Obama and Billie Jean King
Among yesterday's Presidential Medal of Freedom honorees was tennis legend Billie Jean King. She tells Politico that President Obama flubbed her stats. Before presenting tennis legend Billie Jean King with the Medal of Freedom Wednesday, President Obama ticked off some of her accomplishments: 12 Grand Slam titles, 101 doubles titles, 67 singles titles. “Pretty good, Billie Jean,” he quipped. But he ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 13, 2009 08:20
Obama’s First Pitch
President Obama threw out the ceremonial first pitch in last night's All Star game. Although I didn't watch the game, I happened to catch the pitch: What I found interesting is the camera angle: The showed the windup and the pitch but not the landing. There's a consensus in the righty blogosphere that, despite standing in front of the mound, he ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 15, 2009 08:07
Failure of Breaking News Reporting?
Aaron Brazell argues that, with the advent of instant-reporting of rumor via Twitter and other social media, the mainstream press has fallen behind. He cites yesterday's Steve McNair murder, the false rumors that Jeff Goldblum had died, and Michael Jackson's death. He laments that, while the McNair news broke on two Nashville stations but "It was a long time (30 minutes ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 5, 2009 09:03
Steve McNair Killed in Tennessee
Steve McNair is dead: Former NFL MVP Steve McNair has been shot and killed. Titans owner Bud Adams confirmed the quarterback's death in a brief statement released Saturday. Adams called him "one of the finest players to play for our organization and one of the most beloved players by our fans. He played with unquestioned heart and leadership and led us to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 4, 2009 17:31
Supreme Court Takes NFL Apparel Case
The Supreme Court today agreed to consider whether the NFL is violating federal antitrust law in its exclusive licensing deal with Reebok. The court said it will hear an appeal from American Needle Inc., of Buffalo Grove, Ill., that challenges an agreement the NFL struck with Reebok International Ltd. American Needle had been one of many firms that manufactured NFL headwear ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 29, 2009 13:39
Jordan and Kobe: Not Even Close
Matt Yglesias takes ESPN's Bill Simmons to task for arguing that Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan "might compare statistically and stylistically, but Jordan could command a room of 10 people or 20,000 and get the exact same reaction: Every set of eyes trained on him for as long as he was there. His personality, his charisma, his aura, his passion ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 17, 2009 16:02
NFL Betting
Delaware has legalized parlay betting and hopes to allow wagers on multiple NFL games. The league is fighting this vigorously, seeing a wave of NFL gambling coming if it allows it to happen in Delaware. This, despite the fact that NFL betting is legal in Nevada. At a time when states are facing major revenue shortfalls and slashing budgets for things ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 16, 2009 12:53
Sotomayor and the Baseball Strike
Something that's gotten lost in the attacks on Sonia Sotomayor's record of aligning herself with federal law and binding precedent in Ricci and Port Chester is that fact that Sonia Sotomayor was the Federal District Judge (appointed by George H.W. Bush) who ended the baseball strike. Sotomayor agreed with the N.L.R.B. that the owners could not willy-nilly institute their 1950s-style version ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 27, 2009 08:55
Premier League vs. American Team Sports
To illustrate that US professional sports have a lot of "hilariously anticompetitive interferences in the market" compared to the English Premier League, Daniel Davies constructs an artificial sports league based on all major professional teams in "Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington DC" in order to achieve a comparable population and economic basis to compare ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 27, 2009 07:27
Quote of the Day – LeBron Edition
"I would tell him I think he needs to lay down on the couch and have some warm milk and listen to some soft music. Football's not something he needs to do. If he asked my advice, I'd tell him to keep playing basketball because he's doing OK." - Bill Parcells on whether LeBron James could make it in the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 26, 2009 14:19
Cowboys 2009 Draft Class Passes Character Test
A really nice piece by Nick Eatman on the aftermath of the collapse of the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility a week ago that left scouting assistant Rich Behm paralyzed and special teams coach Joe DeCamillis with a broken back, and others with less severe injuries. The only players there were the recent draftees and undrafted free agents, none of whom ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 9, 2009 09:25
Brett Favre and Contract Law
The news that Brett Favre is once again contemplating unretiring and is meeting with the Minnesota Vikings is only mildly interesting to me. Not only is the story essentially a re-run of last summer's drama but, frankly, Favre is a mediocre QB at this point (albeit nonetheless an upgrade over Tavaris Jackson). One aspect I do find intriguing is this: When ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 6, 2009 10:01
NFL Draft Live Blogging
The last couple of years, I've live-blogged the NFL draft over at OTB Sports. With the draft starting three hours later and the Dallas Cowboys not having a pick until the 52nd spot owing to the Roy Williams trade, I just don't have a pick-by-pick play-by-play in me this year. [UPDATE: Bill Jempty has stepped in and is doing pick-by-pick blogging ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 25, 2009 14:59
Don’t Mess With Texas
According to a song popular in my youth, it is inadvisable to tug on Superman's cape, spit into the wind, pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger, and mess around with Jim. We might need to expand that list: A man who grabbed a Dallas Cowboys flag from a car in downtown Washington [D.C.] was punched in the face yesterday, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 15, 2009 17:34
Lance Armstrong: I’m Screwed
@lancearmstrong tweets, "I'm screwed." Heh. TwitpicPosted in Outside The Beltway on March 31, 2009 13:42
