Down and Distance

Last thoughts on Al Davis: The American speed addiction and the NFL

The Texans lost to the Raiders yesterday, meaning that Houston still hasn’t had a chance to pull away in the two-man-race that the AFC South has already become. But who cares about that, because Raiders owner and GM Al Davis died this weekend at 82, and Darius Heyward-Bey—the first-round draft pick in 2009 that left fans thinking that the old man was senile—damn near made him look like a prophet after picking up 99 yards and a touchdown in the win.

There have been plenty of powerful tributes to Davis penned since Saturday, and it’s hard to overlook how significant a figure he was: He’s more or less the guy responsible for the NFL/AFL merger that began what is now described as “the modern era”; he maintained a firmly progressive presence in the league, hiring the first Latino coach, the first African-American NFL head coach since Fritz Pollard guided the Hammond, Indiana Pros in 1920, the first woman as a team’s CEO; he somehow managed to make football, that most mainstream of American activities, into an object of counterculture cool just by the colors of his team and the way his players carried themselves…

And yeah, all of that is true, and important. But Heyward-Bey’s touchdown was a reminder that Davis wasn’t just a progressively-minded visionary of the game. He was damn near an American prophet.

You make it sound like he was Steve Jobs or something

The number one thing that Davis brought to the game, if you had to boil it down to a single word, is this: speed. Davis understood something fundamental about the role of speed in football, and he based his philosophy around it. Hunter S. Thompson attributed this quote to Davis: “Speed kills. You can't teach speed. Everything else in the game can be taught, but speed is a gift from God.”

He’s right, of course—speed is deadly, and the combined 1.4 billion passing yards that NFL quarterbacks have put up so far this year by throwing to the speediest crop of wide receivers the game has ever seen offers proof. Pierre Garcon is almost making Curtis Painter look like a professional quarterback by being so damn fast; Wes Welker is on pace to break (one-time Raider) Jerry Rice’s single-season receiving yards record by Week 12; and on special teams, Devin Hester shattered the all-time punt return record last week by scoring 11 times in 182 attempts, while it took the previous record holder over 350 attempts to get to 10.

Yeah, speed kills, and Davis changed the game by figuring that out. Darius Heyward-Bey, that maligned first-rounder who vindicated Davis’ faith in him by helping lead the Raiders over the Texans, caught Davis’ eye because of his quickness. He wasn’t good at most other things a football player needs to be good at, but Davis saw something in his speed—something that Heyward-Bey delivered on by accelerating after shaking off a tackle to blaze away from three Houston defenders in his touchdown reception on Sunday. If he develops slowly, the way that Raiders running back Darren McFadden did, evolving into one of the premier players in the game after looking like a first-round bust, then Davis will look even smarter. But either way—the key here is speed.

Speed kills everywhere, not just in football

That’s the thing that made Davis seem so damn prophetic—his speed kills philosophy represented a way to make the NFL look more like what we want out of life. The NFL rose to be the most popular game in America by a wide margin after it adapted to the style of play that Davis favored. Last week’s Monday night game between the shitty Tampa Bay Bucs and the shittier Indianapolis Colts was still watched by twice as many people as a MLB playoff game featuring the Yankees, and you can see signs all over America that the top thing we care about is speed. There’s actually a woman in Michigan who is suing the studio behind the movie Drive because the fucking thing didn’t move fast enough for her.

Now that the features have leveled out, the guiding principle in the smartphone wars have been about which is the fastest. In politics, one of the reasons we haven’t seen a new challenger emerge in the GOP primary race is that it’s just too damn long until the first vote happens, and nobody wants to throw their hat in, only to have to sit around for months debating before they can win something. The biggest complaint about Occupy Wall Street and the affiliated satellite demonstrations is that they’ve been at it for weeks now and haven’t just given everybody a speedy soundbite about what they want.

In America, the thing we care about most is speed. Al Davis, more than anyone else to be involved with football, saw that. And as a quintessential American himself, he cared about it, too. When he was in a position to make the game reflect that American urge for quickness and action, he did so, and the results couldn’t speak more clearly.

Football now, today, is the game that most clearly fulfills our drive to see things move as quickly as possible, and we respond to that by watching it and caring about it more than we do any other competition. This is what we’ve wanted, and Al Davis gave it to us.

