Larry Nassar: The Making of a Monster Who Abused Gymnasts for Decades
The phone rang. It was Dr. Larry Nassar.”Hey, man, what’s going on?” Dr. Steven Karageanes recalls saying.Nassar got straight to the point: “I just wanted to call and let you know that I’ve been accused of sexual assault.”It was Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, just four days before allegations against Nassar would be made public.
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Leg-ism Leaves Paralympic Stars Out on a Limb
We all know the media is influential. We also know the media’s portrayal of disability issues and disabled people is uneven. Such biases are also evident in the portrayal of the technology employed by Paralympic athletes – and not least in the different treatment given to artificial legs and wheelchairs. The Cheetah legs of Paralympic […]
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London 2012 Euphoria has Died, But Will the Olympic Legacy Live on?
It was the key pledge supporting London’s bid to host the Olympics, made winningly by Lord Coe and the then-prime minister Tony Blair: that a British Games would “inspire a generation” to become more involved in sport. A nation still heady with the glories it has witnessed now expects greater sporting opportunities as a legacy […]
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London 2012: Olympics Women’s Boxing Skirts Still Undecided
Amateur boxing chiefs are unlikely to make an announcement soon on whether female boxers will be made to wear skirts at the London Olympics. The Amateur International Boxing Association (Aiba) met last week to make recommendations on the issue. But Aiba say they “will not reveal the content of internal discussions”. The world governing body’s […]
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Long-term Athlete Development (LTAD) Stages
Children, youth, and adults need to do the right things at the right time to develop in their sport or activity – whether they want to be hockey players, dancers, figure skaters, or gymnasts. Long-Term Development (LTD) describes what athletes need to be doing at specific ages and stages.
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Lower-income Students Getting Shut Out of Sports
The cost of participating in travel teams, academy teams and even school teams is rising and the sports themselves may pay the price.
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Maccabiah Games 2013: Athletes Gather in Israel for ‘Jewish Olympics’
More than 1,100 American Jewish athletes will be competing in the Maccabiah Games, known as the “Jewish Olympics” and held in Israel once every four years. This year’s event, which begins July 18, brings together more than 9,000 athletes from 77 countries to compete in 38 sporting events. The American contingent is the largest visiting […]
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Many in U.S. Are Arrested by Age 23, Study Finds
By age 23, almost a third of Americans have been arrested for a crime, according to a new study that researchers say is a measure of growing exposure to the criminal justice system in everyday life.
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Media Advisory on Sex Verification in Sports
This issue appears to be perennial, so here are some FAQs to help reporters get the basic facts right. (I wrote this a while ago, but it still is relevant and helpful.)
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Men: AAU Ex-CEO Sexually Abused Them
Memphis police are investigating allegations made by two former players that Amateur Athletic Union president and chief executive officer Robert “Bobby” Dodd molested them in the 1980s.
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Mixed Martial Arts and Christianity: ‘Where Feet, Fist and Faith Collide’
“Can you love your neighbor as yourself, and at the same time knee him in the face as hard as you can?” American Christian Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion Scott “Bam Bam” Sullivan wonders in an interview with The Times (London). Today over 700 evangelical US churches now integrate MMA (also known as cage-fighting) into […]
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Money has Ruined Youth Sports
At six years old, our son had friends who played soccer from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. A six-year-old practicing as much as a Division I athlete. (The parents we know are actually hoping their kid stops enjoying it so much.) I turned six in 1977. Youth athletics then was nothing like […]
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More Than a Game: a Theology of Sport
Sports have captured the minds and hearts of people across the globe but have largely evaded the attention of Christian theologians. What is the meaning of sports? There seem to be two polar responses: some dismiss sports as merely a game, while others worship sports as nearly a god. This essay argues that when viewed […]
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Football is Dead. Long Live Football
In a typical regulation football game, the two teams combine to run roughly 120 plays from scrimmage compared with nearly 300 pitches in a typical baseball game. There are no “waste pitches” in football. Every play is meaningful, consequential, suspenseful. Every play is part of a mighty struggle, a drive, and in the end all […]
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Football’s Hidden Pains
This weekend offered two of the best football games of the year, both of which I watched, though turning on the television for Sunday’s games was slightly harder after reading Dan Le Batard’s account of Jason Taylor’s fifteen painful years in the N.F.L., in the Miami Herald. Among the grotesqueries: Needles in the bottom of […]
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For German Soccer, a Lyric Debate
Players’ Silence During Pregame Anthem Sparks Controversy; a History of Patriotic Ambivalence
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For Many Athletes, One Nation Won’t Do
Nationality still matters deeply at the Olympics, and you will see just how much if the British go another few days here without finishing first. “WANTED: GOLD MEDAL,” read the headline in The Sun on Tuesday. “Can we have just one gold. Any sport. We’re not bothered. As soon as possible. Please.”
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For Young Athletes, Good Reasons to Break the Fast-Food Habit
When I ran high school cross-country 14 years ago, the bus that took us to meets always stopped at a Wendy’s or McDonald’s after the event. Most of the team would order some variation of burgers, fries and a big soda. It was fast, easy and satisfying. Things haven’t changed much for young athletes, according […]
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Game Changers Off the Playing Field
The people who just might be able to save the sport of football from its own self-destructive ways don’t wear whistles or hold clipboards. They don’t file lawsuits, and they don’t dole out suspensions for helmet-to-helmet hits. Instead, they tend to wear lab coats. They might spend their days poking and prodding mice, interviewing patients […]
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Getting into the Game: Understanding the Evidence for Child-focused Sport for Development
Sport is a powerful tool for involving all children – including the most marginalized and vulnerable – in group activities from an early age (UNHCR, 2013). For this reason, sport for development (S4D) organizations use sport as an inclusive means of helping children to improve their health; to develop their physical abilities; to develop their […]
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Getting the ‘Development’ Right in Sport for Development
Getting the ‘development’ right in sport for development (S4D) means that on the pitch, disabilities are dissolved into strengths. It means that traditional ‘no girls allowed’ attitudes are torn away. It means that children’s voices are valued in both the planning and the playing, and real efforts are made to protect children from violence. Because […]
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Green Bay Packers Sound Off Against Gov. Scott ‘Hosni’ Walker
Gov. Scott Walker is learning the hard way: you can’t praise the Green Bay Packers on a Monday and threaten workers on Tuesday, and expect the Pack to be silent. Less than two weeks ago, the Green Bay Packers—the only fan-owned, non-profit franchise in major American sports—won the Super Bowl, bringing the Lombardi trophy back […]
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Heineken Scores U.S. Soccer Deal
Heineken USA has signed a four-year sponsorship agreement to become the official beer of Major League Soccer starting next year, taking a spot Budweiser has had for nearly two decades as one of the league’s top sponsors.
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High School Athletes Continue to Play Despite Concussion Symptoms
High school athletes experience their fair share of dangerous head injuries during high-impact sports play, but new research shows many high school football players won’t bring their concussion symptoms to their coaches’ attention. Despite the fact that the students reported they were aware of the risks associated with concussions from football, a little more than […]
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Hope Solo Says Youth Soccer in the U.S. Has Become a ‘Rich, White Kid Sport
Former U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo said Tuesday soccer in the United States has become a “rich, white kid sport” and that the sport’s high cost at the youth level is detrimental to the “state of the game.”
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How a Tragic “Soccer Riot” May Have Revived the Egyptian Revolution
The aftermath of the Port Said “riot” has been the exact opposite of what the military rulers expected. There are no words for the horror that took place in Port Said, Egypt last week. A soccer match became a killing field, with at least seventy-four spectators dead, and as many as 1,000 injured. The visiting […]
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How Kids’ Sports Became a $15 Billion Industry.
Joey Erace knocks pitch after pitch into the netting of his $15,000 backyard batting cage, the pings from his metal bat filling the air in the south New Jersey cul-de-sac. His private hitting coach, who’s charging $100 for this hour-long session, tells Joey to shorten his stride. He’s accustomed to such focused instruction: the evening […]
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How Rich Parents Spending Big on Their kids’ Sports Teams Hurts Lower-income Families
On this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis and Josh Levin spoke with the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson about his piece “American Meritocracy Is Killing Youth Sports.” In that story, Thompson writes, “Declining athletic participation is a prime example of how the choices even benevolent rich households make can hurt […]
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How the Miami Dolphins Fell Apart
In April, in the fifth round of the NFL draft, the Miami Dolphins selected Caleb Sturgis, a kicker from Florida. He signed with the team for an annual salary of $406,000. To the larger world, this was a routine and uneventful transaction. But in interviews with current and former NFL players, player agents and team […]
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How the NFL Can Save College Football—and Make a Profit
There’s a growing belief among college officials that the NFL should amend its eligibility rules to accept 18-year-olds: thereby helping colleges avoid the farce of trying to educate “student-athletes” who are only there to audition for the NFL. Don’t try to start a traditional minor league Other leagues that have made runs at the NFL […]
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How You Go From Very Bad to Very Good Very Fast
A 10-month investigation that included independent interviews with 64 Oklahoma State players from 1999 to 2011, as well as current and former football staffers, reveals the measures that a program will take to become elite—and the collateral damage that follows
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In English Soccer, the Bettors Rule
The NFL’s policy, which forbids its owners from having interests in any gambling-related enterprises, is so prohibitive that the Rooney family, owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers, recently had to restructure their ownership because of new gambling offerings at the family’s racetracks. According to Whall, they haven’t spoken since.
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In Hockey Loss, Russian Pride Yields to Gloom
President Vladimir V. Putin and any other Russian who was asked made it plain that the Sochi Games’ success hinged on the Russian men’s hockey team. Sure, Russia has a formidable delegation, winning medals in many events, from biathlon to bobsled. But it was the hockey team, representing the national sport, that would offer the […]
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CPS Challenged on Scarcity of Girls Sports Teams
A Washington law center filed a complaint Wednesday against Chicago Public Schools, saying girls in the district do not receive the same opportunity to participate in sports as boys. The National Women’s Law Center filed complaints against 12 U.S. school districts where district data showed a double-digit gap between the percentage of female students and […]
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Declaration on Sport and Christian Life
1. Sport has a legitimate place in the Christian life. 2. Sport touches all dimensions of human life. 3. Sport can be a means of spiritual formation.4. Sport can glorify God. 5. Competition is an essential element of sport. 6. The true value of sport is inherent in the experience itself.7. Sport has many benefits […]
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Derek Boogaard: A Boy Learns to Brawl
Derek Boogaard was scared. He did not know whom he would fight, just that he must. Opportunity and obligation had collided, the way they can in hockey. His father bought a program the night before. Boogaard scanned the roster, checking heights and weights. He later recalled that he barely slept.
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Derek Boogaard: A Brain ‘Going Bad’
Through the Night and into the next day, as the scrolls across the bottom of television screens spread the news of Derek Boogaard’s death last May, the calls of condolences came, one after another. Among them was a call from a stranger, first to Joanne Boogaard in Regina, Saskatchewan, then to Len Boogaard in Ottawa. […]
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Derek Boogaard: Blood on the Ice
I didn’t see it coming at all. I was in a bad position and he hit me hard, hardest I’ve ever been hit. I instantly knew it was broken. I didn’t lose consciousness, but I went straight on the ice. And I felt where it was, and my hand didn’t rub my face normally. It […]
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Designing for Universal Access: How to Reach All Kids?
Despite all of the energy today that goes into organized youth sports in some communities, the system misses a lot of kids. Of the 51 million children between the ages of 6 and 17, only 27 million play team sport in any form (organized or casual) even one time during the course of the year, […]
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Digital Seen Surpassing TV in Capturing Our Time
It’s finally happening, folks. This year, the average time Americans spend with digital media each day will surpass traditional TV viewing time. That’s according to eMarketer’s latest estimate of media consumption among adults. The average adult will spend more than five hours per day online and on non-voice mobile activities (read: texting, apps, games). That’s […]
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Diversity Study: Black Head Coaches Rarely Get Second Chances
NFL commissioned research project before offseason when no African Americans were hired to prominent leadership jobs Black coaches rarely get second chances at NFL%2C college or coordinator level Report%27s author suggests teams be rewarded with draft picks for diverse hiring practices.
