Culture
NFL Power Rankings Week 7: How good are Ravens, Lions? Plus more big questions
We’re a third of the way through the NFL season, and we have some answers about some teams.
The Power Rankings still have some questions, though. We’re going to look at one big one for every team in this week’s rankings. These may not be the most critical queries, but we think they’re the most interesting.
Your question might be: How far did the ultra-impressive Ravens and Lions move up? Please read on.
Last week: 1
Sunday: Bye
One Big Question: Can Sam Darnold keep it up?
Everyone is waiting for the Vikings quarterback to turn into a pumpkin. He has started fast before, they say, and they’re right. Darnold had 1,346 passing yards in Weeks 1 through 6 of the 2018 season with the Jets. The difference? Darnold had nine passing touchdowns and seven interceptions to start that season. This year, Darnold has 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. In three of the last four seasons that Kevin O’Connell has been head coach or offensive coordinator for a team, that team has been top 10 in the league in scoring. The Vikings are sixth at the moment (27.80 ppg).
Up next: vs. Detroit Lions, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
Deshaun Watson and a Browns escape plan (once they finally admit it’s over): Sando’s Pick Six
2. Baltimore Ravens (4-2)
Last week: 3
Sunday: Beat Washington Commanders 30-23
One Big Question: Which Raven is the MVP frontrunner?
That’s how good Baltimore’s offense is right now. Lamar Jackson is playing better than he was last season when he won the MVP award (second in the league in EPA per dropback), but Derrick Henry has been almost as good. A running back obviously will not win the league’s MVP award (it hasn’t happened since Adrian Peterson in 2012), but Henry’s first six games have been phenomenal. He’s averaging 117.3 yards per game, which would stand as the second-best rushing total for a season in the last 10 years, behind only his own 2020 season, according to TruMedia.
Up next: at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
Do Ravens have NFL’s best offense? They made a case in win over Commanders
3. Detroit Lions (4-1)
Last week: 6
Sunday: Beat Dallas Cowboys 47-9
One Big Question: Was Sunday a good day or a bad day?
The Lions were the most impressive team in the league against the Cowboys, but they lost the NFL’s sack leader when Aidan Hutchinson suffered a broken leg. Hutchinson had 7 1/2 sacks and led all defensive linemen with a 25 percent pressure rate at the time of the injury. Humiliating Dallas while Jared Goff posted a 153.8 passer rating Sunday felt good, but a season with the highest expectations just got tougher.
Up next: at Minnesota Vikings, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
Last week: 2
Sunday: Bye
One Big Question: Will they trade for a wide receiver?
JuJu Smith-Schuster is the most proven wide receiver on the roster. He hasn’t had a 1,000-yard season since 2018, and he has only nine catches this season. Rookie Xavier Worthy, the leading active wide receiver (12 catches, 179 yards), will get better, but this team is trying to three-peat. It can’t afford to stand pat at this position, can it? The Chiefs are unlikely to get into the Davante Adams sweepstakes, so Browns wide receiver Amari Cooper looks like the most attractive option.
Up next: at San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET
Texans wide receiver Tank Dell will be asked to do more with Nico Collins out with an injury. (Brian Fluharty / Imagn Images)
Last week: 4
Sunday: Beat New England Patriots 41-21
One Big Question: Can Tank Dell step up?
Sunday was a good start but just a start. Dell caught seven passes for 57 yards against the Patriots, his highest catch total and second-highest yardage total of the season. The first five games had been rough for the second-year wide receiver. His EPA per target is down from .46 last year to .08 this year, according to TruMedia, but with Nico Collins now on injured reserve, Dell needs to return to form. Houston leads the AFC South by two games, and the Texans need to start planning for the playoffs. They’ll need Dell in peak form for that even when Collins returns.
Up next: at Green Bay Packers, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
6. Washington Commanders (4-2)
Last week: 5
Sunday: Lost to Baltimore Ravens 30-23
One Big Question: Is this a new-and-improved Kliff Kingsbury?
Washington leads the league in EPA per play (.20) and is scoring on 61.82 percent of its drives, which is the highest rate in the NFL since at least the 1999 season, according to TruMedia. Kingsbury, the Commanders’ offensive coordinator, coached the Arizona Cardinals from 2019 to 2022 and those teams never scored on more than 45 percent of their drives. Kingsbury’s 2021 team started 10-2 before defenses figured things out, and Arizona lost five of its last six (including its wild-card round loss). Will he have a counterpunch this season?
