Sports

Hosted by Chris Deaton.

Ex-NFL receiver Anthony Gonzalez’s impressive political debut in the suburbs of Cleveland, Akron, and Canton.

How Cameron Hanes is redefining masculinity for a new generation

There's something rotten in college sports.

On today's Tuesday Morning Quarterback podcast, columnist Gregg Easterbrook and guest host Chris Deaton discuss what's behind the boom in NFL offense and what may cause it to slow in the season's second half, Drew Brees's place among the stars, and the stars' place amid the construction of several…

Ordinarily The Scrapbook enjoys writing about the stupid things associated with modern politics and culture. It’s a touch irritating, though, to have to spend time and energy insisting that obviously true things are, in fact, true. Things like the differences between men and women.

Plus, why Gavin McInnes is a baddie.

The work of ruining sports continues apace. The Atlantic last week announced the hiring of Jemele Hill, a “wonderfully talented journalist who is famous for her acute commentary, fearless writing and encyclopedic knowledge of sports,” the magazine’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, said in a press…

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

It would solve a lot of problems.

The Sox won 108 games and are the best team in baseball heading into the playoffs. And they're in trouble.

But we tend to romanticize athletes and sports, and gambling will inevitably complicate relations.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The new Laver Cup competition is a blast, writes Tom Perrotta—but will it last beyond Roger Federer’s reign?

It's used to measure the man's influence on business—but it applies to how he changes what happens on the golf course, too.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

As the season kicks off, Michael Nelson offers a roundup of new and forthcoming books

On this latest episode, the Substandard discusses Peppermint and the curious career of Jennifer Garner. Sonny bids farewell to his favela, JVL shares his thoughts on Serena Williams, and Vic recounts his recent marathon (actually a 5K). Plus a Flash update, 1980s ninja movies, and tales from the…

What was really going on at the U.S. Open

Serena Williams isn't a victim of anything except for being Serena Williams.

"Come on!"—Gob Bluth

Philip Luke Jeffery reviews an exhibition about America’s pastime and America’s character.

Tom Perrotta on how family and hard work have made Frances Tiafoe a rising tennis star to watch.

A town in decline faces another blow.

David Skinner’s shiners.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen that kind of fist pump.

Daily Show host Trevor Noah has expressed the novel view that France’s recent victory in the World Cup is an “African victory,” since most of the players on the team are of African descent. This didn’t go over well with the French ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, who wrote a terse…

Tom Perrotta on the Serbian star’s Wimbledon comeback.

The tournament is great. But it could great greater.

Protesters waved Lionel Messi shirts stained with fake blood outside Argentina’s training facility in Spain recently. Fans were urged to burn pictures and jerseys of the Argentinian phenom. These were not soccer hooligans. Nor was it theatrics from Iceland, Nigeria or Croatia, the countries that…

Protesters waved Lionel Messi shirts stained with fake blood outside Argentina’s training facility in Spain recently. Fans were urged to burn pictures and jerseys of the Argentinian phenom. These were not soccer hooligans. Nor was it theatrics from Iceland, Nigeria or Croatia, the countries that…

DeMarcus Cousins is an economic genius.

On this latest micro episode, the Substandard discusses LeBron James exiting Cleveland (again) to become a Los Angeles Laker. Wrestling analogies abound!

LeBron James gave Cleveland fans four incredible seasons. That'll have to be enough.

Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face and suffer a concussion, a broken orbital bone, and injuries requiring seven staples in the head—before the end of the first round.

Today when Spain and Portugal meet for only the second time in World Cup competition, it will mark an epic showdown of not just the two biggest powers on the Iberian Peninsula (sorry, Andorra) but, once upon a time, the world.

It’s World Cup time again. Alan Jacobs on the logic of the world’s most popular sport.

Plus, go inside the converted Walmart that houses immigrant kids.

In this latest episode, the Subtandard discusses Ocean's 8 (spoiler alerts). But things get really interesting when Sonny asks Vic and JVL to come up with their own gender-flipped cast. Plus kid updates on baseball and tap dancing!

In this latest micro episode, the Substandard discusses the Caps celebration and the upcoming World Cup. JVL expresses his true feelings about parades and hockey. Sonny reveals his love for Premier League soccer. Vic has fond memories of parades—in Germany.

The World Cup starts on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. EST (the first game will be broadcast on Fox) and the United States isn’t in it. Boo-hoo. We’ve had a good run: America is one of just thirteen teams to have qualified for six of the last seven tournaments. If we weren’t in the unusually…

We have no idea how good this is.

