Sports forecasts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on: which is why we’re publishing these online. But are the Browns set for a spectacular improvement?The problem with predictions in this space is that they are comically flawed.Six months ago, we proclaimed with great certainty the Patriots and Seahawks would meet in the Super Bowl, apparently oblivious to Seattle’s obvious decline. We also assured readers that Aaron Rodgers and JJ Watt would be the NFL’s top offensive and defensive players – a thought made preposterous by mid-season. Eyes undoubtedly rolled when we said the Oakland Raiders were the team we were “most looking forward to watching” and the Dallas Cowboys would win the NFC East. The fact we thought the New...
If we’re being honest about 2017’s most impactful player then we have to say it was the quarterback who was deemed toxic for the crime of making us thinkSomeday people will look back at the just-completed 2017 NFL season and behold the brilliance of Tom Brady at 40 and Drew Brees at 38. They will marvel at how eight teams made the playoffs who had not done so last year. They will chuckle at Cleveland’s 0-16 record and wonder how the New York Giants could have tumbled to 3-13.But these recollections will be footnotes in a record book. The 2017 NFL season had little to do with what happened on the field. It wasn’t about the quarterbacks who defied age...
Bristol City celebration and Cricket World Cup final were among the highlights in a year when sport too often seemed to reflect the corrosion of the world around itThe sight of Bristol City’s manager sweeping up a 10-year-old ballboy in a dance of pure joy to celebrate their team’s last-minute cup victory over mighty Manchester United last week added a note of sweetness to a year of conflict and contradictions. Many sports lovers had found themselves spending too much time in 2017 worrying about the integrity of what they were being asked to applaud: the integrity of the competitor, the integrity of the competition.From state-sponsored doping to tax avoidance, from child-abuse cover-ups to corruption in sport’s most powerful governing bodies, so...
Despite a string of controversies the NFL commissioner’s ability to generate money for owners helped protect him. But now their patience is wearing thinHow odd would it be if, after a tumultuous decade of debacle and debate in Roger Goodell’s NFL, the one to bring down the commissioner turns out to be Donald Trump?For the first time in his tenure the Goodell’s job is in danger and the uncertainty has come swiftly. Just weeks ago Goodell was on the verge of a five-year contract extension worth more than $100m. The new deal was believed to be certain, an affirmation that although Goodell has irritated many of the league’s owners and is wildly unpopular with fans, those same owners believed he...
The quiet but effective way Kaepernick has created the take a knee movement would resonate with the baseball legend whose brilliance helped combat the terrible racism he encountered in the 1940s and 50sWhen Time magazine conducted a poll in 1947 with the aim of identifying the most popular person in the United States, Bing Crosby came out on top. Close behind was Jackie Robinson, the baseball player who, earlier in the year, had become the first African American to compete in the major leagues. Not everyone had cheered that seismic event. Some teams threatened to strike rather than play against a team including Robinson. Individual opponents greeted his appearance on the field with shouts of “Hey, nigger, why don’t you...