That was a recent headline from The Onion, and as usual, the short article that followed it pretty much wrote itself. “I’ve never seen a team work in sync with itself as well as A&M did ton...
https://thissportinglife.net/2012/03/07/great-team-chemistry-no-match-for-great-team-biology/
It goes without saying that most of the chatter on the sports networks comes from the mouths of former players and coaches. There may typically be one journalist or “broadcaster” moderating a...
https://thissportinglife.net/2012/03/07/what-we-cannot-learn-from-former-nfl-players/
It’s now day 5 of “bountygate” and there’s surely very little left to be said. For those not entranced by the blue glow of 24/7 sports gossip on ESPN and the NFL Network (where gaggles of...
https://thissportinglife.net/2012/03/06/bounty-ethics-in-the-nfl/
It was my great pleasure yesterday to meet my long-time hero King Kaufman, who I name-checked and quoted in the very first post on this blog. King famously described his groundbreaking sports col...
https://thissportinglife.net/2011/03/22/ridin-with-the-king/
At one point in the highly entertaining Champions League match between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan a couple of nights ago we were treated to an extended period in which Bayern’s back four pas...
I’m guessing, conservatively, that 98% of the sporting events I’ve watched in my lifetime have been on TV. And I’m guessing that this fact does not make me stand out among sports fans. Pro...
https://thissportinglife.net/2011/03/09/are_sports_better_live_or_on_tv/
Here are a few more reflections inspired by the discussion over at Overcoming Bias of nerds using game-playing to signal social messages to the world outside the game. (Robin Hanson’s original ...
https://thissportinglife.net/2010/08/28/signaling-sharing-sports-fandom/
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/
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/