Move to May from mid-summer for poor relation of four majors was promoted as being in best interests of PGA Tour, and quite possibly comes at Europe’s expenseYou need not spend much time assessing the complexities of golf scheduling to feel sympathy for those charged with implementing it. Climate, television schedules, clashes with other sports, sponsors’ demands and player preferences are just some of the elements in an eternally difficult equation. When professional golf takes place in a certain place at a certain time, there is always a strong reason for it. Far more often than not, that outweighs external sniping.This week has seen long-awaited confirmation of something relating to a seismic shift. That it took so long for the...
Youth participation in sports in America is down, and the behavior of parents on the sidelines does little to arrest that slumpThe first widely documented account of parental violence at a children’s sports game in the US came in a 1975 Sports Illustrated article. It detailed a football game in Kissimmee, Florida: “A mob of adults attacked four coaches of a winning team of 12-year-olds with clubs and pipes, sending one coach to the hospital. A cry from the crowd, ‘He’s dead!’ apparently satisfied the mob and it withdrew just before the police arrived. The coach was not dead, only unconscious for four hours.”Then in 2000, someone was actually killed. Michael Costin, a 40-year-old father of four, was on a...
In their third season, New York City FC still play in Yankee Stadium. But results have improved and they aim to become one of the US’s biggest clubsAs Pep Guardiola’s players emerged from the concrete bowels of the Los Angeles Coliseum, the fans jeered.The boos came as little surprise. Related: David Villa's tireless work in New York an example for MLS's foreign stars Continue reading...
The fact that the talented and outspoken quarterback remains unsigned is the league’s greatest shame right nowA city as polarized as Baltimore, where last year the Department of Justice found a shocking system of racial profiling and abuse by police, could use a player who raises the questions Colin Kaepernick has presented over the last year. Then again, those who buy suites at M&T Bank Stadium aren’t usually the ones experiencing the issues Kaepernick raises.Kaepernick could have been a good fit, too, for the Miami Dolphins, who signed Jay Cutler now that quarterback Ryan Tannehill may be out for the year with a serious knee injury. Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has said he hopes Kaepernick’s social activism isn’t keeping him...
The system’s success in North America this season will go a long way to deciding VAR’s place in the gameFC Dallas thought they had clawed a goal back. Maxi Urruti reacted quickest to a loose ball in the box, and found the back of the net to give the Texans a lifeline against the Philadelphia Union. On any other weekend previously this season, the goal probably would have stood. FC Dallas may well have mounted a late comeback on the back of it. This weekend, however, Major League Soccer debuted its new VAR system. Urruti’s goal was its first case study.Indeed, replays showed that Cristian Colman made contact with Philadelphia goalkeeper John McCarthy before Urruti took his shot. The decision,...