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The NCAA Should Shut Down Notre Dame's Football Program

It’s past time that the storied Notre Dame football squad had its program suspended. In a season of heartbreak and horror under new coach Brian Kelly, the Fighting Irish have more than earned what's known as the NCAA's dreaded "death penalty." Historically, teams have received the "death penalty" for illegal recruiting or paying players under the table. The cynics—or perhaps the realists—will point out that most of the programs on the college football map are dirtier than a Vegas city council meeting. Why single out Notre Dame? Simply put, those running the football program in South Bend are guilty of something worse than the payoffs and kickbacks that pepper many of the top so-called amateur teams.

“It's bigger than professional football:" Talking with NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith

This past week, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross showed why many owners choose to let National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell do their talking for them. 

Kye Allums: What's Next After Making History

So what happens next? George Washington's Kye Allums made history last weekend by becoming the first openly transgender player in NCAA hoops history to suit up in a game when the Colonials played a pair of games in a tournament in Minnesota. So what happens next?

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.”