By Ken Reed
I’m not a big hockey fan. I didn’t grow up with the game like I did with baseball, basketball and football. I don’t pretend to know much about hockey strategies or tactics.
That said, I do like watching some playoff hockey, especially Game 7’s. If the Game 7 is in […]
By Ken Reed
Another college football player has died. And it was another preventable death.
Following an Associated Press investigation, we now know that Garden City Community College (KS) football player Braedon Bradforth died from exertional heatstroke last August after running 36 50-yard sprints in afternoon heat and humidity, passing out, and […]
By Ken Reed
I love baseball. But the ego-based false machismo that is the foundation of the Stone Age “Unwritten Rules of Baseball” (aka “The Code”) drives me nuts.
The latest example comes from a minor league game between the Hartford Yard Goats and the Trenton Thunder. Hartford had a combined no-hitter (between […]
By Ken Reed
At League of Fans, part of our mission statement is “to encourage safety … in sports industry and culture.”
As such, I would be negligent if I didn’t address the recent incident in Major League Baseball (MLB) in which a 4-year-old girl was struck and injured by a […]
By Ken Reed
College athletes are young, impressionistic and vulnerable to physical and emotional abuse from coaches and trainers.
Unlike their professional peers, college athletes don’t have a union representing them and looking out for their best interests. They also aren’t paid, apart from their scholarships. Thus, many college athletes — especially those […]
By Ken Reed
Well, if you’re reading this, you’ve survived another Memorial Day weekend.
Along with good times with friends and family, you probably sat around a lot and “pigged out” at a BBQ or two. And a lot of what you ate can be easily classified as “junk food.”
I […]
By Ken Reed
I’ve always admired the work of Bryant Gumbel and the crew at HBO that puts together the show Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. They often do in-depth work on important sports issues of the day. They also will have compelling human interest stories on occasion. The show is blessed with several […]
Happy, Healthy and Talented Young Athletes Having Fun
By Ken Reed
Too often, youth sports in the United States are tainted by adults who are driven by win-at-all-costs (WAAC) and profit-at-all-costs (PAAC) ethos. The result is a lot of kids who don’t even start a sport, kids that burn out and quit at […]
By Ken Reed
In about three weeks, the best female soccer players in the world will gather in Paris for the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
The Americans will be one of the favorites in the competition. Their games will be big draws back in the States. In the 2015 World Cup, the women’s […]
By Ken Reed
While speaking at an event in Washington DC, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he’d like to see half of all new referees be women. He also said he’d like to see more women hired as coaches in the NBA.
“It’s an area, frankly, where I’ve acknowledged that I’m not […]
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #33 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Ken Reed Announces His Retirement and Chats With League of Fans Founder Ralph Nader – Ken and Ralph talk about the history of League of Fans and the reasons it was created. They then move into a discussion of a variety of contemporary sports issues that League of Fans has been working on in recent years. Ken and Ralph end by talking about the need for sports fans, athletes, and other sports stakeholders to get involved in the sports reform movement and be activists and change agents on issues important to them, whether that be at the local, state, or national level.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and others.
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More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify and others.
Episode #32 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Prolific Author Joe Posnanski Joins the Show – Posnanski is one of America’s best sportswriters and has twice been named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors. We chat about his new book, “Why We Love Baseball,” his new Substack newsletter called Joe Blogs.
Episode #31 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Foul Ball Safety Is Still an Important Issue at Ballparks – Our guests are Jordan Skopp, founder of FoulBallSafety.com and Greg Wilkowski, a Chicago based attorney. We discuss the historical problem of foul balls injuring fans and why some teams are still hesitant to put up protective netting in some minor league and college baseball parks.
Episode #30 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The State of College Athletics with Dr. David Ridpath: Problems and Potential Solutions – Ridpath is a sports administration professor at Ohio University and a member of The Drake Group, a college sports reform think tank.
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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