Tag Archives: sports

Lament of a UConn women’s basketball fan

I’ve been very lucky in the sports teams that geographical proximity has given legitimate claim on my fan devotion. When I was a kid it was the Yankees in the prime of their dynasty. By the time the Red Sox finally started winning World Series I had been long installed in New England. Which residency […]

February 20, 2017 – 1:41 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

One cheer for compartmentalism

Watching pro football is not like the ancient Romans watching gladiators killing each other in the coliseum. But it’s not so very different either. Especially now that we know the systematic, longterm, life-shortening physical toll taken on players. Nevertheless, I notice that I go on rooting for the Pats. A part of me shows up […]

January 9, 2017 – 3:01 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Ali: Transcendent athlete transcendent of his sport

Not sure just why I am so moved by the not untimely death of Ali. It might have something to do with how he used his fame in that dangerous and exploitative sport to transcend the sport– even while being exploited, to refuse to be exploited. This from a “New Yorker” blog by David Remnick: […]

June 5, 2016 – 3:14 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

SHARING SPIETH’S COLLAPSE

Once in a while, a story needs to be plucked from the sports section of the newspaper and put in the general news section. Jordan Spieth has become quite well known over the last couple of years as a precocious professional golfer, perhaps the next Tiger Woods. But since last Sunday, the final day of […]

April 14, 2016 – 1:30 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Scapegate.

Deflategate has turned into Scapegate, the scapegoating of the league’s most successful QB. The NFL’s investigator concludes that Brady “more probably than not” knew that the ball handler guys did what they did. “More probably than not”–so what’s that, 55-45? 65-35? That’s not a standard of proof that would hold up in any other arena, […]

May 13, 2015 – 11:52 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Is a defanged NFL a contradiction?

I’ve been reading about the 24 year-old NFL player, veteran of just one season, deciding to get out while the getting’s good. It was a very good first year and the young man has what looks like a great career ahead of him. But he’s been paying attention to the concussion story that’s emerged in […]

April 2, 2015 – 11:43 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The human interest of the Tiger Woods saga

The Tiger Woods story—it’s not about golf. It’s a sports story but not only a sports story. It’s also one of the great human stories of the past couple of decades: the Tiger Woods miracle—and now, in a way just as compellingly, its apparent collapse. It’s hard to think of anyone who has achieved such […]

May 28, 2014 – 1:18 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

NCAA unions: An end to the hypocrisy

I was in fan heaven a couple of weeks ago at the outcome of the NCAA basketball tournaments, the statistically miraculous double national championship for the University of Connecticut. I didn’t go to UConn, didn’t teach there, but I lived in Hartford when they began their rise to national fame in the 1980s, and to […]

April 24, 2014 – 1:20 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The fallacy of underdog appeal [op-ed CCT [29 January 2008}

Go Pats! 18-0, the most wins in a season ever, and poised for immortality. Let’s hear it for the top dog. May the greatest get even greater. Doesn’t sound right, does it? Sort of immoral, like “May the rich get richer.” Most people say they prefer to root for the underdog. It just seems like […]

June 12, 2012 – 11:40 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Rethinking the running movement [ op-ed CCT 3 April 2012 ]

On April 16 the famous Boston marathon will be run once again. 30 thousand or so people will be heroically pounding the hell out of their joints over 26.2 paved miles, almost all for the sheer fun—and celebration of health and vigor—of it. They will be widely admired by millions of other runners and couch […]

April 3, 2012 – 2:02 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)