Category: newsletter (Page 4 of 10)

Is sport a religion? An interesting piece in the Cauldron looks at the similarities. One thought occurred to me reading it – there isn’t anything about rivalries and hatred. Religion is usually about love. But in sports, there’s a lot of hate, too. For me, that’s where the metaphor ended.

[PLUG] One quick reminder: do by my book if you haven’t yet – Sports Geek, great Christmas present.

F1

The Hamilton-Rosberg finale should be fun, but you know about that. Instead, let’s look forward. Is F1 in a crisis? I would say that there is certainly one brewing, as both Malaysia and Singapore look to quit hosting races. Bernie Ecclestone made a pivot to Asia long before anyone was talking in such terms, expanding the F1 calendar away from Europe and into new markets. But if those new markets can’t, or don’t want, to host F1 Grand Prix, where does the sport go from here? It doesn’t help calling Singapore “ungrateful“, either.

It’s not just races that F1 needs, it’s faces too. And one of the best is retiring. Here’s what you need to know about Felipe Massa’s farewell.

TENNIS

I make the case in Newsweek that Andy Murray is a bit lucky to be world number 1. Has Novak had the better year? Check out the numbers and decide for yourself.

DRUGS

The sneaky ways athletes try to beat doping tests and the reason why so many are eventually caught – a Quartz explainer.

RUGBY

The Economist does a very thorough job of explaining why the All Blacks are really really good.

FOOTBALL

Cristiano Ronaldo’s goodbye to the Calderón – a great bit of writing by Sid Lowe in the Guardian.

Forget the night-out controversy – Rooney isn’t fit enough these days, and that’s the problem. Compare to Ronaldo: he takes 3am ice baths to improve his metabolism, apparently…

CRICKET

Which are the greatest bowling performances of them all? A book has the surprising answers.

CYCLING

The FT’s Murad Ahmed looks inside British Cycling’s medal factory. Great feature.

Adios.

No grand thoughts, let’s just crack on shall we?

MONEY MONEY MONEY

File under ‘didn’t see that coming’. Football move over – the best paid sports stars are now in the NBA, with eight of the top 12 teams worldwide. OK, it’s not a Leicester City-sized surprise, but still. Last year’s best paying team, PSG, are now 35th – although Man U are the highest-paying football club. Common thread? Ibrahimovic.

TENNIS

As the World finally thingy is underway at the O2 in London, a reminder from the Economist that rankings can deceive. What does the Elo system tell us about Novak vs Andy?

F1

How/what/why on earth is Lewis Hamilton not winning F1 this year when he is so clearly the best driver? (BBC)

CHESS

Yes, chess. A great rundown on a unique world title game from fivethirtyeight, who collectively are probably smarting from the US election. Speaking of which…

NBA

“We are Rome”. Gregg Popovich, one of the greatest ever coaches, gives the US election both barrels. Why are others not joining in? asks Sean Ingle of the Guardian.

FOOTBALL

Should Germany have to play San Marino? Is there a better way? Questions, questions. I think we know how Thomas Muller would answer. (From Vice)

I love it when the American press does small town UK football. Here’s a classic of the genre from the NYTimes on how the checkatrade trophy lost its lustre. Sorry, luster.

Not US politics, earlier

No US politics here… Instead, three “things” to get your sports chops around.

1) Murray’s ascent

When Andy Murray made it to #1 this week, there was a rather wonderful outpouring of joy in the British press. After all, the idea of a Brit atop the tennis world rankings a few years back was just crazy talk.

But here he is, the 26th player to hold top spot since the rankings began. More power to him.

The BBC’s Tom Fordyce notes that “It is not a gimmick, or a marketing exercise, or even a reward in itself, but a defining benchmark. You cannot fluke it or get lucky with a judging panel. It is deserved. It is definitive.”

He also suggests that

And this may yet be the start of something even more beautiful, rather than the pinnacle.

After five defeats in the Australian Open final, never will Murray have a better chance of winning it than this January, Federer and Nadal faded, Djokovic – his nemesis in four of those finals – jaded.

Steve Tignor on tennis.com was hardly less restrained in his praise: “One of the pleasures of being a tennis fan in this era has been watching Andy Murray grow up as player and person.” His piece is a more forensic analysis of how Murray got there. Worth a read.

