Tag: Sports

There was a time when the debate about the designated hitter in baseball was as passionate and bitter as the divide over COVID-19 vaccines. You picked your friends based on whether or not they thought the refusal to adopt the DH by the National League had been handed down from Mount Sinai, or if they looked upon the American League’s embrace of the designated hitter as blasphemy. Yet without any fanfare or fireworks, Major League Baseball, in negotiations with the Players’ Association, agreed to a universal DH throughout baseball. The National League, after Ron Blomberg appeared at the plate for the New York Yankees 48 years ago as the first DH, has agreed to cave in and have their own designated hitter in union talks with MLB management. There were no riots, no protests — not even a whi...

BEIJING — The decision came down in the midst of a brisk, sunny day in Beijing, after a late-night hearing that stretched into morning. There was never much doubt about the outcome. That’s the way it goes with the Russians. They dope. They’re caught. They slink away to the next competition with no real ramifications. Why would they change their chemically enhanced ways? If the International Olympic Committee had shown even a hint of a backbone when dealing with the country that ran a massive doping scheme at Sochi in 2014, there probably wouldn’t have been any need for a ruling Monday clearing the way for 15-year-old phenom Kamila Valieva to go for an expected gold medal in women’s figure skating with a program that now includes a positive drug test. If the Russians had been ki...

Just a few hours after the NFL held its crown jewel event, with millions around the world watching Super Bowl LVI, this was the headline on the league’s own network: “Dolphins’ Stephen Ross could lose team by owner vote if NFL investigation into tanking allegations proven true.” After a rough week of answering charges of racism and misogyny, the NFL could have used a memorable Super Bowl. They didn’t get it. The Los Angeles Rams’ 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday was compelling only in the sense that both teams underperformed at a level to leave some questions about which team would last long enough to win. There were 12 punts, split between the two teams. You might want to sell this as a defensive struggle, given the outstanding play of Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald i...

If the NFL ever forces Dan Snyder to sell the Washington Commanders, article 8.13 (B) of the NFL’s constitution and bylaws would help facilitate the move. That’s the legal clause that gives the league’s executive committee the power to expel one of its owners as long as the measure earns a three-fourths majority vote. Such action has never been taken in the NFL — and it may be too premature to realistically entertain such a notion.  But at the very least, tension appears to exist between the NFL and Snyder — a tension that led Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio to report on NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show Sunday that the league’s owners have a sense that the “time may have come for Dan Snyder to move on” after a new wave of allegations.  The NBC report was just one of the latest way...

Boxing promoter Don King once said, “Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is still her favorite child.” It’s a sad world when Don King speaks more truth than the NFL’s Roger Goodell. But King’s quote nails Goodell and his tenure as commissioner of the league. It has been a reign that reeks of hypocrisy — particularly when Goodell is forced to address the sins of the league when it comes to the treatment of minorities and women — but the stench has been perfumed by the $15 billion in annual revenue and high ratings in the barren wasteland of network television. Then there are days like Wednesday, when Goodell was in Los Angeles for his annual Super Bowl press conference, that the NFL boss is at his hypocritical worst. Here is what he about another pathetic cycle of mis...

After the Dec. 23 car crash involving Washington Commanders safety Deshazor Everett that claimed the life of his passenger, 29-year-old Olivia Peters, coach Ron Rivera responded soberly when asked about the accident. “The only thing I want to say is that I was very saddened to hear the news,” Rivera told reporters. “My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the young lady and also go out to Deshazor and his family as well. It’s a very difficult situation and we’ll let things go on and let the police and the investigation go through and find out what happened.” If only he‘d stopped there. A few days later, on Dec. 26, after a humiliating 56-14 Sunday night loss to the Dallas Cowboys — a game that included a sideline altercation between teammates Jonathan Allen and Deron Payne that c...

BEIJING — When Mikaela Shiffrin careened off the course, another expected gold medal slipping away before she hardly got started, the announcers from NBC let her have it. “One of the bigger shockers in Olympic alpine skiing history,” play-by-play man Dan Hicks bellowed. “Almost a rookie mistake,” analyst Ted Ligety, a two-time gold medalist himself, chimed in harshly. The cameras homed in on Shiffrin, who clicked out of her skis and plopped down on the artificial snow - head bowed, arms resting on bent knees - as she tried to process another unimaginable outcome in the first run of the slalom. NBC seemed determined to document every single one of Shiffrin‘s tears, to the point of failing to even show the next few skiers that took to the treacherous course known as Ice River. In a differe...

“This isn’t an investigation into what was wrong or the causes of it. It’s an exercise in protecting the owner.” — Thom Loverro, Washington Times, July 19, 2020.    As the kids like to say, “I believe I had that.” Last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a roundtable with some former employees of the local NFL franchise, now known as the Washington Commanders, and before that, the Washington Football Team (and before that, the Washington Redskins). When the roundtable was over, the list of embarrassing allegations against owner Dan Snyder and his organization was longer than the line of Commanders fans looking to get new gear at Ghost Town Field. There were revelations that should make those in power who do the owner’s bidding these days — team President Jaso...

The Cincinnati Bengals were downright dreadful at this time two years ago. They were the worst team in the NFL, coming off a 2-14 season with a first-year head coach and facing the franchise-shaping decision of who to take with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Things worked out, well, super. The Bengals have put those dark days far behind them. Led by coach Zac Taylor, quarterback Joe Burrow and a roster of promising young talent mixed with savvy veterans, the franchise - not-so-affectionately called the “Bungles” for decades - is playing in the Super Bowl for the first time in 33 years. “I think if you would’ve told me coming into the league, when I got drafted, that we would be here this year, it would be a shock,” said Burrow, the top pick in 2020. “Now, I’m not surprised.” Even i...

The new name of the Washington Football Team – the “Commanders” – made the kind of impact in its reveal Wednesday morning that Washington football fans are used to. Empty. Disappointing. Apathetic. Sort of like a Washington Football Team game. The big reveal at Ghost Town Field hardly measured up to all the years of frustration and criticism about the Redskins. You would have thought the actual ceremonial name change for a franchise with this much history would have come with a bit more fanfare. I guess the fan and the fare have been beaten out of this fanbase over the decades of dismal ownership by Dan Snyder, who, like Punxsutawney Phil, made an appearance Wednesday morning at Ghost Town Field for the unveiling ceremony. Now we move on to the era of the Washington Commanders – new name...