With the National Football League punting on how to handle players kneeling during the national anthem to protest police mistreatment of African Americans, all the owners (and Commissioner Roger Goodell) may have done is trade one headache for another: Accelerating the pending labor Armageddon…

On Wednesday that NFL announced that they had come up with a solution to their Kaepernick dilemma: They announced that players could stay in the locker room for the national anthem if they wanted to, but if they came onto the field for the "Star Spangled Banner," they had to stand.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

It started with Larry Bird, the hick from French Lick. And now Brad Stevens has the team on the cusp of greatness once again.

Kids used to goof off by playing video games instead of doing their homework. Today, Junior might want to hone those gaming skills—some colleges are now trying to recruit “athletes” in what are euphemistically called “e-sports.”

At the Masters, the former great struggled against golfers who grew up watching him.

As far as people-watching goes, you could do worse than the third hole at Augusta National. The rope line separating the gallery from the green is to the right of the putting surface, which is also just behind the tee box of the Homeric par-3 fourth. With no sand traps or obstructive trees around,…

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, Jonathan V. Last, Rachael Larimore, and Jim Swift discuss why America fell hard for 16-seed UMBC and Sister Jean's Loyola Ramblers and whether this was the best March Madness ever.

The basketball term "jump shot" describes the act of a player springing from their toes and flicking the ball toward the rim. Its form was perfected by Ray Allen: body oriented toward the basket with the exactness of a NASA flight path, feet quickly off the ground with token resistance from…

It's the first day of March Madness and I'm at a community center playing volleyball.

I hate instant replay. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

I am not typically late for things. Except, one morning in March of last year, I was running late to a doctor’s appointment for my wife and me. She was already there, having let me sleep in since I had been up late the night before. Not for work or anything. But to watch Team Israel in the World…

Only tennis die-hards pay attention to “Next Gen” tournaments—ATP events specifically for under-21 players—but if you had been at the Next Gen finals in Milan last November, you might have noticed something unusual: There was no one making line calls during points; the only official on court was…

There is an argument, based on both stats and results, that the 10 best programs in Division I men’s basketball the last half decade are Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, Villanova, Virginia—and Wichita State.

The numbers are staggering: CBS and Time Warner together pay close to $1 billion a year for the broadcast rights to March Madness. ESPN pays $470 million a year to air the College Football Playoffs and related bowls. Nick Saban will make $11 million to coach the Alabama football team next year—and…

To someone watching snowboarding for the first time, it might look like a mix of skiing, surfing, and skateboarding. Some competitive snowboarding events are races and feature obstacles or emphasize speed; others award higher scores for better tricks. They are fairly recent additions to the Winter…

Ivanka Trump, the White House official and daughter of President Trump, will be leading the U.S delegation to the closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. According to senior administration officials, Ivanka will leave for Seoul on Thursday on a commercial flight, arriving in…

To someone watching snowboarding for the first time, it might look like a mix of skiing, surfing, and skateboarding. Some competitive snowboarding events are races and feature obstacles or emphasize speed; others award higher scores for better tricks. They are fairly recent additions to the Winter…

In this latest micro episode, the Substandard takes on the Olympics. How do the hosts feel about ice dancing? Vic is mildly interested in the winter games. JVL can't get enough. Sonny hates them.

For a stupid but explicable reason—American culture is bored, indulgent, tribal, and unthinking—Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean dicator Kim Jong-un, was memed (flatteringly) because she gave Vice President Mike Pence “side eye.” As the Washington Post's Philip Bump tweeted (before…

It’s likely that only the most hardcore Vogue readers remember it—and presumably Anna Wintour and company are hoping that even they will one day forget it—but back in 2011, the venerable fashion magazine posted a glowing profile of Asma al-Assad. Yes, that Asma al-Assad: the wife of the Syrian…

Roger Federer has a wonderful serve and all the strokes. He’s the right height, 6-foot-1, and the right weight, 187 pounds. He’s fast and light on his feet. On the court, he no longer has a weakness, now that he slugs one-handed backhands rather than slicing most of them. There’s one more essential…

During the trophy presentation after the Super Bowl, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, tight end Zach Ertz, and MVP Nick Foles each began their interviews with mentions of their faith.

So here we are.

Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long is the first Super Bowl athlete this year to say he won't visit the White House if his team becomes champions. Like the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry—the face of basketball’s signature franchise, who said after the NBA Finals last year, “I don’t…

Here’s an embarrassing admission from a longtime Patriots football fan: My childhood team was the Miami Dolphins.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Major League Baseball will expand its experiment of starting extra innings in certain games with a runner at second base.

