If you love autumn, you probably look forward to the vivid colors, the sweet evocative scent of decaying leaves, and the faraway hint of a bonfire as you stroll in the crisp, thin air. That’s all well and good, but autumn really means football. The advent of a new season is a time when hope […]
Sports
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They’re football players
I love this time of summer. NFL Training camps are open and the season is in sight. I hear about the guys who are “football players,” which really inspires me. A football player overcomes obstacles each and every day out there on the field. We can learn from them. Fortunately, during the first week of […]
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Are sports dying?
Alarmist TV news anchors constantly sucker me into watching newscasts with their ridiculous, five-second primetime teasers: “Can pineapples kill cancer? Watch at 11.” But they work, so I figured I’d use the technique too. Sports have pandered to television since the ’50s. TV has made every major pro sport and the NCAA unbelievably wealthy. Prior […]
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Making soccer look slow, Gaelic style
A sweatshirt hood drawn over his head, his hands shoved in the sweatshirt’s pockets, Brendan Tunney scans the ragged practice field at Bishop Kearney High School. It’s a cold, gray, windy day in late May as the Rochester Erin’s Isle Gaelic football team takes to the pitch for another practice. Tunney, the squad’s founder, coach, […]
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Desperate, but serious
Dear Mr. Glazer: I just read in Britain’s Daily Mirror that you recently called the Palm Beach, Florida, police department in hysteria. There was a helicopter hovering over your $12-million beachfront mansion and you feared a sniper might be trying to kill you. Evidently, you’ve been concerned about this possibility ever since you took a […]
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Under pressure
Arnold Palmer made an impassioned plea at last week’s Press-Radio Club Day of Champions dinner. The legendary golfer urged parents not to push their kids into pro sports careers too early. It’s seems ridiculous that such advice even needs to be given. Most kids have practically no shot at becoming pro athletes. But parental hubris […]
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A major-league pipe dream?
Ridge Mahoney has been watching the development of Major League Soccer since its inception in 1996. As the senior editor of Soccer America magazine, he’s seen teams come into the league and succeed, and he’s seen other expansion teams suffer major flame-outs. So what does he think about Rochester’s chances of landing an MLS franchise? […]
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Twins could teach us
I covered the Bills for nearly five years and never had a one-on-one interview with General Manager Tom Donahoe or former GM John Butler. I recall just one time when Donahoe approached me. During training camp, he walked over to tell me to move so Rob Johnson could see the play clock. The other day […]
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Feeling a draft?
It’s April 16, 2000. The second day of another NFL draft is underway. The quarterback prospects plucked so far include Chris Redman and Giovanni Carmazzi in the third round, Tee Martin in the fifth, and Spergon Wynn in the early sixth. Who? Precisely. But I’ll bet you’ve heard the name of the quarterback who every […]
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Can diversity save hockey?
On April 8, Binghamton Senators goon extraordinaire Brian McGrattan bragged before the B-Sens’ impending game with the Rochester Americans that he would break the American Hockey League’s single-season record for penalty minutes by immediately picking a fight with Amerks tough guy Sean McMorrow. McGrattan wasn’t bullshitting. About two minutes into the first period, McGrattan roped […]
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Bankrolling the Rhinos
The Rhinos have entertained Rochester for nearly 10 years. I’d say the actual on-field product is like a Mercedes-Benz. But at the end of the day, I have visions of management parking the Benz outside a broken-down mobile home, not inside the heated garage of an Ambassador Drive mansion. I just don’t think the team […]
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Pride dunks prejudice
Looking back, the Harlem Globetrotters did more harm to the cause of racial equality than good. True, over the last eight decades the Globetrotters became arguably the most famous professional sports team on the planet. But they did it by reducing themselves to clowning, by exploiting racial stereotypes. The Globetrotters essentially became the athletic equivalent […]