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Fatal Distraction: Manhood, Guns, and Violence
As I write this, it’s been only a few weeks since the mass murder of children and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, less than 50 miles from my home. I have grandchildren of the same age as the children who were killed. So, I’m finding it especially difficult to listen to the latest national conversation about […]
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Division I Schools Spend More on Athletes Than Education
Key Points 1) At schools where athletic budgets top 2470M, tickets are the largest source of revenue, 2) Tuition at four-year public universities increased an average of 38%, 3) Compensation and benefits represent the largest athletic expense
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Doctors Turn on No 10 Over Failure to Curb Obesity Surge
Major food and drinks firms fuel crisis with irresponsible marketing, claim doctors, who call for ban on fast-food sponsorship deals. The body that represents every doctor in the country has launched an unprecedented attack on the coalition government’s failed strategy to tackle an obesity epidemic in the UK.
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Does Football Cause Brain Damage?
The critical issues in the clinical management of sports concussion include confirming the diagnosis, excluding structural abnormality and determining when players can be safely returned to competition. Despite the apparent simplicity of this process, the management of this one injury seems to provoke more debate than all other sports injuries combined. Unfortunately, this debate has […]
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Dying to Play
The beating goes on. This past Saturday a Tulane University football player, Devon Walker, collided with a teammate while making a tackle. Walker, who is 21, broke his neck. Fans gasped. Doctors performed C.P.R. He may or may not walk again. The incident was an urgent reminder of a problem that even the National Football […]
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Enough: An Open Letter to Dan Snyder
Dear Dan Snyder, History tends to be unkind to those who make bold proclamations against change. You have made it crystal clear that you believe there is nothing wrong with the name of our region’s beloved franchise and probably perceive Webster’s dictionary to have some politically correct, liberal agenda when it defines redskin as “usually […]
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ESPN Holds on to NFL
Cable channel ESPN will pay $15.2 billion over eight years to continue carrying National Football League games, a sharp increase for the U.S.’s most-watched sport as leagues wrestle a bigger cut of rising cable-television bills.
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ESPN: Everywhere Sports Profit Network
How did the Bristol-based sports channel become the world’s most powerful media brand? It never forgot the fans
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Even Football Players Without Concussions Show Signs of Brain Injury
Having a concussion may not be the only indicator of brain damage among football players. A recent study from the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Rochester reports that football players may experience long-term brain changes even if they haven’t suffered a concussion. The researchers studied 67 college football players and after each game, conducted […]
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Faster, Stronger – and High
The development of genetic enhancement in animals has led to fears that ‘gene doping’ could be abused by athletes. Meet Marathon Mouse. The rodent genetically engineered in the US can run 5km nonstop on a treadmill, compared with an average of 0.2km in its wild cousins.
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Fear, Greed, Broken Dreams: How Early Sports Specialization is Eroding Youth Sports
Commentary on how specialization in youth sports leads to youth quitting sports earlier.
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Football High: Bigger and Faster, But Safer?
Corporate sponsorships, nationally televised games, minute-by-minute coverage on sports websites — for players, parents and coaches, high school football has never been bigger. But is enough being done to ensure players’ safety as the intensity of the sport grows? In Football High, FRONTLINE investigates the new face of high school football.
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Blatter Tries to Gag 2010 Reporters
As criticism of FIFA grows in South Africa over the huge prices being demanded for World Cup tickets, travel and hotel rooms, Sepp Blatter’s Thought Police are swinging into action, threatening to ban reporters who dare to write stories ‘bringing FIFA into disrepute.’ Thabo Leshilo, head of the South African newspaper editors media freedom committee, […]
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Beyond Larry Nassar: Hundreds of Athletes Are Fighting USA Gymnastics in Court Over Abuse
Athletes say Nassar was just one abuser of many. A bankruptcy case could be their chance at restitution.
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Big Ten Guarantees Graduation Opportunity for its Athletes
All 14 of the Big Ten Conference’s schools have agreed to generally guarantee that any athlete who receives an athletic scholarship will be able to keep that award until they graduate, the conference announced Wednesday.
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Black Men as College Athletes: The Real Win-loss Record
Frustrated by the endless grumbling about black men’s failures, I have spent much of my career examining how black men get to college and what helps them succeed. We now have hard data, and many of the most effective strategies cost relatively little.
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Blatter Bribes Warner With TV Bonanza
An explosive confidential letter written by FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke reveals that he and president Blatter secretly bypassed FIFA’s committees to give World Cup television rights to former vice-president Jack Warner, rather than sell them in the open market.
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Brain Injury Study: A Single Season of Hits May Harm College Athletes’ Ability to Learn
Just a single season of contact sports can take a toll on college athletes’ ability to learn, according to a new study. Overall, one season’s worth of repetitive hits did not seriously harm players’ thinking and memory skills, but when it came to learning, a small group of players was negatively affected. “The good news […]
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Brazil Confident World Cup Will Leave a Lasting Legacy
Listen to any Brazilian official talking about their country hosting the 2014 World Cup, and the word they all use is “legacy”. And they say it all the time. Speaking at the Soccerex global business industry convention in Rio de Janeiro, Marcia Lins, the state’s Sport and Leisure Secretary, says: “This is about legacy… it […]
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Broken Promises
WHEN I retired in 2011 after serving 30 years in Congress, there was one set of issues I knew I could not leave behind. I donated $1 million of unused campaign funds to create the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute, because our country has left a trail of broken promises to […]
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CAC’s Purposeful Play Creates Education Outside the Classroom
CAC’s Purposeful play is based on four key pillars: Our Core Values, Chance to Choice Educational Philosophy, Self-Directed Learning Methodology, and Theory of Change. Coaches Across Continents knows that many individuals and organizations understand the potential power of sport, but do not optimize its use as an educational tool or agent of social change. By […]
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CEO Pay in 2012 Was Extraordinarily High Relative to Typical Workers and Other High Earners
The 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s were prosperous times for top U.S. executives, especially relative to other wage earners and even relative to other very high wage earners (those earning more than 99.9 percent of all wage earners). Executives constitute a larger group of workers than is commonly recognized, and the extraordinary pay increases received by […]
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Cheerleaders Gain Ally in Free Speech Fight
Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday lent his support to a group of East Texas cheerleaders who are fighting in court to keep using banners with Bible verses at public school football games.
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Cheerleaders with Bible Verses Set Off a Debate
The hand-painted red banner created by high school cheerleaders here for Friday night’s football game against Woodville was finished days ago. It contains a passage from the Bible — Hebrews 12:1 — that reads: “And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
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Cleaning Up Sumo
Enough with the Toilet Scrubbing Some of the changes required of sumo are easy enough. The choicest matches, for instance, take place at just the hour when most Japanese are beginning their train commute home. Shifting bouts to evening prime time would boost ratings. The sport also needs to face up to its historic underworld […]
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Coaching Mobility (Volume I in the Good Business Series)
Examining Coaching Mobility Trends and Occupational Patterns: Head Coaching Access, Opportunity and the Social Network in Professional and College Sport.
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College Sports Goes on the Offensive
High-school players are allowed to enter the MLB draft, but if they choose a four-year college, they must stay through their junior year or until they turn 21. […]the 2006 draft, high-school basketball players could jump straight to the NBA, as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant did.
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Competitive Balance: Best Teams More Dominant Than Ever
Issue number 109 of the Big-5 Weekly Post analysis the evolution in the competitive balance since 2005/06 from the perspective of goals scored and conceded by top ranked teams at the current stage of the season. The findings show that the domination of top ranked teams is on the increase.
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Concern Raised Over Pain killer Use in Sports
When Mets pitcher R. A. Dickey partly tore the plantar fascia in his right foot last May, he turned to a treatment that in recent years has become a go-to elixir for professional baseball and football players: Toradol, an injectable anti-inflammatory drug. ”It certainly helped, especially in the first months after the injury,” said Dickey, […]
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Concussions Pose Silent Risks to University and Pro Athletes
Concussions have reached epidemic proportions in Canada, warned speakers at a recent panel discussion held at McGill University called Heads Up: On the Concussion Issue. Every year, 160,000 Canadians sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI), from accident victims to athletes at all levels, a rate of 600 per 100,000 population.
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Confronting an Enduring Taboo (Site Provides a Rare Rorum Ror Gay Athletes)
In the past couple of weeks, a Website called Outsports.com has written about a gay Brigham Young athlete who abided by the university’s honor code, published an essay from a lesbian basketball player at a Catholic girls school in California, and featured the Miami (Ohio) hockey team a year after the death of the openly […]
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Cortisone: Is it Worth the Shot?