In this latest micro episode, the Substandard discusses the Australian Open and the greatness of Roger Federer. Plus JVL professes his love for the Williams sisters, more Battle of the Sexes, and the time Agassi's wig almost came off.

As I said last week, it’s pretty clear that the Eagles are now America’s Team.

The trial and conviction of Larry Nassar, team doctor for USA Gymnastics and osteopathic physician at Michigan State University, has exposed something rotten at the heart of an American Olympic sport.

Roger Federer, 36 years old, looked worried. After having a big lead—just three games away from winning the Australian Open—he slipped, and slipped badly. First he was tied up. Then he fell behind. Then, improbably, Marin Cilic won the fourth set.

Simona Halep, the #1 player in women’s tennis, sat on her Australian Open bench late in her semifinal match against Angelique Kerber and smiled. It wasn’t a good smile. It was a look of irony and extreme frustration. Halep’s serve had just been broken and she now trailed 6-5 in the third set, one…

Last fall, the most talented young men in tennis gathered for a competition in Milan. There were no ranking points at stake—just money. It was a way to relax and show off your skills, and not worry about being upset. Turns out this was the perfect stage for Hyeon Chung, a 21-year-old from South…

I have fond memories of watching Jerry Lewis's annual muscular dystrophy telethon, even though, let's be frank: The event made for wretched TV, even by the standards of the 1970s. Jerry Lewis, rest his soul, would ramble interminably about the plight of people afflicted with the disease until it…

In last year’s U.S. Open final, Madison Keys couldn’t sprint, or bend properly, or swing her racket without feeling pain. Her upper leg injury slowed her and frustrated her, and eventually left her in tears after a 6-3, 6-0 defeat against Sloane Stephens. Keys says the sadness lasted a while, for…

Speaking last year to Louisa Thomas, a writer for the New Yorker, Nick Kyrgios summed up his complicated life as a tennis pro: “I like going out on the practice court and training with my mates,” he said. “But I don’t know about fully engaging and giving everything to it. It’s just a game. It’s…

In this latest mega-episode, the Substandard discusses the works of director Paul Thomas Anderson—JVL reveals himself to be a PTA scholar. Sonny reviews Phantom Thread. Vic reveals his favorite bathroom in D.C. JVL is writing Eagles fanfiction. And Sonny still hates coconut.

After nearly six months and lots of frustration, Novak Djokovic has returned to tennis. For now. For the best he can do. And what that is? No one knows—not even him.

The Australian Open, like the rest of the Slams, has its own character. The temperatures often transition rapidly from hot days to cool nights. The fans are festive and loud, and cheer from close seats in tight stadiums that are even noisier if the roof closes. And then there’s the attitude of the…

There must be a specter of bad timing that haunts good athletes, like some ghost that breathes allergenic dark matter into a player’s airway and makes him cough up the moment. It appears in about two and a half seconds: Which is how long it took the ball to leave Mookie Wilson’s bat, bounce toward…

Was the Peach Bowl the real national championship game? Since the University of Central Florida took down Auburn 34-27 on January 1, the school’s athletic director has been making that case. Ignore for a second the fact that UCF’s weak schedule killed their chance of making it to the College…

Cleveland, Ohio

Basketball is “Indiana’s Game,” says the slogan of the state’s NBA franchise, the Pacers. It’s not Hoosier imagery of burnished hoops nailed to barn doors, the scent of popcorn inside a gym, keeping warm in winter with the exhalations of 5,000 spectators under the same rafters. It’s two of those…

A beautiful simplicity seems to unfold when Ronnie O’Sullivan constructs a century break, potting 100 points’ worth of balls on a single visit to a snooker table. No one ever described snooker as an easy game, but when O’Sullivan begins to flow, he makes each moment look natural. Obvious, almost.…

It's long been publicly understood that the International Olympic Committee is a den of jobbery and payoffs. Which only raises the question, just how corrupt does an Olympic team have to be to get the IOC to sit in judgment of them?

