PLAY Time, Take Two

In a few short hours, you'll all likely be scouring the internets in search of everyone else's Super Bowl pages. Until then, though, let's delve deeper into the Best. Sports Magazine. Ever.

As Rich noted below, PLAY: The New York Times Sports Magazine made its debut in Sunday's paper. I can't imagine a better day to debut a sports magazine than Super Bowl Sunday, and editors at PLAY took full advantage with an impressive 12 pages on Super Bowl-related goodness (including that fantastic photo-illustration you see above, by David Harry Stewart, to kick things off).

Since this is the Times, though, surely you weren't expecting traditional sports magazine fodder. (And if you were, I hope you were pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed.)

Visually, PLAY takes many cues from its NYT bretheren, the Sunday Magazine and T: Travel. There's some new typography here, which you'll see when I post some pages here later on Monday, but mostly it's the same whip-smart and clean-as-a-whistle design you've come to expect from this crew.

Some of the graphics are typically Times-ish (read: fascinatingly mind-blowing), and the photography sets a new standard that even Sports Illustrated couldn't match with its Olympics preview edition.

All of that said, though, it's the story ideas that make PLAY work so well. From Phil Simms' tips on how to watch a football game like a pro to the authors of "Freakonomics" dissecting the football betting line; and "Moneyball" author Michael Lewis on the birth of modern football to George Allen's daughter's take on growing up when Dad is Coach, these aren't stories (or writers) you're likely to find anywhere else.

And as good (and deep) as some of the features go, the front of the book is no slouch, either. How about Slate columnist Bryan Curtis on Bob Costas' intellectual superiority and how he's dealing with network-ordered puff pieces? Or tips from eye doctors and pro sports trainers on giving your eyeballs a workout? Check, and check.

In his editor's letter, Mark Bryant says PLAY is "a magazine for seriously devout fans, and for men and women who love to play games as much as watch them. It's also for those who enjoy the great stories that sports provide a way into - big, rich, human stories. Stories that reveal character. Stories that engage the world."

I'd argue that PLAY is geared much more toward the latter sort of reader (someone like me) than the former (someone like most sportsfolk I know). But it seems Bryant wants to reach both. A tricky proposition, but this is a solid first step.

(The next issue is due out in June.)