Sports Business

My friend, the young radio sports talk show host, tells me I’ve become Mister Softee. He says I have lost my edge. He wonders why I don’t rattle cages like I used to. He says the Indianapolis Colts have to win the Super Bowl this year, and anything less should be considered an abject failure. And I say, poppycock. He says winning a championship is the only measurement of success in professional sports. And I say, baloney. He says if…

I received the best golf lesson of my life recently, and it didn’t cost a dime. My instructor didn’t work on my grip, my stance or my posture at address. He didn’t tell me to keep my head down, my left arm straight or to turn my hips toward the target. We didn’t talk about fluffy, plugged or tight lies. We didn’t talk about reading putts or reading divots. We didn’t work on driving, long irons, short irons, wedge play…

The Indianapolisbased NCAA can be-and usually is-accused of a lot of things. Sticking its big, bureaucratic head in the sand is not one of them, at least not any longer. Say what you will about the organization under the leadership of Myles Brand since he came on board as president 2-1/2 years ago, but he has seen to it that wishy-washy is a term best left at the Laundromat. Academic reform and accountability, student-athlete welfare, a streamlined legislative process, rules…

C H I C AG O – Almost a year ago in this space, I wrote about IU’s then-new athletic director, Rick Greenspan, observing that his arrival coincided with the beginning of football season, which would allow him to be immediately confronted with the Athletic Department’s most pressing and obvious problem. Under Gerry DiNardo, an uninspired choice to begin with, Hoosier football was continuing its mired-in-the-muck ways, hopelessly spinning its wheels. Horrible as a game coach and even worse in…