On Sunday afternoon, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee awarded the sport’s fourth and final playoff spot to Alabama over Ohio State. It’s clearly the most controversial pick of the committee’s four-year tenure. One immediate question is this: What four-team playoff field would the…

Over the weekend, Will Leitch had a very smart piece about the NFL in New York magazine. You can read it here. I like Leitch a lot and this essay if very much worth your time. He contends that a variety of factors have converged to cripple the NFL—safety, politics, oversaturation—and that football…

When Auburn upset #1 Alabama in the Iron Bowl on Saturday evening—a day after #2 Miami managed to lose by double-digits to #70 Pittsburgh (5-7)—it seemed like chaos was once again reigning over college football. And in a sense, it was. Yet, at the same time, Alabama’s loss actually helped shrink…

Every month, we eagerly anticipate the arrival of our GQ magazine. There are few other places where The Scrapbook can glean instruction on how to wear capri-pants-for-men without our calves looking chunky. This month is no exception. For fresh out on newsstands—assuming there is still such a thing…

The best regular season in sports is heading toward its climax. On Halloween, 17 teams still had a shot of making the College Football Playoff (CFP), and I predicted that many top teams would lose in the weeks to come. Two weeks later, the number of undefeated or 1-loss teams has dropped from 17 to…

In the midst of the current "take a knee" crisis in the NFL and the reaction of fans by lessening their support of pro football, football legend Y.A. Tittle passed away on October 8, 2017. Millions of fans remember his triumphs and gallantry, as player and as coach, especially decades ago when his…

No matter what happened Wednesday night, this was a World Series for the ages.

Baseball is not obligated to resemble your imagination.

The World Series of Poker has been a fixture on ESPN since the 1980s. But has its long-running presence on cable’s flagship sports network been the result of an egregious programming mistake all along? On the one hand, the word “entertainment” is officially part of the media behemoth’s name. Yet if…

On Saturday morning, ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis speculated about which conferences might not get a team into the College Football Playoff (CFP), saying, “I think the Big Ten is in a little bit of trouble if they don’t have an undefeated champion, or even if Wisconsin is the undefeated…

The windows one floor up and diagonal from the living room window were illuminated shortly past midnight. We’ve all been there: A child wails, an animal skedaddles, a stomach growls, a phone rings, a bladder pleads, and suddenly you’re ambulant when the rest of the home is prone, wondering why…

As the major league playoffs continue on into the World Series, there is lots of talk—complaining, really—about the lengthening time it takes to play, and therefore watch, a baseball game. The average time of a baseball game is now three hours and five minutes. I don’t know if the average time of a…

As the major league playoffs continue on into the World Series, there is lots of talk—complaining, really—about the lengthening time it takes to play, and therefore watch, a baseball game. The average time of a baseball game is now three hours and five minutes. I don’t know if the average time of a…

Perhaps more than any other major sport, college football revels in predictions. The sport’s preseason polls get a lot of attention, and the expectations they set continue to influence the rankings for much of the season. But at some point—like about now, with the season’s midpoint nearly upon…

This summer, the Cleveland Indians won 22 consecutive baseball games—a seemingly impossible streak that elated fans of the team and captivated non-fans. The Indians won large and they won small. They won the 22nd game in a comeback, getting a hit with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the…

This summer, the Cleveland Indians won 22 consecutive baseball games—a seemingly impossible streak that elated fans of the team and captivated non-fans. The Indians won large and they won small. They won the 22nd game in a comeback, getting a hit with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the…

The Yankees won—and Gary Sanchez survived! The Diamondbacks outlasted the Rockies—thanks to a pitcher . . . hitting? Two wacky wild card games are in the books, and the 2017 MLB playoffs are set: It’s the Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks and Nationals vs. Cubs in the National League, and the Indians vs.…

For three joyous seconds last November, I believed the Cleveland Indians were World Series champions.

Thousands of people work on National Football League coaching staffs and in front offices. Millions of Americans pretend to do these roles in fantasy leagues, or simply fantasize about running an NFL team. Everyone wonders: What is the secret to NFL success?

Last week, President Donald Trump picked a fight with the NFL, arguing that players like Colin Kaepernick who take a knee during the national anthem should be fired. As he has done so many times before, the president kicked up a hornet’s nest of controversy. Maybe the commotion will work to his…

The 1973 tennis match between the 29-year-old female champ Billie Jean King and the 55-year-old former champ Bobby Riggs was many things. It was one of the great “pseudo-events” of all time, fitting perfectly Daniel Boorstin’s definition in his 1962 book The Image as “dramatic performances in which…

Last week, President Donald Trump picked a fight with the NFL, arguing that players like Colin Kaepernick who take a knee during the national anthem should be fired. As he has done so many times before, the president kicked up a hornet’s nest of controversy. Maybe the commotion will work to his…

In this latest micro episode, the Substandard reflects on the life and times of the late wrestling legend, Bobby "the Brain" Heenan.

