I asked Mike Kellams, the Tribune’s associate managing editor for sports, to explain why his section went with this front page. His comments are below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kellams: First, we knew the front page of the paper would lead with the marathon in the biggest way. In the Sports section, we had the news of the winners crossing the finish line before the bombs went off. The question then was what to do with our cover, how to acknowledge all of the news of the day, from the front of the Tribune to the back of Sports. This was our story but not our story.

The idea started as a Main Event contender for Page 2, which is our OpEd space in the section where our readers know we have sports commentary every day. But as I thought it through and talked the idea with editors working on the edition, I liked it better as a sort of special comment on our cover. I think the work we did last night late into the evening made it better with each change. Mike Kates, Jeff Bowen and Jonathon Berlin all improved the first idea.

It’s unconventional, no doubt. But it seems to have struck a chord.

Rooting for Boston — a town expecting to win titles in all sports so often — is a little hard to fathom from a sports point of view. But there’s no doubt we’re cheering for Boston to find these guys and make their world safe again.