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High Score

Austin named the nation's pickleball capital in industry report

Photo by Henry Selis Photo

Other Racquet Social Club is back after city woes.

It's no secret that Austinites love pickleball. A new study proves just how much by ranking Austin the No. 1 city for pickleball in the whole country. Dallas and Houston also made the top 10 at Nos. 3 and 8, respectively.

The report was published by TeachMe.To, an online marketplace for learning sports (and sometimes music) from private instructors. It used data from its own platform, USA Pickleball, Places2Play, local pickleball associations, and more. It also referred to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), which named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America, with a growth rate of 223.5 percent over three years.

Similarly, TeachMe.To ranked Austin as the fastest-growing city for pickleball, and citing this as the main reason for the overall title of "the nation's pickleball capital."

It name-checked the Austin Metro Pickleball Association (AMPA) — with approximately 3,000-3,500 members — and the Austin Pickleball League (APL), estimating that overall, "15,000-20,000 people play pickleball at least occasionally in the greater Austin area." About half of those players — about 8,000-10,000 people — play at least twice a month.

The report did not include gender data on Austin, specifically, but it did note that not only are two-thirds of pickleball players female; women's involvement in the sport is also growing 50 percent faster than men's.

New courts everywhere
This probably isn't a surprise to people who have noticed the number of courts opened around Austin in recent years. By 2024, TeachMe.To's data shows 32 dedicated courts in Austin, and thanks to with a utility rate of 92 percent it doesn't look like that'll be slowing down.

In the summer of 2023, the online booking platform Swimply noticed how many pickleball courts there were in Austin compared to such great demand, and added courts to its service. In fall 2023 and summer 2024, at least two important developments expanded that availability: Other Racquet Social Club opened as a friendly, country club-like neighborhood option, and national chain The Picklr announced it's bringing five locations to Austin and Round Rock.

Perhaps because Austin is such a food-obsessed city, there seems to be some growing opportunity for food and beverage hospitality around pickleball, too. Other Racquet recently started hosting the Bill's Dips food truck, a spinoff of the popular downtown restaurant Bill's Oyster; and a pair of bars with pickleball courts, Drifters Social Coffee & Cocktails and The Pickle Pub, also opened in South Austin this year, with strong online ratings already.

The trend has even reached into real estate (see this cute house with its own pickleball court) and inspired athletes to introduce similar sports to the local market, as in the case of the padel club Paddle39. TeachMe.To's report also mentioned tech companies adding pickleball to their campuses.

Aside from growth, the study also considered lesson activity (including information about teacher availability and diversity of clinic offerings), infrastructure, community vitality, the tournament scene.

Austin had the highest concentration of all the cities of players under 40 (65 percent), as well as the highest share of national lesson bookings. At 16.90 percent, that means about one in six of the pickleball lessons contracted through this platform were in Austin. Lesson demand, the report says, is growing 125 percent year-over-year.

Elsewhere in Texas
Dallas was No. 3 thanks in part to its "central location" according to the report.

"The city's 45 dedicated courts and 85 [percent] public accessibility rate have fostered one of the most active competitive scenes in the country, with 8,500 registered league players," it says. "The combination of strong tournament presence, extensive infrastructure, and a 112% growth in lesson bookings solidifies Dallas as a powerhouse in the national pickleball landscape."

Houston made No. 8 with an emphasis on integrating pickleball with other sports.

"The city's 22 dedicated courts have seen a 92% increase in lesson bookings, driven by innovative programming that includes the nation's first corporate league system," it says. "Houston's success in integrating pickleball into existing sports infrastructure while maintaining 72% year-round utilization demonstrates a sustainable model for rapid growth."

Overall predictions
After laying out data about the top cities in pickleball, the report made some predictions. As the Austin newcomer mentioned above believes, the report also thinks padel is the next big thing. It also guesses more cities will act like Houston by focusing on hybrid facilities.

It also expects to see an expanded professional circuit and mainstream coverage, more technology used on the court, a rise in the prevalence of young players, and more opportunities in corporate wellness and real estate. "Dedicated pickleball facilities will become as common as swimming pools in luxury developments," it says. Texans will be the judge of that one.

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