By Dave Zirin

Barry Bonds should be basking in the moment. The San Francisco Giants outfielder has just passed Hank Aaron to become the all-time home-run king of Major League Baseball. With 756 home runs, seven most-valuable-player awards and eight gold gloves, he should be trotting into the twilight of his career in a hail of hosannas as the finest ballplayer of his generation. But expect no laurels, parades or calls from President Bush.

Memo to Imus: You're Fired
Dave Zirin
Edge of Sports
April 12, 2007

Time for Jackson, Sharpton to Step Down
Jason Whitlock
AOL Sports
April 13, 2007

UPDATE

Outrageous Words, Outrageous Deeds
Ralph Nader
In the Public Interest
April 16, 2007

By Dave Zirin

There are more books about Muhammad Ali than Abe Lincoln: 300 titles in the children's section alone. You can also purchase The Muhammad Ali Reader, the Tao of Muhammad Ali, or the $10,000 G.O.A.T. - a massive coffee table book about all things Ali that is slightly larger than a typical coffee table. His is a history that has been repeatedly regurgitated for popular consumption. Despite - or maybe because of - this crisis of Ali overproduction, I felt compelled to write The Muhammad Ali Handbook.

By Dave Zirin

(Note to Reader: Over the last decade, Jason Whitlock has been one of the most prominent African American sports columnists in the United States. He writes for the Kansas City Star and AOL Sports. For reasons unclear, he often refers to himself as "Big Sexy")

Dear Jason,

I start with long overdue thanks. Thanks for inspiring me to be a sportswriter. Thanks for showing all of us that the sports page could be more than blather and box scores. For that you have my sincere gratitude.

In his Edge of Sports column, Dave Zirin recognizes the significance of Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears "shattering one of sports' most formidable glass ceilings." For the first time, the head coaches of both teams in the Super Bowl are black.

Leading up to the Super Bowl, an Online Journal commentary by Jason Miller compares the NFL to U.S. domestic and foreign policy -- and thereby football fans to the U.S. population -- in a challenge to the masses. He writes: "Arising from the same fetid bogs of spiritual decay that spawned the American Way, the NFL reeks with the stench of corporate tyranny, patriarchy, racism, superficiality, greed, competitiveness, and materialism."

Gale Courey Toensing writes a nice summary for Indian Country Today on activities in 2006 regarding the American Indian mascot issue.

As the debate rages over whether or not Chief Illiniwek should remain the University of Illinois mascot, Darla M. Wiese of Quad-Cities Online (IL) writes a thoughtful piece on the American Indian mascot issue. Please note that an excellent reader discussion follows her article, under "comments."

Sarah Moses of Indian Country Today reports that a joint petition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was filed on August 11, 2006 for the cancellation of the Washington Redskins trademarked term, "Redskins." The petition was filed by six American Indian young people from across the country ranging in age from 18 to 24.

William Rhoden of the New York Times -- one of our favorite sports columnists for his consistently provocative social commentary on the sports community and for his refusal to cheerlead (contrary to many in the sports pages) for the sports powers-that-be when undeserved -- is out with a new book that's sure to upset the sports establishment: Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete.

A report (pdf) called the "2006 Racial and Gender Report Card of the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE)" was recently released by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. The report, commissioned by APSE, covers the racial and gender breakdown of sport staffs of more than 300 Associated Press newspapers.

Vahe Gregorian of the St. Louis Dispatch reports on the progressively larger divide between African-Americans and baseball.

The Washington Post reports that several civil rights and women's organizations are supporting African American and women tennis umpires in their lawsuit against the U.S. Tennis Association alleging racial, sex and age discrimination:

In the weekly "Edge of Sports" column, Dave Zirin and John Cox address racism in international soccer and the possibility that it could rear its ugly head in a violent way at the 2006 World Cup now underway in Germany. There has been a disturbing pattern of "football racism" that "has been aggravated by the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe that has of course become de rigueur in the United States as well." Zirn and Cox add:

In the Public Interest
By Ralph Nader

Moving into bookstores across the country is a fresh historical account of American progressive resistance and political struggle. Focusing on the United States over the last century, the book connects past struggles with contemporary injustices, and calls on readers to challenge the militarism, homophobia, racism and sexism, the greed, myths, freeloading, cover-ups, censorships, and consumer and taxpayer gouging that continue to tarnish our country. And believe it or not, this is a book about sports.