. Mr. Durón was scheduled to leave on July 9 for college in Atlanta, where he planned to play football for an online trade school.

Source: New York Times July 30, 2021 16:07 UTC