Up next: vs. Carolina Panthers, Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
For Jayden Daniels’ Commanders, a loss in Baltimore, but not a setback
7. Green Bay Packers (4-2)
Last week: 8
Sunday: Beat Arizona Cardinals 34-13
One Big Question: Are we sleeping on this team?
Green Bay has won four of its last five with its only loss coming by two points to the No. 1 team on this list. The Packers are fourth in the league in point differential (plus 41) and looked really good with wide receivers Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs back in the lineup (three touchdowns combined). The knock at this point would be that their wins have come against the Colts, Titans, Rams and Cardinals.
Up next: vs. Houston Texans, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
Last week: 7
Monday: Beat New York Jets 23-20
One Big Question: When will Josh Allen throw his first interception?
It’s frankly remarkable given Allen’s free-wheeling style that he hasn’t already. He had at least two by Week 7 in each of the first six years of his career, and he averaged 4.8 in Weeks 1-6 in those seasons. But he hasn’t thrown a pick this year. Some of it is luck. Allen has made five interception-worthy throws, according to FTNFantasy’s tracking. But most of it is because he’s playing really good football. Allen, who has 10 touchdown passes, is third in the league in EPA per dropback (.23).
Up next: vs. Tennessee Titans, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
After a slow start, Bijan Robinson and the Falcons offense are flying. (Jim Dedmon / Imagn Images)
Last week: 10
Sunday: Beat Carolina Panthers 38-20
One Big Question: Are the Falcons good?
There’s some evidence they are. The Falcons have won three straight NFC South games. On Sunday, they rushed for 198 yards one week after Kirk Cousins set the franchise record for passing yards with 509. Bijan Robinson, Drake London and Kyle Pitts all made significant contributions against Carolina. However, Atlanta had a negative point differential before beating the reeling Panthers by 18 points. The Falcons’ margin of victory was their second-highest since the end of 2020, and the next two weeks will provide big tests (Seattle and then Tampa Bay for the second time this season).
Up next: vs. Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
How the Falcons achieved ‘the best feeling there is’ by running over the Panthers
10. San Francisco 49ers (3-3)
Last week: 14
Thursday: Beat Seattle Seahawks 36-24
One Big Question: Will Christian McCaffrey play this season?
The 49ers could have opened the running back’s window to return from IR this week. They did not. That’s not an encouraging sign. An NFL Network report last week suggested the 49ers are targeting Week 10 for the running back’s return, but that sounded more hopeful than anything. Ricky Pearsall, who was shot six weeks ago, likely will play sooner than McCaffrey, who is suffering from Achilles tendinitis. Jordan Mason is second in the league in rushing (609 yards) filling in for McCaffrey, but he doesn’t provide the same headaches for opponents.
Up next: vs. Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, 4:25 p.m. ET
11. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2)
Last week: 11
Sunday: Beat New Orleans Saints 51-27
One Big Question: What will Mike Evans’ career numbers be?
Evans is off to a slow start by his standards (28th in the league with 310 yards), but with this offense, he could catch fire at any time. Evans, who is in his 11th year, is 30th all time in receiving yards with 11,990, and Larry Fitzgerald’s 17,492 which is second all time, feels very reachable for the 31-year-old Evans. The Bucs, who had 594 yards against the Saints, are tied for second in the league in scoring (29.7 ppg).
Up next: vs. Baltimore Ravens, Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET
Last week: 12
Sunday: Beat Denver Broncos 23-16
One Big Question: Is the defense really this good?
The Chargers lead the league in points allowed (13.2), but that might be propped up by the schedule (four of their five opponents are bottom 12 in the league in scoring), the turnover margin (plus-7, which ranks tied for second in the league) and an offense that plays keep-away (seventh in time of possession). The Broncos gained 6 yards per play on Sunday, but the Chargers played their plodding game, getting 96 yards out of J.K. Dobbins and holding on to the ball for more than 37 minutes.
Up next: at Arizona Cardinals, Monday, 9 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
Justin Herbert is getting healthier, and that is great news for the Chargers
Last week: 17
Sunday: Beat Jacksonville Jaguars 35-16
One Big Question: When is Cole Kmet Day in Chicago?
