Editor’s Note: This story was included in The Athletic’s Best of 2019. See the full list.



Seventy-five minutes before his team’s fourth practice of training camp, on a sweltering summer morning in Westfield, Ind., a few steps from a pavilion packed with families hurting and healing, kids scarred but smiling, the Colts’ general manager is hiding tears behind his sunglasses.



Chris Ballard isn’t thinking about that day’s practice, or his looming depth chart decisions, or the calf strain his star quarterback hasn’t been able to shake for three months. He’s standing on the grass outside that pavilion, talking with two young boys who’ve bounced among nine foster homes in seven years.



His wife Kristin is sitting on a picnic table a few feet away. “Sometimes, this gets really emotional for us,” she says.



Inside that pavilion, as the Ballards look on, kids shuffle through a long line,...