Key Points: 1) Shots help ease pain, 2) Short-term benefit for sure; long-term effects uncertain, 3) General rule is no more than three or four a year
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“It’s a New World”: The Super Bowl Becomes a Platform for LGBT Equality
A positive push for LGBT rights will, believe it or not, be part of Super Bowl week in New Orleans. Super Bowl XLVII is being billed as the Harbaugh Bowl: the battle between Jim and John Harbaugh, head coaches, respectively, of the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. It will also be played by […]
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`The Government is Reining in Youth Sports. The Adults Are Worried’
Puerto Rico is introducing far-reaching regulations on organizers of youth sports in an attempt to protect children from excessive competition.
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10 Charts That Show Progress Challenges to Fix Youth Sports
Flag football surpassed tackle as the most commonly played form of the game for kids ages 6 to 12 in 2017. Fewer kids are physically inactive. Sampling of most major team sports is up. Most coaches are still winging it. And kids from lower-income homes face increasing barriers to sports participation. Those are among the […]
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10 Years Ago Today: USA Hockey Approves American Development Model
Board of directors vote initiates new era in American youth sports. Ten years ago today, the USA Hockey board of directors unanimously approved the launch of a new paradigm in youth athlete development: the American Development Model. The decision created a better way to play for American youth, dramatically improving the hockey development environment in […]
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2011: When Sports Met the World
Pro athletes are told from the moment they first put on sneakers to check their politics at the locker-room door. But 2011 wasn’t an ordinary year, on or off the playing field, from the Arab Spring to Occupy USA, to the lockouts in the N.B.A. and the N.F.L., which had the effect of forcing athletes […]
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8 in 10 Parents Think Kids’ Extracurricular Activities May One Day Lead to Income
Eight in 10 parents with young children who participate in extracurricular activities think those pursuits could someday lead to income for their kid, according to a new report from LendingTree, and the more you spend on your kids’ activities, the more likely you are to think they will pay off. The survey – which asked […]
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A Quick Look at NWSL Salaries
On Thursday’s national conference call previewing the inaugural National Women’s Soccer League season, league executive director Cheryl Bailey said players’ salaries will range from $6,000-$30,000.
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A Rich Fantasy Life: Sports Fans Dream of Making a Living Off Games — Mr. Dinkmeyer Leaves Investing, Bets He Can Put Together Winners; Studying Stats
Daily-fantasy games, which condense full-length seasons into nightly competitions, were responsible for $492 million of the $1.7 billion spent on fantasy sports in 2012, according to a Fantasy Sports Trade Association study. Every night during baseball season, Mr. Keur studied variables such as performance against right-handed and left-handed pitchers, umpires, stadium dimensions and even the […]
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A Shocking Number of Youth Sports Coaches Are Unqualified for The Gig
A great youth sports experience starts with a great coach. The problem is, the number of great coaches in youth sports seems to be decreasing. Many good ones have simply hung up their clipboard after deciding increasingly overzealous parents weren’t worth the trouble. Going off that, many youth coaches are a parent of a player […]
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A Theology of Sports: On the Rebound
In his helpful review of my recent work, Peter J. Leithart raises two important questions about the constructive argument advanced in A Brief Theology of Sport. I am grateful to Leithart for engaging with my work, and value the insightful nature of his comments. Nonetheless, a short response to his critique seems appropriate. It falls […]
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A U.S. Soccer Star’s Declaration of Independence
The latest attempt at a women’s professional soccer league in the United States begins this weekend, so the stars of the American team from the London Olympics have, for the most part, returned to preaching the gospel stateside. Abby Wambach, the powerful striker, is with a team in Rochester; Alex Morgan, the pixieish, pink-headband-wearing poster […]
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An Olympics Built For Records; Defying Expectations, The London Games Have Produced a Series of Top Performances, Thanks to Facilities That Were Deliberately Engineered to Give Athletes Every Possible Edge
Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s executive director for the Olympic Games, said designing facilities that allow athletes to go faster is part of the DNA of international sports federations.
