Edge of Sports Podcast

29/10/2024

My latest piece The Nation Magazine is about Trump's utter desecration of the storied history of Madison Square Garden. I talk about that history but also write that Trump's choice of MSG makes sense if you understand the ugly side of the Garden's history and the sewer politics of its current owner.

Under billionaire James Dolan, the ties between Madison Square Garden and New York City’s working class had already become threadbare. Then he gave the stadium’s keys to Trump.

23/10/2024

Wrote a remembrance of the great Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela who passed away yesterday at 63. That he died just before his Dodgers were due to play the hated New York Yankees in the World Series, makes the timing of this almost too impossible to believe. The last time these two teams payed in the Series, it was 1981 and Fernando was finishing off the greatest rookie season in history. It was the height of Fernandomania. And now he's gone.

I also connected the love Fernando felt back in the day to today's era of racism and xenophobia. How times do change/

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/fernando-valenzuela-baseball-dodgers-obit/?nc=1

17/10/2024

Did you know that Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Bukter has become a right wing darling and started a Christo-fascist Political Action Committee (Super-PAC)? Wrote about that and why the NFL bosses are **not** telling him to "shut up and kick."

The Kansas City Chiefs kicker has started a far-right super PAC to encourage conservatives to vote for “traditional Christian values.” He is part of a terrifying political trend.

16/10/2024

Today is October 16th, the 56th anniversary of that day when Dr. John Carlos (Official) and Dr. Tommie Smith raised their fists to the heavens from the 1968 Olympic medal stand in the name of human liberation, civil rights, and anti-racism. Australian runner Peter Norman stood on the silver medal platform and stood in solidarity with their efforts. To learn more, I wrote this 12 years ago and it'll still work if you want to learn - or introduce someone - to this story.

By Dave Zirin It has been almost 44 years since Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the medal stand following the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and created what must be considered the most enduring, riveting image in the history of either sports or protest. But while the image has...

15/10/2024

Really loved recording this Edge of Sports Podcast. Talking to author Andrew Maraniss about how he writes about complicated, nuanced political athletes - Maya Moore, Pat Tillman, LeBron James - for young audiences. Andrew'x method of thinking about these ideas is very rich.

On this episode of Edge of Sports, Author Andrew Maraniss on his new book.

07/10/2024

The double standard is staggering.

FIFA banned Apartheid South Africa. It banned Russia for invading Ukraine. But for Israel, FIFA does nothing.

01/10/2024

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/pete-rose-gambling-baseball/
Wrote about gambling, addiction, and the predatory hypocrisy of the wide world of sports. Looking at it through the life, purgatory, and death of Pete Rose. No whitewashing this guy. But baseball also failed by not seeing his behavior - no matter the punishment - as an addiction and a disease. Their callousness now looks like a canary in the coal mine.

The baseball legend was an example of not only the perils of gambling but also why the sports leagues’ embrace of the online-betting industry makes them predatory hypocrites.

26/09/2024

Seattle rapper Macklemore is in hot water for saying "F*** America" at a Palestinian solidarity concert over the weekend. The Seattle sports bosses (Macklemore is a big part of the city's sports scene) want him gone...more because of Palestine than those two words on stage.

The Seattle sports establishment loved the Grammy Award–winning rapper until he dared criticize the United States for funding Israeli war crimes.

20/09/2024

My latest piece is about the NFL, their spin, and the myth of a “safer game”

09/09/2024

My latest piece for The Nation Magazine: pulling no punches. "Police Violence, Tyreek Hill, and the NFL Owners Who Bankroll Brutality"

The NFL does not cross the police. The NFL partners with the police.

05/09/2024

Wow. To see Fadi Deeb - the only Palestinian paralympian - get interviewed and have his story told by the Associated Press is so important. Glad The Nation Magazine wasn’t the only US outlet to pur the spotlight on his remarkable story

Fadi Aldeeb got the competing out of the way early at the Paralympic Games. He’s been using the rest of the time to talk.