In the fall of 2021, the National Football League’s internal probe revealed emails sent by Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden between 2011 and 2018 that contained racist, sexist, and homophobic langauge. Within a week, the NFL and the Raiders forced Gruden to resign. This particular story might suggest that the NFL takes instances of […]
Sports
The Most Devoted Fanbases in Professional Sports
When it comes to success in professional sports, the support of an ardent fanbase is even more crucial than it may seem. Home-field advantage is a big deal in professional sports. When a team plays in its home stadium, the players don’t have to travel; they feel more comfortable with their practice and rest routines […]
The Brooklyn Nets and the Beginning of a Super Team Era
How might the “Super Team” phenomenon change the NBA landscape, and what does this mean for our favorite teams? In a typical NBA season, five or six teams decide they have no chance to make a playoff run and deliberately tank their records in hopes of earning a better draft pick. This year, that number […]
How to Fix the Tanking Problem
The NBA should relegate some teams to the G-league. Every fan knows the drill. Thirty-or-so games into the NBA season, fans have a solid idea of whether or not their team will be competitive for a playoff spot. It is around this time that the hopeless teams find the same recurring comments under their social […]
Twenty Years of Success and Inequity: The USWNT’s Fight for Gender Equality Continues
In just three months the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) hopes to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of its infamous 1999 World Cup win by capturing a fourth World Cup title at the 2019 edition of the tournament. As players and fans reflect back on the legacy of the 99ers, they see a group of […]
Kaepernick to the Patriots Would Be the Icing on the Cake
On February 15th, the NFL announced it had settled controversial Quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick’s collusion lawsuit against the league. Kaepernick, alongside fellow NFL player Eric Reid, kneeled during the national anthem prior to games in protest of police brutality and racial inequality during their time on the San Francisco 49ers. In 2017, […]
Amorphous Blobs are the Future of the NFL
As Kevin Clark explains in an excellent Ringer article, the NFL’s analytics revolution is finally kicking into gear. Teams’ analytics departments have swelled and the development of more advanced statistics for player evaluation, implementation of player tracking data, and ever-improving knowledge of salary cap best-practice have followed, bringing a new wealth of information for front […]
The Best Candidate for the Next Superstar Two-Sport Athlete
Since the 1960s, there have been but two players that have played two of the four major American professional sports (baseball, football, basketball, hockey) at the same time: Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. Both of whom are considered to be two of the greatest athletes ever. Since then, there have been a number of players […]
The Resurgence of Racism in British Football
Imagine walking into your workplace. You’re young, relatively new to the company, but you have built up an impressive portfolio of work. Many of the people who doubted your intellect, work-ethic, and competence when you first started now have no choice but to recognize your excellence and commitment to your job. There are a lot […]
We Hate to Admit It, But the Golden State Warriors are Good for the NBA
The Golden State Warriors won their first NBA Championship in 2015. Back then, they were a fun-loving team whose play style and personas were easy to root for. This team was led by Stephen Curry, the kid out of Davidson College who exploded onto the scene, winning his first MVP Award. He became one half […]