A power shift is underway in sports more important than games or seasons. Global protests launched by George Floyd’s murder have helped black athletes’ leverage.
Author: Art Thiel
Art Thiel
Never having met a metaphor he could not twist beyond recognition, Art has been illuminating, agitating, amusing and annoying Puget Sound sports readers for a long time. Along with Steve Rudman, he co-founded Sports Press Northwest because it didnt seem right that the Google monster should aggregate daily journalism into oblivion without at least a flesh wound from somebody. