Sometimes you know there just has to be more to a story. Guy Morriss, who played for the Eagles when I was a kid, is now the head football coach at Texas A&M-Commerce, a Division II school. Recently, a couple of his players were arrested on drug charges. The school paper wrote a cover story about it last week. Early in the morning on the day of publication, some of the players went around campus and took every copy and disposed of them. When asked about the theft, Morriss stated that he was proud of his players. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
No Comments »

The Olympics are over. To me, that is Good Sports at its best. Not the games…the fact that they are over. I’ll admit it. I don’t like the Olympics. There was a time, back when I was in college, that I liked the Winter Olympics, I suppose, but that was a long time ago. I just don’t enjoy the whole thing. I have reported on good and bad sports involving the Olympics over the past few weeks, as the sports world certainly includes these games, and I figure it is my job to talk about them. I just don’t enjoy them. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
3 Comments »

Why am I happy? How could a red blooded American man be happy about that? Football is over! No more Sundays of beer, barbecued food, tailgates blaring rap music from the early 90’s, and occasional post game trips to gentlemen’s clubs.  Well, that’s the stuff I am going to miss.  

The reason for my happiness of football season ending is for one reason and one reason only- Howie Long.  Every Sunday from August to February, I had to see him on television, and it nearly drove me insane. But please allow me to explain my deep rooted contempt for Mr. Long.    

[Read more →]

Tags: sports
No Comments »

I really didn’t want to write about Tiger Woods this week. I dislike everything about this story, and don’t enjoy the thought of piling on to the already massive amount of coverage this story is getting. Still, there is no avoiding it. Clearly, people are fascinated, and to an extent that I find highly distressing. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
2 Comments »

The Winter Olympics: a veritable who’s who of today’s sports whatever. People going down mountains really fast, people skating around on ice really fast, Shaun White — it’s all very “who cares.” I’m surprised every time these things get renewed. [Read more →]

Tags: Kelly Conaboy saves the world, sports
2 Comments »

10. Snowplowing

9. Speed Typing

8. Bottomless Ski Jump
[Read more →]

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, sports, television
No Comments »

God help me, I love figure skating, especially the men’s competition. You can keep the girls — if I wanted to watch a bunch of under-fed 14 year olds twirl around to Tchaikovsky, I’d crash a suburban ballet recital. The men have…well, they have balls. Know what else I love? My country, so I was thrilled to death last week that the gold medal in men’s figure skating went to America’s own Evan Lysacek, a.k.a. the new Love of my Life (suck it, Michael Phelps). I felt ecstatic, emotional, elated…and then absolutely infuriated when Evgeny Plushenko, who won the silver, started shooting off his mouth and claiming that the gold is rightfully his. Are we going to stand for this, America? [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, sports
No Comments »

I am a big NASCAR fan. Much to my wife’s chagrin, the 2010 season began on Sunday with this year’s running of the Daytona 500. I am always excited for the new season, but my enthusiasm is always tempered by two things: restrictor plates and misplaced hype. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
No Comments »

10. “I don’t know which I enjoy more, the Pomp or the Circumstance.”

9. “That’s weird: somebody’s replaced the Canadian National Flag with a picture of a leaf!”

8. “I never realized North America contained a country besides the United States.”
[Read more →]

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, sports, television
No Comments »

Saturday mornings this time of year find me working the floor of the gymnasium at our church in Midland, offering halftime devotionals during Upward Basketball games. I was inspired to prepare this week’s devotional by one of many stories coming out of Dallas this weekend as they host the NBA All-Star Game.
[Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, sports
No Comments »

The Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver on Friday, and I can hear many of you sighing with boredom. Who cares, right? And then there are the cynics amongst us who may believe that a pursuit of excellence is a worthwhile endeavor, but who are disgusted by how the athletes are exploited – they make the sacrifices, but corporations, governments, and the IOC reap the rewards. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports, television
No Comments »

