By VladTV

“In this clip, Snoop Dogg talks about starting his youth football league and the impact that it has had over the last decade-and-a-half.
“Snoop also discussed the future of football, particularly due to the groundbreaking CTE research. He believes that teaching the game the ‘right way’ can help prevent many of the brain related injuries that come from football.
“Later on, Snoop revealed that many of the coaches for the Snoop Youth Football League are ex-gang bangers. Snoop talked about the impact that these men and their personal histories have on the youth that they coach on and off the field.”

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Posted on March 21, 2018

By The Windy City Rollers

Join the Windy City Rollers (#25 in the world, #1 in Chicago) in our season opener on March 24 as we begin our road to championships!
Doors open at 5 p/m. At 6 p.m, Third Coast (Windy City Rollers – Chicago, IL) will clash with the South Shore Roller Girls (Hammond, Indiana). Then it’s WCR vs. WCR as the Windy City Rollers All-Stars/Second Wind team splits up and goes head-to-head.

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Posted on March 20, 2018

By Jim Coffman

One sad result of the Sweet 16 run by that local team folks have been talking about is that, going forward, fewer locals will be stumped when asked to identify the only Chicago team to win an NCAA men’s basketball tournament. That trivia question has been almost as good as “What is the second-most popular participatory sport in the world?” The first is soccer, of course. The second is . . . badminton.
The answer to the first question was and is Loyola University. And not only did the Ramblers win it in 1963, they did so with the first title-winning team to feature African-American players. (A few years later, Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso) was the first squad with five black starters to win it all.)
If nothing else comes of the current Ramblers run, fans can celebrate a renewed focus on the program’s shining moment 55 years ago.

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Posted on March 19, 2018

By Rick Eckstein/The Conversation

In a legendary South Park episode lampooning the NCAA, the character Eric Cartman asks a university president if he can purchase some of his “slaves” – er, “student-athletes” – who play men’s basketball.
“How do you get around not paying your slaves?” Cartman wonders.
The outraged university president kicks Cartman out of his office. But if the president were being honest, all he would have to do is utter one name: Walter Byers.

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Posted on March 16, 2018

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Starring Jonah Hill as Bo Rambler. Plus: New Bears Free Agent Haul Replaces Old Bears Free Agent Haul; Score Card; Grimm Reaper; White Sox Boo-Boos; Fire Fail; Tick-Tock, Blackhawks Clock; and Diva Delle Donne.

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Posted on March 16, 2018

By Thomas Chambers

“Hey Lefty, how’s the ol’ ham hock today?”
“Doin’ good Skip. Ready to go.”
After two batters, Lefty starts windmilling his shoulder and shaking his arm, and the Skipper begins to think maybe Lefty was lying to him. But, hey, he’s a competitor!
But Bolt d’Oro, or any other horse for that matter, can’t talk, so trainer Mick Ruis did his yakkin’ for him. Bolt’ will never be called on to testify.
Repeating the mantra he threw out between the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November and Saturday’s San Felipe Stakes (Grade II, 8.5 furlongs, dirt, $400,000), Ruis said Bolt’ (1-1) wasn’t 100 percent for the prep for the Santa Anita Derby.
“Eighty percent, I’d say. Yeah, I’ll say he was about 80 percent,” Ruis said after the winner’s circle photo snap.
If you believe that, and no good horseplayers will, that means he’s a monster. Add the 20 percent and he’ll be invincible, right?
The son of Medaglia d’Oro and the A.P. Indy mare Globe Trot got the 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points that goes to the winner, but he didn’t win the race. Another top Derby contender, Bob Baffert’s McKinzie (3-2), won but was disqualified to second after a magnificent battle from the turn to the wire. Then his rider, Hall of Famer Mike Smith, took another bashing Monday.

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Posted on March 12, 2018

By Jim Coffman

When I was in my 20s, my buddies and I would head to the old Hi-Tops almost kitty-corner to the southeast entrance at Wrigley (Addison and Sheffield) for the first round of the NCAA tournament. This was in the early ’90s.
The games would begin around noon and we would hang in for about five hours of basketball before we would come stumbling out into the early evening setting sun with a decent idea of whether we had a shot at winning our pool that year.

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Posted on March 12, 2018

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Repping Chicago. Plus: Embarrables; Qbit; Schweinsteiger!; Kyle Fuller Is Transitionally It; The White Sox’ $26 Million Man; The Happster; and a Cubs Web Special.

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Posted on March 9, 2018

Another Beachwood Special Report

“After hiring a new coach to turn around the team’s fortunes, the Chicago Bears are making a move of a different kind, announcing plans to move offices from Soldier Field to Wacker Drive,” the Tribune reports.
“The NFL franchise has leased almost 11,000 square feet at 123 N. Wacker Drive, where it plans to move about 30 workers currently based at Soldier Field, the team said. The office is expected to open this summer.
“The deal in the 30-story tower, located in one of the most prestigious pockets of Chicago’s office market, will not affect the football franchise’s Halas Hall headquarters in suburban Lake Forest, where the team has about 185 employees.”
The Beachwood’s I Team has the deets:

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Posted on March 7, 2018

By Larry M. Silverberg/The Conversation

Some 20 years ago, my colleague Dr. Chau Tran and I developed a way to simulate the trajectories of millions of basketballs on the computer.
We went to the coaches and assistant coaches at North Carolina State University, where we are based, and told them we had this uncommon ability to study basketball shots very carefully.
Their first question was simple: “What’s the best free throw?”
Should the shooter aim towards the front of the hoop or the back? Does it depend on whether the shooter is short or tall?

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Posted on March 6, 2018