“Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy” – F. Scott Fitzgerald Maybe I’m too old to have heroes… Maybe, but in my defense I first read about Tiger Woods in a March, 1991 issue of Sports Illustrated.  He was 15.  I was 13.  For the next 19 years I watched in awe as he...

Last Saturday, Ohio State and Michigan finished their football season the way they always do—playing head-to-head in a game that redefines the term “rivalry.” Even though Michigan’s record was dreadful this season, the game was still huge. It always is. Many consider Ohio State/Michigan to be...

I just turned off a 60 Minutes interview with Andre Agassi.  Agassi recently released his autobiography, which sent waves through the tennis world as he admitted to hating tennis for most of his life. He was forced into the game by his fanatical father, who taped ping pong paddles to his hands as a...

Here’s last week’s New York Times bestsellers list.  It’s a standard list, for the most part.  There’s the Freakonomics guy.  There’s two from Malcolm Gladwell.  Ted Kennedy is battling it out with Glenn Beck.  There’s John Krakauer and Augusten Burroughs and...

I am tired of hating the Yankees. The Phillies have lost. Chase Utley has lost. Cliff Lee has lost. Ryan Howard has lost. It is the Yankees who say yes or no. Those who tried to defeat the Yankees have lost. It is baseball and we have no salary cap. The little teams are unable to keep up. The smaller...

Let’s face it; unless you’re under the age of 10, soccer just isn’t that cool. Somewhere after that glorious period of mobbing the ball with nine of your friends through fields of dandelions while shrieking screams, the sport becomes drastically less cute and increasingly more boring for parents...

Watching 54,000 people inflate the Metrodome with their cheering Tuesday while their Minnesota Twins won a one-game playoff in the bottom of the 12th inning , made me consider several things about baseball. Most of them involved memories. I remember going to games at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington,...

Despite growing up going to church and also being someone who loves sports, I’ve never felt any extra fondness for athletes simply because they expressed a measure of faith. I liked players more when I saw interesting features about their lives, or when people told stories that cast these superstars...

LaGarrete Blount hurdles a BSU lineman rather than punching him. (Note: This article was originally published on September 4th.) I’m trying to remember a worse day to be a Duck fan. It was nearly comical. The Oregon Ducks-Boise State Broncos matchup to kick off the college football season ended...

There is a kind of sporting law akin to the laws of physics, common sense, or the instincts of animals foraging for food and caring for their young: High draft picks go to losers. American sports fans are used to turning to the draft for comfort when their team racks up L after L after L: At least we’ll...