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After nearly 2800 years, wrestling is no longer an Olympic sport. Yesterday, the International Olympic Committee dropped wrestling for the 2020 Olympics. This was shocking, as modern pentathlon was the sport expected to be in most jeopardy, and how can you have the Olympics without wrestling? The purest forms of measuring athleticism are track and field ("athletics" as the rest of the world calls it), weightlifting and wrestling. What could be more simple? Running, jumping, lifting, throwing, wrestling. Who's the most athletic of these men and women? Let them wrestle to find out!
The Eagles announced on February 1st that they're raising ticket prices for the 2013 season, by an average of $8. Tickets that previously cost $70 will now run $75, with $95 tickets now going for $105.
Why Philadelphia Court Should Toss NFL Concussion Lawsuit
Players knew the risks, reaped immense rewards, and now want to blame the NFL for their issues.
Now that the Super Bowl is over, the really big game begins. And it’s going to be a head-knocker.
On one side we have the raiders. No, not Oakland, but the Trial Lawyers, who delight in raiding everything good and decent in America. They are representing former NFL players in their fight against the evil empire, a.k.a. the National Football League. At stake? Upwards of ten billion dollars, and possibly, the existence of the NFL itself.
The great thing about this time of the year is that fans in places like Kansas City and Pittsburgh and even Houston have hope for the 2013 MLB season.
Eagles Need a Great Quarterback to Get to the Super Bowl
From Nick Foles to Alex Smith, a look at the possibilities.
While we wait for Chip Kelly to announce the remainder of his top-secret coaching cabinet, we are left to contemplate a zany Super Bowl that included power outages, big plays, and mercifully, limited camera shots of The Ray Lewis Football Revival Meeting.
WATCH: The Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials
If you teared up at the Budweiser Clydesdales ad, best to not read this column.
When I was a kid, the Super Bowl meant two things: The NFC team would blow out the AFC team, with the game usually decided well before the end of the game. It also meant great commercials. Michael and Larry playing horse. Frogs that say "Bud. Weis. Er." Cindy Crawford drinking a Pepsi.
It’s not that I hate the commercialism of the Super Bowl—I’ve been watching since I was eight. Nor have I boycotted football to protest the league’s brain injury problem, though that would have been laudable. I’m not even really that bitter about my New York Jets. I’m sure I’ll watch next year’s game. But this year, I refuse. Here’s why.
A Story That Shows the Good Side of Philly Sports Fans and Twitter
How #Give4Mark helped to raise money for the family of a lifelong Phillies fan who died this month.
In the same week that the Manti Te'o "fake girlfriend" scandal captivated and horrified the nation, another story emerged that touched on sports, Twitter and a prominent death. The difference is this one, rather than demonstrate all the worst things about the Internet, social media and humanity in general, showcased some of the best.
Why It’s Time for Eagles to End the Michael Vick Experiment
The QB’s just a reminder of Andy Reid’s last gasp.
By this time next week, the NFL will have crowned the 53rd consecutive champion not named the Philadelphia Eagles. While the Birds prepare for their exciting, new world under Chip Kelly, a huge decision looms over the next 10 days.
Top 8 Andrew Bynum Hairstyles of the Sixers Season
The Sixers may finally be getting Andrew Bynum back soon and the most important question is: How will he wear his hair?
The list of problems with the Sixers this year is about as long as James Naismith's original 13 rules of basketball. No defense inside. Spotty shooting. Inconsistency, in general. Shaky possessions in crunch time. Weak attendance. Stale atmosphere at games. Still no Phil E. Moose. The star center the team traded for in the offseason has only bowled. A broken anti-gravity machine. Even the world's largest t-shirt cannon is unimpressive.
Fans so far have been able to console themselves with Jrue Holiday, possibly the best point guard in the Eastern Conference, but things are looking even better: Andrew Bynum is on his way back. He even participated in a shootaround, which I am fairly certain is helpful to basketball playing ability.
Pro cycling is dead in Philly. Long live cycling in Philly.
Eagles fans who feared new head coach Chip Kelly was planning to use the run-n-shoot, wishbone or single wing schemes on offense beginning next season had to be cheered by the news that Kelly has hired a real NFL grown-up, former Browns head coach Pat Shurmur, as his offensive coordinator. Shurmur is a West Coast offense devotee, just like a certain deposed emperor, and it’s likely he’ll teach Kelly a few things about professional passing attacks.