Sure, Caleb Williams keeps getting better. The rookie quarterback had a career-high four touchdown passes and his second-best passer rating (124.4), but how often do we get to talk about Cole Kmet? The fifth-year tight end had five catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns and was perfect as the team’s emergency long snapper Sunday in London after regular Scott Daly was injured. In the second quarter, Kmet caught a 31-yard touchdown pass and then made his first NFL long snap on the extra point. Kmet’s 289 receiving yards are the third most by a tight end this season.
Up next: Bye
.@ColeKmet scored the touchdown, then came in as the emergency long snapper on the PAT.
Legend.
📺: #JAXvsCHI on NFL Network
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/PQ22R2HLrc— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2024
Last week: 15
Sunday: Beat Las Vegas Raiders 32-13
One Big Question: Why would they start Russell Wilson?
Justin Fields has been an average quarterback this season, and there has not been much evidence of late that Wilson can reach that level. Fields is 17th in the league in EPA per dropback (.04). That’s the best mark of his four-year career, and the first time he’s been in positive numbers, and he’s thrown only one interception (versus five touchdown passes). On top of that, he’s basically half of the Steelers’ run game with 231 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. At age 35, Wilson can no longer provide that.
Up next: vs. New York Jets, Sunday, 8:20 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
Steelers followed their blueprint vs. Raiders, but the elephant in the room remains
15. Seattle Seahawks (3-3)
Last week: 13
Thursday: Lost to San Francisco 49ers 36-24
One Big Question: Where’d Kenneth Walker go?
The Seahawks are last in the league in percentage of plays running the ball (31.6). That’s the second-lowest percentage for any team in the last 20 years. Quarterback Geno Smith is playing good football (16th in EPA per dropback), but Walker needs the ball more. After carrying 20 times in Seattle’s season-opening win, Walker has averaged 10 carries per game. Despite this and missing two games because of injury, he’s tied for fifth in the league in rushing touchdowns with five.
Up next: at Atlanta Falcons, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
16. Dallas Cowboys (3-3)
Last week: 9
Sunday: Lost to Detroit Lions 47-9
One Big Question: Who’s America’s Team now?
The Cowboys have officially forfeited the title. The Lions didn’t take them seriously on Sunday (three offensive linemen ran receiving routes) and no one else should either. Dallas is 25th in point margin (minus-42 points), 30th in points allowed per game (28), last in rushing yards (463) and last in rushing defense EPA (minus-6.2). Owner/GM Jerry Jones hasn’t fired a coach midseason since 2010, but he can’t like being embarrassed like he was Sunday.
Up next: Bye
Last week: 22
Sunday: Beat New York Giants 17-7
One Big Question: Was the 1-4 hole too deep?
The Athletic’s playoff projections give the Bengals a 40 percent chance to make the postseason, which is not bad for a team that started 0-3 and 1-4. The Bengals play the Browns, Eagles and Raiders in the next three weeks, so it’s entirely possible they could have a winning record by early November. The way Joe Burrow and this offense are playing, it seems reasonable for this team to go on a run. Burrow has 12 passing touchdowns and only two interceptions, and the Bengals are fourth in the league in EPA per play (.12) and points per drive (2.67).
Up next: at Cleveland Browns, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
Bengals defense came in waves to beat Giants and change the conversation
18. Philadelphia Eagles (3-2)
Last week: 18
Sunday: Beat Cleveland Browns 20-16
One Big Question: What’s going on with Nick Sirianni?
The Eagles head coach showed up after the bye week with a shaved head, chirped at his home fans late in the game and then showed up for the postgame news conference with his three young children in tow. Sirianni doesn’t call the offense or defense for the Eagles, so if his only contribution is this kind of stuff, will Philly make a change? The Eagles are 21st in the league in point differential (minus-6) despite having a winning record.
Up next: at New York Giants, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
Nick Sirianni with a long answer on why he brought his kids to the podium
Gets emotional talking about how much football means to him and his family pic.twitter.com/OmMqmGLWDT
— Eliot Shorr-Parks (@EliotShorrParks) October 13, 2024
19. Denver Broncos (3-3)
Last week: 19
Sunday: Lost to Los Angeles Chargers 23-16
One Big Question: Are defense and special teams enough?
