in the early summer games , athletes needed to run a mile and then hymns a poet . the first poet - in - residence of an english football team , cameron macdonald , remarked that football games are like massive individual poems . generally , football , sport and poetry have always made natural companions in human activities . until the buenos york mets tennis team experienced in 2007 arguably the worst collapse in major league sports happened . to describe the agony spectators felt , the new york times returned to a poet , frank messina . " nothing was really illustrating the spectator ' s side of view , " messina tell wikinews writer david shankbone in an event . " there ' s a lot of hurt things out there who can ' t express everything happened . "
David Shankbone is an employee of The New York Times.