Sports

Californians will be surprised to learn that the income-tax increase voters approved in November was, according to Doug Ferguson at the Associated Press (HT Steven Greenhut at Reason.com), "the first tax increase in the state since 2004." I had no idea that residents of the once-Golden state have been so lucky in avoiding any tax increases of any kind for so long. (/sarc) It would appear that…

Joe Scarborough was a voice in the politically-correct wilderness this morning on the subject of women in combat.  On today's Morning Joe, as other panelists voiced unerring if occasionally cautious support for the Pentagon's decision to permit women in combat, Scarborough sounded a stern warning note. "I'll be damned; if we find out that the Pentagon is lowering standards for politically-…

There were eight coaching changes in the National Football League during the past few weeks. It must be assumed in the absence of contrary evidence that each franchise's owners made their choice based on who they believe has the best chance to take their team to the playoffs and Super Bowl. The "problem" is, according to league's human resource people (are those really full-time jobs?) and…

ESPN has parted ways with Rob Parker, a commentator for the sports network who caused a national controversy by saying that Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III is “not one of us” and only “kind of black” because he is engaged to a white woman and is rumored to be a Republican. Parker made those comments on December 13 and was suspended by ESPN for 30 days. Parker apologized for…

Two veteran DC area sports talk radio hosts, ESPN980's Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban, were suspended, on Tuesday, for making fun of Gabrielle Ludwig, a 6-6, 50-year-old former male college basketball player, who came back to play the woman's game. According to the Washington Post's Dan Steinberg, the two were suspended for engaging in a discussion last week about the fairness of a transsexual…

Two days following his controversial comments on the “gun culture” in America, Bob Costas appeared on MSNBC’s Last Word w/ Lawrence O’Donnell to not only defend himself but to double-down on his statement during Sunday night's halftime coverage of Sunday Night Football. O’Donnell, who announced that he loved the Costas tirade and the Jason Whitlock column which prompted it, provided Costas…

On MSNBC's The Ed Show Monday night, New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden defended NBC sportscaster Bob Costas's controversial comments, made during halftime of an NFL game Sunday night, on the murder-suicide committed by Kansas City Chief player Jovan Belcher, even agreeing to the idea that the NFL commissioner try to ban players from owning guns. Costas had quoted an anti-gun…

In a video posted at the Daily Caller by Jeff Poor (HT Hot Air), Fox News's Greg Gutfeld went after Bob Costas's opportunism and hypocrisy on gun rights in the wake of the Jovan Belcher tragedy. He also took on Jason Whitlock's inexcusable characterization of those who believe that the Constitution's Second Amendment means what it says and insist that our government continue to act as if it does…

You could see this one coming and hardly a surprise that it came from Ed Schultz. On his radio show yesterday, Schultz was talking with a caller about Kansas City Chiefs' linebacker Jovan Belcher killing his girlfriend and committing suicide over the weekend when Schultz made a predictable suggestion (audio) --

Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath called out NBC's Bob Costas on Monday's Piers Morgan Tonight for gratuitously inserting his pro-gun control views into a NFL telecast: "As a football fan, I'm not up to that kind of a halftime take. There is a time and a place for it, and I wasn't pleased about that." Namath also hinted that gun control efforts were ultimately futile because of humanity's…

Jim Axelrod filed a completely one-sided report on Tuesday's CBS This Morning linking the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide to a lack of gun control inside the NFL  – and in the country in general. Axelrod turned to only pro-gun control advocates as talking heads – Brady Center flack Marcellus Wiley, NBC's Bob Costas, and New York Times sportswriter William Rhoden. Rhoden blamed the widespread…

New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow isn’t even a starter, but the media still can’t resist taking potshots at him. “Good Morning America” ran a chirpy segment about Tebow – the backup quarterback for the New York Jets – being anonymously ripped by his teammates. In the opening segment of Friday's Good Morning America, Amy Robach teased a Nov. 15 segment on the Jets quarterback by questioning…

As far as Joe Kernen of CNBC's Squawk Box is concerned, the word 'virgin' and Tim Tebow  are synonomous. Apparently, there can be no conversation about Tebow without bringing it up in a mocking manner for what is essentially a deliberate and faith-based decision. In an interview with New York Jets owner Woody Johnson on Wednesday morning, the conversation transitioned from politics to…

The Washington Post Sports section on Wednesday turned political with an article headlined "Wisconsin governor fumbles on Twitter: Walker sees collective bargaining in a new light after Packers' loss." Would the Post actually fail to recognize the difference between private-sector unions and public-sector unions, the subject of Walker's reforms? Yes. Strangely, the author wasn't a sports…