Weekend Hot Reads: Staying in the Game

The L.A. TIMES looks at Fox NFL sideline reporter Pam Oliver's "unyielding resolve to stay in the game." Oliver has only "missed a handful of games in 30 years at Fox, and her family, or her health, were often the drivers." It was "usually when she felt like she’d be a detriment to the broadcast, rather than worrying about her own health." But, every week, "difficulties or not: there’s Pam Oliver on our television screens, trudging through it all, for less than 30 seconds at a time." So, as the "calls for her retirement have come more frequently -- even to the point where members of her crews ask her when she’s hanging it up -- she remains unbothered by the demands that she be done." There has "persisted an assumption" about Oliver for the last decade that she is "merely holding on for dear life at Fox." But she takes her role "as a responsibility, something that doesn’t come lightly." So, the idea she would give all of it up "pisses her off to even consider it."

Also:

• Mets radio host Pat McCarthy’s family-fueled recovery from a harrowing road accident.
• How Stanford soccer’s Nya Harrison is fighting NCAA to get athletes paid.
• Rory McIlroy’s interview is latest sign that the PGA Tour is in big trouble.
• College Bowl Games in Trouble? Send in the Memes.