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Sports and the Uncivil Society

The idea that we are all just a bunch of uncivil goons sounds like common sense especially when you toss in the worst of reality television and anything done by Kanye West. But this conventional wisdom is not only wrong-headed, it's downright dangerous. 

Double Standard for Serena Williams

A top-ranked tennis player in a moment of rage cursed out a judge and shocked the world, headlining every sports and news program from ESPN to MSNBC. Meanwhile, another champion tennis player hurled expletives at a judge and the media barely yawned. While the tennis world still reels from Serena Williams's f-bomb-laced tirade against a line judge on September 12, the "classy" Roger Federer pulled a similar tantrum two days later and didn't get half as much coverage. The behavior of Federer and Williams in these matches are examples of bad sportsmanship at its worst. But the double standard is enough to make you want to swallow your tennis ball.

Stop the Savage Sex Scare in Sports

The salacious sports media and the puritanical zealots that run international track and field have joined forces to hit a new low. Someone in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) leaked to the press that Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old 800-meter track champion from South Africa, is, in the words of Oren Yaniv in the New York Daily News, both "a woman... and a man!" After being subjected to a battery of "gender tests," which included invasive exams by a gynecologist, an endocrinologist and a psychologist, Semenya's private business is now presented for public consumption.

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.