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Mark McGwire's Pound of Flesh

For anyone who hoped that Mark McGwire's steroid confession could spark an opportunity to have an honest discussion about how we understand "the Steroid Era", these hopes have been quickly liquidated. Now is the time of the Sunday morning hangover and everyone is a born again zealot.

Sport for Sport's Sake

This has been quite the winter of discontent in the world of sports as many of the stories blaring from the top flap of your local sports page often have nothing to do with what's happening on the field.What is with the US-Weeklyification of sports?

Faculty Protest Texas Football Coach's Raise

There is no state in the union more synonymous with football than Texas. From the Dallas Cowboys to the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs and Texas Longhorns, to Friday Night Lights, pigskin has long defined the Lone Star State. Yet one group is determined that in a time of serious economic crisis, football know its place: the faculty at the University of Texas, Austin.

Al Sharpton Wants Gilbert Arenas Punished. Seriously.

Gilbert Arenas brought three unloaded guns to work. Now Rev. Al Sharpton wants to make sure that Arenas is punished as severely as possible. Where oh where to begin....

Bench the BCS

"With all the serious matters facing our country, surely Congress has more important issues than spending taxpayer money to dictate how college football is played." So said Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, and for years this is a sentiment I have wholeheartedly supported.   No longer. When it comes to college football's utterly criminal Bowl Championship Series, Congress should do the people's work and make the BCS a memory.

Dennis Brutus 1924-2009: The Man Who Would Reclaim Sports

The death of Dennis Brutus on December 26th after a long bout with cancer has created an incalculable void. Not merely because he was beloved as the “singing voice of the South African Liberation Movement”; not merely because Brutus held a reservoir of political lessons; but because he remained a tireless agitator for justice both inside the sports world and outside the field of play.

"Every Story Had a Purpose": an appreciation of the late Lester Rodney

The death of Lester Rodney is the death of a living link to a time when people felt they could change sports and change the world.  How did Lester do it? Common sense.

More than a Sportswriter: Lester “Red” Rodney: 1911-2009

It didn’t make SportsCenter, but one of history’s most influential sportswriters died this week at the age of 98. His name was Lester Rodney. Lester was one of the first people to write about a young Negro League prospect named Jackie Robinson. He was the last living journalist to cover the famous 1938 fight at Yankee Stadium between “The Brown Bomber” Joe Louis and Hitler favorite, Max Schmeling. He crusaded against baseball’s color line when almost every other journalist pretended it didn’t exist. He edited a political sports page that engaged his audience in how to fight for a more just sports world. His writing, which could describe the beauty of a well-turned double play in one sentence and blast injustice in the next, is still bracing and ahead of its time. He should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Instead he was largely erased from the books.

A Different Scandal: Tiger Woods Named Athlete of the Decade

It feels almost liberating to say the words “Tiger Woods” and “outrage” in the same sentence, without referencing any of the sleaze of the past month. This particular outrage involves the Associated Press and their naming of Mr. Woods as “athlete of the decade.”

Tiger Falls from Grace

The Teachable Moment from the Tiger Circus beneath the sleaze: If you front for the worst, don't expect anyone to have your back.