Some MAGA evangelicals are mad at the Philadelphia Eagles: Let’s start off with some facts The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles have not rejected an invitation to the White House. But that did not stop many conservative evangelicals, looking for […]
football
It’s okay to say “soccer”
The history of the term should reassure us.
Tim Walz’s “three yards and a cloud of dust” campaign.
Tim Walz has been a professional politician for almost twenty years. But it is his fifteen years as a football coach that might make him the next vice president of the United States. Here’s the Knute Rockne part of Walz’s […]
Travis Kelce has a great game despite the vaccine
11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown. Not bad. Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl. Over at the “Lawyers, Guns, and Money” blog, Scot Lemieux writes, “Imagine how good he would have been if he […]
The last time the Detroit Lions were in the NFC championship game it did not go well
The Fea household will have a new member in May. My future son-in-law is a diehard Detroit Lions fan and we have watched him agonize over every game for the past two years. Emmett was not alive in 1992, the […]
Calvin University turns to football to help enrollment
The strategy appears to be working. Check out Liam Knox’s Inside Higher Education piece on small liberal arts colleges that are trying to “bet on new athletics programs” to attract students: Here is the section on Calvin University: Calvin University […]
What happens to the longsuffering Detroit Lions fan if the team starts winning?
I am not a Detroit Lions fan, but I have a future son-in-law who lives and dies with the team. Over the last couple of years I have watched him as the Lions lose yet another game on a last-second […]
The Author’s Corner with Robert Mann
Robert Mann holds the Manship Endowed Chair in Journalism at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication. This interview is based on his new book, Kingfish U: Huey Long and LSU (LSU Press, 2023). JF: What led you to […]
What it was like to be a Black man playing for the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1960s?
Here is Mark Dent at The Washington Post: When Mike Garrett, a Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Southern California, was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1966, the only thing he knew about his new home was the […]
Do American football players need more than prayers?
The nation was shocked when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a recent Monday night football game. For several days the Hamlin story shared top billing in the American news cycle with Kevin McCarthy’s bid for Speaker of the […]
Evangelical roundup: Damar Hamlin and Speaker of the House edition
Here is what evangelical Christians are saying about Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin and the drama that took place today in the House of Representatives: On Hamlin: This is becoming a popular position on the MAGA-loving Christian Right: Lance Wallnau: […]
What happened to the Rose Bowl?
According to California writer Joe Mathews, the Rose Bowl football game is dead. It died from “two chronic diseases–greed and our winner-take-all culture.” Here is a taste of Mathews’s piece at Zocalo: But the Rose Bowl itself—a post-season football game […]
Sports video of the day
RIP Franco Harris.
The “Immaculate Reception” at 50
Current editor Eric Miller will appreciate this post. The Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh is celebrating the history of Franco Harris’s “Immaculate Reception.” Here is a taste of WPXI’s coverage: This December marks 50 years since the greatest play in […]
What the six California Super Bowl stadiums tell us about The Golden State
The Super Bowl has been (or will be) held in: SoFi Stadium (2022) Levi’s Stadium (2016) Stanford Stadium (1985) The Rose Bowl (1977, 1980, 1983, 1987, 1993) Jack Murphy Stadium (1988, 1998, 2003) Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1967, 1973) Here […]
She is a Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader and a Temple University Ph.D student in American history
Shelby Carr has an M.A. history (with specializations in public history and historic preservation) from the University of Colorado and is currently a first-year Ph.D student at Temple. She is also an Eagles cheerleader. She is featured in a recent […]
Big Ben’s Redemption
I grew up a Miami Dolphins fan. (How a kid raised in the New York metropolitan area became a Dolphins fan is a long story, but there are a lot of us out there.) I thus despised the Steelers. As […]
If you watched Sunday night’s Raiders-Chargers game you now know that “football culture is not rational”
On Sunday night I was sitting in a hotel room in New Orleans watching one of the strangest–and most entertaining–football games I have ever seen. I don’t think I have been this riveted to an NFL game since Don Strock’s […]
My first John Madden memory
As a kid I was a diehard Miami Dolphins fan. It is thus tough for me, over 46 years later, to post this highlight video from the 1974 AFC Divisional Playoff: To this day I cannot hear the names Ken […]
Nick Saban rips on “self absorbed” Alabama fans
In case you haven’t seen this yet: Saban is probably right. But as far as “self-absorption” in college sports is concerned, I think there is enough to go around right now.