Rookie quarterback Bo Nix has shown some flashes, but he is 30th in the league in passer rating (73.7), 31st in EPA per dropback (minus-.18) and has thrown five interceptions. The Broncos are 29th in the league in offensive EPA per play (minus-.17) and average yards per drive (22.8). The Broncos are playing .500 football because of a defense that is fourth in the league in defensive EPA per play (.16) and fifth in special teams EPA (16.75).
Up next: at New Orleans Saints, Thursday, 8:15 p.m. ET
20. Indianapolis Colts (3-3)
Last week: 25
Sunday: Beat Tennessee Titans 20-17
One Big Question: What do you do with Anthony Richardson?
The second-year quarterback practiced all week despite an oblique injury that kept him out for Week 5. He was limited on Wednesday and Friday but a full participant on Thursday. Either he aggravated the injury on Thursday or the Colts decided to stay with Joe Flacco for other reasons. Either possibility is believable. Indianapolis has won two of the three games in which Flacco has played, and it scored 34 points in the third. Richardson is 28th in EPA per dropback (minus-.08) this year. Flacco is seventh (.16).
Up next: vs. Miami Dolphins, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
Michael Pittman Jr. puts Colts on his (bad) back: ‘He’s the toughest guy I’ve ever been around’
21. New Orleans Saints (2-4)
Last week: 20
Sunday: Lost to Tampa Bay Buccaneers 51-27
One Big Question: Is this defense finally aging?
Stalwart defensive end Cam Jordan is playing less than 50 percent of the snaps. Linebacker Demario Davis is still on the field just over 90 percent of the snaps, but he doesn’t have a tackle for loss or a game-changing play of any kind. After Sunday, New Orleans is last in the league in yards allowed (395.8 ypg) and 31st yards per play allowed (6.1). Both numbers are the third worst in the last 24 years of New Orleans football.
Up next: vs. Denver Broncos, Thursday, 8:15 p.m. ET
22. Arizona Cardinals (2-4)
Last week: 16
Sunday: Lost to Green Bay Packers 34-13
One Big Question: Did the new “Call of Duty” game come out early?
Emboldened after leading Arizona to a 24-23 win over San Francisco in Week 5, Murray announced his involvement in the new “Call of Duty” Black Ops 6 game, which is set to debut Oct. 25. He might have gotten an early copy, though. Murray’s EPA per dropback Sunday (minus-.07) was his second lowest of the season, and he rushed for only 14 yards. Murray’s 12 fantasy points produced against the Packers were the 10th fewest of his career.
Up next: vs. Los Angeles Chargers, Monday, 9 p.m. ET
To the trolls who memed me into a bag, thank you!
I’m officially launching my @CallofDuty partnership! #CODPartnership #TheReplacer #BlackOps6 pic.twitter.com/JwpZKxSzYo
— Kyler Murray (@K1) October 7, 2024
23. New York Jets (2-4)
Last week: 23
Monday: Lost to Buffalo Bills 23-20
One Big Question: Can they just run the Hail Mary every snap?
Aaron Rogers threw his fourth career Hail Mary touchdown at the end of the first half Monday night. It’s about the only thing that has worked out for New York this year. Firing Robert Saleh didn’t change their luck there. New York took over first place in the NFL in penalty yards lost (462) Monday night after being flagged 11 times for 110 yards. Javon Kinlaw got three by himself in under two minutes in the fourth quarter.
Up next: at Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, 8:20 p.m. ET
Why is Aaron so good at that 😂😂😂
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) October 15, 2024
24. New York Giants (2-4)
Last week: 21
Sunday: Lost to Cincinnati Bengals 17-7
One Big Question: How can you not love New York?
While the Jets stole the back page headlines by firing Robert Saleh, the Giants quietly had one of those stories that only seems to happen in the Big Apple. Wide receiver Malik Nabers made headlines by showing up at a Travis Scott concert last week while in concussion protocol and then was ruled out of the game Friday. With apologies to Darius Slayton, who had 57 receiving yards on Sunday, Nabers is the only person who makes this team watchable at this point. Daniel Jones returned to form Sunday, posting a 57.5 passer rating, although he did lead the Giants in rushing (56 yards).
Up next: vs. Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
25. Las Vegas Raiders (2-4)
Last week: 24
Sunday: Lost to Pittsburgh Steelers 32-13
One Big Question: Why not trade Maxx Crosby, too?
