Free Republic

Humanity is entertained by competition of all kinds. The pandemic has shown sports fans will find a new way to cheer and chant and boo. It is sometimes underappreciated how new professional sports is as a dominant cultural phenomenon. For the vast majority of human history, sports has been overwhelmingly played by amateurs. And even in America, it is only in the past fifty years that this professionalized version of sport became a route to wealth. Baseball, which has the longest professional sports history in the United States, illustrates this: the average MLB salary is up an inflation-adjusted 3,000 percent...

Full title: LaVar Ball: 'If you want to be a professional athlete, you don't need to spend 50 percent of your time in class' LaVar Ball’s Junior Basketball Association has officially kicked off, and he’s out promoting it constantly. Now, the idea behind his league is solid. It provides his sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo — and countless others — an opportunity to play competitive basketball outside of the NCAA while they make a push to play professionally. It also offers athletes a chance to make money while doing it. Except in a recent interview with SBNation’s Ricky O’Donnell, LaVar gave...

Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane will not face criminal charges after a woman claimed she was raped by the NHL player at his home near Buffalo in early August. Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III released the findings Thursday morning: The Town of Hamburg Police Department and the Office of the Erie County District Attorney have conducted an exhaustive investigation over the course of the past three months regarding allegations made by a 21 year-old woman that 26 year-old Patrick Kane raped her on his bed. The investigative findings include the following:

The Charlotte Observer reported that Henry suffered life-threatening injuries after jumping into the back of a pickup truck during a domestic incident with his fiancée. Police found Henry in the road after receiving a call just before noon, the Observer reported. Paramedics took Henry to a nearby hospital, according to the newspaper.

A brief timeline of the modern National Hockey League. I posted some of these items on a long thread the other day, and I though I'd take the time to build on it some more . . . 1. In 1967, the NHL expands from the "Original Six" teams (which is really a misnomer because the league varied from 4 to 10 teams throughout the first 25 years of its existence from the 1917-18 to the 1942-43 seasons). The Original Six play in their own division, while the new expansion teams -- which include the California Seals, Los Angeles Kings,...

The young and restless Are teen players ready for prime time in NBA? By Anthony Cotton, Denver Post Sports Writer Bounding up to the stage in New York's Madison Square Garden in their custom-made suits, amid hugs and kisses and copious tears from their mothers, the teenagers shook NBA commissioner David Stern's hand. Weeks earlier, they had received high school diplomas; now each could look forward to multimillion-dollar contracts. Stern welcomed LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and six other teens to the NBA on Thursday night with a smile on his face that hid his concern about what his league has...

By Rich Tucker and Gene Frenette Times-Union staff writers A Jacksonville judge has rejected the $5.35 million verdict a jury awarded to former Jaguar Jeff Novak last month, saying Novak failed to prove team doctor Stephen Lucie committed malpractice. "No evidence has been submitted on which the jury lawfully could find and return a verdict for the plaintiff," Circuit Judge Frederick Tygart wrote. Though appealable, the decision is a major setback for Novak because such rulings from trial judges weigh heavily in appellate court deliberations, attorneys say. Novak, reached at his home in Georgetown, Texas, said he will fight the...

Times-Union staff writers In a verdict with potential implications for professional sports, a Jacksonville jury yesterday awarded $5.35 million to former Jaguar Jeff Novak, finding that team doctor Stephen Lucie's negligence cut short Novak's football career. Though the verdict can be appealed, the case could prove to be a watershed, encouraging future malpractice claims by professional athletes against their team doctors. As the clerk read yesterday's verdict against Lucie and the Jacksonville Orthopedic Institute, Novak held his wife's hand while she looked at the jurors and nodded. Lucie showed little emotion and silently exited the courtroom. "I think Dr. Lucie...

WASHINGTON -- Congress is going to look into steroid use in baseball, following the recent disclosure that two former league MVPs used the muscle-building drugs. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Monday he plans to hold a hearing that also will look at steroid use in the Olympics and among college athletes. Dorgan is chairman of the consumer affairs, foreign commerce and tourism subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee. "Everybody knows how damaging use of these steroids are to athletes' health," Dorgan said. "We've got an issue to face as a country, not just among baseball players, but also with college...

Directly beneath Ed Miersch's ivory-towered perch, the Sixers are fighting for their NBA lives. Down two games to one against the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs, they need to win this game or their season will be over. The sellout crowd, sporting Iverson jerseys and Sixers caps, is waving white rally towels, urging the Sixers to victory. They cheer with every basket, groan with every miss, living and dying with each trip downcourt. Miersch, dressed in a suit and tie, occasionally glances down at the action. More often his eyes will swipe the scoreboard just to see...

Filed at 7:51 p.m. ET INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The future of the NCAA is up for debate this week in Indianapolis. On Thursday, the Board of Directors will discuss a series of proposals that could redefine the term ``amateur'' athletics. Then on Friday, the executive committee will begin its search to find a replacement for retiring president Cedric Dempsey. It's a 48-hour period that could dramatically change the governing body does business. ``We're asking the NCAA to move away from one of its founding principals,'' said Ohio State president Brit Kirwan, chairman of the NCAA's board of directors. ``Given that...

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The naming-rights business in professional sports, which hit a peak in the late 1990s, isn't as robust as it used to be. In the most recent case, as the Major League Baseball season begins this week, the Houston Astros are still looking for someone to replace bankrupt energy company Enron Corp. as the naming-rights holder to its stadium. "The doom has occurred," said Brandon Steiner, of Steiner Sports Marketing, Larchmont, N.Y. "The hits, like Enron's bankruptcy, take away from the franchise and the value. In essence, teams are starting to realize that they're sharing their name...