As some 65,000 unmasked fans flooded the stands of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay on Thursday, the National Football League (NFL) season kicked off with quite a bang. The classic Buccaneer cannons rang out with each touchdown scored — and there were a lot of them! In the end, the Bucs (and the refs) stole one in the dying seconds from a Cowboys team that gave it their all. Final score: 31-29...
A look into the team’s ascension to greatness and its heydays Part 1: Establishing an identity and a winning culture As a die-hard supporter of the Toronto Blue Jays who has followed the baseball club for nearly three decades, I believe they have come a long way since playing their first ever regular season game at Exhibition Stadium on April 7, 1977 when the field was covered with snow...
What the Experience of One Sports Journalist Can Tell Us About Media in Canada On February 15th 2014, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punched his fiancée in the head in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino, knocking her unconscious. The casino’s cameras captured the incident, the details of which became known to the Ravens mere hours later. Sometime thereafter, the National Football...
Are sports leagues going to continue the current pattern of ever-increasing revenues, or will the current sports economic system come crashing down under its own weight? There is no denying that sports is big business. The NBA just signed a new television deal for 24 billion dollars over nine years. The NHL Canadian television deal was for 5.2 billion dollars, and is now suggested to have been...
Both Roger Goodell and Adam Silver have recently had to deal with public relations disasters. Former NBA owner Donald Sterling’s phone conversation with his then-“friend” V. Stiviano revealed him to be a racist. A particular hot button issue bothering Sterling was Stiviano having taken a photo with former Laker Magic Johnson and posting the photo on Instagram. Sterling was apparently outraged...
A group of former National Football League (NFL) players made headlines in April 2011, when they filed a federal lawsuit against the league alleging that the league’s negligence contributed to their suffering repeated concussions over the course of their careers. Since then, over 4,800 former players have joined the suit, including former stars such as Jim McMahon and Bruce Smith. The players’...
The Toronto Blue Jays, in a surprise twist, have just announced that they will not be playing a second baseman, despite initially confirming Ryan Goins as the opening day starter at the position. In a press conference, General Manager Alex Anthopoulos said, “Out of desperation we named Ryan Goins the starting second baseman. The previous year we signed Macier Izturis with the expectation that...
This is the second of two parts of an Olympic post-mortem (read the first part here), in which I arbitrarily assign ranks to the participating countries. Following the 2012 Summer Games in London, I published a story in the Obiter declaring Grenada to be the Winner of the Olympics. I realize that this was an arbitrary designation, but it was not entirely unfounded. I developed a method of...
In this, the first of a two-part Olympic post-mortem, I take a historic opportunity to bloviate at length about Canada’s forgotten talent. I’m not going to explain the game. If you want to know how to curl, take the 90 seconds to look it up on Wikipedia. To an outsider, cricket and American football are difficult to understand, but there’s no use pretending that the roaring game is hard to learn...
A few weeks ago, Citlally Maciel wrote an article on these pages describing, among other things, the National Football League’s (NFL) history of condoning “acts of homophobia, bullying and discrimination” amongst its executives and players. No one could have predicted how timely this article would prove to be, as the league’s collective attitude towards tolerance, respect, and acceptance is...
To be honest, I am not a fan of football. I have tried getting into it, but I just do not have the attention span necessary to sit through even one entire game, let alone an entire season. In fact, being a true fan requires more than watching one’s favourite team play. One must also watch all the other teams play to know how they compare to one’s favourite team. The idea behind this...
EVAN IVKOVIC <Staff Writer> For Chris Bosh, his dream of headlining a major motion picture is finally coming true. Bosh, harnessing his knack for looking like a dinosaur, is headlining the new Jurassic Park movie as a brachiosaurus. Bosh informed reporters: It was either this or a movie where I play an ostrich that learns to love his owner. There was also a promising role as a giraffe...
ANDREW CYR
<Sports Editor>
Of all the major professional sports, NFL football may be the least predictable.
DANIEL STYLER
<Staff Writer>
During my early elementary school days, my wardrobe almost exclusively consisted of sports-related clothing.
DANIEL STYLER
<Staff Writer>
Prior to the end of the indefensible NHL lockout, I wrote that the work stoppage had forced me to quit the Toronto Maple Leafs in a way that I couldn’t have done myself, and that I was happy with it.
DANIEL STYLER
<Staff Writer>
According to the NCAA, college athletic programs in the United States generate $6.1 billion from ticket sales, radio and television receipts, alumni contributions, guarantees, royalties, and NCAA distributions.
DANIEL STYLER
<Contributor>
I made a comically large bet with a co-worker this past summer that Tiger Woods wouldn’t break Jack Nicklaus’ record for major wins.
Andrew Cyr
<Sports Editor>
From January 3-7, 2013, Osgoode sent a contingent of 27 of its boldest and bravest to represent the school at the Canada Student Law Games hosted by Windsor Law. At most law schools, Law Games is an event that needs no introduction.
ANDREW CYR
<Sports Editor>
During the NHL lockout, many hockey fans claimed that they would seek retribution for what the NHL and the Players’ Association did to them.
DANIEL STYLER
<Staff Writer>
The Kentucky Wildcats are the defending champions in NCAA Basketball. What is happening at the University of Kentucky, though, goes beyond winning championships.
ANDREW CYR
<Sports Editor>
As the temperatures drop and the days get shorter, many people’s thoughts shift to the splendor of fall foliage, changes in their wardrobe, and the inevitable approach of winter (and exams). For me, however, the cold, crisp, autumn air means just one thing. It’s football season.
DANIEL STYLER
<Staff Writer>
In 2004, I was significantly younger than I am now. I was at that stage where sports probably mean a little bit too much, and whether my favourite teams won or lost felt like the end of the world.
DANIEL STYLER
<Staff Writer>
In Major League Baseball, there is only one situation where replay is permitted to review an umpire’s decision: on debatable home runs, where it is unclear whether or not the ball actually went over the fence.
DANIEL STYLER <Contributor> Yunel Escobar, the talented but underperforming shortstop for the last-place Toronto Blue Jays, has been suspended by the team for three games for having the Spanish words “tu eres maricon” written in his eye black. These words, translated to English, mean the following: “you are a faggot.” A few weeks earlier, Scott Diamond, a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins...