Some guys have trouble with change. Many of them are sports writers. Something I stumbled across while looking up something else: An 11-point rant by a professional journalist, in London-based Daily Telegraph, on “why the Super Bowl sucks”. We won’t address every point, because mostly this is about anti-Americanism, which flows wide and deep through […]

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Over the years, it has been noted that the NFL’s Super Bowl is perhaps the last significant reminder, in the United States, anyway, of the ancient counting system created by the Romans about 2,500 years ago. Roman numerals under the value of 20 still pop up, here and there, in modern American usage. In books. […]

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Two ways generic soccer fans would know Diego Forlan. 1. He’s the Uruguayan forward who isn’t Luis Suarez. Forlan is the friendly one — the one who doesn’t bite. 2. Forlan seems to be considered one of the handsomest soccer players in the world. He also won the Golden Ball (best player) at the 2010 […]

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Many soccer countries have a distinctive sound. Their own chants and cheers. Their own national anthem, too, of course. And we have some of both, thanks to The National’s correspondent at the AFC Asian Cup, in Australia, Ali Khaled, who got two bits of video before kickoff at the UAE’s semifinal match with Australia. First, […]

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Taking a page out of Marshawn Lynch’s playbook … So, what are your thoughts on guys who refuse to talk at the Super Bowl? Read what I wrote last year. What? Read what I wrote last year.

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We work in a region of the world where, in several countries, the basics in life are anything but a certainty. For example … the domestic soccer league. Is it playing, in Syria? Is it safe to attend, in Iraq? Could riots break out, in Egypt? Americans have complaints about their lives, but compared to […]

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I realized the other day that the box our vacuum cleaner came in … has lasted longer than the vacuum it held. The vacuum pretty much fell to pieces, after five years, and I threw it out. A day later, I noted that the box is still being used as a storage place for shoes. […]

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Knee surgeries. A snapped Achilles tendon. A broken leg. Kobe Bryant fought back from those to return to the Lakers. But now a torn rotator cuff? In his right shoulder? In his shooting arm? At age 36? We may have just seen the last NBA game Kobe Bryant will play, which is sad … but […]

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If this is sports, and we are talking about the UAE’s biggest victory, we can be talking only about soccer. And this was a big victory, indeed. UAE a 5-4 winner in a quarterfinal shootout over defending continental champion Japan in the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia. If you are a team in Asia, the […]

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The U.S. Soccer Federation today announced Bruce Arena, the LA Galaxy coach and former U.S. national team coach, as winner of the annual Werner Fricker Award — given to “an individual who has worked tirelessly on furthering the interest of the sport of soccer without regard to personal recognition or advancement”. I am not quite […]

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