Column Archive

Exclusive: Kermit Washington's Advice to LeGarrette Blount

When Kermit Washington saw highlights of Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount punching Boise State linebacker Byron Hout following the Ducks' 19-8 loss to the Broncos last Thursday, his heart sank. If anyone could understand what Blount would face, it's Washington.

LeGarrette Blount and the Politics of the Punch

With one punch, LeGarrette Blount has irrevocably altered his future. But there is far more to this story than the tale of one player's loss of control.

President Obama: Jack Johnson Punched Back

At a town meeting, Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins called for a "great white hope" to emerge from the Republican Party to defeat Barack Obama’s agenda. Jenkins has since said she was “unaware of any negative connotation” and is sorry if anyone was offended. One thing is certain: if she did know the actual, unvarnished history of the phrase “great white hope,” Jenkins may have chosen her words carefully. "Great white hopes” tend to get knocked into next week.

Caster Semenya Aint 8 Feet Tall

I appeared on Campbell Brown's CNN show, where my co-panelist, Dr. Jennifer Berman, said that suspicion of Semenya's gender was justified because she is "8 feet tall" (she's 5-foot-7). How an 18-year-old runner became Yao Ming in Dr. Berman's mind was never addressed. This is hysteria, pure and simple, and it is born out of people's own discomfort with women athletes who don't conform to gender stereotypes.

Caster Semenya and the Idiocy of Sex Testing

World-class South African athlete Caster Semenya, age 18, won the 800 meters in the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships on August 19. But her victory was all the more remarkable in that she was forced to run amid a controversy that reveals the twisted way international track and field views gender.

The End of Iverson?

For the last decade, AI - his neck tattoos, his reckless arrogance, his audacious extremism - has dominated the discourse on and off the NBA court. But after the first season of his career in which Iverson averaged less than 20 points and was asked to come off the bench, many are saying that his era of irreverence is done. After a season in team-oriented Detroit where AI was deemed a problematic chemistry killer - and the man he was traded for from Denver, Chauncey Billups, got more good ink than the Pope's papyrus – the media told us that the wheel has turned. Now the king has been deposed by age and circumstance and our sports world is, quite frankly, blander for it. The blacktop just got gentrified.

McNabb, Eagles Give Vick Second Chance. Will Philly Fans?

When a high school football star named Michael Vick visited Syracuse University, he was hosted by the big man on campus, quarterback Donovan McNabb. Today, McNabb is once again going to be hosting Vick, and Vick will need his old friend to steer him through the rapids to come.

Boxing's Month From Hell

This July, all the boxing news of note has been in the obituaries. Death has visited the sport like a plague, shocking even the most callous observers. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

The Paulsons' Edifice Complex

Former treasury secretary Henry Paulson and his son Merritt are still trying to fleece every last dollar from the city of Portland for a new sports arena. The race is on to make sure that - starting in Portland - we lay down the line: multimillionaires must carry their weight and pay for their own stadiums. It also sends a message to Washington: socializing debt and privatizing profit is no recipe for economic recovery.

The Reality of Vick’s Return

Michael Vick has been reinstated by the National Football League. But there's no guarantee that he will ever see the field. Here is why.