Free Republic

Major League Baseball says the Cleveland Indians will stop using the Chief Wahoo logo on their uniforms starting in the 2019 season. The league says the logo, which features a smiling Native American, is not appropriate for field use. It has had discussions with the Indians in hopes that the franchise move away from the logo, which had been used in some capacity for the franchise since the 1947 season and was still prevalent on the team's baseball caps and on its uniforms. "Major League Baseball is committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion throughout the game,” MLB...

....NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been open about his willingness to embrace the practice. He wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in 2014 in which he advocated for the legalization of sports betting. "In light of these domestic and global trends, the laws on sports betting should be changed," Silver said, citing sports betting’s popularity both among fans in the United States and throughout the world. "Congress should adopt a federal framework that allows states to authorize betting on professional sports....

A group representing thousands of America's veterans says the NFL "censored" an ad the group wanted to run in the programs sold at next month's Super Bowl. The ad targeted football players for protesting during the national anthem. AMVETS National Commander Marion Polk tweeted Monday night that the group "will not tolerate" the NFL's censorship after the group says the football organization refused to print an ad urging players to "#PleaseStand" during the Feb. 4 championship

SIERRA VISTA — For years, wrestling was always seen as a men’s sport. But that’s no longer the case. Girls across Cochise County are breaking that stereotype one half nelson at a time — and doing it well. Lyla Pacheco is a freshman at Buena High School and a junior varsity team member on the school’s wrestling squad. She is one of three girls on a team made up of more than 50 players. Though she’s a freshman, Pacheco is no newcomer to the sport. She started her wrestling career in junior high school because she said she wanted to...

The NFL protests were not really about injustice. Instead such protests are usually genuflections to today’s victim-focused black identity. Protest is the action arm of this identity. It is not seeking a new and better world; it merely wants documentation that the old racist world still exists. It wants an excuse. For any formerly oppressed group, there will be an expectation that the past will somehow be an excuse for difficulties in the present. This is the expectation behind the NFL protests and the many protests of groups like Black Lives Matter. The near-hysteria around the deaths of Trayvon Martin,...

Simone Biles, the golden girl of the 2016 Olympics, added her name Monday to the list of gymnasts who say they were molested by team doctor Larry Nassar. The revelation came in a long statement on her social media accounts — one day before a weeklong sentencing hearing where Nassar will hear from nearly 100 victims. "Most of you know me as a happy, giggly and energetic girl. But lately...I've felt a bit broken and the more I try to shut off the voice in my head the louder it screams," Biles wrote in a #metoo post. "I am not...

According to SportsBusiness Daily, the ratings for all four games fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade.

Keith Jackson, who was widely regarded as the voice of college football by several generations, died late Friday night, his family said. He was 89. Jackson, who retired in 2006, spent some 50 years calling the action in a folksy, down-to-earth manner that made him one of the most popular play-by-play personalities in the business. "For generations of fans, Keith Jackson was college football," said Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. "When you heard his voice, you knew it was a big game. Keith was a true gentleman and memorable presence. Our thoughts and prayers go...

Trump attends NCAA football championship game The president stands for national anthem at championship game between Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs.

Saturday's NFL Playoff games down over 10% Year over Year.

The obituary published in the Sandusky Register says Paul Stark, of Huron, died Wednesday at a hospice facility after a brief illness "exacerbated by the hopeless condition of the Cleveland Browns." The football team was 1-15 last season and 0-15 this year ahead of Sunday's finale at Pittsburgh. Even so, Stark's obituary included a nugget of the optimism voiced by some long-suffering fans. It says the 80-year-old Mansfield native "passed just before the Browns were prepared to turn the corner."

