Free Republic

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal government decision to cancel the Washington Redskins' trademark because it may be disparaging infringes on free-speech rights and unfairly singles the team out, lawyers argued in court papers filed Monday.

Before the 40s and the jumping and the throwing, Jameis Winston went through interviews with a number of teams. The results were, well, allow me to let one team's personnel man who was in the room with Winston explain. "I think he's probably the smartest player I've ever interviewed," he told me. Ever? "Ever," he responded. "Football IQ as good as I've ever seen." One scout described how Winston was so impressive with his knowledge of X's and O's that "there was a moment where we kind of looked at each other and said, 'Oh, okay, wow.'" The comparison I...

George Washington. Famous for being first, but hasn't done anything in centuries. RUTGERS John Adams. Sort of forgotten and small and lost to Thomas Jefferson so...WAKE FOREST Thomas Jefferson. Bought Louisiana, had zero scruples, drank hard, and invented the disgraceful sex scandal. LSU James Madison. Tiny, but punched well above his weight, and lasted way longer in the game than he had any right to via craftiness. BOISE STATE James Monroe. Known for having financial difficulties. MARYLAND John Quincy Adams. Thorny bastard who swam naked in rivers for fun and had big-ass sideburns. WEST VIRGINIA Andrew Jackson. Completely insane. Noted...

Deion Sanders knows better than most that there's power in a nickname. When he was still just a skinny cornerback at Florida State University, he dubbed himself "Prime Time" and birthed an alter ego that would earn him fame, riches, and a place in the pantheon of the 20th century's greatest athletes, not to mention greatest egos. Yet for Sanders today, nicknames are more a matter of convenience than a conscious act of branding. "Blind Side," yells the Hall of Famer. "You're up!" It's another sweltering June morning on the artificial turf of Texas A&M-Commerce's football field. The campus, an...

Former University of Michigan quarterback Tom Brady recently won his fourth Super Bowl, named MVP, and was rewarded with a lot of gifts. Brady even gave one of them to a teammate. But nothing is free, even when it’s free. Americans for Tax Reform estimated that Brady’s Super Bowl success will cost him $42,000 just in federal taxes. Here’s their breakdown: Brady was awarded a 2015 Chevy Colorado truck valued at $34,000. He pays 39.6 percent of that in income tax or $13,500. Brady reportedly gave the truck to teammate Malcolm Butler, who made a game-saving interception. That’s another $5,000...

President Obama's latest budget proposal, released Monday, would eliminate tax breaks associated with city-funded professional sports stadiums. Many cities, when faced with either losing their teams to different areas of the country or ponying up taxpayer dollars to help owners finance a new, better stadium, choose the latter option. Some cities even contribute money when they're not in danger of losing the team. Surely, the cities of New York and Dallas (well, Arlington) did not think the Yankees or Cowboys would move away when their lawmakers approved $1 billion and $325 million contributions of tax-free debt, respectively, to help build...

Newly hired University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh will make three times as much money if his football players hit their academic goals than if Harbaugh is named the Big Ten Coach of the Year. MLive did a story on Harbaugh’s contract that states the coach will earn $150,000 if the players hit certain academic bench marks. Harbaugh will get $50,000 if he’s picked as the league’s top coach. The academic bonus is 3 percent of Harbaugh’s $5 million annual salary. ForTheRecord says: Ann Arbor Public Schools teachers who are evaluated and given the highest rating of “highly effective”...

Super Bowl....can't find a thread...so starting this

....Obama weighed into the ‘deflategate’ controversy by cracking a few jokes ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl. Speaking at the annual House Democratic retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday, Obama called on any supporters of the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks to keep it clean.....

In the year 1617, King James issued his famous Declaration of Sports, a document which would be controversial due to its encouragement of the English to participate in certain sports on Sundays and Holy Days. This document, also known as simply the Book of Sports, enumerated a number of licit sports, which were fair game, as it were, for Sundays, and also listed several illicit sports in which subjects to the crown were forbidden to participate. Prior to this legislation, participating in sports on Sunday was not only discouraged, but in fact illegal. King JamesÂ’s decree permitted recreation through approved...

