League of Fans

Sports Illustrated has a history of picking its “Sportsman of the Year” based on factors beyond on-field, on-court, or on-ice achievements.  Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, David Robinson, and Johann Olav Koss are just a few examples.  That makes this year’s selection of LeBron James, the Nike sweat shop King, even […]

By Ken Reed

Ralph Nader and I had an op-ed column in the Baltimore Sun yesterday that discusses the ugly state of big-time sports in light of the recent conference realignment activity.

“If you watch what college presidents, athletic directors and conference commissioners actually do, you’ll realize that only one question is ever considered […]

By Ken Reed

Spelman College, a historically black women’s college in Atlanta, recently announced its withdrawal from intercollegiate athletics. In its place will be a fitness and nutrition program targeting all students at Spelman.

“When we studied this early this year, I was startled to see that we really only had 80 student athletes […]

By Ken Reed

The winningest coach in college football history has retired.  But his legacy will be more than wins on a scoreboard.

Gagliardi coached at NCAA Division III St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.  His resume includes 489 wins, 30 conference titles and four national championships.  He was the first active head coach to […]

By Ken Reed

After having to fork over millions (and eventually billions) in a couple of the latest taxpayer-financed stadium scams, the owners of the Minnesota Vikings and Miami Marlins are showing their gratitude by telling fans, “It’s time to get screwed again.”

Vikings owners Zigi and Mark Wilf are attempting to make their most […]

By Ken Reed

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is making the rounds touting the NFL’s new “heads up tackling” campaign, which will supposedly make youth football safer. The reality is, the campaign, co-sponsored by USA Football, is more of a PR campaign than a safety campaign.

The cold hard fact, the elephant in the NFL’s living […]

By Ken Reed

The NHL work stoppage continues — and unlike the NFL labor dispute that seemed to be non-stop news — nobody cares.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his league’s owners are in deep trouble. Hockey is a fringe sport in the United States and the fact the NHL is poorly run makes things […]

By Ken Reed

Earlier this week, the NBA announced it was scrapping the idea of putting small corporate logos on their teams’ uniforms — at least for now.

The rumored reason for the decision is that complications and complexities related to conflict issues between player sponsors and team uniform sponsors were too much to […]