Maybe the main reason is that he doesn’t want a trade, and he doesn’t even want anyone talking about the subject (Sorry, Maxx, we mean no harm.) “Don’t speak about me when you don’t know what’s going on,” Crosby said before Sunday’s game. “You think I want to be anywhere else? No. I’ve got this (team) tattooed on my body.” But this season is going nowhere (the Raiders are tied for 27th in points allowed – 27.2 per game – even with Crosby) and wide receiver Davante Adams is headed out the door. What kind of trade offer would it take for Crosby to make room for a Lions tattoo?
Up next: at Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET
GO DEEPER
Raiders continue home misery with ugly loss to Steelers: ‘It sucks for the fans’
26. Los Angeles Rams (1-4)
Last week: 26
Sunday: Bye
One Big Question: Did they trade their soul for that Super Bowl?
The Rams are 16-24 (including playoffs) since beating Cincinnati 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI, and Matthew Stafford, Kyren Williams, Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua have all missed significant time with injuries since then. Los Angeles is 26th in the league in point differential (minus-45) this year. Kupp could be back as soon as this week. Nacua’s return will take a little longer.
Up next: vs. Las Vegas Raiders, Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET
27. Miami Dolphins (2-3)
Last week: 28
Sunday: Bye
One Big Question: If Tua’s coming back, when?
It sounds like Tua Tagovailoa wants to return to the game despite suffering a third confirmed concussion in the past three seasons in September. Former college head coach Nick Saban told “The Pat McAfee Show” that the quarterback wants to return, and Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa had an “expert consultation” last week. There’s “nothing negative so far, but we’re still in the process,” McDaniel said. Whether that’s a good decision or not, Miami would love Tagovailoa on the field. Since the start of 2022, the Dolphins are 20-12 in the regular season and averaging 26.8 points when Tagovailoa starts and 2-5 with 13.6 points per game when he doesn’t.
Up next: at Indianapolis Colts, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
The Titans are going nowhere with second-year quarterback Will Levis. (Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
28. Tennessee Titans (1-4)
Last week: 27
Sunday: Lost to Indianapolis Colts 20-17
One Big Question: Which 2025 quarterback do the Titans like?
Right now, Tennessee is set to draft sixth this spring, but that position is bound to get better the way things are going. That’s a good thing considering the way Will Levis is playing. The second-year quarterback is 35th in EPA per dropback (minus-.31) and has seven interceptions against just five touchdown passes. It’s more likely that this season’s failures will be heaped on Levis than first-year head coach Brian Callahan, although there’s plenty of blame to go around. Big-money free-agent wide receiver Calvin Ridley has two catches for 14 yards since Week 2. He had eight targets Sunday but no catches.
Up next: at Buffalo Bills, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
29. New England Patriots (1-5)
Last week: 29
Sunday: Lost to Houston Texans 41-21
One Big Question: How was Drake Maye feeling Monday morning?
Ostensibly one of the reasons New England waited until Week 6 to start the rookie quarterback was a concern for his safety, and he was sacked four times Sunday, three by Will Anderson. But Maye is a big boy (6-foot-4, 225 pounds) and doesn’t appear fragile. Sacks notwithstanding, he made the Patriots much more watchable. Maye passed for 243 yards and three touchdowns. Former starter Jacoby Brissett threw two touchdowns in Weeks 1-5. Maye also led New England in rushing (38 yards). New England still lost its fifth straight, but at least it was less painful.
Up next: at Jacksonville Jaguars in London, Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET (London)
30. Carolina Panthers (1-5)
Last week: 30
Sunday: Lost to Atlanta Falcons 38-20
One Big Question: How long can Dave Canales’ optimism survive?
The first-year head coach agreed with his former quarterback Baker Mayfield that he was an “optimist bully,” but things are bleak in Carolina. The Panthers have lost 20 of their last 23 games and are 32-73 under the ownership of David Tepper. They lost by 18 points Sunday to a Falcons team that has beaten just one other team that badly in the last four years. At least Carolina has its first-round pick in 2025.
Up next: at Washington Commanders, Sunday, 4:05 p.m. ET
31. Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5)
Last week: 31
Sunday: Lost to Chicago Bears 35-16
One Big Question: Should Doug Pederson go the Ted Lasso route?