Lastly on Murray: the Guardian’s Kevin Mitchell posts something of a love letter. “Pick up any dictionary and check the definition of honesty. There will be references to integrity, loyalty, candour, right-mindedness, authenticity. All of these describe the Andy Murray I have come to know.”

The only fly in the ointment is that a poor Masters final in the 02 and he might lose the ranking and never get it back. That would rather diminish his achievement – here’s hoping for a decent stint.

2) Those Cubs

The World Series was unforgettable and ended a 108-year wait for a Chicago Cubs win. There were hundreds of articles I could have picked for this, but here is Time, and the Economist, on perhaps the greatest sporting story of the year.

3) Jose Mourinho loses the plot early

Jose has a reputation for losing his players and owner’s faith around the third season of a managerial job. But at Man United it all seems to be happening a bit early.

Jamie Jackson at the Guardian noted:

Mourinho decided he had no option but to question the team’s commitment and effort: the base elements any professional footballer has to possess. It shows the slide Mourinho and his side are on. For any manager, the exposure of players – the men on whom their own success or failure depends – in the media is the nuclear option.

And that was BEFORE he hung Shaw and Smalling out to dry. And then there is the players response. And on it goes.

So will Mourinho last the season at Old Trafford? He’s reportedly unhappy in his posh hotel, kicking his players in public, and Christmas is cancelled. Doesn’t look good, does it?

Plus, a Soccerbrain points out the fallacy about managers – and rips Mourinho’s record to shreds. Lots of fun (h/t Simon Gleave)

See you next week

1908, earlier.

By the time you read this, the World Series may have come to its momentous conclusion (the game is on Wednesday night / Thursday morning UK time). It’s momentous because if the Cleveland Indians win the deciding game 7, it will be their first World Series win since 1948. That’s a hell of a long time. But if the Chicago Cubs win, it is their first win since 1908. And that is not a typo.

Only those in their mid 70s will have any chance of hazily recalling the Cleveland win. You’d have to be at least 112 or so to recall the Cubs winning. And here in England we moan about 1966.

So here are a few baseball pieces to whet your appetite, from Sports Illustrated and the NYTimes.

One question you might ask: why is baseball so white? Vox has the answers.

Meanwhile…

Vice points out that the All Blacks are in Chicago, and hardly anyone knows about it.

In footballing matters:

FiveThirtyEight takes a look at how one man pretty much ruined English football for decades with crap maths.

The Telegraph crunch a few numbers to ask why Arsenal are always so crap in November.

And without a stat in sight, Vice looks at Costa and Giroud – the moody frontmen.  

As the title of this one suggests, there is a something of a thread. As the Guardian’s Andy Bull notes, most sledging in cricket is really weak stuff about biscuits and mothers. In the NFL, taunting can get you in trouble – just for bobbing your head about a bit. Tanking, though, is properly naawty. And Nick Kyrgios is taking it to a new level.

But before the essential reading of the week – a quick note on MY BOOK Sports Geek which is out tomorrow. It was described by Chris Evans as “the perfect toilet book” and he meant it nicely. I agree. Do buy it. And then tell 10 people about it. That’s how things go “viral”, apparently. Continue reading

I know we shouldn’t mix sport and politics, but here goes. Donald Trump’s excuse that his grope-boast was just “locker room talk” is an insult to locker rooms. It provoked some great responses, and at least one open letter that may later be regarded as a classic of the genre. Here’s the killer line (with added emphasis):

Oh, sure, we had some dumb guys, and some guys I wouldn’t want to hang out with on any sort of regular basis, but we never had anyone say anything as foul and demeaning as you did on that tape, and, hell, I played a couple years with a guy who later turned out to be a serial rapist. Even he never talked like that.

Do read. It’s brutal and worth every moment.

Here’s the best of the rest… Continue reading

Sometimes it’s a bit convoluted to stitch together a common-thread narrative about two very different sporting stories. Instead, two of the biggest stories this week highlight the extremes of sport. Compare and contrast: the Ryder Cup, and Tyson Fury.

The best thing about the Ryder Cup is how an individual sport becomes a team event – and not just a normal team event, but a continental battle. Sometimes the fans and players have overstepped the mark, but this edition was marked by great golf, sportsmanship and a result that, even for this European, keeps things interesting for the competition’s future.