I am sharing this story because I am Manti Te’o’s mother. Ever since the hooligans from something called Deadspin told the world that Manti’s dead girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, never existed, everybody’s been talking about my son. They wonder if he’s a fraud. They say he’s a liar. They say it’s his fault Notre Dame laid an egg at the BCS Championship Game. But I understand my son better than anyone else, so I am speaking out here.
First of all, you should know that Lennay isn’t Manti’s first imaginary friend. Manti has always had imaginary friends, from the time he was...
Why Jim Thome Might Not Make the Hall of Fame
He’s too big and too good to escape suspicion in the Steroid Era. But is that fair?
If you're a fan of the Phillies—or really, of any other baseball team—you probably love Jim Thome.
In this era of widespread cynicism about sports, there aren't a lot of things that just about everyone feels good about, but Thome is one of them. In a 22-year career, the slugger hit 612 home runs, which is seventh all-time. His career on-base percentage is .402 and his career slugging percentage is .554.
The slugger has a special place in Phillies fans hearts, as in 2003, he was the first major free agent to sign with the team in the Citizens Bank Park era....
Lance Armstrong Doesn’t Deserve Oprah’s Easy Redemption
Please, America, don’t fall for this phony remorse. See it for what it really is: A disgraced athlete trying to hop back on the gravy train.
Thursday, America will get to see Lance Armstrong take the clichéd first step on the road to what he hopes is redemption in the eyes of the country’s sporting public. He will take to the couch with Oprah Winfrey, make a marginal admission of guilt regarding his years-long abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, probably shed a tear or two and then expect to receive a measure of forgiveness.
Here’s hoping we dismiss his efforts with the definitiveness of a stick jammed into the spokes of a speeding bicycle’s front tire. After his vitriolic comments toward anyone who suspected him of juicing, malevolent...
Bucks’ Caroline Pla Didn’t Get Banned From CYO Football Because She’s a Girl
She got banned because she’s a girl who’s a great football player.
Caroline Pla from Bucks County is the catalyst for what is quickly becoming a national cause celebre, and she's handling the spotlight impressively. Poised and eloquent, the 11-year-old Pla seems well aware of the stage and her role. The TV anchors and newspaper headlines claimed she was banned from playing football because she is a girl. Let me make an important clarification: Pla was banned from playing football because she is a girl and she is good.
Andy Reid Is Philadelphia’s Beautiful Ex-Wife
The relationship is over. The relationship has just begun.
Andy Reid and Philadelphia will never be done with each other, ever.
Yahoos Rejoice: Notre Dame Will Win
Annoying fair-weather fans are about to come out of the woodwork.
If Alabama were playing Oregon or Kansas State in the BCS national championship game, we wouldn’t be reading articles about how Joe from northeast Philly is a third-generation Ducks fan whose father walked through a blizzard to watch the green-and-gold play back in the ‘50s, and how he has scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings and ticket stubs from days of yore.
But since the Crimson Tide will square off with Notre Dame Monday night in south Florida, we have been treated to weeks of the Irish mystique, not to mention the infestation of Fighting Irish fans who have dusted off their hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts, bumper stickers to display their love for ND – now that the school is winning big again.
So the Eagles are in search of a head coach, and I, along with several million other Delaware Valley-ites, am here to say: I’m your man! But unlike that obnoxious drunk at Chickie's and Pete's last night or the idiots still twirling their AM dials, trying to figure out what happened to Angelo Cataldi, I have actual qualifications for the job.
Sports predictions for the new year are like Phillies memorabilia from 2008: Everybody’s got some and most of it ain’t worth much (though you can’t put a price on the crappy bootleg pennant I bought from a guy on Broad Street the night they won the World Series). Prognosticating for a monthly magazine is especially tricky, considering deadlines mean one’s Magic 8-Ball is at least a few weeks behind. In the time since my January column was sent to press [READ: "11 Philadelphia Sports Predictions for 2013"], some ground has shifted in the local sports landscape. Still, I’m sticking to my guns. Maybe that’s unwise, journalistically, but as a Philadelphia fan, being stubborn is in my DNA.