The Jaguars are in the middle of back-to-back games in England, where team owner Shad Khad also owns soccer club Fulham F.C., which has never finished higher than seventh in the Premier League. It’s highly doubtful Khan wants Pederson to remain the head coach of his NFL team. The Jaguars, who have lost 10 of their last 12 games, have topped 20 points in only one game this season. If Pederson loses to New England on Sunday, maybe he can just stay in London.
Up next: vs. New England Patriots, Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET (London)
32. Cleveland Browns (1-5)
Last week: 32
Sunday: Lost to Philadelphia Eagles 20-16
One Big Question: How hard is it to cheer for this team?
We’re not here to pile on Cleveland fans. Honestly. You guys have enough to deal with right now. The Browns are 30th in the league in scoring (15.83 ppg) with a $230 million quarterback that the head coach has to defend every Sunday afternoon. “Yes,” Deshaun Watson will start again next week, Kevin Stefanski said after Watson threw for 168 ineffectual yards and Cleveland failed to score an offensive touchdown on Sunday. Since the start of 2023, Zach Wilson, Bryce Young, Tommy DeVito and Bailey Zappe are the only quarterbacks who are worse than Watson by EPA per dropback.
Up next: vs. Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
(Top photo of Jared Goff: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
SELLING OPPORTUNITY: The Story of Mary Kay, by Mary Lisa Gavenas
Mary Kay, the cosmetics company whose multilevel marketing included sales parties and whose biggest earners were awarded pink Cadillacs, was really in the business of selling second chances. Or, at least, that’s what Mary Lisa Gavenas argues in “Selling Opportunity,” a dual biography of the brand and the woman behind it.
Mary Kathlyn Wagner, who would become Mary Kay Ash, “the most famous saleswoman in the world” and “maybe the most famous ever,” in Gavenas’s extravagant words, was born in 1918 to a poor family and raised mostly in Houston. Although a good student, she eloped at 16 with a slightly older boy. The young couple had two babies in quick succession.
Mary Kay’s creation was a combination of timing and good luck. Door-to-door sales was a thriving industry — but, traditionally, a man’s world: Lugging heavy samples was not considered feminine, and entering the homes of strangers, unsafe. But things began to change during the Great Depression, Gavenas suggests, thanks to a convergence of factors — financial pressures and the rise of the aspirational prosperity gospel espoused by Dale Carnegie’s self-help manuals.
At the same time, female-run beauty lines like Annie Turnbo Malone’s Poro and Madam C.J. Walker’s were finding great success in Black communities. And, coincidentally or otherwise, the California Perfume Company changed its name to Avon Products in 1939.
Ash began by selling books door to door, moving on to Stanley Home Products in the 1940s. She was talented, but direct sales was a rough gig. Every party to show off wares was supposed to beget two more bookings; these led to sales that resulted in new recruits. But there was no real security or stability: no salary, no medical benefits, no vacations. “Stop selling and you would end up right back where you started. Or worse,” the author writes.
Gavenas, a onetime beauty editor who wrote “Color Stories,” takes her time unspooling Mary Kay’s tale, with a great deal of evident research. We learn about direct sales, women’s rights and Texas history.
But, be warned: Readers must really enjoy both this woman and this world to take pleasure in “Selling Opportunity.” Mary Kay the person keeps marrying, getting divorced or widowed and working her way through various sales jobs (it’s hard to keep track of the myriad companies and last names). Gavenas seems to leave no detail out. Thus, the 1963 founding of the eponymous beauty company doesn’t come until almost 200 pages in.
Beauty by Mary Kay included a Cleansing Cream, a Magic Masque and a Nite Cream (which containined ammoniated mercury, later banned by the F.D.A.). The full line of products — which was how Mary Kay strongly encouraged customers to buy them — ran to a steep $175 in today’s money. (To fail to acquire the whole set, Ash said, was “like giving you my recipe for chocolate cake but leaving out an important ingredient.”)
Potential clients attended gatherings at acquaintances’ homes — no undignified doorbell-ringing here — where they received a mini facial, then an application of cosmetics like foundation, lip color and cream rouge — and a wig. The company made $198,514 in sales its first year.
