Last weekend was the 12th edition of my family’s annual Cowboys Weekend (read: 40 family friends using a Cowboys game as an excuse to get drunk and yell “let’s go Cowboys” in thick Indian accents as loud as they can). For the first time in years, we chose a Cowboys game that started at 3:15 p.m. instead of at noon. The three extra hours of tailgating did not turn...
That football team from New York looks dominant. I don’t know who can stop them from winning the East. No, I don’t think the New York (Football) Giants will win the NFC East: There are too many good teams. No, I don’t think the New York (Football) Jets will win the AFC East: Brett Favre has the Madden curse. So what am I talking about? New York state’s other...
I’ll give you $10 if you can guess the highest-paid state government employee in Texas. Hint: It’s not the governor, the manager of the state’s $111 billion pension fund or a university president. It’s Mack Brown, the head football coach for the Texas Longhorns. Brown earns over $3 million per year in annual compensation and can take home another $450,000...
Eighty-degree weather in December. Girls in short skirts the whole year. College sports that people actually care about. These are a few of my favorite things. Fortunately, they are all in Texas. Unfortunately, I am no longer in Texas. Although it’s impossible to fix the first two — unless you live at Toad’s — I don’t think getting Yale to care about college...
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim closer Francisco Rodriguez should be commended for breaking the single-season record for saves. His miraculous season is truly one for the ages, as he seems poised to become the first athlete ever to record 60+ saves in a single Major League Baseball season. But why K-Rod, as he is affectionately known, and why now? There are four answers...
I haven’t missed a Dallas Cowboys game since I was in fifth grade. That’s 10 straight years. More than 160 games. Over 500 hours of football. My dad and I have forced my mother to plan our family vacations around the Cowboys. Despite only spending a few weeks in Dallas every year, I managed to go to half of all the home games last year. In fact, I’ll be flying...
Sometimes I dream that the world as I know it has changed forever. Then my alarm wakes me up and launches me into the usual world of doing schoolwork for most of my waking life and watching the Yankees buy championships. Or at least AL East crowns. Pinch me. I must be asleep. The Bronx (Basement?) Bombers are struggling one spot above the AL East cellar despite their...
Sports and superstition — can’t have one without the other. Michael Jordan wore his University of North Carolina basketball shorts under his Bulls uniform every single game. Detroit Red Wings fans have been throwing octopuses onto the ice since 1952, after the Wings won eight straight games to clinch their fifth Stanley Cup. William Sianis’ infamous billy goat...
There was a time when the world was normal. When people and things and events existed in regular shapes, sizes and manners. No more. Sports fans around the world got to see a summer of extremes. Athletic greatness, which has been redefined so many times in recent years, soared even higher this summer alongside the superheroes who destroyed box offices and the global...
There is no joy in Mudville, for the Mighty Casey has struck out. Forget Shakespeare: Perhaps the greatest modern tragedy could be the story of Casey at the Bat. The Mudville Nine make a miraculous comeback, with two struggling hitters reaching base to bring the team superstar, Casey, to the plate with the opportunity to win the game. Spoiling the ending: Casey whiffs...
