I’m a Libertarian and my hate for the National Collegiate Athletic Association is as great as my dislike for any government agency. The case of Donald De La Haye reinforces that opinion. De La Haye has a YouTube channel which earns him money. The NCAA told him he is not allowed to do that unless […]
I was watching the St. Louis Cardinal’s latest debacle on Sunday Night Baseball when the announcers, bored with the game, started to discuss Yadier Molina and the excitement and celebration he showed during the World Baseball Classic. In baseball, there are a fairly large number of unwritten celebration rules. The basic idea is that when […]
I did not watch the NCAA Basketball Championship game between Gonzaga and North Carolina but the articles in the various sports websites I visit seemed to indicate that the referees intruded fairly heavily. This usually means they called a lot of fouls. There are two points of view on this. One is that officials should […]
I just read an interesting story at ESPN about how Nick Saban gave a press conference in which he is quite angry. The main rant seems to involve assumptions about his offensive plans for the upcoming season but later he gets to a topic that touches this Libertarian’s heartstrings. Rules created to prevent some perceived […]
There’s a big story in the sports world and it’s generating a lot of passion on both sides of the proverbial ball. One of the top college running backs, Christian McCaffrey of Stanford, has decided not to play in the Sun Bowl. People seem to be of two minds and both express their point of […]
Technically the headline from For the Win at USA Today was accurate but I’m going to go ahead and call it my Misleading Headline of the Week anyway. Nick Saban blames USC for heated exchange between Alabama players reads the headline. The implication is that the head coach of Alabama was accusing the players of […]
The United States Women’s Open golf tournament was held this weekend and it was shaping up as a very exciting finish before something terrible happened. Two players were involved in a three-hole playoff to determine the champion and one of the players, Anna Nordqvist, hit her ball into a sand bunker. This is in golf parlance […]
I know the title of this blog isn’t too exciting but if you’ll put up with me for a moment I think I can show how a controversy that is roiling the chess world might well have a big impact on you. The situation is this: A company called Agon Limited contracted with the FIDE (World […]
It’s March Madness and that means lots of hard fought basketball games. There was an incident after the Oregon v. Duke game that I think might give us all cause for reflection. We make many assumptions in life and, if we are honest with ourselves, sometimes these are completely incorrect. Near the end of the […]
There’s big news hitting the sporting world as the oft-suspended quarterback of the Missouri Tiger football team is facing more problems thanks to a video released of him using cocaine. I think it’s hypocritical and you might find that opinion puzzling considering it’s clearly a serious violation. Maty Mauk is obviously using cocaine in the video. […]
There is a profound difference in the nature of a so-called student-athlete and a student and I think many people fail to realize it. Why does this come to mind? Because a fellow named Don Yee, who happens to be the agent of Tom Brady, wrote an opinion piece over the weekend suggesting, among other things, that […]
Two of my favorite things, misleading headlines and sports, came together the other day and that makes me happy. In a football game between Toledo and Central Michigan the referee felt the need to admonish the Central Michigan cheerleaders for distracting the Toledo team as they neared the Central Michigan end zone. Both the headline and […]
There was an interesting football game this weekend between the University of Miami, The U, and Duke. The final play of the game was a multiple lateral affair where the Miami players threw it back again and again and eventually scored a touchdown. Upon reviewing that final play it was noted one Miami player touched […]
There’s an ongoing story involving strippers and prostitution at the University of Louisville in which the evidence strongly suggests an assistant coach paid for women to dance naked and perform sex acts with basketball recruits and players. At this point no criminal charges in the incidents have been filed and there is some doubt as if […]
I regularly rail against the NCAA and their exploitation of athletes, er pardon me, student-athletes, for financial gain but today I move up the chain to the NFL which has a rule preventing a fellow named Leonard Fournette from getting a job. It works like this. The National Football League refuses to allow any player […]
Over the last few years a very wealthy fellow by the name of Rex Sinquefeld has been making St. Louis the chess capital of the United States and his progress in that regard continued when he convinced the third highest rated player in the world, Fabiano Caruana to come play here at the St. Louis […]
I woke up this morning to find an no-brainer addition to my misleading headline of the week collection. Bill Walton thinks Michael Jordan was just an Average Athlete blare the headlines from stories across the sporting world. Anyone who follows basketball knows that Jordan is arguably the greatest player in the history of the National Basketball Association […]
I’ve found an interesting story in the world of sports that I think illustrates one of the issues with college football as it currently exists. A highly recruited young player from Michigan named Mike Weber chose to go to school and perform as a running back at The Ohio State University. The coach who was […]
I just found out about a situation that’s been brewing in NCAA football for a while now. For once it’s not about screwing over the players, everyone’s favorite whipping boys. This time it’s about a coach. A fellow by the name of Joe Wickline worked for Oklahoma State as an offensive coach. In that capacity […]
I’ve been railing against the unjust system the NCAA has created in many posts over the years and now I’ve got another one to write. The NCAA has done something that I find not merely reprehensible but clearly illegal. I’m not a lawyer so this is merely a layman’s opinion. So what has the NCAA […]