As I am a foreigner, the first I ever heard about the Super Bowl’s tradition of mid-show entertainment was the now notorious Janet Jackson nipple incident whereby Justin Timberlake ‘accidentally’ unleashed Ms. Jackson’s breast upon millions of unsuspecting Americans. I was living in Moscow at the time and even the Russians were quite obsessed by the role of Ms. Jackson’s mammary glands in a sport none of them played or cared about. [Read more →]

Tags: music, sports
3 Comments »

Everyone watches the Super Bowl, right? I guess I don’t need to ask. Last year’s game fell just short of 100 million viewers. That’s a big number. From the endless pregame show to the commercials to the game itself, it’s all quite a spectacle. I usually enjoy it, although I enjoy it more if I have some kind of rooting interest. Since the Eagles have only made it to the Super Bowl twice in my lifetime (I’m 41), my rooting interest is usually borne of a dislike for one of the teams, as opposed to an actual affinity for anyone. Still, I enjoy the Super Bowl as much as the next guy. You know what I don’t enjoy, though? The halftime shows. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
4 Comments »

What’s worse than being forgotten? Being told you won’t be… then being forgotten anyway. When Pete Sampras retired in 2003, he was proclaimed by many the greatest tennis player ever. Today there remains a small amount of debate over the greatest player, but the experts all agree it ain’t the Greek. Sampras’ primary claim to supremacy was his unprecedented 14 Grand Slam titles. Thanks to a Swiss headband-wearer, 14 is not only precedented, but passe. [Read more →]

Tags: sports
No Comments »

The AP has a story today about a kid in Louisiana who was sent home from school for wearing an Indianapolis Colts jersey.

A Louisiana high school student says he was sent home for wearing an Indianapolis Colts jersey Friday — the day the principal encouraged students to wear New Orleans Saints black and gold as the teams get ready to face off in the Super Bowl.

[Read more →]

Tags: education, sports
No Comments »

Dramatis Personae
Terry O’Neill, President of NOW
Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff

O’NEILL: Hello. We in the pro-choice community feel — in light of Pam and Tim Tebow’s horrific and offensive Super Bowl ad, where they ignorantly glorify the choice of life — that we must respond, by encouraging all pregnant women in crisis to make the one and only correct choice. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, sports
No Comments »

The NFL Pro Bowl is a waste of time. This is not a revolutionary statement, by the way. Most All-Star games are less than thrilling events, but the Pro Bowl is the worst of the lot. The rules are different, there is very little real hitting, and the game is at the end of the season, when no one really cares anymore. Even the players don’t seem to care, judging by the number of players that beg out of the game every year. Still, being selected to the game is an honor, and it is fair to expect the players to show at least a little bit of interest in the festivities. That message does not seem to have made it to Bryant McKinnie of the Minnesota Vikings, who was dismissed from the Pro Bowl on Saturday. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
2 Comments »

Saturday mornings this time of year find me working the floor of the gymnasium at our church in Midland, offering halftime devotionals during Upward Basketball games. I was inspired to prepare this week’s devotional by headlines in the sporting news about a young man, a minor league baseball player who was doing so well, that most figured it would be just a matter of time till he was called-up to play in the majors. Well, he answered a call, alright … but it was not the call that many expected. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, sports
No Comments »

Wow, did I enjoy Sunday night’s NFC championship game. It was a back and forth game that went to overtime, with the New Orleans Saints outlasting the Minnesota Vikings, 31-28. The best part of it for me was late in the 4th quarter, with the game tied and Minnesota driving for what would have been a game-winning field goal. Less than 30 seconds remained, and the Vikings were at the New Orleans 38-yard line after a bad penalty for 12 men in the huddle. Favre rolled to his right after being flushed from the pocket. He could have run, improving the Vikings’ field position. Hell, he could have just fallen down. Instead, he remembered he was Brett Favre. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
3 Comments »

The gods and fates have thus determined that Brett Favre’s last play WILL be an interception.

