The opening weeks of their second stay in Los Angeles may not be going quite as well as the Rams would have hoped. Remember how they traded up to get the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft? Ahead of their first season back in Los Angeles? The dramatic move clearly was intended to create […]

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Only one sport really matters among the citizens of the United Arab Emirates. And, actually, it is a subset of one sport. The men’s national soccer team. Not necessarily the domestic soccer league those guys play in; Emirati fans are far more interested in club soccer in other countries, particularly in England and Spain. No, […]

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If it were not already time for this, it certainly is now: We no longer can consider USC a “football” school. Not after what Alabama did to the Trojans in their open tonight … a 52-6 blowout, nationally televised, that made the Trojans look like chumps. Not after compiling a overall record of 57-28 since […]

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It’s time for Americans to do themselves a favor: Take the national anthem out of U.S. sports events. We have plenty of good reasons to do so, and as soon as possible. To wit:

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Estacio Sants is the main train station in Barcelona. In case you have lost track of where you have stepped off the train from, say, France … the famous local football team has a merchandise store you can hardly miss as you exit the station — one of (by my count) nine such stores in […]

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After the U.S. women’s national soccer team lost a Rio 2016 shootout to Sweden, a game that ended 1-1 in regulation, goalkeeper Hope Solo was not in a diplomatic mood. She rarely is after losing, God bless her. The Swedes got an early lead, then sat back and absorbed pressure, and when they conceded the […]

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Back in December, as long-shots Leicester City led the English Premier League, most of world football figured they would fade badly. Those swollen ranks included Gary Lineker, the host of the BBC review show Match of the Day. Lineker was so sure Leicester would fall back into the pack that he vowed to host MotD […]

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Anyone who has attended a football game at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum knows you might face a long, steep climb to get to where you want to be. It could be a metaphor for the former St. Louis (and Cleveland) Rams’ return to Los Angeles. Making the decision to return to the stadium where they […]

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Rio 2016 is the first Summer Olympics I will not attend since Moscow 1980. Yes, it was a good run. I made it to eight consecutive Summer Games. Beginning with Los Angeles 1984 and continuing with Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. The first four with […]

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England’s latest international soccer tournament ended in such a disaster — going out in the Euro 2016 round-of-16 against Iceland — that things concerning the Football Association got weirder than usual. Following the 2-1 disaster versus tiny Iceland, England coach Roy Hodgson resigned, as he had to, for professional reasons but also because he seemed […]

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