Would you leave a multi-billion dollar business up to chance? What if all of that time, emotion, and money has been wasted on a lie? What if the action on the field isn’t what it appears to be? What if you, and millions others like you, have been duped – outright lied to – by those franchises you hold so dear to your heart, all in the name of making an easy buck? Well, my friend, it has happened. And although your name might not be “Mark,” you have certainly become one to those running the carnival known as professional...

....the mayor of Glendale, Arizona - home to Super Bowl XLIX - is questioning the money-making potential of this year's big game, CBS News' David Begnaud reports. "I think if you looked in the till at the end of the day, I think you'll have less money in it than came in," said Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers. Weiers suspects that when the sun sets on Super Bowl XLIX, the only real loser may be his city. "I'm sure that we're going to spend $3 million," Weiers said. "I would hope, in tax revenues, that we can actually account for well...

News broke Friday evening that one of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game, Ernie Banks, had passed away at the age of 83. The man lovingly known as “Mr. Cub” spent his enter major league career with the North Side franchise, slugging 512 home runs and winning two NL MVP awards. The 14-time All-Star started his playing career in the Negro Leagues and was the first black player to put on a Chicago Cubs uniform. Despite playing for the perennially bottom-dwelling Cubbies, his optimism and love of the game never wavered, as evidenced by his famous quote,...

ESPN AUDIO has revamped its weekend lineup. Among the changes are eight new shows, including the expansion of an existing podcast to a weekly radio show and the launch of a new show presented by the female-centric espnW website. The new shows include "espnW PRESENTS: SPAIN AND PRIM" (noon-2p (ET) SATURDAYS) with SARAH SPAIN and PRIM SIRIPAPA ..................................................... espnW Editor-in-Chief ALISON OVERHOLT said, “SPAIN AND PRIM is yet another extension of espnW’s increasingly successful cross-platform expansion, and one we began fostering with ESPN RADIO last year with our first show focused on domestic violence and the NFL’s reaction. SARAH and...

Cable TV is about to get more expensive for millions of consumers because of a bidding war between networks and the country’s most powerful sports leagues. Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and scores of rural cable providers are tacking on sports surcharges each month, the direct result of higher fees they are paying to ESPN and other sports networks to carry their channels. Beginning Feb. 5, DirecTV will raise fees by 5.7 percent. The rise in cable prices is likely to test the patience of customers, who may already be tempted to cut their cords in exchange for streaming options that...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California high school basketball coach has been suspended and faces accusations of mercilessly running up the score after his team won a game 161-2, one of the most lopsided scores in state history. Arroyo Valley High girls' coach Michael Anderson was suspended for two games after the victory last week against Bloomington High. Anderson said that he wasn't trying to run up the score or embarrass the opposition. His team had won four previous games by at least 70 points, and Bloomington had already lost a game by 91.

Days before Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers even suited up for a recent game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an Irishman named Nigel Eccles had collected millions of dollars from people betting on Rodgers’ All-Pro arm. By noon on game day he was raking in $30,000 per minute. By the time Rodgers took his first snap, Eccles had collected $18 million. The action was happening far from the Vegas Strip or a Costa Rican website out of reach of U.S. law enforcement. Eccles’ company, FanDuel, is situated above a storefront in New York City’s Union Square, and its business...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Sprint has informed NASCAR that it will not extend its title sponsorship of the organization's top-tier racing series beyond the current contract, which expires after the 2016 season. Sprint has been the entitlement sponsor for NASCAR's top series since 2004, when Nextel signed a 10-year agreement for the Nextel Cup Series. The name changed to the Sprint Cup Series in 2008 following the corporate merger between Nextel and Sprint.

Ruling to throw out texts damages case against Aaron Hernandez In a surprising and significant decision, Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Susan Garsh ruled on Friday that text messages sent by Odin Lloyd prior to his murder will be inadmissible in the upcoming trial of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez. Garsh’s ruling eliminates a critical piece of evidence against Hernandez and increases the stunning possibility of Hernandez being found not guilty. Jury selection in Hernandez’s trial is scheduled to begin on January 9, 2015.

Cork Gaines December 3, 2014The college football playoff committee has released its latest ranking and it is a terrible sign for the undefeated defending national champions, Florida State. The one big shakeup in the ranking came with TCU jumping up to take the spot in the top four vacated by Mississippi State who lost to Ole Miss. But more importantly, TCU leapfrogged past Florida State who fell to no. 4 after struggling to get by Florida. Here are the new rankings for the seven teams that still have a realistic shot to make the playoff: 1.Alabama 2.Oregon 3.TCU 4.Florida State...

Want to bet on tomorrow's NFL game between Chicago and Dallas? I do. Newspapers and websites all over America tell their readers that Dallas is favored by three points. That's the "spread" posted by bookies. Millions will be bet on that game, and billions will be bet on other games this weekend -- college football, NBA games, NHL matches, UFC events ... Most of these bets are illegal. This is not a good thing. Recently, National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver became the first major professional sports commissioner to endorse legalizing sports betting. In the New York Times, he wrote,...

Minnesotans are currently facing a fast and furious onslaught by the transgender lobby, which seems to be dictating policy to the Minnesota State High School League. The MSHSL decides policy for all extracurricular activities in public, private, religious, and home schools. It’s currently in the process of outlawing all sex distinctions in high-school sports. On December 4, it plans to install an athletic policy granting transgender students the choice to play on either boys’ or girls’ teams. In this scheme, there would be no accounting for sex differences in high school sports on the field or in locker rooms, bathrooms,...

....Dolphins safety Don Jones took to Twitter with inappropriate comments after Michael Sam was drafted by the St. Louis Rams on Saturday. As a result, Jones was fined an undisclosed amount and excused from all team activities, the team announced through a press release Sunday...

The early NFL Thanksgiving game (Lions and Bears) has turned into a liberal lovefest for Detroit's faux renaissance. Phil Simms and Jim Nantz are breathless with their admiration of the so-called "rebirth" of that DemonRAT city. Carefully-staged photos of downtown are then spoken in reverant terms by the announcers. I'm sure See-BS is forcing this narrative. Please Phil and Jim, just shut up about the failed city and focus on the game! Until and unless free-market Conservatism is allowed to flourish in Detroit, it remains a third world cesspool.

American baseball outfielder Giancarlo Stanton reportedly celebrated with a 20,000 dollars bottle of champagne after signing his brand new 325 million dollars contract with his team to become the richest athlete in sports. Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins outfielder was pictured in a hotel in Miami, where he was seen raging around 3 in the morning on Tuesday with his boys and some very attractive ladies. But the best part of the night was when the guy who just signed the LARGEST sports contract in American history was GIFTED a 20,000 dollars bottle of rare champagne, TMZ.com reported.

The Atlanta Falcons aren't dead -- far from it. Mike Smith's team moved into a first-place tie in the lumpy NFC South with a 19-17 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Our takeaways: 1. Give the Falcons credit: They could have folded after Cam Newton led the Panthers on a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives, turning a 16-3 Atlanta lead into a 17-16 deficit. But Matt Ryan led the Falcons back down the field, got the go-ahead field goal from Matt Bryant, then held on defense with the help of Graham Gano, who missed a 46-yard kick, then had...

BETTING on professional sports is currently illegal in most of the United States outside of Nevada. I believe we need a different approach. For more than two decades, the National Basketball Association has opposed the expansion of legal sports betting, as have the other major professional sports leagues in the United States. In 1992, the leagues supported the passage by Congress of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or Paspa, which generally prohibits states from authorizing sports betting. But despite legal restrictions, sports betting is widespread. It is a thriving underground business that operates free from regulation or oversight....

Sports fans who bristle at all manner of anti-capitalist leanings in the political or business world routinely side with leagues and team owners when it comes to capping salaries for players who could and usually should earn far more than they’re making. Sports fans who pair face-painting and American flag lapel pin-wearing suddenly turn into crusty old Bolsheviks when it comes to taking free-market enterprise out of the sports they love.

Trout wins his first MVP.

A student group at UNC called The Real Silent Sam has gotten to the bottom of a scandal involving student athletes. Ian Tuttle of National Review reported. Student Group Says UNC’s Student-Athlete Fraud Is Actually a Result of White Supremacist, Heteropatriarchal Capitalism An enormous academic scandal is not sitting well with some students at the University of North Carolina — but not for the reasons one might think. On Wednesday, UNC student group The Real Silent Sam hosted a “Rally Speaking Back To The Wainstein Report,” expressing disappointment with the recent investigation that found that at least 3,100 students over...

