Column Archive

Profiles in Desecration: Lebron James, Nike, and Muhammad Ali

Lebron James's heavily hyped new Nike commercial draws upon a famous statement of Muhammad Ali. To Nike, the brand power of such a statement is simply "the Greatest."

Donovan McNabb, the Race Card, and the Giving Tree

In DC, it's not the elections garnering the lion's share of discussion. It's the late-game benching of Washington Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb.  The always classy McNabb has spent a career avoiding controversy like it was plague. He may never seek controversy, but controversy always seems to seek him.  It's hard to imagine an athlete who has been more milquetoast and manicured, and yet always finds himself as our sports generation’s unwilling lightning rod.

Portland, the Paulsons, and Bye Bye Baseball

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Giants vs. Rangers: A World Series Beyond Blue and Red

There is a tempting political spin to impose on the 2010 World Series: it’s the ultimate red-state/blue-state showdown. But the truth is more complicated.

Boo Ya: United Workers Aim for ESPN Zone

When the ESPN Zone restaurant-chain shuttered most of its doors last June, eyebrows were raised in the business press. It was work for their workers. Now they're fighting back and fighting mad.

In the NFL, the Violence Comes to a Head

With each passing week, I hear from football fans saying that it's getting harder to like the game they love. They've spent years reveling in the intense competition and violent collisions so central to the sport, but this is the first time these NFL diehards feel conscious about what happens to players when they become unconscious.

Brett Favre Beware: The NFL Is Thinking Pink

You may have noticed an abundance of pink on the fields of the National Football League this month. Between the pink sneakers, pink mouth guards and pink wristbands, one would be excused for wondering how the machismo-drenched league became so fabulous overnight. Welcome to the NFL’s celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness month]. But there are reasons beyond the altruistic for the league’s sudden concern with women’s health. In September the league launched a $10 million public relations effort to woo female fans, which included the marketing of NFL jeans, sandals and yoga mats. The thirty-three men that run the NFL have determined that this explosion of pink is just another way to say, “We care about our female fans—from their yoga to their tumors.”

The Randy Moss Trade in All Its Idiocy

The Patriots trade of superstar wide receiver Randy Moss to the Minnesota Vikings for a third-round draft pick represents everything I despise about NFL "conventional wisdom," the New England Patriots organization and their dyspeptic toad of a head coach, Bill Belichick.

Lebron James and the Perils of Walking the Fence

The uproar around NBA star Lebron James's recent comments about race and racism highlight the fact that you don't raise such concerns without paying a price.

Linda McMahon's Body Count

Linda McMahon says she is running for the US Senate from Connecticut because she wants to "put people first." Those people clearly don't include the people who made her a billionaire; the wrestlers of World Wrestling Entertainment.