Although Ash may have seemed a pioneer, in many ways Mary Kay was a traditionalist company, whose philosophy was “God first, family second, career third.” Saleswomen, official literature dictated, were working to provide themselves with treats rather than necessities so as not to threaten their breadwinner husbands.
And yet, they were also encouraged to sell sell sell. Golden Goblet pendants were awarded for major orders. After the company started using custom pink Peterbilt trucks for shipping, it began commissioning those Cadillacs for top consultants. (Mary Kay preferred gifts to cash bonuses, lest women save the money to spend on practical things rather than the licensed frivolities.) The Cadillacs, always driven on company leases, would become industry legend and part of American pop culture lore. “Never to be run-down, repainted or resold, the cars would double as shining pink advertisements for her selling opportunity,” Gavenas writes.
The woman herself was iconic, too. While Ash was a product of the Depression, she was also undeniably over-the-top. She wore white suits with leopard trim, lived in a custom Frank L. Meier house and brought her poodle to the office.
Mary Kay went public in 1968, making her the first woman to chair a company on the New York Stock Exchange. By the 1990s, the Mary Kay headquarters near Dallas was almost 600,000 square feet. They commissioned a hagiographic company biopic; there was a Mary Kay consultant Barbie; they were making $1 billion in wholesale. When she died, in 2001, Ash was worth $98 million.
And yet, Gavenas cites that at the company’s height, in 1992, sales reps made on average just $2,400 per year.
Instead of so much time in the pink fantasia of Mary Kay, it would have been nice for a few detours showing how infrequently the opportunities the company sold were truly realized.
SELLING OPPORTUNITY: The Story of Mary Kay | By Mary Lisa Gavenas | Viking | 435 pp. | $35
We often think of the past as if it were another world — and in some ways, it is. The politics, religion and social customs of other eras can be vastly different from our own. But one thing historians and historical fiction writers alike often notice is the constancy of human emotion. The righteous anger of a customer complaining about a Mesopotamian copper merchant in 1750 B.C. feels familiar. Tributes to beloved household pets from ancient Romans and Egyptians make us smile. And we are captivated by stories of love, betrayal and sacrifice from Homer to Shakespeare and beyond.
In literature, letters, tablets and even on coins, we find overwhelming evidence that people in the past felt the same emotions we do. Love, hate, fear, grief, joy: These feelings were as much a part of their lives as they are of our own. And they resonate especially acutely in the bond between mother and child. Here are eight historical novels that explore the meaning of motherhood across the centuries.
Sometime in the 2000s, the producer Lindsay Doran asked her doctor for a book recommendation. “I’m reading that book everybody’s reading,” the doctor replied. “You know, the one about the shepherd who’s murdered and the sheep solve the crime.”
Doran had not heard of the book, “Three Bags Full,” a best-selling novel by a German graduate student (“No one’s reading it,” she recalls responding, inaccurately), but she was struck by what sounded like an irresistible elevator pitch. “Everything came together for me in that one sentence,” she said. “The fact that it was sheep rather than some other animal felt so resonant.”
Doran spent years trying to extricate the book from a complicated rights situation, and years more turning it into a movie. The result, opening Friday, is “The Sheep Detectives,” which features Nicholas Braun and Emma Thompson as humans, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patrick Stewart and others giving voice to C.G.I. sheep stirred from their customary ruminations by the death of their shepherd, George (Hugh Jackman).
The film, rated PG, is an Agatha Christie-lite mystery with eccentric suspects, a comically bumbling cop (Braun) and a passel of ovine investigators. It’s also a coming-of-age story about growing up and losing your innocence that might have a “Bambi”-like resonance for children. The movie’s sheep have a way of erasing unpleasant things from their minds — they believe, for instance, that instead of dying, they just turn into clouds — but learn that death is an inextricable part of life.
“In some ways, the most important character is Mopple, the sheep played by Chris O’Dowd,” the screenwriter, Craig Mazin, said in a video interview. “He has a defect — he does not know how to forget — and he’s been carrying his memories all alone.”
“Three Bags Full” is an adult novel that includes grown-up themes like drugs and suicide. In adapting it for a younger audience, Mazin toned down its darker elements, changed its ending, and — for help in writing about death — consulted a book by Fred Rogers, TV’s Mister Rogers, about how to talk to children about difficult subjects.