For 18 years, thousands of students at the prestigious University of North Carolina took fake "paper classes," and advisers funneled athletes into the program to keep them eligible, according to a scathing independent report released Wednesday. "These counselors saw the paper classes and the artificially high grades they yielded as key to helping some student-athletes remain eligible," Kenneth Wainstein wrote in his report. Ex-UNC star: Fake classes helped me play UNC report: Thousands took fake classes In all, the report estimates, at least 3,100 students took the paper classes, but the figure "very likely falls far short of the true...

Classic muscle cars like a vintage 1965 Ford Mustang are pretty desirable. World Series tickets, apparently, are even more desirable. That appears to be one man’s thinking, anyway. Kansas City Royals fan Jerod Main has decided to sell his 1965 ‘Stang for $24,000, which might seem like a bargain for such a classic, but it should be enough to cover the cost of tickets for his family of six, which are starting at just over $400, according to a quick Stubhub search. Those prices are subject to change, of course, and tickets might be selling for even more after last...

More than 3,000 students at the University of North Carolina -- nearly half of them athletes -- were enrolled in a "shadow curriculum" over a two-decade period that involved no-show classes and bogus grades, according to a report released by the school on Wednesday. U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein compiled the 224-page report, which the school posted on its website. The report details UNC's former African and Afro-American Studies program, in which hundreds of Tar Heel athletes -- including numerous high-profile basketball and football players -- majored in or took classes from 1992-2011. According to the report, several AFAM...

"Remember how your grandparents would always tell you life was more difficult for them? And how hard they had to work everyday? Turns out they weren't exaggerating in the slightest."

Protesters fight to regain control of a flag that was taken by a fan (right) leaving the Edward Jones Dome after the St. Louis Rams game on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2014. Several fights erupted as fans and protesters mixed after the game. Two arrests were made.Rams fans and Ferguson protesters fought Sunday afternoon outside the Edward Jones Dome after the Rams secured a victory over the visiting Seattle Seahawks. At around 3 p.m. a handful of fans argued with protesters, who were yelling and chanting, near the intersection of North Broadway and Cole streets. The yelling escalated, a fan appeared...

A weary wrestling coach once lamented that his sport had survived the Fall of Rome, only to be vanquished by Title IX. How did an honorable equity law turn into a scorched-earth campaign against men’s sports? This week is the 42nd anniversary of this famous piece of federal legislation so it’s an ideal time to consider what went wrong and how to set it right. MORE Historically Black Colleges Are Becoming More White Report: California Colleges Must Do More to Combat Sexual Violence Friday's Top 6 News Stories NBC News What Happened When One Woman Had Her Picture Photoshopped In...

Opponents of the Washington Redskins’ name in Minneapolis are pulling out all the stops to bar the team from using its controversial name during its November game against the Minnesota Vikings. Now, a city attorney will explore whether the Mill City has the legal authority to ban the name entirely. The decision to look into taking legal action was part of two resolutions recently passed by the Minneapolis city council. The first resolution, which passed unanimously last week, officially condemned “the racist, offensive name of the Washington, D.C. football franchise.” One councilmember said the name is an affront to “a...

On Friday night, a Huntington Beach man, 43, was walking back to his car after the Los Angeles Angels played the Kansas City Royals in the American League Division Series. Three men accosted him, and then proceeded to beat him senseless. He is currently in critical condition at a local hospital after police found him unconscious. I didn't find the story particularly shocking, given that I took my father and two younger sisters to the Angels-Royals game on Thursday night. Throngs packed the stadium -- the team announced the attendance at 43,321. We had bleacher seats, which sold for $68....

Days after liberal-minded symphony attendees sat quietly while direct action protesters disrupted their evening out, red-blooded Americans attending a baseball game in St. Louis went toe to toe with Michael Brown’s defenders. There have been two Michael Brown demonstrations outside Busch Stadium since the shooting in August. Last month attorney/activist Eric Vickers indicated in a letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig that upcoming playoff games in St. Louis have been identified as "protest targets." A few weeks ago, the stadium was the scene of a foiled demonstration. Organizers Sarah Griesbach and Elizabeth Vega, two middle-aged white women who...

