Author Archive

Articles by Robert Weintraub | Email the Author

 

1. Full-Court Press

   ESPN’s unreality-based coverage

   November 16, 2012 10:40 AM

   One of the main takeaways from last week’s election was that conservatives were living in a bubble of delusion, convinced right up until the returns started coming in that Mitt Romney would swamp President Obama in the electoral college. The... Continue reading

2. Full-Court Press

   Cancer made Lance Armstrong hard to hate

   October 26, 2012 11:45 AM

   The final ace was pulled from Lance Armstrong’s house of cards Monday when the International Cycling Union (UCI) stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles—the victories that had ensured his fame, allowed his Livestrong charity to amass... Continue reading

3. Full-Court Press

   Hey coach, lighten up!

   October 12, 2012 07:00 AM

   Steve Spurrier, the wisecrackin’ ol’ ballcoach at the University of South Carolina, has the Gamecocks in rarefied air. After demolishing Georgia last weekend, a team that traditionally stomped Carolina, Spurrier’s squad is undefeated and ranked third in the... Continue reading

4. Full-Court Press

   The future of NFL Films looks bleak

   September 21, 2012 07:10 AM

   Steve Sabol died on Tuesday from brain cancer at age 69. The president of, and artistic sensibility behind, NFL Films since the late 1960s, Sabol essentially created the myth and glamour of the modern National Football League, through the... Continue reading

5. Full-Court Press

   Take one for the team

   September 18, 2012 10:58 AM

   There is so much to love about football’s 24/7 ubiquity on television, but there is one (and only one) downside: the toxic exposure to clichés from the litany of former players and puny communications majors who analyze the game. ... Continue reading

6. Full-Court Press

   Local television and the Dodgers-Red Sox trade

   September 4, 2012 12:26 AM

   The words “local television” conjure images of infomercials, Seinfeld reruns, and lame repartee on cheesy newscasts, infomercials. But local television is also critically important in today’s baseball world, as further proven late last month when the Los Angeles Dodgers <a... Continue reading

7. Full-Court Press

   Drugs and the Olympics

   August 13, 2012 02:56 PM

   The first week of the Olympics is traditionally given over to complaints about NBC’s coverage, as we discussed last week. By the second week, the quadrennial controversy shifts to speculation about the use of illegal drugs by the winners. ... Continue reading

8. Full-Court Press

   ESPN’s Tim Tebow lovefest

   August 6, 2012 11:11 AM

   US sports coverage last week was split neatly into two distinct, Jungian halves, represented by those sportscasting sweethearts, married couple Dan Hicks and Hannah Storm. Hicks works for NBC, and called the swimming competition... Continue reading

9. Full-Court Press

   Sacred cows

   July 25, 2012 02:35 PM

   Full-Court Press is a periodic column about the coverage of sports. On July 12, a report prepared by former FBI Director Louis Freeh at the behest of Penn State University slammed the school for covering up former... Continue reading

10. Short Takes

    Into the Fold

    July 16, 2009 04:39 PM

    Regular watchers of ESPN —that is, all sports fans—may have noticed the network has begun allotting more airtime to the voices of fans. In July, a new show called Sports Nation will “focus on topics that dominate fans’ e-mail exchanges... Continue reading

11. Behind the News

    U.S. 67, Russia 52, Context 0

    August 21, 2008 04:28 PM

    Here is the extent that the powers-that-be in Beijing have been successful at de-politicizing these Olympics: This morning’s U.S.-Russia women’s basketball game, which should have carried all sorts of intrigue and comment, given the two nations’ recent bellicosity over the... Continue reading

12. Behind the News

    Remote Control

    August 15, 2008 04:32 PM

    NBC comes in for bashing from critics, both professional and otherwise, every four years,over its choices of what Olympics action to air, when to air it, and whether the action is live or taped. Beach volleyball isn’t a sport! How... Continue reading

13. Behind the News

    Tiki, Torched

    August 14, 2008 12:14 PM

    Although the NFL season is still a month off, desperate sports fans can get their Tiki Barber fix during the Olympics. The former New York Giant running back has moved on to broadcasting, of course, and when he’s not creating... Continue reading

14. Behind the News

    Booby Prize

    August 12, 2008 04:46 PM

    Contrary to what it may seem, many Olympics fans are interested in more than Michael Phelps’s attempt to chase the record for most gold medals won without benefit of a cheesy porn mustache, or prepubescent girls doing tumbling... Continue reading

15. Feature

    Endangered Species

    July 3, 2008 09:00 AM

    “All I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer.” Those were the self-eulogizing words of Tony Kornheiser upon accepting a buyout from his newspaper home of nearly three decades, The Washington Post, in mid-May. Truthfully, the bon vivant... Continue reading

16. Feature

    Play (Hard!) Ball

    September 25, 2007 09:00 AM

    Last summer, celebrity sports columnist Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote the latest in a series of articles denigrating the Chicago White Sox and its fiery manager, Ozzie Guillen. It was the sort of piece that Mariotti has... Continue reading