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In an open letter to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on February 6th, the League of Fans stated that the Ontario Hockey League “bans fighting and all blows to the head,” as does the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the NCAA, and other hockey organizations. While the Ontario Hockey League has indeed banned “staged fights” at […]

Dear Mr. Bettman:

It’s time to act.  The National Hockey League must take immediate steps to ban fighting and outlaw all blows to the head.  And you, Mr. Bettman, as league commissioner, must lead the way.

Fighting in hockey can no longer be a long-debated issue pitting those who find it barbaric and unsportsmanlike and […]

“There is so much money tied into big-time college athletics that it forces some people to make bad decisions,” says Robin Harris, executive director of the Ivy League.

A more accurate understatement has never been uttered.

At universities with NCAA Division I athletic programs, most notably Bowl Championship Series (BCS) schools, the school’s educational mission […]

The NFL just wishes the concussion issue would go away. But it’s not going anywhere.

In fact, sports-related head trauma in general, and concussions in particular, will be one of the biggest, if not THE biggest sports issue in the next decade. The NFL will be thrust right into the middle of it.

For […]

A couple of professional snowboarders, Bryan Fox and Austin Smith, have started a “Drink Water” campaign to combat what they see as a troublesome trend: the heavy marketing of energy drinks like Red Bull and Rockstar at sporting events in general and snowboarding competitions in particular. As part of their campaign for water in […]

A group of petitioners, including the League of Fans, has successfully pushed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to rule on the sports blackout rule. The FCC has released a public notice seeking public input on the matter. It’s important that fans respond in force in order to increase the chances of ultimate success on […]

Rick Telander, a respected columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and author of the book The Hundred Yard Lie, which exposed a lot of the myths and hypocrisy surrounding college football when it was released in the late 90’s, has written a column calling for a players strike in big-time college sports.

If the […]

Joe Nocera’s recent feature article in the New York Times Magazine titled, “Let’s Start Paying College Athletes,” along with his related New York Times op-ed piece, “The College Sports Cartel” represent some of the best thinking to date on how to fix college sports. Nocera’s plan would make college sports more honest and […]

Baylor’s Robert Griffin III won the 2011 Heisman Trophy and Stanford’s Andrew Luck was runner-up. They’re both quarterbacks. That’s not unusual as quarterbacks and running backs dominate the Heisman voting. What is unique is that both Griffin and Luck are also excellent students who place a high value on their college educations.

Griffin graduated […]

Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is one of the bright spots in the world of sports. The non-profit organization, founded by current chief executive officer Jim Thompson, is focused on eliminating the “win-at-all-costs” mentality that too often permeates the youth sports environment. The result of this mindset is that for too many children what should be […]