“I will never give up. I will keep fighting till the end.” – Jim Kelly, honoree of the Jimmy V Award at the annual ESPY Awards. Near the end of his career, Sir Winston Churchill – the most quoted individual along with Lincoln – was asked to address his old English boys school, Harrow. Churchill stands to receive unanimous acclamation...

Baseball season begins in just 10 days, and what better way to begin than with a great baseball story. Football may be America’s most popular game, but baseball is forever. Actually, that’s the title of a new book by former Washington Post columnist and peace studies teacher Colman McCarthy. Baseball Forever is a collection of stories McCarthy has written over...

Back before journalists began adding the suffix “gate” to any scandal after Watergate, one of the biggest crimes in sports exploded exactly 97 years ago last Friday. As The New York Times reported on September 29, 1920: EIGHT WHITE SOX PLAYERS ARE INDICTED ON CHARGE OF FIXING 1919 WORLD SERIES While the eight Black Sox players, as they became known,...

“If the National Football League players want to take a knee, they should take a knee at night, every night, and thank God in heaven Donald J. Trump is president of the United States… He’s done such a tremendous job…” – Steve Bannon, former W.H. chief strategist, current Trump “wingman” Okay, let’s put this into context. Trump returns to the...

There’s a scene early in the film, Jerry Maguire, about a sports agent, that ultimately causes the central character to pivot from sales B.S. to honest concern. It happens when the fast-talking Maguire learns that his hockey-player client is sent to the hospital after yet another punishing concussion. The agent arrives in the room just as the doctor is checking...

Climbing is a great game; great not in spite of the demands it makes, but because of them. Great because it will not let us give half of ourselves, it demands all of us. It demands our best. – Royal Robbins If the 60s and 70s are consider the Golden Age of rock climbing then Yosemite Valley was the place...

Since the announcement of his death last week (Sept. 25), lots of photos have been posted of golf legend Arnold Palmer. However, this is how I remember him – the total professional standing off to the side, cool, collected, waiting to wallop that little white ball straight down the fairway. (I went out and bought a golf sweater just like...

The Will Smith movie, Concussion, is about the brutal reality the National Football League continues to ignore. It’s also the story of one man’s ethically courageous attempt to bring critical attention to what he uncovered and what is now called C.T.E. – Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Boston University’s C.T.E. Center defines the condition as “a progressive degenerative disease of the brain...

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.  – Mahatma Gandhi Olympic athletes train for years for events that, in some cases, are over in a matter of minutes. New Zealand’s Nikki Jane Hamblin is a middle distance runner who specializes in...

“What Kaepernick did was totally uncalled for and disrespectful, but America gives him the right to do it. I am tired of all of these multi million-dollar athletes and celebrities who do nothing to improve conditions putting down the country that has given them the opportunity to get to where they are.” “Congratulations to Colin Kaepernick for making a statement...