Recent NFL seasons have begun with waves of negativity: the Ray Rice controversy to start the 2014 season, the assault on the airwaves by DraftKings and FanDuel at the start of 2015, the Tom Brady suspension in the first month of 2016. This year it’s President Donald Trump denouncing NFL players as…

On September 9, at the beginning of the women’s final of the U.S. Open, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys walked onto the court carrying flowers. The rest isn’t worth overanalyzing: Stephens won the match in a rout as Keys struggled with her nerves and her mobility. It’s that they were both there…

Here's a joke. It's from the late Mitch Hedberg: "I write jokes for a living, I sit at my hotel at night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen is too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny." Mitch's jokes tended to…

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren talks with host Eric Felten about how the President has only succeeded in reviving what had been a fading NFL protest movement.

On September 9, at the beginning of the women’s final of the U.S. Open, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys walked onto the court carrying flowers. The rest isn’t worth overanalyzing: Stephens won the match in a rout as Keys struggled with her nerves and her mobility. It’s that they were both there…

Long before I ever even picked up a golf club, I wanted to be the kind of person who golfed regularly. A Real Golfer, in other words. Even as a child, I loved the manicured, tightly controlled aesthetic of golf courses—​just the right (which is to say, minimal) amount of “nature” for my…

Saturday night’s middleweight fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin perhaps exceeded expectations. The showdown pitting two of the sport’s top pound-for-pound fighters, the undefeated 35-year-old fighter from Kazakhstan known as Triple-G, and the man who is now, after Floyd…

Long before I ever even picked up a golf club, I wanted to be the kind of person who golfed regularly. A Real Golfer, in other words. Even as a child, I loved the manicured, tightly controlled aesthetic of golf courses—​just the right (which is to say, minimal) amount of “nature” for my…

Should the Texans be panicking? Who is Tom Savage? It's September, so the inevitable is still in the future . . . Join Gregg Easterbrook and editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes as they discuss week one of the 2017 NFL season on the debut episode of the Tuesday Morning Quarterback podcast.

For the last three days the NFL has been vacillating over what to do about this weekend’s game featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Miami Dolphins. The problem is that Hurricane Irma, with its torrential rainfall and 150 mph winds, is forecast to make landfall near Miami around game time…

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will always have London and Sydney and yes, even Paris. But in 2017, and likely forever, they won’t have their long-awaited clash in Queens.

Floyd Mayweather says he’s in for the fight of his life with Irish mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor in their much-anticipated Las Vegas bout on August 26. “He's a lot younger,” Mayweather told ESPN last week. “When you look at myself and Conor McGregor on paper, he's taller, has a longer…

Big news: We are pleased to announce the relaunch of Tuesday Morning Quarterback, the celebrated weekly NFL column by Gregg Easterbrook. Easterbrook will debut on THE WEEKLY STANDARD website next Tuesday, Aug 22.

What the Golden State Warriors accomplished Monday was, as it had been most nights of the NBA season, amazing. Not because they won and did so in emphatic fashion—12 months ago they were a juggernaut, Kevin Durant made them a cyborg, and their victories typically have been inevitable. Rather, they…

Roland Garros is open for business!

St. Paul, Minnesota

It's been a tough time for ESPN. The network is losing money and viewers, and just laid off more than a hundred employees, including some of its best-known faces. It's committed unforced errors: To celebrate National Poetry Month, The Worldwide Leader in Sports published a poem in praise of a woman…

It's been a tough time for ESPN. The network is losing money and viewers, and just laid off more than a hundred employees, including some of its best-known faces. It's committed unforced errors: To celebrate National Poetry Month, The Worldwide Leader in Sports published a poem in praise of a woman…

The great day has arrived, at last. And how have we ever managed to endure waiting to learn who will be selected in the first round of the National Football League's annual draft of college players? By 7:55 p.m. ET on Thursday, the tension will have become well nigh unbearable. And then, the…

The year's at the spring, And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hillside's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in His heaven— All's right with the world! —"Pippa's Song," Robert Browning, 1841 As momentous events like the NCAA basketball finals and Major…

Days after the Super Bowl in Houston, the NFL is warning Texas that legislation requiring individuals to use public bathrooms in accordance with their biological sex could cost the state future opportunities to host the big game.

I don't know about you, but I'm still recovering from Sunday night.

