Column Archive

Common Bond for Uncommon Men: Roberto Clemente and Martin Luther King

As we remember the 40th anniversary of that dark day, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, it's worth recalling the reaction – and the reasons behind the reaction - by Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star Roberto Clemente.

Washington DC's Sporting Shock Doctrine

Sunday saw the opening of a taxpayer funded, $600 million stadium in Washington DC. Whatever your feelings on baseball, the new ballpark is yet more shock treatment to a city twitching from constant gentrification.

China's Brutal Olympic Echo

China’s brutal crackdown in Tibet has revealed that Western leaders are more interested in covering for China than standing for human rights. It also reveals that pre-Olympic repression is as much of a tradition as the lighting of the torch.

Brett Favre: The Restricted Archetype

Brett Favre had an undeniably brilliant career. But his flaws have been airbrushed out of existence, his every flaw a beauty mark. They are flaws that could only be ignored on a Caucasian quarterback.

Why the Wire

Yes, this is a blog about the collision of sports and politics. But sometimes the world stops, as it did last night when the finest television program in human history went off the air.

The Senator from Comcast?: Arlen Specter and SpyGate

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is taking the NFL to task for the scandal known as SpyGate. But there may be more to Specter's motives than have been revealed. Some of his top contributors have more than a passing interest in seeing the NFL knocked down a notch.

Can't Knock the Hassle: Chavez Challenges Baseball

When Hugo Chávez struck out in his December referendum aimed at overhauling the Venezuelan political system, a small group of overfed men raised their glasses in triumph: the assorted owners of Major League Baseball.

When Paint is Not Enough: NBA All Star Weekend Comes to New Orleans

Last weekend the NBA All-Star Game came to New Orleans, and both players as well as the league attempted to leave something positive behind. But the problems in NOLA far transcend what David Stern and the NBA brought to the table.

Amongst the Slime: Rocket Roger Comes to Congress

Before we discuss any part of the Roger Clemens steroid kabuki theater, let's concede that there are only about 1,500 ways we can think of where the Government Oversight Committee's time could be better spent. This is Government Oversight, remember. That means they could be sending subpoenas to find out why  Bush and Friends are so keen on bugging our phones, or drilling in Alaska, or underfunding the VA. Hell, they could be holding hearings on how Bush got that black eye reaching for a pretzel a few years back. Anything, but this.

Soccer Star Stands for Gaza

Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Aboutreika is a player who believes that you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything . It’s probably true that most readers don’t know Mohamed Aboutreika from Muhammad Ali, but the two men share far more than a name. After scoring in the Egyptian national side’s 3-0 victory over Sudan in the African Nations Cup, the player known as the Smiling Assassin lifted his jersey to reveal a T-shirt that read, “Sympathize with Gaza.”