Tyson Fury, on the other hand, is a lonely tale. A man who has found his calling in boxing but everything else that goes with it too much. He has many offensive views, but his mental state is even worse. Should we pity him or condemn him? He is a one-man news cycle at the moment, but perhaps the best thing to do would be to ignore him right now. Attention isn’t making things any better.

ME ME ME

First, me. I was interviewed on Chris Evans’ breakfast show on Radio 2 this week (2 hr 21 in, or you can listen below.) Book is out on the 20th.

BOXING

The disturbed world of Tyson Fury.

RYDER CUP

The right result. Yet in a way, it’s nothing to do with the result, but that first tee shot.

Plus: the Mickelson effect. And just to show not everyone has a good time, Danny Willett on the US fans…

CROWDS

The odd origins of the primal, heart-stopping Viking war chant that is spreading from sport to sport.

ULTRA RUNNING

The strange tale of an utlra-distance runner’s cheating, and what happened next.

NFL

If you ban a team’s best quarterback for four games (see deflategate), you hope they don’t keep on winning. Why the Patriots start to the season is a disaster.

FOOTBALL

Should the FA should wait for Wenger?

Aston Villa are going through managers at an alarming rate.

That’s it – see you next week.

Did Big Sam have to lose his job?

When (now former) England manager Sam Allardyce was caught on camera in a Telegraph sting talking about how to get round third-party ownership, dissing the FA, asking for £400k for a speaking gig, and being a bit rude about Roy Hodgson and Gary Neville, it was always going to be curtains. The England job is too big, too heavily scrutinised at every step, for him to stay on.

Really though, nothing individually on the rap sheet was bad enough. Yes, it was cruel to mock Roy. Gary Neville? Who cares. He said Wembley was a bit to expensive, which most would say is fair comment.

Now for the heavier stuff. A series of speaking events in Asia for 6-figure sums? He said he would ask the FA, keeping it above board. Should England managers be doing that? Probably not, given the £3m salary, but if it’s OK, it’s OK, and if it’s not, it’s not. It’s up to the employer. It’s hardly as if the England manager is a day-in-day-out job anyway. All sorts of people, from writers to bankers, do extra-curricular speaking events. It looks a little greedy, but it’s hardly illegal. It’s just a question of priorities and contracts.

What about third-party ownership of players? Dig into the transcript. Allardyce never at any stage is endorsing the practice. He’s highlighting what others do, and that might be a bit unwise, but he’s not actually giving advice. If someone asks you where people buy drugs, it’s not illegal to point them in the right direction. He’s had a drink and is showing off a bit, knowing what goes on. Everyone likes to think they are on the inside and can lift the lid. It’s human nature.

In fact, later on, he has a proper freak out about player bungs, saying “Oh, oh, you’re not, do not, I haven’t heard that… I haven’t heard that, you stupid man… You can have that conversation when I’m not here… You can’t do it now, you can’t do it now, don’t ever go there.” Sound like a man on the take? No. He is cross to even hear suggestion of dodgy dealings.

Overall, there’s nothing here that means he should lose his job. Nothing. As he says, entrapment won.  Given the mixed feelings about his appointment (no major trophies, pragmatic style), he had so much to prove. It’s a pity he didn’t get a chance to have a crack at one tournament.

And so to the rest… Continue reading

I’m writing this with a broken arm, so it’s taking twice as long. Hopefully it’s not half as good. Anyway.

Here are the things you should be reading about in the wonderful world of sport.

NFL PROTEST

Colin Kaepernick’s quiet protest is starting something very big. One day he will be seen as a hero.

Meanwhile, here’s an insight into the insecure life of an NFL practice squad player.

OLYMPICS

When ninth still wins an Olympic medal, you know the drug problem in sport is bad.

Para quicker: how did four visually impaired runners beat the Olympic gold time in the 1500m final?

Why is Ukraine so good at the Paralympics?

TENNIS

What happened when a journalist became a tennis coach?

The new tennis stars are still veterans. Whatever happened to youth?

Why Serena Williams’s backhand is so different.

TUE DEBATE

Are TUEs just legal doping? And who are the fancy bears anyway?

FOOTBALL

A timely reminder from Marina Hyde that the clown show that is Fifa / Uefa rolls inexorably forward. 

That’s it from the recovery room.