This guy right here, the one with "I am Darren Wilson" taped onto the back of his Cardinals jersey—an homage to the Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot an unarmed teenager named Mike Brown to death in August—was at the Cardinals game last night. He, along with many other Cardinals fans, clashed with a small group of protesters who want to see Wilson prosecuted. The guy in the Darren Wilson jersey wasn't even the worst part. Here is a video of some of the protest from last night, via Argus Streaming News. It's rather long, so I'll point out some...

American football player CJ Spillman is being investigated over an alleged sexual assault, police say. The 28-year-old, who plays for NFL side Dallas Cowboys, has not been arrested or charged. The attack allegedly took place at a Texas hotel in the early hours of 20 September, according to Grapevine police spokesman, Sgt Robert Eberling.

Arjen Robben has warned Bayern Munich to prepare psychologically for when they meet CSKA Moscow behind closed doors on Tuesday. The German champions play their Russian counterparts in the UEFA Champions League Group E clash at the Arena Khimki. However, no supporters will be in attendance as CSKA were sanctioned by UEFA in February after fans displayed "a range of racist and far-right symbols" in a Champions League match with Viktoria Plzen last December. The decision has riled Bayern chairman Karl Heinz-Rummenigge, who voiced his frustration that Bayern fans are unable to attend.

It long ago became clear to me that, despite all the pretense, protesting and politicking, no one who has ever seriously thought about equality actually believes in it. When making this case, one could point to how Eric Holder’s DOJ is currently suing the Pennsylvania State Police for treating women equally (how dare they!), but there’s perhaps no better example than a recent BBC writer who asks, “Is sport sexist?” The author, Aimee Lewis, poses the question because there are still sports where the women’s categories don’t precisely correspond to the men’s; for example, she mentions how women gymnasts and...

I know there are a number of Japanophiles out there in Freeperland, who might be able to answer a question I have about the Akibasho, Fall Sumo Tournament in Tokyo, which will conclude early tomorrow US time. As all the sumo followers know, tournaments are 15 days long, with each wrestler having one match, and the wrestler with the most wins being crowned the tournament champion. Hakuho, the top wrestler in sumo, is 13-1 going into the last day of the tournament, but Tochinoshin, who began the tournament as juryo (the sumo equivalent of baseball's AAA), is 14-0. My question:...

Race has been in the news recently, as it should be more than it is. First the tragedy in Ferguson, Missouri captured everyone’s attention, and is still making news. Then a starkly racist email sent by Atlanta Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson brought back the topic of race relations in the NBA where the owners are mostly white and the players black. And then this week psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt won a MacArthur “genius” award for her groundbreaking work on the powerful influence out-of-awareness racial attitudes have in the criminal justice system. Because her research can help us understand troubling news...

Peyton Manning and sex scandal are two things you might never expect to see in the same article. If so, you don’t know about the incident that happened at the University of Tennessee when Manning was the Tennessee Volunteers star quarterback.

Jameis Winston will sit out the entire game and not just the first half of Florida State's showdown against Clemson on Saturday, interim President Garnett S. Stokes and athletic director Stan Wilcox announced late Friday night. Winston was suspended for the first half earlier this week after making "offensive and vulgar" comments about women — the latest embarrassment....

When first I learned that top-ranked Florida State would be suspending quarterback Jameis Winston for one half of Saturday night’s game versus No. 22 Clemson, my initial thought was, Sure, the half when Clemson is on offense. Pardon my cynicism, but we have entered this turnstile before with the Seminoles’ Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback.

During his Wednesday broadcast, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh explained to his listeners how liberalism when overt is a failure in the media and offered various examples of where so-called liberal brands have struggled to achieve success.

The National Football League’s had a tough first three weeks of the season. The league made the news again Tuesday when New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat, introduced legislation that would put an end to the league’s tax-exempt status. Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, also reportedly plans to introduce legislation eliminating the league’s status. While Booker was pushed by the league’s handling of players involved with domestic violence, Cantwell is looking at the the NFL’s lack of force to get Washington to change its highly criticized name. Cantwell, also former chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee...