36 Articles

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 ...

Thursday, June 26, 2008
"Well, There You Go": Imus the Bigot Is Back
Is Don Imus irredeemably stupid or just a run-of-the-mill racist? Perhaps the answer is both.

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.

Friday, September 21, 2007
It Ain't Easy Being Green: Notre Dame and the Economy of Sports
(1 comments)

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.

Sunday, April 1, 2007
Why I Wrote The Muhammad Ali Handbook

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 I’m 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 Cheney’s 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 NFL’s 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, December 13, 2005
Sneering at Redemption: Why Arnold Killed Tookie
(1 comments)

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."

Thursday, October 27, 2005
Dave Zirin's Sports For Progressives: How Baseball Strip-mines the Dominican Republic

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.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Tribute to August Wilson: Breaking Down Fences

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.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005
The Speech Everyone Is Talking About;: Etan Thomas Electrifies Anti-War Washington
(1 comments) Every generation the wide world of corporate sports produces an athlete with the iron resolve and moral urgency to step off their pedestal and join the fight for social justice.

Thursday, September 22, 2005
Redeeming the Olympic Martyrs of 1968

Monday, September 12, 2005
When George Galloway Channeled Rocky Marciano
review of badass British anti-war MP George Galloway’s 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.

Friday, September 2, 2005
The Superdome: Monument to a Rotten System

Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Fade to Black- -the steep decline of the African-American in baseball
African-American players indeed make up a mere 8.9% in the major leagues. In 1975 that number was 27%. Five teams -- have no African-Americans on their active rosters.

Friday, July 15, 2005
Storming the Castle: Why We Need To Know Our Radical Sports History
(1 comments) You don't have to be a sports fan, to read this article