From the Cheap Seats

Baptized by Fire: The Persistent Politics of the Olympic Games

[28.Apr.08] :. The Olympic torch should remain a beacon to those who can appreciate the true power that sports have in forcing us to consider the political reality of the world we all, athletes included, share.

The Play’s the Thing: Public Shaming of Pro Athletes

[6.Mar.08] :. What no one in Congress will admit: morality in sports is pure theater.

Discipline and Punish: The Official Functions

[7.Feb.08] :. Like characters in some morality play, referees are greeted with boos, taunts, profanity, and, on occasion, worse.

Seven Silver Linings for 2007

[10.Jan.08] :. For the true sports fan, amidst all the drugs, malfeasance, infidelity, greed and inhumanity -- hope is a most important thing.

New American Gladiators: The Rise of Mixed Martial Arts

[29.Nov.07] :. Initially seen as little more than back alley brawlers scrapping for beer money, MMA has found sporting legitimacy in meteoric fashion – this kind of fighting offers a truly global and democratic way to kick someone's ass.

Vaccination Scars: NASCAR in the Popular Imagination

[22.Oct.07] :. The encroachment of a corporate, middle-American influence, coupled with its proximity to a more worldly motorsport, combine to put NASCAR supporters on edge when it comes to discussion of public hygiene.

Schlock Jock: The Selling of a Quarterback

[25.Sep.07] :. From the first time I saw him at Tennessee, I had a sinking feeling that this bright star, Peyton Manning, would soon be selling me stuff I had no use for.

The Tyranny of Numbers

[7.Sep.07] :. Intelligence quotients, consumer confidence indexes, coin-operated love meters -- the ways we attempt to make numbers out of our states of being are limited only by the different states of being we're capable of experiencing.

Who’s Doggin’ Who?

[26.Jul.07] :. In the land of designer pet collars, pet cemeteries, even pet-themed restaurants and bakeries, dogfighting has reared its ugly head.

Boo-Ya!: The Sound and the Fury

[18.Jul.07] :. A look at the reductive, self-indulgent, misguided claptrap that passes for the majority of sports broadcasting these days.

The Fall of Foos

[4.Jun.07] :. Though it is an endangered spectacle in today's taverns, foosball was once king among bar games, attracting hustlers and spawning tournaments that paid out hundreds of thousands in prize winnings.

They are the Champions

[30.Apr.07] :. St. Louis Cardinals fans' enthusiasm for the 2006 World Series can be understood, even if the rest of the world refused to share it.

Let Them Swim! The Office Pool and State Morality

[27.Mar.07] :. Even churning out those dreaded, redundant reports by the glare of fluorescent lights becomes more bearable when tourney time rolls around.

It Takes One, Baby

[22.Feb.07] :. Agent Zero -- or The Hibachi, or The East Coast Assassin, or The Black President, or, least colorfully, Gilbert Arenas -- is the most dynamic, most talked about individual playing in the NBA today.

Coachwhips: Morality Tales of Team Leadership

[31.Jan.07] :. Regardless of the number of veterans a squad may have, or the players' natural, athletic ability to improvise when a coach's plan fails, no matter, even, that a coach never steps foot on the field -- it's clear that fans are not prepared to accept players without the organizing presence of someone in charge.

God Made Us #1

[19.Dec.06] :. The Gipper, the heartland, and the holy spirit: Notre Dame's football highlights stretch out like one long, continuous John Mellencamp video.

It’s Gotta Be the Shoes, Money

[1.Dec.06] :. Stephon Marbury's new fashion line positions him as the anti-Michael Jordan of the NBA.

Face-Painters, Cheese Heads, and Other Revolutionaries

[26.Oct.06] :. Fans who show up sporting a wedge of plastic cheese on their heads, or wearing nothing but a barrel and suspenders, or dousing themselves in purple paint are really just the modern-day, class-defying equivalents of flatulent giants, cross-dressing jesters, and juggling scullery maids of the Renaissance.

Collect ‘em, Race ‘em, Trade ‘em: Putting the “Fantasy” in Fantasy Sports

[22.Sep.06] :. From the Cheap Seats -- Collect 'em, Race 'em, Trade 'em: Putting the 'Fantasy' in Fantasy Sports -- For fantasy leaguers, today's athletes are but tools to be used in a make-believe struggle for dominance.

Mass Xceptance: The Too-Discovered Country of Extreme Sports

[22.Aug.06] :. In playing up the punk rock, DIY ethos of skaters, surf bums, and adrenaline junkies, the X Games (and extreme sports in general) have edged their way forward from the margins of sports culture and now boast a committed following - not least the predatory advertising industry.

World Cup Redux: Innocence Abroad

[17.Jul.06] :. With my big and painfully obvious American mug pressed up to the glass of (a good many) European drinking establishments, I took out a pen and paper and tried to sketch some of what unfolded before me.

The “Other” Football: Watching America Watching the World Cup

[20.Jun.06] :. From the Cheap Seats -- The 'Other' Football: Watching America Watching the World Cup -- As the FIFA World Cup plays out in Germany this month, the disparity between American interest in 'soccer' and the rest of the world's passion for 'football' is felt now more keenly than ever.

How Pretty is Too Pretty? Oscar De La Hoya’s Problematic Stardom

[22.May.06] :. De La Hoya's flashy smile and cosmopolitan demeanor are signs of a sellout for many boxing fans.

One-Potata, Two-Potata: The (Million) Dollar Logic of the NFL Draft

[26.Apr.06] :. The draft, for all its baroque embellishment and glitz, essentially replays the same drama of bygone sandlot days.

Am I Not a Role Model? Looking Back and Up to Kirby Puckett

[4.Apr.06] :. Puckett made his team a winner and, by extension, made me one, too.

Spanning the Globe?: The Ever-Shrinking Wide World of Sports

[20.Feb.06] :. Twenty-five million viewers seem like so many crickets, chirping disinterestedly, as the Olympic pageantry carries on at the periphery of our national consciousness.

Where Have You Gone, J.D.?:  Pro Sports Fans in a Pomo Flux

[23.Jan.06] :. The marquee names of a franchise are no longer written in lights, as in the time of Joe (J.D.) DiMaggio, but rather in sand, as in the time of Johnny (J.D.) Damon.

Tailbacks of the World, Unite! Debunking the Myth of the Student-Athlete

[20.Dec.05] :. The real travesty of college football is not that it fails to regularly account for a champion, but that it fails to account at any point for its players.

He’s All Mine: Laying Claim to Terrell Owens in the Culture Wars

[21.Nov.05] :. In many ways, Owens' image, as it were, serves as a kind of proving ground in the culture wars that pit racist fans and media members against bleeding heart, amoral commentators.

A Bad Man:  Reading Mike Tyson’s Body of Work

[21.Oct.05] :. The only sure thing about Tyson is that he stands opposed.