League of Fans

By Ken Reed

“Imagine this: a pharmaceutical company invents a new drug. A drug with many benefits. It increases cardiovascular fitness, facilitates friendship, creates feelings of excitement, euphoria and community pride. As a side effect, however, the drug also produces varying degrees of acute and chronic brain damage in an indeterminate number of users, for […]

By Ken Reed

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the NCAA was unfairly and illegally limiting athletes’ right to make money off their names, images and likenesses in a Friday ruling in the Ed O’Bannon case. In effect, Wilkins ruled that forcing big-time football and basketball programs to all offer the same form […]

By Ken Reed

What a sad joke big-time college athletics has become. Our country continues to allow big-time college sports factories to operate as “non-profit educational entities.” Our largest universities have given up on the idea of education when it comes to the athletic department. These schools now look for executives from the for-profit business […]

By Ken Reed

It’s an understatement to say the NCAA has a few problems these days.

The concussion issue is huge. The “pay-for-play” issue is gigantic.

But another major issue on the NCAA’s plate, one that perhaps places the NCAA in an even worse light than the concussion or “pay-for-play” issues — if that’s possible […]

By Ken Reed

The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) has named Michele Roberts its executive director. Roberts, called the finest pure trial lawyer in Washington DC by Washingtonian Magazine, is the first woman to lead a major North American sports league union.

She’s also known for having impeccable character, an important factor for the NBPA’s […]

By Ken Reed

In a preliminary agreement, the NCAA has agreed to settle a concussion lawsuit by funding research and testing, as well as establishing new safety policies.

If the settlement receives final approval from the judge overseeing the case, a $70 million fund will be established to test current and former athletes in […]

By Ken Reed

It’s commonly accepted in this country that baseball is for boys and softball is for girls. But most of us never stop to question why that is or why it needs to stay that way.
Emma Span, a senior editor at Sports Illustrated, has written a provocative essay for The […]

By Ken Reed

Tony Dungy’s comment that he wouldn’t have drafted gay football player Michael Sam because he “wouldn’t want to deal with all of it” is appalling and disappointing on so many levels.

Dungy has been a class act throughout his career. He proved that an African-American could coach a Super Bowl champion. Perhaps […]

By Ken Reed

The Texas Rangers’ Colby Lewis made a fool of himself this past weekend and in the process shined a flashlight on just how absurd the unwritten baseball “code” is.

With two outs in the fifth inning of Saturday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Rangers went into one of the […]