Capping a season of record-low Monday Night Football ratings, ESPN’s first Christmas NFL game in 11 years was a lump of coal. Raiders-Eagles scored a 5.9 rating and 11.7 million viewers on ESPN’s Monday Night Football Christmas night, down 42% in ratings and 38% in viewership from Week 16 last year (Cowboys-Lions: 10.1, 18.9M). ESPN’s Nielsen ratings now include streaming viewership on TV devices; comparisons are to last year’s TV+streaming numbers. The Eagles’ win, which peaked at a 6.7 and 13.4 million from 9:30-10 PM ET, was the lowest rated Week 16 MNF game since Broncos-Chargers on Christmas Eve 2007...

Forty-five years ago today, baseball fans woke up to the news that the Pittsburgh Pirates’ star outfielder Roberto Clemente had been killed in an airplane crash on December 31 on his way to Nicaragua to deliver disaster relief after an earthquake. A few months earlier, on September 30, 1972, Clemente had pulled a curveball from New York Met and Rookie of the Year Jon Matlack into the gap for a double. It was his 3,000th hit, and he had become only the 11th player in nearly a century of Major League Baseball to reach that milestone. It was also the...

How can the same problems repeatedly doom one team? How can mental mistakes so consistently outshine physical talent? This season didn’t get away from the Seahawks — the Seahawks pushed it away. This wasn’t about injuries. The Seahawks might have lost some premier players, but that’s not why their season ended before the New Year. It wasn’t about bad breaks, either. As far as favorable bounces go, the football gods weren’t particularly unjust to Seattle this season. No, the Seahawks missing their first postseason since 2011 is primarily due to this: underachievement. They aren’t going to the playoffs because, quite...

Americans have long since broken free of their Puritan past, but the Puritan impulse is not quite dead. Among the places it shows signs of life is the 1992 federal law that prohibits states from -- you are not going to believe this -- allowing betting on sports. If a Martian arrived today, of course, she would deduce that in this country, betting on sports is not forbidden but mandatory. In practice, it's as American as Dunkin' Donuts. March Madness costs businesses an estimated $4 billion a year in lost productivity, and it's not because employees waste time singing their...

The embattled National Football League announced its decision to cancel this week’s edition of ‘Sunday Night Football’ on Tuesday; hoping to avoid a ratings bloodbath as a less-than-stellar line-up and New Year’s Eve festivities would have caused the NFL to reach embarrassing new lows. The league opted to call-off the game before announcing which teams were scheduled to compete, adding the match-up wouldn’t have playoff implications and would likely cost the already troubled organization millions of dollars. “We felt that both from a competitive standpoint and from a fan perspective, the most fair thing to do is to schedule all...

SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich offered a simple reason Tuesday before the team's tipoff against the Brooklyn Nets when asked why charitable endeavors are important to him. "Because we're rich as hell, and we don't need it all, and other people need it," Popovich said. "Then, you're an ass if you don't give it. Pretty simple." Having spent considerable time and money working with several charities and nonprofits such as the San Antonio Food Bank and Shoes That Fit, with which he partnered in October to deliver shoes to more than 200 students at Gates Elementary,...

“What’s stopping Colin Kaepernick from being in the league?” Owens said to TMZ Sports. “Owners, general managers, it’s all about an opportunity. Same thing with Colin. You trying to tell me that he can’t play in the league right now?

We’re quickly approaching New Years, which is traditionally a time for reflection on the events of the past year and plans for how to do better over the next twelve months. That’s particularly true for the NFL, which has seen both its television ratings and live attendance in many stadiums plunge precipitously in 2017. As the Washington Times reports this week, the leadership in the league is busy analyzing precisely what caused all of this and how they might address it in 2018.Your first guess might logically be that the National Anthem protests were a big driving factor. That was...

Papa Johns’ founder John Schnatter will step down as CEO following an intense backlash sparked by his criticism of NFL players protesting the National Anthem. The company’s president, Steve Ritchie, will take over as CEO. Business Insider reports: Schnatter sparked controversy in November when he slammed NFL leadership over the ongoing national anthem protests. “Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership,” CEO John Schnatter said in a call with investors. […] Schnatter owns roughly 25% of Papa John’s, and will stay on as chairman after stepping down as CEO in January. According to a...