Sorry about that. I disappeared for three months. From here, anyway. Life happens. There was so much going on I had to choose between writing about sports and watching sports in my free time, and...
It has been a big week for philosophizing about sports at Duke University, where I teach. Perhaps this helps us take our minds off a crushing loss to Alabama, the NCAA football national champions...
The job of sports broadcasters is to help viewers see the order and intention where the untrained eye sees only chaos. We expect broadcasters to be experts of the game. (By “broadcasters” I ...
Dazzling offensive plays are the pop music of sports. Like catchy tunes, they are hard not to love. Even more, they are like the vocals and the melody of pop-music hooks. (You can sing these your...
https://thissportinglife.net/2010/07/20/soccer-vs-american-sports-part-3-going-with-the-flow/
In Part 1 of this little series, I argued — well, asserted — that an appreciation of the individual and team defensive plays and strategies is an essential component of sports connoisseurship...
https://thissportinglife.net/2010/07/15/soccer-vs-american-sports-part-2-in-praise-of-defense/
We’ll get back to the 3rd part of the series on the ethics of diving soon. In the meantime, while the World Cup is still fresh, I’m starting a new series of reflections on some of the ways fa...
https://thissportinglife.net/2010/07/13/soccer-vs-american-sports-part-1-dissing-defense/
Diving is not the story of this World Cup, by any stretch. And I’ve been too wrapped up in what’s been great about the tournament — namely, the tactical match-ups and play on the pitch — ...
https://thissportinglife.net/2010/07/08/is-diving-a-problem/
It’s been a terrific World Cup so far. We all have to keep our fingers crossed for the semi-finals and the finals being as intriguing as the quarters, because our individual and collective memo...
https://thissportinglife.net/2010/07/06/luddite-officiating-divin/
A busy travel schedule has allowed me to see most of the matches so far, to keep up on the press and bloggers, yet not to comment much myself. But now the real tournament has begun, in the second...
https://thissportinglife.net/2010/06/28/world-cup-diary-3-the-beginning-of-the-end/
Every team has now played one game — and more often than not, rather cautiously. We are a long, long way from the beginning of the end now; though to paraphrase Churchill, this is a convenient ...
https://thissportinglife.net/2010/06/16/world-cup-diary-2-the-end-of-the-beginning/