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As ACL Tears Pile Up Doctors and Coaches Worry That Kids Are Playing Too Much Basketball
Long before high school basketball star Anthony Harris tore his ACL in December, his father was doing his best to prevent his son from suffering the serious knee injury. Anthony Harris Sr. visited multiple doctors and trainers and asked what workouts were best for strengthening the knee. He had them run tests to see how […]
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At Louisville, Athletic Boom is Rooted In ESPN Partnership
In February, the president of the University of Louisville, James R. Ramsey, traveled to Florida to meet with donors and alumni. Dr. Ramsey is an economist, and he led off on the dismal side of the ledger, from the challenges facing the economy to dwindling government financing for higher education, including a sharp drop in […]
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At Meeting of Knight Commission, Old Ideas Are New Again
Amid growing scrutiny of college sports, leaders of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics gathered here on Monday to discuss what they called “new approaches for the next era.” The featured speaker was Brian Hainline, chief medical officer of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, who called for more research into concussions and increased awareness of […]
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Barack Obama is Not Pleased: The President on His Enemies, The Media, and The Future of Football
Barack Obama’s pre-presidential manifesto, The Audacity of Hope, has only one extended riff on gun control—not a homily on behalf of the cause or even a meditation on the deep divisions opened by the debate, but a story of crummy luck. While State Senator Barack Obama was vacationing in Hawaii, visiting his grandmother and hoping […]
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Battle of the Sexes Rages on at Olympics
Women boxers have claimed an early victory at the 2012 Olympics by knocking out the last all-male sport but the battle for sex equality at the Games rages on, and not just among women – male synchronized swimmers are also demanding equal rights.
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Behind Ugly Locker-room Talk Divisions of Class and Race
There’s a joke here about “the great Amherst chain of being.” The phrase evokes an invisible continuum, binding Amherst College students to their alma mater from graduation to grave. It is the strength of this chain that brings alumni back each year on the weekend after commencement, allowing them to soak in once again a […]
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Benching the Title IX Changes
In April, the Obama administration gave itself a victory lap, thinking it had just scored the winning goal by rolling back a 2005 Bush administration Title IX policy clarification. In his announcement, Vice President Biden called the rollback a “no brainer” — that is to say, it required little thought. And indeed, the Obama administration […]
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The Astronomical Cost of Kids’ Sports
In TIME’s cover story this week, senior writer Sean Gregory explores the growing business of kids’ sports — a $15.3 billion industry that has nearly doubled in the last 10 years. Between league fees, camps, equipment, training and travel, families are spending as much as 10% of their income on sports, according to survey research […]
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The Price of Football That Even Non-fans Pay
Fans of the New York Jets would have liked nothing better than to be spending money to cheer on their team at Sunday’s Super Bowl in Dallas. Unfortunately, their team was defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship game. But in an odd twist of league economics and political gamesmanship, even those New […]
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The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sports
Since the mid-1950s, the NCAA has promoted a mythology that college athletes on “full” scholarship receive a “free ride” in terms of their college education. As has repeatedly come to light, athletes in the revenue-producing sports of football and men’s college basketball are less likely to receive their diplomas than any other group of athlete […]
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The Youth Sports Megacomplex Comes to Town, Hoping Teams will Follow
Just past the Hampton Inn and the Chick-fil-A, beyond the climbing wall but not as far as the water park, is your field of dreams. Actually, there are eight of them: all major league-sized, synthetic-turfed and LED-lit, and wedged in next to the three soccer pitches. The Champions Center is ahead on your left, where […]
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What the NFL Won’t Show You
This NFL season a new controversy has emerged among pro football fans: a growing resentment over the content the NFL and the networks won’t share with the television audience. Call it the great All 22 Controversy of 2011. Media as varied as the Wall Street Journal, major sports blogs like Deadspin, even social commentary sites […]
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‘My Under-10 Matches Are the Worst’: No End in Sight to Youth Referee Abuse
While many acknowledge that the abuse and assault of referees is endemic in American sports culture, few people seem willing to do anything about it.
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Book Review: Sport in Latin America: Policy, Organization, Management
Language barriers and limited formal connections between professional academic associations in Latin American and the rest of the world have hampered knowledge production and distribution on sports as social phenomena in Central and South America and the Caribbean. This fact brought together the editors of this collection in an effort to present research on the […]
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For Bettors, Masters is A Major Event, Too
Golf and gambling have been linked forever. Countless weekend foursomes begin their rounds with the familiar first-tee question: “So, what are we playing for today?” Lee Trevino even said that “real pressure is playing for $10 a hole when you don’t have a dime in your pocket.” Yet, while many (if not most) golfers think […]
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