Tuesday, March 13 2012
Metric Madness
Our obsession with brackets and rankings -- in everything from NCAA March Madness to soup -- reflects a desire to give some order to the world, to quantify things that are not generally thought of as quantifiable.
Wednesday, February 1 2012
A Tale of How Great Journalism Became Revisionist History: Grambling State U Football
For all of the good will and good information generated by focusing on Grambling, there is still a deeper story to be told about the other great black college football programs and coaches.
Wednesday, June 22 2011
Football Humor, Like the Game Itself, Is about Attack, Defense, and then Counter-Attack
No city in England “enjoys” such an entrenched, venomous, and savage sports rivalry as Manchester does with City and United. It's no wonder that a recent survey found Manchester to be the “rudest city in the world”.
Wednesday, May 18 2011
Jalen Rose and Bernard Hopkins: The Miseducation of the Black Athlete
Bernard Hopkins, Jalen Rose and any other athlete that is confused about black male identity, might want to spend a few hours at their local public library and read up on Muhammad Ali and Duane Thomas.
Tuesday, April 26 2011
Shoot the J!: Negotiations of Blackness and Normalcy in The Fab Five
Looking back at the Fab Five’s reign in the early '90s, it was framed by numerous moments in blackness, including the burgeoning crossover of hip-hop music and culture into mainstream “white” America, Rodney King’s beating, the ‘hood genre in film, and Michael Jackson’s vitiligo.
Wednesday, January 26 2011
Play On: Get Off the Couch, Get On the Court
The true measure of a fan’s joy is in play. Without it, all sports would simply cease to be.
Thursday, January 20 2011
White Up the Middle: How Pro Football Changed the American Racial Psyche
Baseball and Jackie Robinson are rightly credited for beginning a major sea change in American race relations during the mid-20th century, but for a look at current relations between white and black Americans it is football, not baseball, that provides the most instructive glance.
Friday, January 14 2011
Lil’ Pookie’s America: Some Big Shoes to Fill
How can a kid from the 'hood today measure up to the likes of Duke Ellington? or Hank Aaron? A mythical boy from the 'hood meets these major black American figures through three recent books: 'Duke Ellington's America', 'The Last Hero' and 'Willie Mays'.
Tuesday, December 7 2010
Teams of Rivals: ‘Tis the Season for Mayhem, Pranks and All Around Hating One Another
Rivalry games feature a special kind of hatred -- the kind only your closest neighbor can inspire.
Wednesday, November 17 2010
An Anti-Brett-Favre-Article Article
From the desk of Roger Goodell: It is with the goal of achieving 100 percent media saturation that I submit these notes.
Thursday, October 21 2010
Redemption Songs: Rehabilitating Michael Vick
Michael Vick has arrived at the final stage of a well-known formula: transgression-outrage-apology-punishment-contrition-and, finally, forgiveness.
Thursday, September 9 2010
Jay Mariotti and the Moral Role
In a world of 24-hour programming, Jay Mariotti's Around the Horn does for ESPN what Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly does for Fox News: fill in large gulfs of empty space between actual news or events by making a fetish of opinion.
Wednesday, August 11 2010
American Beauty?: 2010 World Cup Part II, The Knockout Stage
Soccer features improvisation and imagination far more than ferocity and force. One must wonder, then, is soccer simply too pretty for American sports fans?
Friday, July 9 2010
The Pitch Is Flat: 2010 World Cup Part I, The Group Stage
Can a “national” team truly represent a nation anymore, other than through the broadest criteria of citizenship?
Wednesday, June 9 2010
It’s Rough, Being a Ref: Perhaps Only Parking Enforcement Garners Comparable Abuse
As ref, I began to pass my time on the court by rating the insults hurled in my direction. The predictable epithets earned one star. Some of the more unique combinations of verbs, idioms, and profanity, however, would earn higher marks.
Friday, May 21 2010
Con Artest?: Ron Artest’s Imagery and Alchemy in the NBA
Ron Artest’s image must be fluid enough to navigate the tumultuous perils of our modern sports media. At heart, is Artest a true gangsta or a trite goofball? It’s likely a bit of both.
Tuesday, April 13 2010
The Virgin King in the Land of Strangelove
Tim Tebow, as much as he resembles Rocky, similarly embodies a deranged general bent on destroying the world via nuclear holocaust.
Thursday, March 25 2010
Beyond Barthes: Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker, Wrestlemania XXV
If any wrestling match has crossed over to the emotional realm, it's the epic bout between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, but is it enough to bring sensitivity to professional wrestling?
Wednesday, March 3 2010
Memorabiliaphilia: Nationalizing a Pastime
Baseball looms large, the way anything in a magnifying glass seems to gain size and importance.
Thursday, February 11 2010
Loser!
There will come a time, inevitably, where nearly every fan will find themselves backing a loser.
