With all of the impeachment talk and the headlines of the past three years concerning Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election (and surety that they will do it again next year), one must wonder what is on Vladimir Putin’s mind? The collapse of the Soviet Union wasn’t because some country interfered, it collapsed under […]

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There is probably no more testosterone-fueled, Cro-magnon, somewhat racist group of people than “old-school” hockey coaches and fans. Like everything else in life, life is moving fast, too fast for those who thing that things should stay the same. First of course was Don Cherry, who, after skirting the line of permissible speech on his […]

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I have mentioned here before a quote from a great, underappreciated B-movie from 1983 called “Blue thunder.” Roy Scheider plays a helicopter pilot for the LAPD when the powers that be want to bring in military gear (much as has already been done for real in many big cities). Anyway, Scheider is in trouble and […]

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As it turned out Colin Kaepernick was right: the sudden workout, the original plan to have no press, extra secrecy as to which teams would be sending representatives, and even having Commissioner Roger Goodell visibly absent, replacing him with the rapper Jay-Z was all a sham. They could report that Kaepernick was a bust, couldn’t […]

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This week, it seemed like the NFL-Colin Kaepernick issue was about to reach a conclusion. Reports were that Kaepernick, who has been out of the league since 2016 because of his protest to kneel during the National Anthem, was scheduled to get an open tryout for any and all NFL teams who wanted to attend […]

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I have to admit that I never thought that Sportsnet would ever have the balls to fire Don Cherry. The 85-year-old commentator who has been on the “Coach’s Corner” at the first intermission of Hockey Night in Canada for 40 years is often like the old uncle at Thanksgiving – cantankerous, loud, but mostly harmless. […]

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When I wrote for The Sportswriters on TV, the panel often mentioned how reporting brought them into contact with people of various backgrounds, races, sexes, sexual orientations and that the exposure made them more empathetic and sympathetic. Then there is Rob Drake. Drake is an umpire for Major League Baseball and has been since 2010 […]

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