NFL teams have 53 players and twice as many coaches, trainers, and support staff, but to win a Super Bowl you must have two things: an elite quarterback and a superlative coach. The Rams won the Super Bowl last week, with veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford at the helm. This past season was the first year…
Despite a decade of lawsuits and scandals, the NFL is bigger than ever. I enjoy football as much as anyone. While basketball and soccer have gone global, and baseball fades to second-tier status, football stands alone as the quintessential American sport. The latest NFL imbroglio is the lawsuit by Brian Flores. Flores claims he has…
Almost everyone is familiar with the Tom Brady story. Growing up in San Mateo, California, Brady was a lightly-recruited quarterback who didn’t show up on any major scouting publications. Even after a successful senior season at the University of Michigan, almost nobody thought he would make the NFL. Brady himself had a resume ready for…
Some CEOs say great companies only hire the best talent. I say “bullshit”. The Los Angeles Lakers opened the 2021-2022 basketball season with two surprising losses after going 0-6 in the preseason. While it is way too early to draw any conclusions, it does raise some questions about their personnel decisions and team chemistry. During…
Devin Booker’s maternal grandfather was from Mexico. He was raised by his Puerto Rican-Mexican mother, while his father, who is Black, pursued a basketball career internationally. Booker, who was just named to the USA Olympic team, is 24 years old and has been one of the marquee stars of the NBA playoffs this season. He…
What do Chris Duarte and Iverson Molinar have in common? They both eat patacones and are moving up NBA draft boards with a bullet. Duarte, who was born in the Dominican Republic and plays for the Oregon Ducks, was runner up for POY in the PAC 12 conference. Molinar, who is from Panama City and…
I recently stumbled on this 70s photo of Puerto Rican legend, Chi-Chi Rodríguez and his caddie, John Lynch at the Masters Golf Tournament held in Augusta, Georgia. Rodríguez, who turned 85 last October, was one of my favorite athletes growing up. It’s a great photo, but the back story is even more interesting. At the…
Last Friday was the 52nd anniversary of one of the most historic and controversial moments in the history of the Olympics. Most of us are familiar with story of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who after finishing first and third in the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, raised their black-gloved fists in…
My son is a star basketball player at Colorado College. He averaged 18 points per game and was an all-conference performer as a sophomore. He was the only Latino on his team and on the all-conference roster. Latino surnames are rare in college basketball and even more rare in the NBA. For decades, Latin America…
For those of us who are missing sports, The Last Dance, has become a weekly sanctuary. The ESPN 10-part documentary takes a deep dive into the career of basketball legend, Michael Jordan. Jordan is widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time, but the film is a lot more than a collage of basketball…