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Dave Zirin, Press Actions 2005 and 2006 Sportswriter of the Year, has been called an icon in the world of progressive sports. Robert Lipsyte says he is the best young sportswriter in the United States. He is both a columnist for SLAM Magazine, and a regular contributor to the Nation Magazine and the author of the forthcoming “A People’s History of Sports in the United States” (The New Press.
You can receive his column Edge of Sports,
every week by going to http://zirin.com/edgeofsports/?p=subscribe&id=1.
Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com]
Dave is the author of the new book "Welcome to the Terrordome:" with an intro by Chuck D (Haymarket).
His first book is "Whats My Name, Fool?" Sports and Resistance in the United States (Haymarket Books) has entered its second printing and is available in stores and at Haymarketbooks.org
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 In Egypt: How a Tragic 'Soccer Riot' May Have Revived a Revolution
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. This carnage, however, has produced profoundly unexpected results.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Occupy the Super Bowl: Now more than just a slogan.
Republicans plan to pass a law making Indiana a "right to work" state. Like "Operation Iraqi Freedom," "Fair & Balanced," "Tort Reform" & the endless dreck we hear from Republicans it's more double-speak & really means they are attacking unions...again.
Friday, January 27, 2012 The Final Insult: Nike CEO Phil Knight Eulogizes Joe Paterno
The celebration of Knight's message by Jena MacGregor and the attendees is another example why so much of the country looks at Happy Valley, Pennsylvania like some kind of moral Bizarro World. It also drowns out the thousands of Penn State students who held vigils on campus against child abuse or the Penn State alums "sickened" by both the allegations against Sandusky as well as the response by those alumni and students...
Monday, January 23, 2012 Joe Paterno: The God Who Fell to Earth (1 comments)
For Joe Paterno to say & actually expect us to accept that he "never heard of rape and a man" is ludicrous & offensive. It reveals how dangerous & misquided our obssession with celebrities can be.
Saturday, November 19, 2011 NBA Players: Welcome to the 99 Percent
Maybe it's because they overwhelmingly come from the ranks of the working poor, have career lengths of six years and have been facing off against the ranks of true generational, aristocratic wealth in all it's arrogance. Maybe they just hate to lose. NBA players: welcome to the 99 percent.
Monday, November 14, 2011 Fan Culture, Rape Culture, and the World Joe Paterno Made (6 comments)
I don't doubt the emotions in Happy Valley are genuine. I don't doubt the searing shock and pain that must be coursing through campus. But this is the pain of self-pity not reflection. It's the pain of the exposed not the penitent.
Thursday, November 10, 2011 Penn State and Berkeley: A Tale of Two Protests (3 comments)
Last night, two proud universities saw student demonstrations that spiraled into violence. On the campus of Penn State University in State College Pennsylvania, several hundred students rioted in anger after the firing of legendary 84-year-old head football coach Joe Paterno. At the University of California at Berkeley, 1,000 students, part of the Occupy USA movement, attempted to maintain their protest encampment
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 TODAY, Georgia Murders Troy Davis
It's with rage that I report that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis. The 42-year-old Davis is now due to be executed TODAY, Wednesday September 21, at 7 pm . For those unfamiliar with the case, let's be clear: Davis's execution is little more than a legal lynching.
Thursday, May 12, 2011 Brick by BRIC: How Global Sport Has Declared War on Brazil's Poor (2 comments)
In Chile, it was called the The Brick. It was the many-thousand page economic manifesto of Dictator Augusto Pinochet, written by "the Chicago Boys" - Chilean exchange students from the University of Chicago. Disciples of the university's conservative, neoliberal economics professor Milton Friedman, they printed The Brick on "the other 9/11" - September 11th, 1973.
Monday, May 2, 2011 Sports, bin Laden, and the New Normal (4 comments)
Howard Cosell said that "rule number one of the sports jockocracy" was that sports and politics didn't mix. And yet last night, at the ballpark in Philadelphia, we received another reminder that some political expression is deemed not just acceptable but glorious.
Monday, April 5, 2010 The Hate Crime: A Question Tiger Woods Must Answer (2 comments)
Hate crimes, the special status of American celebrities & the possibilities of getting an historical record straight.
Thursday, March 11, 2010 The South Africa World Cup: Invictus in Reverse
There are the dispossessions as thousands have been forced from their homes into makeshift shantytowns, to both make way for stadiums and make sure that tourists don't have to see any depressing scenes of poverty.
Friday, October 16, 2009 Rush Limbaugh: Why the NFL Just Said No (1 comments)
It boggles the mind. For someone who claims a belief in rugged individualism and rails against "victim politics" while preaches personal responsibility, it was almost jarring to hear Rush whine about "tyranny" on the left when it was his compadres on the right who just said no.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 New Orleans's Not-So-Super Bowl
The Super Bowl decision perpetuates the status quo in New Orleans. The city will be forced to rise and fall on the basis of an external service economy. Jobs and wages will fluctuate rapidly based on whichever circus happens to be in town that week. Taxpayer dollars will pour into amenities for moneyed tourists and not into building the kind of stable industrial base that can stabilize the community.
Monday, December 29, 2008 Latter Day Protest? Proposition 8 and Sports (6 comments)
As supporters of Gay Marriage have discovered, it's never easy to be on the Mormon Church's enemies list. The Church of Latter Day Saints backed the anti-Gay Marriage Proposition 8 in California with out-of-state funds, and gave the right a heartbreaking victory this past election cycle. But the Mormon Church has been challenged in the past. Just ask Bob Beamon.
Monday, November 10, 2008 Did Tiger Woods pave Barack Obama's path? Are you joking? (7 comments)
It's always dangerous, but never boring, when a newspaper sports columnist uncorks a political thesis. Enter Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel. Bianchi thinks that there are some unsung heroes who deserve credit for helping put a black man in the White House - and they are athletes.
Monday, October 27, 2008 "No problems. No issues. No complaints," says CBS News (1 comments)
CBS News has joined the chorus of denial, claiming blithely that there's been no "widespread voter fraud or suppression" in the race thus far. That equation--"fraud or suppression"-- is, to say the least, misleading. CBS's verdict: "No problems. No issues. No complaints." Either those reports are bogus, or CBS is simply out to lunch (or in the tank).
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Reflections on 9-11 (27 comments)
I do not think that anyone alive on that day will forget the shock that struck our nation when the symbols of US capitalism and militarism were struck out of the clear blue sky. I was in panic mode for a few days, because I did not hear from Casey who was stationed at Ft. Hood on that day and his base went into lock-down and he was too busy to call.
Sunday, August 24, 2008 The 2008 Olympics: Subterranean Rot (3 comments)
the press made a choice the moment they stepped on China's soil.
They chose not to seek out the near two million people evicted from their homes to make way for Olympic facilities.
They chose not to report on the Chinese citizens who tried to register to enter the cordoned off "protest zones" only to find themselves in police custody. we should recall a mainstream press, derelict in its duty..
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 Talkin' Sports with Ralph Nader
few people know that Nader is also an avid sports fan. He was responsible for the launching of the League of Fans, a sports reform project, and he has also passionately pushed for a "Bill of Rights" for the American sports fan. In addition, he has recently made the sports pages by raising serious criticisms of NBA referees--assertions he has made for years that are finally being taken seriously ...
Monday, April 7, 2008 Common Bond for Uncommon Men: Roberto Clemente and Martin Luther King (1 comments)
As we remember the 40th anniversary of that dark day of April 4th 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, it's worth recalling the reaction by Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star Roberto Clemente.
Monday, March 24, 2008 CRACKDOWN: China's Brutal Olympic Echo (4 comments)
China's crackdown against Tibetan protesters ahead of the Summer Olympics in Beijing carries with it a brutal echo from the past. Scores of people, including school children are reported dead and more repression has been promised.
Yet the concern expressed by world leaders has seemed less for the people of Tibet than the fate of the Summer Games, with Olympic cash deemed more precious than Tibetan blood.
Monday, March 3, 2008 The Senator from Comcast?: Arlen Specter and SpyGate (1 comments)
As Will Bunch wrote in the Philadelphia Daily News, "If you simply took Specter at face value, and assumed his passion for grilling the NFL in his official Senate capacity is the passion of a jilted fan, that alone would be an outrageous abuse of his authority. But the truth is much worse, because Specter's interest in this issue dovetails far too closely with those of his two largest contributors...
Monday, October 15, 2007 What Did Pelosi Know About NSA, and When Did She Know It? (1 comments)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has admitted knowing for several years about the Bush administration's eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant. She was briefed on it when she was ranking Democrat the House Intelligence Committee when Bush and Cheney took office.
Thursday, May 3, 2007 Talking Sports from Death Row with Kevin Cooper
Kevin Cooper is a sports fan. Kevin Cooper loves the Steelers. Kevin
Cooper makes his home on death row at the notorious San Quentin
Penitentiary in California. Cooper awaits execution for a crime many
observers are convinced he did not commit. He was to be injected with
poison until his heart stopped on February 10th, 2004 but received a
stay after massive public pressure was brought to bear.
Thursday, April 5, 2007 Olympics Want Some Chicago Skin
ANYBODY GOT $500 million collecting dust under the couch? If you live
in Chicago, take a second look between those cushions. The United
States Olympic Committee (USOC) has let it be known that the people of
the Windy City could pay out as much as $500 million if they are
awarded the 2016 Summer Games.
Monday, February 5, 2007 The Super Bowl: When Hawks Cry (1 comments)
Last night's Super Bowl was a Roman Vomitorium of odious spew. This wasn't the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was the dreary, the vile, and the insipid...
Monday, December 18, 2006 Brawl in the Garden (2 comments)
Young black men scuffling, even scuffling in a way that would make foxy boxing seem threatening, seem to be a catalyst for an astounding amount of public hand-wringing.
Thursday, November 30, 2006 Organizing the Jocks for Justice
Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman Adalius Thomas is only the latest in a stellar cast of pro players chafing against silence, and sounding off against the war and occupation of Iraq.
Sunday, November 5, 2006 Political Players: Where Athletes Give Their Money
This column is usually dedicated to those in the Sportsworld who believe in the power of protest ..." and back their words with deeds. But today, in recognition of this Tuesday's election-lunacy, we give space to those who back their political ideas with cold, hard, filthy, cash.
Monday, August 28, 2006 The Fugitive Girl Act
Why the Republican attack on the right of minors to get out-of-state abortions echoes the Fugitive Slave Act
Thursday, June 29, 2006 The NBA Draft: Prom Night Gets Political
last night's draft was more politically interesting than anything said in the last year by Tim Russert and his bloated cronies.
Friday, June 9, 2006 The 2006 World Cup: Will Racism Come Home to Roost?
The most watched tournament in the universe, the World Cup, opens today amid fears that an open and violent racism could upstage the games, humiliate its German hosts, and provide an international platform for Neo-Nazi swill.
Friday, March 24, 2006 "Death Row" Talks Back to Etan Thomas
Regular readers of this column know that Im not exactly shy about singing the praises of the Washington Wizards forward. Etan plays a gritty, elbows-up style of basketball, but on a microphone he is pure Jordan. In the tradition of Amiri Baraka, his poems are sharp enough to cut glass, and generous enough to leave seedlings that can sprout in the cracks.
Friday, March 17, 2006 Big League Crisis at the World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic, an unprecedented international tournament involving teams from sixteen nations, is looking both like an autopsy of the current state of Major League Baseball and a glimpse into an alternative future for Major League Baseball.
Monday, February 20, 2006 White Blindness: The Winter Olympics and Defending Bryant Gumbel (1 comments)
The right-wing media hordes, in a mad dash to deflect attention from Dick Cheneys shooting spree, may have found their target of mass distraction: Bryant Gumbel.
Friday, January 6, 2006 Crossroads: Race and Coaching in the NFL
In the 16 years since Art Shell became the NFLs first African-American head coach, progress has come at a glacial pace. The NFL coaching fraternity makes the US Senate look like Soul Train.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 P.O.'d about T.O.
Terrell Owens wants his contract renegotiated. Many a sports radio gasbag has wheezed that T.O. was only done with the first season of a seven-year contract and is therefore "not honoring his deal." But T.O. and every NFL player know that NFL deals have the honor of a politician's promise.
Friday, November 4, 2005 Sheryl Swoopes: Out of the Closet--and Ignored
The Houston Comet veteran just delivered what could be the most significant body blow to homophobia ever weathered by the athletic-industrial complex, coming out of the closet with pride, defiance and joy. But Swoopes's announcement has been met in the sports press with "a shrug of indifference."
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 When Fists are Frozen: The Statue of Tommie Smith and John Carlos (1 comments)
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we need our anti-racist history and our anti-racist heroes now more than ever. We need more fists gumming up the works.
Tuesday, October 4, 2005 Barry Bonds Laughs Last (1 comments)
He possesses more than intergalactic talent. He is one of a select few modern athletes with a fearless comfort telling uncomfortable truths. He is the Sean Penn of Major League Baseball, a Sean Penn in a Tom Hanks world.
Monday, September 12, 2005 When George Galloway Channeled Rocky Marciano
review of badass British anti-war MP George Galloways new book 'Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington.' Galloway is about to embark on a tour of the United States to build momentum for the Sept. 24th anti-war demos in Wash. DC and the Bay Area.
