Chicago -
By David Rutter
Now that the Chicago Bears seem to be hunting for new head coach – and aren’t they always? – their eyes have fallen on Northwestern’s Pat “Mr. Chicago” Fitzgerald.
I know a guy who knows a guy.
Matt Nagy seems to be on the endangered species list for the same flaws that doomed his immediate predecessors.
Fitz wouldn’t even have to move. He already owns a $2.5 million mansion in Northfield.
Posted on December 8, 2020
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
It’s Next McCaskey Up.
Perpetual rebuild perpetuated.
Plus: No Joy In Cubrock.
The dream is over.
Posted on December 7, 2020
Another Beachwood Special Report!
Len Kasper is moving from the Cubs’ TV booth to the White Sox’ radio booth – supposedly because of his all-consuming love of radio.
But the Beachwood Sports Desk has learned otherwise. Our investigation has uncovered the real reasons behind Kasper’s move.
Posted on December 4, 2020
By Chris Knoester/The Conversation
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, college sports have mostly chugged along – albeit with cancellations, postponements and pauses in play.
While many college athletes are grateful for the opportunity to compete, the pandemic has laid bare just how few basic rights they possess.
College athletes are navigating this strange sports season with increased health risks, but with little leverage or say about the conditions under which they’ll play.
In contrast, their professional counterparts in leagues such as the NBA, WNBA, MLB and NFL, thanks to their respective unions, actively negotiated special accommodations, health measures, truncated seasons and the ability to opt out of playing.
They also continually negotiate their economic rights, such as how their sport’s revenue is split up and the minimum and maximum amounts that players may be paid.
Will this unusual season be the one that finally compels the NCAA to grant players broad economic rights, too?
Posted on December 2, 2020
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Outschemed, outsmarted, outeverythinged. Plus: Northwestern Also A Lie; The Fighting Five; The Honeymooners; and Bryant’s Socks.
Posted on November 30, 2020
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Not your father’s punch line. Plus: Artie’s Bulls; Bears Backups; and Theo Not All That.
Posted on November 23, 2020
By Robert Faturechi and Justin Elliott/ProPublica
Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) privately pushed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to give wealthy sports owners a lucrative tax break last year, according to a previously unreported letter obtained by ProPublica.
After the 2017 tax bill championed by President Donald Trump passed, Mnuchin and the Treasury had to write rules on how the legislation would work in practice. Of the hundreds of pages of new regulations the agency developed, Perdue wrote about his concern with one extremely narrow rule: The owners of professional sports teams were being excluded from a valuable tax break being granted to many other businesses that are structured so that the companies don’t pay taxes but the owners do.
“I hope you will reconsider,” Perdue wrote in the 2019 letter.
Posted on November 22, 2020
By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff/The Texas Tribune
Facing restrictive policies prohibiting team sports, the University of New Mexico’s basketball teams have fled their home state, seeking refuge in Lubbock and Amarillo – two of the hardest-hit coronavirus hot spots in Texas.
UNM is relocating both the women’s and men’s teams, hoping to take advantage of laxer COVID-19 restrictions in the Lone Star State.
Posted on November 22, 2020
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Bears buffoonery. Plus: Epstein Exits, Unsatisfyingly; Masters Class; Northwestern Football Is Good This Year; and Mo Better Bulls.
Posted on November 17, 2020
By Human Rights Watch
The Formula One Group’s plans to take its flagship Grand Prix race to Saudi Arabia should be conditioned on freeing imprisoned women’s driving advocates and dropping the charges against them.
Formula One has made human rights commitments, and should explain how the company’s operations will improve human rights in Saudi Arabia. Formula One leaders did not address pervasive Saudi human rights abuses in announcing their partnership last week.
Posted on November 10, 2020
