What do Congress and the NFL have in common? They’ve both just passed significant new rule changes to correct what they view as systemic problems that result in unjust or unfavorable outcomes. Also: they both have not considered how tinkering with incentives can drastically change behavior, and in doing so, create new unforeseen problems. [Read more →]
Former presidential candidate and great American hero John Edwards based at least one of his campaigns on the unfairness of the “two Americas” — that there was “one America” for rich people like him, who could basically do whatever they wanted and get away with it, because they were rich; and another “America” for poor people who had to take it when rich people like John Edwards screwed them over. Mr. Edwards had a vision to combine these “two Americas” into one America, where everyone would be screwed over equally by John Edwards.
So far and unfortunately, Mr. Edwards’s vision has gone unfulfilled. And one need look no further for evidence than the Tiger Woods incident(s). [Read more →]
The Ivy League is known for many things. Most of them have to do with very smart people being very smart. Rarely are the member schools known for their athletic prowess. They don’t even give athletic scholarships. Despite that, the Cornell basketball team spent the weekend proving that sports really do exist in the Ivy League. They have made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. [Read more →]
It went down like buddah… with the Atlantic Ten championship game on the line Sunday in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, with Temple clinging to a one-point lead over the University of Richmond with 22 seconds left, a young man from my high school alma mater (Lower Merion) and my childhood hometown (Narberth, PA) stepped to the foul line. Temple senior Ryan Brooks drove a stake through the heart of Richmond’s desperate and scary final minutes comeback from ten points down by swishing two of the sweetest free throws any Narb has ever launched. Mr. Draper would have been proud.
Brooks’ silky foul shots under testicle-clamping pressure (I’m talking about mine) proved the difference in the 56-52 final score that gave Temple its threepeat in the A-Ten tourney championship and set up the showdown Friday afternoon against Cornell in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. [Read more →]
Once upon a time two boxers fought round after round until one couldn’t continue. This was bad for two reasons:
1. It often took a very long time. (Frankly, once you reach round 80 or so, the crowd’s losing interest.)
2. After hours of punches, fighters tend to suffer fatal internal injuries.
And so the sport was changed so that you could win by decision, which was great as spectators had places to be and the athletes didn’t die quite so frequently. Still, there’s a basic flaw in the system: people pretend decisions are accurate and should be treated with respect, when time after time that’s shown to be wrong. [Read more →]
You know what’s amazing? Sometime this week, almost everyone you know will fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket. Male, female, young, old, basketball fan, non-basketball fan, it doesn’t matter. The numbers are staggering. I don’t have the research on this, but I have to imagine that it is the sporting event that pulls in the most non-fans this side of the Super Bowl. [Read more →]
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 →]
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 →]
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.
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 →]
10. Snowplowing
9. Speed Typing
8. Bottomless Ski Jump
7. Icicle Toss
6. Octathlon
5. Nordic Hot Tub
4. Ice Hockey Free-For-All
3. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Doubles Luge
2. Snowman Building
1. Ski Curling
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
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 →]
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 →]
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.”
7. “I’m really looking forward to that new event, Cross-Country Skating!”
6. “Cripes! I’ve seen more snow on the shoulder of a Head & Shoulders user!”
5. “Rumor has it that one of the male figure skaters might be gay.”
4. “It’s so embarrassing when you just can’t get your torch up!”
3. “What’s the venue for the Freestyle Zamboni?”
2. “Rumor has it that k. d. lang might be gay.”
1. “I didn’t know Georgia was a country now! Did it secede from the Union? Again?”
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
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 →]
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 →]
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 →]
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 →]
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 →]
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.
