Twelve seconds left in the game. The Minnesota Vikings have the ball on the New Orleans 38-yard line. All Brett Favre needs to do is hand the ball off to Adrian Peterson and let him get three or four yards and set up Ryan Longwell, the kicker, for a long kick to win the game. [...]

[Read more →]

I identify myself first and foremost as a Minnesota Vikings fan. I grew up watching Cris Carter, Robert Smith, and Warren Moon represent the purple and gold with valor. I bore witness to The Game That Shall Not Be Mentioned, the 1998 NFC Championship Game. I was there for Culpepper’s MVP, Moss’s mimed moon in [...]

[Read more →]

He mentioned it in passing. As though the idea served as anecdotal fodder to fill a halfhearted conversation. “I had an opportunity to buy tickets for the Wizards’ playoff game,” my uncle Marvin said.
Without pondering the ins and outs of the trip I stoned my uncle by imploring him to see if the tickets were [...]

[Read more →]

As much as I loathe the chants of “MVP!” that have turned into the live sports version of “Play Freebird”, I certainly enjoyed watching two marquee players, who can perform ungodly maneuvers with a spherical ball, lead their teams to victory on March 2 on national television. Now, invariably, they have further escalated the debate [...]

[Read more →]

For myself and many other zealous contemporary followers of the NBA, his Airness Michael Jordan punctured the mythology of sport with immeasurable drive documented by six symbolic trophies, countless highlights, and a name so ubiquitous in 21st century commercialism that his Fortune 500 image transcends his athletic merit. A more seasoned student of the league [...]

[Read more →]

On Thursday the 13th of December, I awoke to hear the wormy, pencil-pushing commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig, assure everyone that peace had been preserved for our time. Wait, I’m confusing a contemporary bureaucrat’s misleading claim with one of the most damning statements of the 20th century – the one made by [...]

[Read more →]

Despite total immersion in Yankee lore over the past month, with frequent phone calls and e-mails to fellow baseball aficionados who respect the game like no other set of fans, I fully realize that a majority of sports enthusiasts gloated as the Indians bumped George Steinbrenner’s Billion Dollar Babies in the first round of [...]

[Read more →]