By Ken Reed

Tommy John was a great Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher, primarily for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He won 288 major league games and was an All-Star multiple times.

However, he is famous today not primarily for his pitching career but because of a unique surgical procedure he had done on his elbow. […]

By Ken Reed

If this isn’t an indication that the win-at-all-costs (WAAC) mentality in youth sports is out of control I don’t know what is.

More than 70 percent of new referees in all sports quit the job within three years, according to the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO). The chief cause? Pervasive […]

By Ken Reed

As a sports reformer, one tends to focus on what’s wrong with sports and what can be done to make them better. I think that’s a natural tendency and one that’s probably necessary if the goal is to help mitigate the problems in the world of sports.

That said, it’s also worthwhile […]

By Ken Reed

I’ve never been a Tiger Woods fan. I’m more of a Phil Mickelson guy.

Mickelson is one of the most fan-friendly athletes in recent times and seems to be a class act and great family man. Tiger has been none of those things. In fact, for a good portion of his […]

By Ken Reed

An Oregon high school football player has filed a $38 million lawsuit against the local school district claiming it failed to properly handle a concussion injury he suffered during a football game.

Connor Martin was cleared to play while still experiencing concussion symptoms. In a following game, he was knocked unconscious […]

By Ken Reed

Our major professional sports leagues — most notably the NFL — have increasingly teamed with the military and corporations to serve up ugly forms of paid and forced patriotism.

“The melding of sports and the military should be seen as inappropriate, if not insidious,” says William Astore, a retired Air Force […]

By Ken Reed

Serena Williams wanted an apology from Carlos Ramos. It should’ve been the other way around.

Ramos was the chair umpire in the U.S. Open women’s tennis final this past Saturday, a match that pitted Serena Williams against a young upstart from Japan named Naomi Osaka. Ramos is widely recognized as one of […]

Ken Reed was a recent guest on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour to discuss The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.

“My concern is what’s happening in schools and there are some schools out there that are being built […]

By Ken Reed

The athletic department at the University of Maryland — like the athletic departments at many of the school’s counterparts in Power Five conferences across the country — is so far removed from the educational mission of the rest of the university that there is no redeeming reason for it to be under […]

By Ken Reed

Nike has decided to make controversial quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face of its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign. The initial ad image has the face of Kapernick with the words “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” written across his face in white letters.

Kaepernick, long part of […]