The NCAA says it has not ruled out venues in North Carolina as possible sites for championship events between 2018 and 2022, after a letter from a local marketing agency addressed to lawmakers said all the Tar Heel state's bids to host post-season competitions in that time frame would be rejected…

Like a reflex hammer to a knee, it's now obligatory that any comment a celebrity makes in opposition to Donald Trump gets retweeted 10,000 times. As of early Monday afternoon, New England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett was more than 99 percent of the way there.

Earlier this season the National Football League announced a $100 million initiative to do more to study and reduce the effects of concussions and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) on its players—an apparently sizeable figure for which it took a number of bows. While this appears at first…

Before he teed it up on the first hole at Torrey Pines, Tiger Woods had not played serious, competitive, tournament golf for some 17 months. Five hundred and twenty-two days, to be precise. So nobody—probably least of all, Tiger—was certain just how it would go for him at the Farmers Insurance…

In the pre-dawn hours (stateside) on Sunday January 29, arguably the two greatest players in tennis history will take the court in the Australian Open final. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the only two men to have claimed at least 14 grand slam singles titles while winning each of the four slams,…

I am a diehard Chicago Bears fan, but when they are not in contention (a common occurrence these days) I need someone else to root for. When I’ve made a wager on the game the task is easy, but failing that I tend to pick the team that has a uniform that most closely resembles what they wore when I…

Jonathan Last presciently writes this morning of the tennis calendar's first major tournament, the Australian Open:

We're into Day 4 of the Australian Open!

The National Basketball Association gifts sports fans a showcase of holiday competition superior to the drowsy slate of Thanksgiving games served by the NFL almost every year. Turkey day football, with the league’s comparatively dominant popularity, is celebrated annually as the premier family…

More than 1,000 Russian athletes competing in "summer, winter, and Paralympic sport" have been identified in a vast doping conspiracy tainting numerous international competitions in recent years, a finding that indicated a hijacking of global sport, the World Anti-Doping Agency's chief investigator…

Tiger Woods, like he has been so many times in the last 15 months away from the PGA Tour, was alone on Friday. His playing partner in the Hero World Challenge—Tiger's event in many respects, from his hosting, his foundation's sponsorship, and his first event since last August—withdrew before the…

Tuesday night, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee will declare which four teams would make the playoff if the regular season were to end today. A week from now, the committee will decree what four teams will make the playoff for real. As with all progressive-style "elite" or "expert"…

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee is charged with deciding which four teams to invite to college football's postseason playoff. It's hard to imagine an easier scenario for the 12-person committee than for there to be only four major undefeated teams, one from each of the four…

The National Football League continues to serve up boring games for its fans who have responded by not watching them. I received a number of responses to my recent article on this lamentable trend and the "action" in the days following publication did not show much promise that things would be…

College football's polls rank teams even before the season starts, speculating about how good teams will be before they ever play a down. But the Anderson & Hester College Football Computer Rankings (which I co-created) reward teams for what they've actually done this season, and only this season,…

An odd thing occurred in the world of sports recently: The Southern Conference (SoCon), an intercollegiate athletics league, decided to honor its commitments to North Carolina, refusing to pull four upcoming tournaments from the state. This, as other associations, both professional and amateur,…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with deputy onlne editor Chris Deaton on why Tim Tebow, Vin Scully, and Dee Gordon all remind us of the narrative power of one of sports' most iconic moments.

Arnold Palmer's golf swing was no languid thing of beauty. He hit the ball like he was mad at it, and in his follow-through he looked like he was hanging on for dear life. The swing was unique. Like the man.

Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident Sunday morning. The 24-year-old right-hander was 16-8, with an ERA of 2.86, and he had the second-most strikeouts, 253 in 182.1 innings, in the major leagues. On Wednesday, he pitched 8 innings of shutout baseball against the…

There is big news in the world of sports media. Try to remain calm, but, well, Skip Bayless has moved from ESPN to Fox Sports 1. The first episode of his new show—called Undisputed—ran on September 6, and it was hard to restrain one's emotions in the face of such a big development. Now, instead of…

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, the consistent but hard-luck gunslinger who will probably have broken more bones than records by the time his career is finished, was injured again Thursday night. In a preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks, Romo had scrambled out of the pocket and was in…

Dansby Swanson went 2-for-4 last night. OK, so who is Swanson, and why am I writing about him?

