US college football players seek union representation

Athletes stand up against multi-billion dollar sports cartel

EPSN (Jan. 28) – For the first time in the history of college sports, athletes are asking to be represented by a labor union, taking formal steps on Tuesday to begin the process of being recognized as employees, EPSN’s “Outside The Lines” has learned.

Premier League’s unlevel playing field

Even while top soccer players in Britain, such as Arsenal FC’s Mesut Özil, are regularly paid 180,000 pounds a week, the workers employed at club stadiums struggle to make ends meet, a new report says | Ronnie Macdonald / Wikimedia Commons

By GEORGE LAVENDER*

In These Times (Jan. 21) – SOCCER is big business in Britain, but not everyone who works in the Premier League benefits from that prosperity. According to a recent report by the community organization coalition Citizens UK, even while chief executives make millions, workers who cater, clean and provide security for top soccer clubs are getting paid minimum wage. Right now, the report says, many employees at stadiums around the country are earning £6.31 an hour – well below the estimated national living wage of £7.65.

Notes on thuggery

All the outraged people screaming about the NFL Seattle Seahawk’s cornerback Richard Sherman should watch a professional hockey game sometime. Lots of white “goons” beating each other bloody is just good sport or “Canada’s game.” When the African-American athlete shoots his mouth off, he’s a “thug” or a N—.

By SAM SMITH*

Undernews (Jan. 23) – I’d like to cut a deal with Richard Sherman. I won’t compete for his gig if he doesn’t compete for mine.

After a controversial, robust interview following the NFC championship game, Sherman offered some additional thoughts. Reports Travis Waldron in the liberal Think Progress:

Richard Sherman on Wednesday said that the only thing that he regretted about his fiery post-game interview after the NFC Championship on Sunday was that it distracted the media and fans from the play of his teammates and the victory he’d earned.

But that wasn’t all that bothered him. So, too, did the fact that so many fans and media figures were quick to brand him a “thug.”

British sportswomen: Glamour holds greater sway than their deeds

The triathlete Hollie Avil announced her retirement before the 2012 Games, citing an eating disorder which she said began as a teenager after a coach made an unguarded remark about her weight. Photograph: PA Wire/PA Photos

By ANNA KESSEL

Guardian (Jan. 17) – BRITAIN’S elite sportswomen fear that the way they look is judged to be more important than what they achieve in their sporting careers, according to a survey published on Friday.

BT Sport, who commissioned the report following Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington’s tearful admission about her body insecurities on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, collated responses from 110 elite British sportswomen across 20 sports on the subject of body image. Despite the successes of women’s sport at London 2012, where Britain’s women alone could have finished seventh in the medals table above Australia and France, society’s obsession with how sportswomen look has had a damaging impact on many of the nation’s leading stars.

What is the matter with USA baseball?

Peter C. Bjarkman –Everyone has been asking me all week – “what is wrong with Cuban baseball since the Cubans were not able to make the WBC finals?” Well I have a question in response – what is the matter with USA baseball if the MLB-studded American team can not make the WBC finals? I hope everyone noticed that the USA (3-3) had a worse record in this year’s Classic than Cuba (4-2), and the Americans also have a poorer overall record in the composite three WBC tournaments combined than do the 13-7 Cubans.