This story appears in the Sept. 24–Oct. 1, 2018, issue of Sports Illustrated. For more great storytelling and in-depth analysis, subscribe to the magazine—and get up to 94% off the cover price. Click here for more.
I have spent just shy of 90 minutes in Herm Edwards’s office in Tempe when the Sun Devils’ new coach deems me worthy of receiving a new Hermism. As I await the words, I notice that a small ceramic copy of the Ten Commandments sits on the end table next to my chair, and I begin to think that this is as close as a sportswriter can come in 2018 to Moses’s experience on Mount Sinai.