The US gymnast, who gave an electrifying victim statement face to face with her abuser in court, is now taking on the US Olympic CommitteeLatest report: Larry Nassar jailed for up to 175 yearsLast Friday, the multiple gold medal‑winning US gymnast Aly Raisman delivered an electrifyingly powerful victim statement at the sentencing hearing of the former US gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. If you haven’t watched it, I recommend you take the time. For any 23-year-old to speak with such intensity, poise and control would be remarkable; to do so directly to her sexual abuser in a packed courtroom under the gaze of the cameras is of a radically different order.I’m glad Raisman was so clear about having only just begun...
After a season trying to stop African American players’ protests hurting their profits, NFL owners have bypassed black coaches this winterNFL owners spent much of last fall dragging black players to their feet, trying to break the anthem protest lest the cry for racial equality grew too loud for the advertisers’ comfort. This winter, they’ve spent much time trying to keep white men in charge of their teams.Another handful of head coaches has cycled out only to be replaced by a group just as white as the one before. In a league that is nearly 70% African American, only 25% of the head coaches are considered minorities, meaning the NFL has a lot of white coaches trying to balance the...
A hand injury was supposed to hamper the New England quarterback but – as ever – he took apart the opposition when it mattered“We’re not talking about open-heart surgery,” New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Sunday evening. Belichick was talking about Tom Brady’s throwing hand, injured in practice last week. But Brady was pretty surgical as he carved apart the Jacksonville Jaguars on the way to his eighth Super Bowl. In a fourth quarter the Jaguars will never forget, he took away their heart and then he pulled the Super Bowl dream to which they so precariously clung those final few minutes, until it was gone for good. @EAGLES FLEA FLICKER TD ALERT! #MINvsPHI #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/KOsyOgmqROBill Belichick treated that...
The NFL is a quarterback-driven league but three of the four teams left standing this season don’t have superstars under centerEach April at the top of the NFL draft, teams grab at quarterbacks they envision leading them to glory. But none of the four quarterbacks remaining in the NFL playoffs took that textbook path to the conference title game. The Eagles, Vikings, Patriots and Jaguars each made it to the championship round without an early pick, “franchise QB” leading the way, not the way in which it’s supposed to be done. Jacksonville’s Blake Bortles was a first-round pick, sure. But in the four seasons from the time he was taken with the No3 overall pick in the 2014 draft to...
This has been a season of improbable storylines for Minnesota, and now they are one victory away from a Super Bowl in their own backyardIn 51 years of Super Bowls no team has ever played for football’s championship on their home field. The closest were the Los Angeles Rams, who in their previous run as tenants of the LA Coliseum, lost the 1980 Super Bowl in Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, 26 miles away.But throughout this improbable Minnesota Vikings season, the one that fell their way after rival quarterback Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone, the Vikings have quietly eyed the Super Bowl that will be played on home turf. And in a season that has made no sense, where they had the...