The NFL Lockout – Who’s to Blame?
Forget Wisconsin, unless you’re worrying whether the Green Bay Packers will get a chance to repeat. Now that negotiations between the National Football League’s team owners and players’ union have...
View ArticleThe Case for Paying College Athletes
Tonight is the NCAA basketball championship game. At the risk of being a party-pooper, I would like to focus on a serious injustice associated with college sports: the existence of a cartel that...
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Canadian Party Leaders’ Debate May be Postponed to Avoid Conflict with an NHL...
Canada is in the midst of an important election campaign. Many important issues are at stake, including the state of the Canadian economy, crucial foreign policy decisions, and others. Nonetheless, the...
View ArticleYou Knew I’d Say Something About This:
A somewhat dispirited series of highly-anticipated matches between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid was elevated to high art through the remarkable play of the remarkable Lionel Messi. If you didn’t see...
View ArticleA Team Without Class
No team likes to get swept out of the playoffs. Just ask the top two seeds in the NHL playoffs, both of which were swept in the second round this week. Rarely, however, does a team respond as the Los...
View ArticleAllentown, PA Plans to Use Eminent Domain to Take Property for a Hockey Arena
The city of Allentown, Pennsylvania plans to use eminent domain, or at least the threat of it, to forcibly acquire downtown property for the construction of a minor league hockey arena [HT: my...
View ArticleThe Return of the Mavericks
In 2008, self-proclaimed “mavericks” had a terrible year in both sports and politics. This year, however, the underdog Dallas Mavericks just won the NBA title. Does that mean it will be a good year for...
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Bruins Win the Stanley Cup
As a Bruins fan for almost thirty years, and having waited all that time for a Stanley Cup win, I think this picture best expresses my feelings tonight: The post Bruins Win the Stanley Cup appeared...
View ArticleEverything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Stanley Cup, but Were Afraid to Ask
Kent Russell of the new Grantland sports blog has a fascinating piece on the history of the Stanley Cup, hockey’s most prestigious trophy. Interestingly, the Lord Stanley after whom the cup is named...
View ArticleRedskins Owner Drops Defamation Suit Against Washington CityPaper
And it today’s football-related legal news, the Washington Post reports that Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has dropped his defamation suit against the Washington CityPaper over an...
View ArticleTaylor Branch on Paying College Athletes
Historian Taylor Branch has a fascinating Atlantic article on the history of regulations forbidding pay for college athletes. He also makes a strong case for abolishing those rules and describes...
View ArticleFarewell to Terry Francona
The Red Sox and manager Terry Francona have decided to end their relationship in the wake of the teams’ painful September collapse. Despite the disappointing end to his tenure with the team, Francona...
View ArticleA Too Big to Fail Parking Lot at Yankee Stadium?
Manhattan Institute scholar Nicole Gelinas has an interesting column about a massive financially dubious parking lot at Yankee Stadium, which Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. claims requires a...
View ArticleWhen a Horse has to be More than Just a Horse to be Eligible for the Olympics
In order to compete in the Olympics, a horse has to be more than just a horse [HT: Tyler Cowen]. It also has to have the right “nationality”: Their bond was a gold-medal partnership years in the making...
View ArticleYet Another Issue Where Barack Obama and I Agree
I have an occasional series of posts highlighting issues where Barack Obama and I agree. So far, the list includes creating a playoff system for college football, allowing gays in the military, ending...
View ArticleFootball Over Soccer
An Englishman makes a confession: He prefers American football to soccer. In its energy and complexity, football captures the spirit of America better than any other cultural creation on this...
View ArticleTim Thomas, Libertarian?
Earlier today, the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins visited the White House. But playoff MVP goaltender Tim Thomas chose not to attend. He issued a very libertarian-seeming statement explaining his...
View ArticleWill Tort Lawsuits be the Downfall of the NFL?
The National Football League has been the most successful professional sports league in the US over the last several decades. But economists Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier argue that tort suits over...
View ArticleDetermining the Optimal Punishment for Metta World Peace
On Sunday, LA Lakers forward Metta World Peace (formerly known as Ron Artest) viciously elbowed James Harden of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Because of his previous history of on-court violence, many...
View ArticleMore on Retribution and Metta World Peace
University of San Diego Law professor Michael Rappaport has written a response to my post arguing that, under a retributive theory of punishment, LA Lakers player Metta World Peace did not deserve to...
View ArticleCorporate Welfare for the Washington Redskins
Richmond-Times Dispatch columnist A. Barton Hinkle describes a massive corporate welfare handout that the Washington Redskins just got from Virginia’s state and local governments: The announcement that...
View ArticleMunich and the Politics of the IOC
Tonight’s opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics has been marred by the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to hold a brief moment of silence for the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11...
View ArticleJohnny Pesky, RIP
Boston Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky passed away today. Gordon Edes of ESPN has a good obituary here: More than anybody else, Johnny Pesky embodied the Red Sox. More than anybody else, Johnny Pesky loved...
View ArticleCan You Tebow(TM)?
The AP reports: The New York Jets backup quarterback is trademarking “Tebowing,” the move in which he goes down on one knee and holds a clenched fist against his forehead while praying during games. ....
View ArticleHigh School Football Goes to Court
There’s a bit of confusion about how a late season forfeit should affect seeding for the Ohio High School Athletic Association football playoffs, which are scheduled to start tonight. And so the...
View ArticleYankees Admit that they are “Baseball’s Evil Empire”
Fans of rival teams, especially Red Sox fans, have long known that the New York Yankees are the Evil Empire, as well as major recipients of corporate welfare. But in a recent legal proceeding, the team...
View ArticleThe Highest-Paid Government Employee in Your State is Probably a Football or...
At Deadspin, Reuben Fischer-Baum has an interesting piece cataloguing the highest-paid state employees in each of the fifty states. Forty of fifty are coaches, all but one of them in either football or...
View ArticleCanada Day
Since today is Canada Day, this is an appropriate time to thank that nation for giving us most of the greatest Boston Bruins players, including Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ray Bourque, and Rick “Nifty”...
View ArticleDid the Taxman Make Howard a Rocket?
All-Star Center Dwight Howard accepted less money to sign with the Houston Rockets than he could have earned had he remained on the Los Angeles Lakers, yet it appears he actually increased his...
View ArticleSports Stadium Corporate Welfare Continues in Detroit
Despite the having filed for bankruptcy, Detroit is going ahead with plans to spend over $400 million in public funds on a new hockey arena for the Detroit Red Wings [HT: Josh Blackman]: Detroit’s...
View ArticleShould We Boycott the Sochi Olympics?
Gay rights advocates such as actor Harvey Fierstein are calling for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, over Russia’s highly repressive new law banning “homosexual propaganda,” any...
View ArticleSacramento and Washington, DC Threaten to Use Eminent Domain to Take Property...
Nick Sibilla of the Institute for Justice describes Sacramento and Washington, DC’s ill-advised plans to use the threat of eminent domain to acquire property to build sports stadiums on: In less than a...
View ArticleProposed Settlement of NFL Concussion Lawsuit
Just before the Labor Day weekend — and just in time for the start of the season — the National Football League announced a settlement agreement with former players who sued the league over concussion...
View ArticleGermany’s President May Be Boycotting the Sochi Olympics
German President Joachim Gauck may be boycotting the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in order to protest Russia’s human rights abuses: German President Joachim Gauck will not represent his country at...
View ArticleThe Pot Bowl
It is perhaps worth mentioning that the two teams that made it to the Super Bowl on Sunday represent Colorado and Washington – the two states that recently legalized marijuana. If this somehow helps...
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