LESAProject

Earlier this week, HBO Real Sports aired a piece about four former Auburn football players who spoke about receiving cash handshakes during their recruitment and throughout their football careers.  The unlawful conduct spoken about from these former athletes paints a very clear picture of what NCAA sports are all about–Money.I get it. Then again, I've always gotten it.  The NCAA is about money.  It's a business that capitalizes on the success of NCAA athletes and in turn puts a hefty profit into many old men's' tailored suit pockets. It's a system that is far from perfect in one sense, but profitability-wise, ...

  A business trip on April 4 will put me in Washington, D.C. Somehow I am going to make time to go to K Street and see the reporters and observers in front of the building where the NFL negotiations are taking place. Here is the description and mission statement of the organization that is laboring to come to some type of agreement between the NFL players and owners: The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Created by Congress as an independent agency of the U.S. government in 1947, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS)’s primary responsibility is to promote sound and stable labor-management relations ...

It’s amazing how much can change in a single year. Last year, my Dad and I were first row upper deck for the NCAA Tournament. This year, we were first row from the court. If you had the chance to read my tournament trip column from last year, then you’ll understand just how much has actually changed in my life. I’ve got a new job and a new state of residence.  I’m living in my own place without my family or best friends around. Though it’s been a big change, everything has been positive. Not that I wouldn’t want to live closer to my friends or family, but ...

Golf is on the decline in America.  That reality has finally smacked us in the face like a two-by-four. The number of core American golfers (those playing eight rounds or more per year) has fallen between three and 4.5 percent every year since 2006. Since 2007, the number of golf courses closing in America has significantly outnumbered the number of new course being built. This downward trend in American golf is even making its way to the professional level.  In 1986, American golfers made up 60 percent of the Top 100 players in the World Golf Rankings. By the end ...

Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders by Peter RichmondHarper Collins, 2010ISBN-13: 978-0061834301 Love them or hate them, the 1970s Oakland Raiders under John Madden were certainly an entertaining cast of misfits in the guise of one the best professional football teams of their era.  Here, Peter Richmond tells the story of this cast of characters, and characters they were. The distinctive personality of this team that set it apart from all others of the 1970s was the perception that this was a group of outlaws and rebels who thumbed their noses at convention.  Add to ...

Derek Jeter vs. Justin TimberlakeThe two greatest American bachelors still on the prowl today.John Mayer used to give them a run for their money, but women have scorned him since he referenced Jessica Simpson as "sexual napalm."So, let's settle the debate once and for all.Who has dated hotter girls? Jeter or Timberlake?I'll compare their five hottest girlfriends (in my opinion of course) to determine the ultimate winner.Begin Slideshow

The recent spate of concussions in the NHL has prompted a question that has been occasionally raised from time to time: What would happen if a hit were so hard that somebody dies? What do Nodar Kumaritashvili, Steve Moore and all the recent serious NHL injured people have in common? All are human. All are victims. What are they victims of? Two things. Physical contact. And man's hubristic challenge to the world—that he can take anything that can be dished out and keep on going as if nothing as happened. And still worse: No one will take any responsibility. That stance ...

If you want to know why the hobgoblins of 1989’s Field of Dreams refused to allow Ty Cobb to play ball on their ghostly field, you have only to re-watch the classic 1994 movie Cobb, starring the inimitable Tommy Lee Jones. Alas, one was the lovely, tear-jerking movie that men loved to bawl about. The other was an antidote to sugarcoated cotton candy about life and death that Field of Dreams provided. Cobb set many records as a player. In the film written and directed by Ron Shelton and based on Al Stump’s famous biography of the baseball anti-hero, Cobb ...

Any fair weather fan that insults the speedy tandem of Boston Celtics star Rajon Rondo and Boston Red Sox star Jacoby Ellsbury may inevitably face the threat of a necktie party. Their fans are protective, if not defensive. But, once again, an unpleasant word has been whispered in comments online in response to their playing: "Headcases." There is something disquieting and malevolent about the notion that the two young stars could fall under this unfortunate label. If you are not sure what the slang may mean, you have only to consult the Online Slang Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and any other Google ...

The news that Denver Broncos franchise big man Tim Tebow will do underwear modeling and commercials for Jockey strikes a new blow in competitive 21st-century advertising for intimate apparel. Tebow insists that he will take enormous pride in whatever he attaches himself to. You can find him wearing a T-shirt at www.jockey.com at this exact moment. Not since Jim Palmer dared to man up in his undies, and not since Joe Namath unmanned himself in pantyhose, have we had such an opportunity to judge talent. According to ESPN, Tebow has admitted, “It’s not like I am doing something risqué.” Of ...