A sphere falling along the vorticity axis of a shear flow in a viscoelastic fluid is known to experience an increase in drag from the value in a quiescent fluid (van den Brule and Gheissary, 1993). Two recent papers have analysed the problem and this paper seeks to provide a simpler explanation of the phenomenon by considering deformation of the streamline pattern and the consequent generation of lift on the sphere by normal stresses. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.