National Football League owners could be on the verge of a catastrophic error in judgment. In a league that is 70 percent African American, an unapologetic racist is in talks to buy a team. Yes, Rush Limbaugh, along with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts, is close to buying the St. Louis Rams.

A top-ranked tennis player in a moment of rage cursed out a judge and shocked the world, headlining every sports and news program from ESPN to MSNBC. Meanwhile, another champion tennis player hurled expletives at a judge and the media barely yawned.

If you aspire to be a star woman athlete but have no aspirations to appear in Playboy's Women of the Olympics issue, you are far better off being from South Africa than the United States. The Western media's handling of the story of Caster Semenya, the gold-medal-winning 18-year-old South African runner, has been at best simplistic and at worst repellent.

Much as the international practice of buying and selling sports talent hurts the feelings of people who live in poor countries – euphemistically referred to as "developing countries" – is actually part of a much more serious and deep-seated crime that also includes brain drain, the theft of a nation’s artistic and cultural patrimony, unequal exchange, asymmetric integration, migration for economic reasons and many other forms of imperial plundering.

A small army of specialists have been ordered to determine if South Africa's international champion in the women's 800 meter race, Caster Semenya, is really a woman. After her blazing victory and complaints from her international opponents, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ordered a "gender test."

This July, all the boxing news of note has been in the obituaries. Death has visited the sport like a plague, shocking even the most callous observers.

For Henry Paulson and his son Merritt, the taxpayers of Portland, Oregon, must look like geese with an infinite supply of golden eggs.

While in prison, Vick met with the president of the Humane Society of the United States. He also will be working with groups aimed at steering young people away from dogfighting. By all accounts, Vick is profoundly remorseful. And if you had to declare bankruptcy and spend two years in Leavenworth, you would also be feeling a share of regret.

Last Tuesday night, there were as many African American presidents at the All-Star Game as players in the starting lineups.

ESPN's Howard Bryant is without question one of my favorite sports writers. His book Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball is one of the finest pieces of journalism I've ever encountered.

"The right of return." It's a powerful phrase that has been applied to both New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina and Palestinian refugees. It means that forced displacement must be resolved with some sense of justice.

Across most of Major League Baseball (MLB), teams are turning greener than the outfield grass, reports the June 2009 issue of E – The Environmental Magazine. They’re reducing energy consumption, extending recycling efforts, and taking the first steps into renewable energy.

Only in New Orleans could this be classified as "a return to normalcy." The Crescent City, torn asunder by Hurricane Katrina, stamped by federal neglect and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's neoliberal experimentation, will once again collide with the freewheeling, hard-partying frenzy of the NFL's crown jewel: the Super Bowl.

Some folks think the Kentucky Derby is one of the sports world's signature events, where horses are athletes to be appreciated for their power and beauty. Others consider the so-called sport of kings ostentatious nonsense, cruel to the animals and one more occasion for the super-rich to throw their money around.

With a hard-fought 5-3 win against South Korea in 10 innings Monday night, Japan won their second straight World Baseball Classic and remained atop the international baseball world.

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez refused to call himself a cheater when addressing the media Tuesday for the first time since his admission of doping.

Are you ready for the Hard Times Super Bowl? This year in Tampa, the economic meltdown in banking, auto, and real estate has trickled down (or trickled up?) to that Mardi Gras for millionaires.

We have officially entered uncharted waters. Never before in my years of reporting has a sports team been forced to abandon the field of play due to political protest from fans. Never before have fans become the central actors in turning a sporting event into a political melee.

As supporters of Gay Marriage are have discovered, it's never easy to be on the Mormon Church's enemies list. The Church of Latter Day Saints backed the anti-Gay Marriage Proposition 8 in California with out-of-state funds, and gave the right a heartbreaking victory this past election cycle.

In 2008 we are faced with a question: What is the easier path for an African American male, becoming president of the United States or an NCAA Division I football coach? The answer reveals something sordid about college sports, as well as university presidents and the boosters who back them.