Jeff MacGregor, a very fine columnist for ESPN and author of this classic piece of participatory journalism, has a meditation today on the particular joys of ice hockey, a game he grew up playing. MacGregor is an odd bird at ESPN. He never shouts, and he never trolls, and largely for those reasons it's easy to forgive…

ESPN's Jeff MacGregor has some thoughts today about the thorny Peyton Manning situation:

We know, we know: The unconditional love for SI scribe Rick Reilly's "Riffs Of Reilly" segment — sample comedic genius moment: "USC's quarterback is John David Booty and Texas' is Colt McCoy. Hey, weren't both those guys on 'Gunsmoke?'" Oh, Rick, you slay us! — makes you think that SI.com must be so tapped out producing…

After you've watched the Illini lay waste to the Indiana Hoosiers in Bloomington tonight, we humbly suggest that you turn your dial to "The Late Show With David Letterman" to watch official Friend Of Deadspin Jeff MacGregor talk with everyone's favorite gap-toothed wonder.

Continuing our Sports Authors With Pure Hearts series, we present, honestly, one of our favorite sports books of all time: Sunday Money, a whirlwind, Kerouac-esque look at a year on the NASCAR circuit. Sports Ilustrated, New York Times and New Yorker author Jeff MacGregor, along with his photographer wife, packed in a…