It is said.  It is written.  It is law.

Tags: sports
2 Comments »

I’ll dearly miss the old man, and I thank the hell out of him for the past 17 years of entertainment. He casts one huge, lonesome shadow.

I wrote those words a few days after Brett Lorenzo Favre’s tearful “retirement” speech in 2008.

[Read more →]

Tags: sports
4 Comments »

There are many things I love about sports. I started watching at a very young age, and have been hooked ever since. Of course, with anything you spend a whole lot of time observing or experiencing, there are always things that you don’t like as well. Cheating is one of those things. This week, Mark McGwire openly acknowledged for the first time that he used steroids throughout a large portion of his baseball career. This came as a shock to virtually no one, I have to imagine, as most people have long been convinced that McGwire was dirty. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
4 Comments »

Saturday mornings this time of year find me working the floor of the gymnasium at our church in Midland, offering halftime devotionals during Upward Basketball games. I was inspired to prepare this week’s devotional by looking into the eyes of a Heisman Trophy-winning, All American college football quarterback, Tim Tebow. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, sports
4 Comments »

The Eagles have everything a team needs to make a serious run at the Super Bowl. And, in my humble opinion, this is the first time they’ve gotten all the pieces to the puzzle in the box. We have plenty of receivers who can catch the ball. We have three running backs that can and do contribute. We have a defense (when it’s healthy) that plays like an offense. Great! But in sports as in art the whole must be greater than the sum of its parts. And on any given Sunday a Philly fan is lucky if the Eagles can even equal the sum.

[Read more →]

Tags: sports
No Comments »

In 2003, the NFL instituted a policy called the Rooney Rule, that would require teams to interview minority candidates before hiring a new coach or senior front office person. On the face of it, this would seem like a good rule, at least in its intent. The percentage of minority head coaches in the NFL has increased in the years since 2003. This weekend, though, I started to question not the rule itself, but the interpretation of the rule by some teams. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
1 Comment »

Back in June, reason.com ran a story about a woman in Pennsylvania who wanted to begin a pole dancing class for exercise.  The town, Mars, was fighting her attempt in an effort to keep their streets clear of the hordes of hookers and prostitutes that were bound to descend upon them like a plague of locusts.

[Read more →]

Tags: advice, sports
No Comments »

I am going to start this week’s column by saying that I am going to hold off on writing about the Mike Leach/Texas Tech story. First, the amount of coverage of this story is way over the top at this point. Also, I am still unsure where I stand on the whole thing.  I will wait for more actual details on both sides before weighing in. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
1 Comment »

I spent most of this week with my wife’s family in Nashville, Tennessee. More so than ever before, I was witness to a very odd phenomenon that goes against the very fiber of my being as a football fan. If you read this column regularly, you know I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. In the last 7 years, I have also become a fan of the Tennessee Titans, due to the fact that my wife is from Nashville and was a Titans fan when I met her (and still is, although she also roots for the Eagles). Allegiance to a team is a personal thing. Some people are true fans, living and dying with their team, while others are casual fans. Titans fans, at least the ones I know, are a different breed entirely, and it’s all about Peyton Manning. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
5 Comments »

I can’t say I have ever been a fan of women’s sports. Aside from watching my daughters play basketball or run track, I usually stay away from that side of the sports world. Recently, though, as I have mentioned in other columns, I have found myself paying attention to the women’s volleyball team from Penn State. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports
No Comments »

As you may already know, Chris Henry, a 26-year old wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, passed away this morning at 6:36 AM. Yesterday, Henry was involved in what North Carolina police termed a “domestic situation.” Following his fiancée’s departure from a home in North Carolina, Chris Henry jumped into the bed of the pickup truck she was driving and then — somehow — fell from the bed of the truck.

[Read more →]

Tags: sports, trusted media & news
1 Comment »