League of Fans

By Ken Reed

SportsWorld has made progress in the transition from autocratic, drill sergeant-type coaches to a more humanistic approach to coaching athletes. But there’s still a long ways to go. The recent situation at Northwestern University, involving their football and baseball coaches, is proof of that.

After giving football coach Pat Fitzgerald a slap-on-the-wrist […]

By Ken Reed

Lynn Zinser wrote an excellent obituary for the New York Times sports department yesterday. The Times management team inexplicably closed their sports department earlier this week.

Within her compelling commentary, Zinser captured the power of sports and the importance of sports journalism in these three sentences:

“Sports is overwhelmingly popular […]

By Ken Reed

The latest study on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has revealed that it’s not just the number of blows to the head over time that leads to CTE but the cumulative force of those hits.

Historically, we first thought it was multiple concussions that led to CTE. However, newer research suggested that […]

By Ken Reed

At this point, it’s pretty widely understood that physical exercise has positive effects on the body and mind.

What isn’t as well known is that exercise done outside, in nature, is more beneficial mentally than exercise done in a health club, or even outside but in an urban environment.

According […]

By Ken Reed

The foundation of athletic competition has always been fairness, creating a level playing field, if you will. Everyone begins from the same starting line in the 100-meter dash. Both teams get an equal number of at-bats in baseball. The examples go on and on in the world of sports.

That quest for […]

By Ken Reed

Participation rates for flag football are on the rise, and for good reason. A CDC study reports that tackle football athletes, ages 6 to 14, sustained 15 times as many head impacts as flag football players during practices and games, and 23 times high-magnitude head impacts (i.e., hard blows to the […]

By Ken Reed

I was recently listening to a sports panel discussion and the topic was “Is Competition Good or Bad?”

There were strong arguments on both sides but my takeaway was “It’s both.” It all depends on how a given individual looks at competition.

Competition can be viewed as a zero sum game, where […]

By Ken Reed

It turns out the Rose Bowl does more than host a famous college football bowl game.

In August of 2020, the Rose Bowl created the Rose Bowl Institute (RBI) to promote sportsmanship, citizenship and leadership through a variety of educational programs, dialogues and awards.

The Rose Bowl Sportsmanship Initiative champions the […]

By Ken Reed

It’s a fairly well-known fact in the world of sports that female athletes suffer ACL injuries at a much higher rate than their male counterparts, especially in sports with a lot of cutting and contact, like soccer and basketball.

In fact, women soccer players are up to six times more likely […]

By Ken Reed

Through the years, we’ve used this blog to regularly tout all the things physical exercise is good for.

Exercise, especially cardiovascular-based exercise, has tremendous physical, mental and emotional benefits. The list of research-based benefits from exercise, sports and other forms of physical activity is a long one.

For one thing, […]