It’s sad when adults choose to be inactive. It’s even sadder when we don’t provide our children the opportunity to establish physically-active lifestyles
Our children have never been more sedentary. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2016, only 21.6 per cent of children and adolescents in the United States aged six to 19 met the recommended 60 or more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity at least five times a week. It’s a safe bet that…
The hypocrisy in college athletics promotes the amateur myth and tries to suppress the fact that the young athletes have significant market value
California is leading the way towards economic justice for U.S. college athletes. The California State Assembly unanimously passed the Fair Pay to Play Act recently. If Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the bill, or allows it to go into law without his signature, college athletes in California will be able to profit off of their own…
Those who booed retiring Indianapolis Colt Andrew Luck should be ashamed of themselves. Athletes aren’t warriors created by central casting for our weekend enjoyment
Too many sports fans view athletes as robots designed to play games for their entertainment. They sit in the stands or on their sofas, a cold beer in their hands, and yell at injured players for being “too soft” and “not tough enough.” They think jocks should just “suck it up” and get on the…
It’s time for MLB to put protective netting up from home plate to the foul poles
I’m a big baseball fan. I played through college and I follow the game very closely. Occasionally, usually through a friend or colleague, I get the opportunity to sit close to the field, not too far above one of the dugouts. What an awesome view. You can really see the pitcher, hitter and catcher interact.…
The Ball Four author was a significant social activist, speaking out about apartheid, and exposing small-town government and media corruption
Jim Bouton died this month at age 80. The plethora of Bouton obituaries and tributes since have focused on his pitching career, which included winning a couple World Series games with the New York Yankees, and the blockbuster book Ball Four he wrote about his 1969 season. But Jim Bouton was also an influential sports…
Many people just want Rapinoe to shut up and play soccer because what she says and does makes them feel uncomfortable
America was built by bold people looking for a better life – for themselves and their brothers and sisters. That’s all U.S. women’s national team soccer player Megan Rapinoe is doing. She’s simply asking that, as a country, America live up to the last three words of the Pledge of Allegiance: “justice for all.”…
After years of being the best team in the world, they continue to fight for equal status and respect at home
Sexism sucks. And nobody knows that better than the U.S. women’s national soccer team. The current team members, and their predecessors, have been fighting gender discrimination on the part of the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for decades. The U.S. national team has been the best women’s…
It’s time for players and managers to grow up and get rid of the ego-based false machismo that ruins the game
I love baseball. But the ego-based false machismo that is the foundation of the Stone Age unwritten rules of baseball (aka The Code) drives me nuts. The latest example comes from a minor league game between the Hartford Yard Goats and the Trenton Thunder. Hartford had a combined no-hitter (between four pitchers) going in the…
Injury research through analytics should be priority one, since baseball owners spent $745,769,319 on injured list players in 2018 alone
Baseball has an injury problem. It’s a big one. And an expensive one. As but one recent example – albeit an extreme one – the New York Yankees had 13 players on the injured list by the end of April, just one month into the 2019 season! Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises are filled with…
It reveals bad sportsmanship, a lack of professionalism and a complete misunderstanding of the essence of sports
An anonymous National Basketball Association coach, whose team made the playoffs this season, recently said complaints from players about referee calls are “out of control.” I couldn’t agree more. The incessant crying and moaning by players (and often coaches) over seemingly every whistle by NBA officials takes away from the game and the fan experience.…
True competition means the pursuit of excellence in partnership with your opponent
As a member of a sports reform organization, I usually write about problems and issues in sports, and how to address them. But today I’m celebrating the beauty of sport at its best. Monday’s men’s U.S. college basketball championship game was a terrific example of passion, hard work, sportsmanship, teamwork, resilience, family and true competition.…
The untenable college system promotes the amateur myth and tries to suppress the fact that young athletes fill the seats
A few weeks back, Duke University’s star basketball player, Zion Williamson, blew out his Nike sneaker – and sprained his knee in the process – in a game against his school’s arch rival, the University of North Carolina. At the time, there were fears that Williamson had suffered a serious injury, one that might negatively…
Pickup games help kids learn to think for themselves and develop problem-solving, leadership and teamwork skills
For years, Fred Bowen has written a column for young readers on youth sports topics for the Washington Post. He’s also a successful children’s sports book author. If you have young athletes in your family, or work with them, it’s well worth introducing them to Bowen’s work. Recently, Bowen wrote a column that departed a little from…
Every time MLB moves away from its history, tradition and nostalgia, the game doesn’t improve a little, it dies a little
Baseball is a significantly different sport than football, basketball and hockey. It’s that uniqueness, and the tradition that comes from the fact that baseball has changed very little over the years, that accounts for a lot of its popularity. “There’s no crying in baseball!” said Jimmy Dugan (played by Tom Hanks) in the movie A…
The NFL’s officiating video review system needs to be fixed. And overtime comes down to who wins the coin toss. How is that fair?
I don’t know why some people aren’t sports fans but I’m certainly glad I am. Sunday’s National Football League games reinforced that feeling. What great drama and entertainment the NFL gave us with the conference championship games. Elite athleticism and clutch performances were on exhibit by players from each of the four teams. Sadly, the…
Our children have never been more sedentary. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2016, only 21.6 per cent of children and adolescents in the United States aged six to 19 met the recommended 60 or more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity at least five times a week. It’s a safe bet that…
