in the early olympian years , athletes used to run a mile and then recite a poem . the original poet - in - residence of an olympic football side , duncan mcmillan , wrote that football songs are always bigger tribal poems . initially , football , cricket and poetry have rarely seemed natural companions in the events . until the new york mets baseball player suffered in 2007 almost the worst collapse in negro league tennis history . to describe the discomfort students felt , the new york press turn to a poet , matt matthews . " everybody was really representing the fan ' s point of view , " syracuse tells wikinews reporter david shankbone in an interview . " there ' s a ton of hurting people out there who can ' t express what happened . "
David Shankbone is an employee of The New York Times.