Coming into Rio, few people expected 31-year-old Michael Phelps, swimming in his fifth Olympics, to become the most decorated swimmer in this year's games. With the swimming competition now completed, however, that's exactly what transpired. Phelps finished with five gold medals (the most of any…

Puerto Rico won its first Olympic gold medal Saturday when Monica Puig defeated Angelique Kerber to take the top prize in women's singles in tennis. Puerto Ricans on the island and off were ecstatic—like Hamilton author Lin-Manuel Miranda, who celebrated in a series of tweets—as Puig joined Puerto…

It can hardly be a coincidence that just as the emperor of Japan hinted at abdicating his throne this past weekend, the island nation’s greatest baseball player ascended to a kind of diamond royalty. Ichiro Suzuki, a 42-year-old outfielder with 16 major league seasons under his belt (Seattle…

It’s unfair to say that athletes, and the people who discuss them, commit more penalties against the English language than anyone else in our culture—pop musicians, actors, politicians, and academics are all in foul trouble. But sports personalities have their own unique brand of cringeworthy…

Last week the Associated Press announced that it will begin using automated writing for its coverage of minor league baseball. The AP has reported minor league game recaps before, but didn't have enough manpower for the full schedule, which comprises 142 ball clubs across 13 leagues. But now,…

Wimbledon started on Monday, which gave me—finally!—something to cheer about.

Sometimes sports are more than just . . . well, sports. After all, American hockey fans will never forget the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, and the famous "Miracle on Ice." It was great hockey, to be sure, but it's remembered more as a moment when the U.S. was able to reach past a series of…

Dustin Johnson won the U.S. Open on Sunday, and he did it in defiance of his own history in the big tournaments and the pedantry of the people whose job it is to enforce the rules. They might have been medieval scholars debating the number of angels able to dance on the head of a pin.

They're not saying "Gooooose"—they're booing. Yes, baseball fans are booing Hall of Fame reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage for his crazy broadside on sports talk radio last week against the game he loves. He ripped ballplayers and management in what can only be considered a rearguard action in…

It was all about the pants. Explosive colors, as if his legs were on fire. And patterns that looked like they were sewn together by a blind seamstress. That was the Bud Collins I remember—the longtime tennis broadcaster who died on Friday at the age of 86.

My friends accuse me of having a fetish for hopeless causes that interest no one and have no hope of ever being accomplished. Which brings me to my plan for fixing the Pro Bowl.

In this week's edition of the boss's email newsletter -- Kristol Clear (sign up for free!) - Bill Kristol looks back on the sad fate of his New York Jets:

Dear Lawmakers,

In the National Football League, it is the year of the orthopod. Football, the cognoscenti like to say, is a game of injuries, but this year, it sometimes seems as though that's all that it is. That, and the blown call, anyway.

The same government that warned you off whole milk and urged you to load up on carbs may now be moving to protect you from the snares of fantasy sports wagering. And the people who worship at the temple of government believe this is the just and proper thing to do. Presumably they will put the same…

On a crazy college football Saturday that saw Michigan State pull out about the most improbable win since Stanford’s band came onto the field against Cal 33 years ago, the LSU Tigers beat previously undefeated Florida and claimed the top spot in the Anderson & Hester Rankings.  In three weeks, the…

This summer, EastBanc W.D.C Partners, a prominent development company, announced the construction of two residential towers with retail space in the West End of Washington, D.C., not far from George Washington University. Included in the development are plans for multiple squash courts. The squash…

Pick Eddie Lacy. That was the advice of at least one expert back in the summer. Not a single play of the regular NFL season had been run, but it was already a busy time for those who play fantasy football and the gurus who advise them. “Lacy’s mix of stability and upside over a full season” is…

The Boston Red Sox are nearing the end of a woeful season, running last in their division, thirteen-and-a-half out of first, leaving the taste of wormwood and gall in the mouth of every member of Red Sox nation. 

The Yankees’s C.C. Sabathia is not having a stellar season.  With a 4-9 record and a 5.24 ERA he could be forgiven for feeling a sense of frustration. Even one serious enough to get him into a near brawl with fans in, of all places, Toronto. 

The Washington Nationals’s winning streak ended Thursday night in Colorado. After two games. But when recent performance includes a six game losing streak that helped the team fall from first place, by 4 and a half games in their division, to trailing the Mets by four, then you take what you can…

If he were a race horse, then up-to-now the smart play would have been to bet him to show. On six occasions, Jason Day had finished among the top five in the big golf tournaments known as the "majors." But never first. He seemed to lack that urge to run out ahead of the pack, where the view is…

How much do Americans love football?  Enough that more of them will tune in to a meaningless exhibition game in August than viewed the Stanley Cup finals.  As the Chicago Sun Times  reports, last week's

Washington, D.C.,'s Rock Creek Park Tennis Center—site of the week-long Citi Open tournament that wrapped up Sunday—is more formally known as the William H.G. Fitzgerald Center after its major benefactor, a living monument to success and generosity. Fitzgerald, who died nine years ago at 96, was a…

The Factual Feminist exposes the fallacy at the heart of the claim that female athletes face a “grass ceiling.”

