Column Archive

The Slandering of NY Jet Oday Aboushi

Why would Yahoo! Sports publish a piece that accuses an NFL player of anti-Semitism without one solitary quote or piece of actual evidence. This is worse than your typical “keep your politics out of my sports” hit piece. It’s slander.

"America's Justice System is Broken": Athletes Speak Out on Trayvon Martin

 In the aftermath of the shock/gutpunch/depressingly expected verdict that set Trayvon Martin's killer George Zimmerman free, athletes are speaking out. 

Look Out Fans! NFL Players Gonna Get Your Mama!

Put together crime hysteria and the NFL and we have what can only be described as a cultural nocturnal emission.

Brazil: Yes, Blame the Damn World Cup

Sepp Blatter, the all-powerful don of FIFA; Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil; and Pelé, the legendary soccer star; are three extremely different people. But they all share the same perspective about the demonstrations rocking every major city in Brazil: Don’t even think about blaming the World Cup.

In Brazil, Listen for the Ghosts of Mexico City

One has to hearken back to 1968 in Mexico City, when thousands of students and workers marched against the Olympics, to find a sports-related demonstration that compares to the size and militancy of the mass anti-World Cup/Olympic uprising taking place in Brazil.The lessons are not all happy ones.

The Ring and the Rings: Vladimir Putin's Mafia Olympics

The sports press is agog this weekend with the revelation by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft that in 2005, Russian leader Vladimir Putin stole his Super Bowl ring. One small theft is the sports story of the moment in the United States, while a heist of epic proportions, is emitting nary a peep.

Mass World Cup Protests Rock Brazil

I traveled to Brazil last September to investigate preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. It was painfully evident that the social disruption of hosting two mega-events in rapid succession would be profound. The pot has officially boiled over as hundreds of thousands of people marched in at least ten cities this week.

Ultra-Magnetic FCs: The Soccer Clubs at the Heart of Turkey's Uprising

Turkey and Egypt are of course two very different countries with different leaders, different political systems and different histories. But the revolt of the highly intense, usually apolitical “ultra” soccer-fan clubs must be noted. 

In Defense of Bill Simmons. Seriously.

I’ve criticized ESPN’s Bill Simmons 1,000 times in 1,000 columns. That’s what happens when you are perhaps the most read sports columnist in the country. But just as I think the scrutiny Bill Simmons receives is necessary, it’s also important to defend him from criticism that is not only unfair but actually politically backward.

The Christie Implosion: Why Rutgers is Trapped in Scandal and Crisis

The root of the constantly mutating crisis at Rutgers was Governor Chris Christie's decision to entrust the school last September to Dr. Robert Barchi.