Texas—despite being America’s Cheer Capital—is one of thirty or so states that don’t recognize cheerleading as an official sport (other non-recognizers include the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations, both of whom also decline to classify cheerleading as a sport). The lack of official recognition created a regulation vacuum of sorts, with no […]
Sports
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Black Woman’s Body on the Tennis Court: Claudia Rankine on Serena Williams
What does a victorious or defeated black woman’s body in a historically white space look like? Serena and her big sister Venus Williams brought to mind Zora Neale Hurston’s “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” This appropriated line, stenciled on canvas by Glenn Ligon, who used plastic letter […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
‘Herr Blatter, Have You Ever Taken a Bribe?’
In a recent piece for the Washington Post, Michael E. Miller profiled Andrew Jennings— a doggedly obsessed, “curmudgeonly” investigative reporter who helped expose the FIFA scandal that brought down Sepp Blatter. According to Miller’s piece, if Blatter’s downfall can be traced to a single moment it was when Jennings grabbed the microphone at a Zurich press conference after […]
Posted inCollege
Life After Football: Our College Pick
Disappointment feels so much bigger when you’re young because you haven’t lived long enough to know that there’s always something else on the other side.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Why Las Vegas Doesn’t Have a Major League Sports Team
Leagues have historically avoided Las Vegas for two main reasons. Until recently, it wasn’t a particularly large metro area by population. Now, however, it ranks 30th — and is bigger than 12 areas (including Salt Lake City, Raleigh, and Buffalo) that do have pro teams. The other factor, though, has been the simple fact that Nevada law […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Football as a Barometer of Italian Society
“Football is a very simple barometer of a society,” says Paddy Agnew, an Irish Times correspondent and former RAI television commentator who has covered Italian soccer since the 1980s. “And if the red light is flashing in society, the red light is flashing in football. That’s what it is here, they’ve run out of petrol. […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
The King’s Last Game
Elvis Presley and I had at least one thing in common: A love of racquetball.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
The King’s Last Game
Elvis Presley and I had at least one thing in common: A love of racquetball.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Autograph Collecting as a Feat of Historical Inquiry
The graphing community [“graphing” is a term for the craft of autograph seeking] is one of uncommon depth, into which people have spent decades carving their fiefdoms and burrowing out their niches, whether that be players in the single-A Midwest League or members of the Whig Party. Flam’s fellow grapher Rich Hanson supervises inspections at a meatpacking […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Loaded Expectations and Hopes of a Fan Relationship
The fan relationship is often built on expectations and hope, however unfair they might be. My expectation going to Dominique [Moceanu]’s hotel that night in 1998 was that she’d come down from her room even after a long day of training and competing, and grant me an autograph or, if I was really lucky, a […]