Holy Madness

by Kenneth Colston

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament brings out the fanatic in every fan, and inspires behavior puzzling to the uninitiated. Continue Reading »

15 Mar 2018

A New Lenten Discipline

by George Weigel

For Lent 2016, I adopted a new Forty Days discipline in addition to intensified prayer, daily almsgiving, and letting my liver have its annual vacation: I quit sports talk radio, cold turkey. Continue Reading »

8 Mar 2017

Choreography and Improv

by Peter J. Leithart

Despite appearances, jazz and baseball are historically intertwined. Baseball players and jazz musicians both strive for a perfect balance between disciplined practice and spontaneity. Continue Reading »

24 Feb 2017

Therapeutic Culture

by The Editors

The First Things Podcast, Episode 19. Featuring: Philip Rieff’s The Triumph of the Therapeutic and the 2016 season in college football. Continue Reading »

13 Dec 2016

Baseball: Practices for Coming Home

by Jeffrey Bilbro

The American pastime offers a balm for our restless, competitive, and often militaristic culture. Continue Reading »

30 Aug 2016

March Madness? Just Say No

by Gilbert Meilaender

A recollection from my childhood: In the (relatively) small Midwestern town in which I grew up, many businesses would close on Good Friday from noon to 3:00 p.m. More than a few of the employees would spend that time in church before returning to work for what remained of the afternoon. At the time . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Mar 2016

A Lost Chapter from Herodotus Concerning the Super Bowl

by Kaitlyn Landgraf

And in the distant empire of Usa there is a strange custom that takes place once per year among the barbarians of that land, which occurs in the following manner. It is a winter festival to the god of Foo Tball, as the inhabitants of that land call him. Throughout the year, the strongest and most . . . . Continue Reading »

5 Feb 2016

Sporting Transcendence

by Richard J. Mouw

Recently I got quite caught up in a football game on television. It was a close match right to the very end. And in a dramatic finish the college team I was rooting for pulled off the victory. Watching it was a good way of spending a few hours. I did not experience any self-transcendence, however. . . . . Continue Reading »

28 Sep 2015

The Faith of Arthur Ashe

by William Doino Jr.

When ESPN named its courage award after the late Arthur Ashe, they could not have made a better choice. World class tennis champion, educator and advocate for the oppressed, Ashe personified grace and dignity, especially during his final days.At the age of seven, Arthur picked up a racket for the . . . . Continue Reading »

15 Jun 2015

Remembering Number 84

by George Weigel

He scored forty times in an eight-year NFL career, best known, now, for the touchdown he didn’t score, as the sun set over Yankee Stadium on Dec. 28, 1958. His wife of fifty-nine years, Joan, said that Jim Mutscheller, who died on April 10, wanted to be known as a man “who had led a good life,” for he was “quiet, humble, and so conservative that he’d eat crabs with a suit and tie on.”And therein lies a tale—and a yardstick by which to measure pro sports then and now. Continue Reading »

29 Apr 2015