Only by leaving the country can Yanks grasp what a thoroughly American holiday Thanksgiving is. If the country an American expat has landed in has a Canadian community (like this one does), the locals will become particularly confused about this Thanksgiving business — because Canada has a Thanksgiving day of its own. But theirs is […]

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I believe the 2011-12 NBA season should not happen. At all. It’s not as if the NBA is missed, which is probably pretty damning. Do you know anyone — anyone — who is talking about how the lack of NBA games is tearing them up? Or even vaguely disturbing them? That, then, is a league […]

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Al Davis has never been so popular. Within minutes of the news of his death today, obituaries were lauding him as a visionary (OK, he often was) a great football man (not lately) and a good and sensitive guy (not so much). And the litigation-happy man who had brought gangsta NFL fandom to Los Angeles […]

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It’s a nice story of redemption, and all that. From federal prison to starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, early Super Bowl favorites. But should the Eagles have signed him for six years and $100 million? I’m thinking “no.”

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I love relegation. I knew about it, of course, long before I got off the plane in Abu Dhabi in the heavily Euro-influenced UAE. But seeing it in action … brings home what fun it is and how the NBA, the NFL, MLB could all be improved. Not that I expect this ever could happen. […]

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The good news: Colton High School had three of its alumni selected in the NFL draft last month: Allen Bradford, Shareece Wright and James Smith, something no other high school managed this year. The bad news: In the fall of 2005 all three of those elite players were on the same team … which lost […]

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Going on 17 months now that we have been out of California — and out of the United States. I feel as if I have kept fairly good track of several American sports. Others, however, I hardly realize I haven’t been paying any attention until I blunder into some online story and realize that I […]

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Many of us in North America, in particular, have no expertise in various major sports competitions in other parts of the world. But we have a vague idea of them. The Copa Libertadores is big in South America. The UEFA Champions League is huge in Europe. So is the Euro Cup. The specifics may be […]

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If those of you have not been to a Super Bowl as a journalist or a fan … this may not come as a newsflash: It can be pretty dreary. And shockingly expensive. If you’ve done one SB in person, that’s probably enough. It is so much better to watch on TV. I promise you. […]

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Two events conspired so that I could see most of Super Bowl XLV live. I checked late Saturday night to see what stations were showing the game locally, and “ESPN” was one of them. Turns out, yes, it was the ESPN we now get in the apartment since we got a minimal TV package last […]

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