Tom Junod (@TomJunod) / X

Tom Junod

16K posts

Tom Junod

@TomJunod

Senior Writer, ESPN.

Joined July 2011

Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
A woman is raped by a football player. She tesifies against him and lives in isolation in the freshman dorm. One night, there is knock on her door. She opens it, and another football player fills it. “Hello,” he says. “My name is Irv Pankey, and I believe everything you say.” 1/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
Here is the trailier for nicole_noren’s beautiful film. The trailer is just a minute long, and yet you can’t miss the light it shines, the light *they* shine: “Betsy & Irv.” End.
00:00
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
He is the only player to have done so, though he eventually found others to follow his example. He changed the life of a brave woman shattered by a two-hour sexual assault at knifepoint, a woman who forevermore called Irv Pankey “my guardian angel.” 5/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
“What would you have had them do?” is more than a rhetorical question, because it has an answer. Be a helper. Be a hero. Be like Irv Pankey. Knock on the door. Believe. 9/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
Today, “Betsy & Irv,” the film @nicole_noren made for @ESPNFilms from their reunion in State College premieres on @ESPNPlus. It features Betsy Sailor and Irv Pankey, now in their 60s, telling their story. It is a film as beautiful and luminous as its heroes. 7/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
One of 12 African-American players on @PennStateFball team in 1978, Irv saw in Betsy Sailor something of his own isolation. He thought, “She does not deserve to be a pariah” and went to her door. He said “You will never have to walk on this campus alone again.” 4/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
Betsy Sailor and Irv Pankey graduated and went their separate ways, Betsy to a long career in HR and Irv to the Los Angeles Rams. They did not see each other again for more than 40 years. Last September, our story #Untold brought them back together. 6/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Sep 11, 2020
19 years ago, Richard Drew shot a picture of a man falling through the sky. It was published the next day and then disappeared, as a taboo image. But it has since become a symbol for all that was lost that day. RIP, the fallen, and the falling.
The Falling Man
From esquire.com
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
I was in that room and did those interviews. I was there when Betsy spoke of calling her mother to tell her she had been raped. I was there when Irv once again knocked on Betsy’s door and time went away. I will never forget and if you watch “Betsy & Irv” neither will you. 8/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
What would you have had them do? Here is Irv Pankey’s answer: “I had to go get her.” 10/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
When @pinepaula and I were working on #Untold, our story about Todd Hodne and his crimes at Penn State 4 decades ago, many people asked us a question about the coaches, cops and players who learned about Hodne in real-time: “What would you have had them do?” 2/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Nov 9, 2016
The story is not Comey, or Johnson, or Stein. The story is that white conservatives did not reject this man, no matter what he did.
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Apr 20, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
Irv Pankey is our answer. 3/
Tom Junod
@TomJunod
Sep 11, 2022
Replying to @TomJunod
By suppressing “The Falling Man,” @facebook is again deeming some stories too disturbing to tell. I’m hoping the platform will adjust its algorithm to allow those stories to be told, on this day of all days. May all who died on 9/11 rest in peace.
The Falling Man
From esquire.com