Sports
October 18, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
California’s constitution provides: The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, and public contracting. Less controversial language is difficult to imagine in a nation or a state that hasn’t lost its way. That’s why Proposition 16, the left’s attempt to repeal California’s ban on
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October 15, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
As a sports fan, I read almost every day about current athletes and coaches who test positive for the Wuhan coronavirus. Yesterday, for example, I learned that legendary Alabama football coach Nick Saban has tested positive. Twenty-one members of the University of Florida football team reportedly have, as well. From Italy comes word that the Napoli soccer team was required by local authorities to be quarantined due to a couple
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September 11, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
As I write this, the New York Yankees are pounding the Baltimore Orioles like it’s 2019. Nothing special about that. What might be noteworthy is that the Yankees players are wearing “NYPD” or, some cases “FDNY,” on their caps in place of the team name. The message isn’t political. Rather, it’s in honor of what the City’s police and fire departments did 19 years ago on 9/11. No serious person
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September 11, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Paul writes immediately below about the limitless racial politicization of professional sports going on at the moment, and it turns out the Gallup Poll people have just issued some bracing news for professional sports in their latest survey of public attitudes toward various industries. Here are the key findings regarding sports: The biggest slide, however, has been for the sports industry, with its positive score falling 15 points — from
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September 11, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
I didn’t watch the NFL’s opening game last night between Kansas City and Houston. However, I’ve read several accounts about the players’ approach to the National Anthem and related activity. Apparently, the NFL decided to play both the National Anthem and a song called “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is sometimes referred to as the black national anthem. The idea of a black national anthem should be offensive to
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September 10, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
This Spring, Sean Doolittle, the left-wing, left-handed relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals, said that America doesn’t deserve the “reward” of having spectator sports because Americans didn’t stay on lockdown as long as we should have. Or something. Deserve them or not, we have spectator sports. All of the ones I follow, and some I no longer do, will be in action this weekend. It seems, though, that a growing
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September 2, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Professional sports are acting in unison to close the exits and force their politics down our throats. The latest news involves the NFL: On a conference call on Tuesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league will imprint “End racism” and “It takes all of us” in the end zones at each stadium during the 2020 season. “The NFL stands with the Black community, the players, clubs and fans confronting
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August 11, 2020 — Steven Hayward
I’ve been tempted to tweak my liberal friends with the mischievous thought that COVID-19 is actually a Trump five-dimensional chess plot to destroy universities, unionized K-12 public education, and Hollywood (since TV and movie production is largely shut down too). Colleges and universities were already facing mounting financial pressure because enrollment is steadily declining and certain to get much worse in the coming decade (the result of falling birthrates back
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August 4, 2020 — John Hinderaker
My friend Clark Griffith was involved for many years in major league baseball. His family owned the Washington Senators, then the Minnesota Twins, for close to a century. Clark at one time more or less ran the Twins, and he played a major role in marketing Major League Baseball as well. Some say that the concept of standardizing team logos and making money by putting them on hats, shirts and
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August 3, 2020 — John Hinderaker
I never understood why pro sports leagues thought that buying into a far-left, anti-American narrative would ingratiate them with their fans. At the moment, it looks like my skepticism (shared by many, of course) was justified. Breitbart reports: “Ratings crash for NBA, MLB after protest-filled debuts.” As the NBA and MLB return from their coronavirus-imposed hiatus, it appears TV viewers are not interested in what the increasingly woke leagues have
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July 27, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Positive coronavirus test results are disrupting the major league baseball season, but there is good news from the National Hockey League. The NHL administered 4,256 tests to more than 800 players last week. None came back positive. During training camps, there were just two positive tests. During an earlier phase of the restart, dating back to June 8, the league reported 43 positive test results. All told, there have been
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July 23, 2020 — John Hinderaker
For the 2020-21 season, the Washington Redskins will be called the Washington Football Team. This is actually not a joke: The Washington football team will simply compete as the Washington Football Team for the upcoming season, sources informed NBC Sports Washington on Thursday. That decision allows the organization to continue to work towards a new name and gather input from fans, alumni as well as figure out a plan to
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July 8, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
As I discussed here, the NBA will allow its players to replace the names on the back of their jerseys with political messages. I guess it’s a good thing DeSean Jackson plays in the NFL, rather than the NBA. Recently, this luminary issued an anti-Semitic statement on Instagram, based on a Hitler quote (apparently fake). Jackson soon issued a less than fully satisfactory apology. However, as Ed Morrissey points out,
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June 28, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
The German Bundesliga completed its regular soccer season this weekend. The last nine match weeks were played in almost entirely empty stadiums. Fans weren’t permitted entry. (If you heard crowd noise on television, it was solely for the telecast. The noise wasn’t heard by the players.) How did home teams fare without their fans? Poorly. The home team won 26 matches; the away team won 38 matches; and there were
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June 19, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this year, Idaho enacted the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. It goes into effect next month. The Act contains two main provisions. First, covered athletic teams shall be expressly designated as one of the following based on biological sex: (a) Males, men, or boys; (b) Females, women, or girls; or (c) Coed or mixed. Second, “[a]thletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open
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June 4, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
In 1969, during an era that’s becoming more relevant by the day, Richard Nixon introduced the term “silent majority” into political discourse. The silent majority consisted of normal people who were disgusted by the behavior of rioters and radicals (like John and me). Today in America, we have the “silenced majority.” It consists of normal people who are disgusted by the behavior of rioters and radicals. Members of the silent
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June 2, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
When people ask me to name my favorite athlete of all time, I give two names: Wes Unseld and Sonny Jurgensen. If pressed, I go with Big Wes because he delivered a championship to Washington, D.C. and because of what he meant to the community off the court. Unseld died today at the age of 74. The cause of death was “complications from pneumonia.” You have to be really old
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