Peter King’s Favorite Stories, from SI and The MMQB

I’ve always thought my job as a writer had three parts:

1. Report the heck out of a story.

2. Take the readers where they cannot go.

3. Write quickly and be smart. Think hard about the words, but don’t be obsessive about them. Different ones work fine.

In 29 years at Sports Illustrated and The MMQB, I think I wrote some good stories. I always tried to improve as a writer, and with stories I was hugely proud of I took great care in trying to make every sentence count. But I wasn’t Frank Deford or Rick Reilly or William Nack. I was best at my ability to make people tell me things, and then report on those things to make them meatier, and then get them to you.

Part of what I tried to do—and what I…