Dave Zirin

This wasn’t supposed to happen in Barack Obama’s America. We were told that these sorts of prosecutions wouldn’t be the priority of an Eric Holder Justice Department. But just as Guantánamo Bay detention centers and military tribunals have remained in place, the perjury witch-hunt trial of Major League Baseball’s home run king, Barry Lamar Bonds,…

Gonna find a way Make the state pay Lookin” for the day Hard as it seems This ain’t no damn dream Gotta know what I mean It’s team against team“Public Enemy, By the Time I Get to Arizona This will be the last column I write about the Arizona Diamondbacks in the foreseeable future. For…

In searching through all the historical and media data at my disposal, I can’t find one solitary example of a professional athlete suffering two entirely disconnected accusations of sexual assault over one eight month period. Enter Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, our very own Jackie Robinson of misogyny, arrogance and entitlement. This is a man…

“I became aware of my racial identity on my first day of school, on my first day of kindergarten. A group of sixth graders tied me to a tree, spray-painted the word “nigger” on me, and threw rocks at me. That was my first day of school. And the teacher really didn’t do much of…

Note: This column is 200 words shorter than usual because Billy Hunter lost 25% of it in the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The world be an incrementally better place if the Detroit Pistons had won the NBA championship. I believe this even though their Game Seven loss to the Spurs meant that we’ve been…