By Ken Reed
I’m guessing 99% of American football fans, including current and former players, watching the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New England Patriots game this past Sunday believed that the Steelers’ Jesse James caught the football thrown by Ben Roethlisberger and scored what probably was the winning touchdown near the end of the game.
[…]By Ken Reed
The World Players Association (WPA), which is a collection of more than 100 player organizations across the globe that represent 85,000 professional athletes, unveiled a “Universal Declaration of Player Rights” earlier this month. The declaration is designed “to protect players from ongoing and systemic human rights violations in global sport.”
The […]
Continue Reading →: World Players Association Unveils Universal Declaration of Player Rights
By Ken Reed
The Houston Texans’ Tom Savage was down on the ground. His hands were shaking uncontrollably, like he was having a seizure. He had taken a brutal shot to the head and it was clear he wasn’t right.
Yet, minutes later, he was back on the field playing quarterback. Somebody on the Texans’ […]
By Ken Reed
According to Oliver Luck and Brian Hainline, a couple NCAA executives, the way this country develops young athletes is deeply flawed. In fact, they call it “broken.”
Luck and Hainline cite single sport specialization — often pre-puberty — as one youth sports trend in the United States that is particularly troubling.
[…]Continue Reading →: America’s Youth Sports System is ‘Broken’
By Ken Reed
Unlike soccer, in which boys and girls — and men and women — play by virtually the same set of rules, lacrosse has traditionally had a different set of rules for males (contact allowed) and females (contact not allowed).
As such, female participants haven’t been required to wear helmets — like they […]
Continue Reading →: Helmet Debate Breaks Out in Girls Lacrosse
By Ken Reed
The New England Patriots’ man-child of a tight end, Rob Gronkowski, delivered one of the cheapest of cheap shots this past Sunday in a game against the Buffalo Bills.
His penalty? A one-game suspension. What a joke!
With New England leading 23-3 late in the fourth quarter, Bills rookie cornerback Tre’Davious White […]
Continue Reading →: Sally Jenkins Nails It On the Gronk Case
By Ken Reed
Big-time college football is swimming in money. One need look no further than the huge buyouts college athletic programs are paying football coaches they’ve let go.
A group of seven head coaches (Mike Riley, Nebraska, Todd Graham, Arizona State, Jim McElwain, Florida, Jim Mora, UCLA, Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M, Butch Jones, Tennessee, […]
Continue Reading →: No Money to Pay College Athletes? Check This Out.
In his recent column, Ralph Nader takes on the nation’s sports media and its unwillingness to dig beyond a superficial level on important contemporary sports issues.
In doing so, Nader highlighted the work of League of Fans and its sports policy director, Dr. Ken Reed.
Here’s an excerpt from Nader’s column:
“Over the […]
Continue Reading →: Nader Column On the Sports Media Highlights the Work of League of Fans
By Ken Reed
Former Ohio State Buckeyes football great, Chris Spielman, has asked a judge to allow him to expand his lawsuit against Ohio State to include all 89 colleges that have contracts with sports marketing and talent agency IMG.
Spielman claims that marketing campaigns for dozens of big-time college football programs improperly use the […]
By Ken Reed
More than 10 months after a settlement between the NFL and retired players, the vast majority of retired players have yet to receive a monetary award.
“The current administrative structure of the claims process is flawed, cumbersome and moves at a glacial pace,” according to attorney Thomas Girardi, who represents more […]