The journey from book to film has been long and circuitous. “Three Bags Full” was written by Leonie Swann, then a 20-something German doctoral student studying English literature. Distracting herself from her unwritten dissertation, on the topic of “the animal point of view in fiction,” she began a short story “playing around with the idea of sheep detectives,” she said. “And I realized it was more like a novel, and it wasn’t the worst novel I’d ever seen.”
Why sheep? “I wasn’t someone who was thinking about sheep all the time,” Swann, who lives in the English countryside and has a dog named Ezra Hound, said in a video interview. Yet they have always hovered on the periphery of her life.
There was a friendly sheep that she used to see on her way to school. There was an irate ram that once chased her through the streets of a Bavarian village. And there were thousands and thousands of sheep in the fields of Ireland, where she lived for a time. “There were so many of them, and you could tell there was a lot of personality behind them,” she said.
A book in which sheep are stirred to action had to be a mystery, she said, to motivate the main characters. “In a lot of other stories, you would have trouble making a sheep realize there’s a story there,” she said. “They would just keep grazing. But murder is an existential problem that speaks to sheep as well as humans.”
Swann (the name is a pseudonym; she has never publicly disclosed her real name) found a literary agent, Astrid Poppenhusen, who brought her manuscript to market. Published in 2005, the book was translated into 30 languages and ended up spending three and a half years on German best-seller lists. (The German title is “Glennkill,” after the village in which it takes place.) Other novels followed, including a sheep-centric sequel, “Big Bad Wool,” but Swann never finished her dissertation.
Doran, the producer, read the book — now published in the United States by Soho Press, along with four other Swann novels — soon after hearing about it. She was determined to make it into a movie. Whenever she told anyone about the idea, she said, she had them at “sheep.”
The director, Kyle Balda (whose credits include “Minions”), was so excited when he first read the script, in 2022, that “I immediately drove out to a sheep farm” near his house in Oregon, he said in a video interview. “Very instantly I could see the behavior of the sheep, their different personalities. I learned very quickly that there are more varieties of sheep than dogs.”
How to make the sheep look realistic, and how to strike the proper balance between their inherent sheep-iness and their human-esque emotions were important questions the filmmakers grappled with.
It was essential that “the sheep in this world are sheep” rather than humans in sheep’s clothing, Balda said. “It’s not the kind of story where they are partnered with humans and talking to each other.”
That means that like real sheep, the movie sheep have short attention spans. They’re afraid to cross the road. “They don’t drive cars; they don’t wear pants; they’re not joke characters saying things like, ‘This grass would taste better with a little ranch dressing,’” Doran said.
And whenever they speak, their words register to humans as bleating, the way the adult speech in “Peanuts” cartoons sounds like trombone-y gibberish to Charlie Brown and his friends.
Lily, the leader of the flock, is played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It is not her first time voicing an animal in a movie: She has played, among other creatures, an ant in “A Bug’s Life” and a horse in “Animal Farm.” “When I read the script, I thought, ‘Wow, this is so weird,’” she said in a video interview. “It’s not derivative of anything else.”
Lily is unquestionably not a person; among other things, like a real sheep, she has a relatively immobile face set off by lively ears. “But her journey is a human journey where she realizes certain things about life she didn’t understand,” Louis-Dreyfus said. “There’s also the question of being a leader, and how to do that when you’re questioning your own point of view.”
Nicholas Braun took easily to the role of Officer Tim, the inept constable charged with solving the shepherd’s murder.
“The part was a little Greg-adjacent in the beginning, and I don’t really want to play too many Gregs,” Braun said via video, referring to Cousin Greg, his hapless punching bag of a character in the TV drama “Succession.”
“I’m post-Greg,” he said.
It takes Officer Tim some time to notice that the neighborhood sheep might be actively helping him tackle the case. But Braun said that unlike Greg, who is stuck in perpetual ineptitude, Tim gets to grow into a braver and more assertive person, a take-charge romantic hero — much the way the sheep are forced into action from their default position of “just forgetting about it and moving on and going back to eating grass,” he said.
Braun mused for a bit about other potential animal detectives — horses, say, or cows — but concluded that the sheep in the film were just right for the job. He predicted that the movie would change people’s perception of sheep, much the way “Toy Story” made them “look at their toys, or their kids’ toys, differently.”
“I don’t think people are going to be eating as much lamb after this,” he said.,
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