Technically, we are told, it is simply “the Open.”  Or, perhaps, “The Open.”  Maybe even “The Open.”

Another big-headed candidate is running for president. And no, this one isn’t vying for the GOP nomination.  

One of the great July 4th speeches was delivered by a shy man who played baseball for a living. Lou Gehrig played every day, never took a game off, until he was told, at age 35, that he was dying.  More than 60,000 fans and former teammates came out to Yankee Stadium to honor him.  Between the two…

When he steps onto the first tee today, Tiger Woods will be coming off some of the worst rounds of his career and a last place finish in a tournament that he was accustomed to winning. In golf, as in all sport, anyone can have a bad day. But for Tiger Woods, this was something different. You wonder…

People not from Cleveland often ask us natives during the rare instances when one of our sports teams is in a championship, “are you nervous?”

I used to watch sports on television in the same episodic and grudging manner I would tune in to C-SPAN. The proceedings mattered little, but I picked up useful information. It made me better at water cooler conversation—I got passing references to Monday night’s game. 

Assuming the WNBA approves, Isiah Thomas will be part owner and coach of the New York Liberty, the women’s team owned by James Dolan, the man who brought the Knicks to their current position in the NBA. Thomas, general manager of the Knicks, was convicted of sexual harassment in 2007. Not to worry.…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Casual Podcast, with David Bahr reading his casual essay "Among Fans."

They are a lousy team with perhaps the worst owner in all of professional sports, but the Imperial City wants the Redskins nonetheless.  As Alex Gold and Ted Gayer of the Brookings Institute write:

Alex Rodriguez hit his eight homerun. 653 more and he will pass Willie Mays for third most non-steroid-propelled homers, and earn a $6 million bonus from the Yankees. Tom Brady refused to turn over his cell phone and email records to the team investigating his possible involvement in deflating…

What to do about Tom Brady? The consensus among the sports class seems to be that something must be done. You even hear people saying that he should be suspended for an entire season.  Kieth Olbermann of ESPN did a rant recommending just such a punishment. (One day for the crime and 364 for the…

So it appears that Tom Brady did know that he was throwing softballs. As John Branch of the New York Times reports

A few days after the Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao fight, the reviews are still coming in, and most are negative. Perhaps the harshest assessment is a class action suit filed against Pacquiao by boxing fans who are angry that the Filipino southpaw fought with an injured right shoulder and…

It was the biggest weekend of the spring, with people coming from all over to a little strip of beach known as “Perdido Key,” for a gathering known as the FloraBama Mullet Toss. It has been going on for three decades and every year it grows; it now claims to draw numbers in the “tens of…

Today, at 1:48 EST, Tiger Woods will be teeing it up at the Masters.  It has been a long time since he has played in a tournament.  Longer still since he has won.  His round today will be closely scrutinized by fans of golf and millions of others whose interest in the game pretty much begins and…

So did the New England Patriots actually cheat last Sunday when they beat the Indianapolis Colts in a 45-7 laugher? Well, the game was certainly important.  Winning meant another trip to the Super Bowl for the Patriots.  And, then, the Patriots have a history. Back in 2007 the team was busted by…

President Obama released this statement on the loss of ESPN host Stuart Scott:

A few hours before kickoff, my wife and daughter and I went to Gladys Knight’s place in Atlanta for the chicken and waffles (can’t recommend the “Midnight Special” enough) and the room was full.  It seemed like every third table was occupied by people wearing crimson or orange.  When they caught…

Now with the Royals tying the World Series Wednesday night 1-1, things are really getting hot: Two San Francisco radio stations have removed the song “Royals” from their play lists. The smash hit from the seventeen-year-old Kiwi songbird Lorde was inspired by a 1976 photo of Royals’ hall-of-fame…

Scott Clement of the Washington Post reports that, on the question of what to call the NFL team identified with the city of Washington, D.C., a large majority is content to stick with the name “Redskins.”

Besides centrifuges, uranium enrichment, and sanctions, this month the State Department turned to sets, digs, and spikes in diplomatic efforts with Iran. Samuel Werberg, a press and public diplomacy officer in the U.S. State Department, invoked the spirit of Jesse Owens to tout the Obama…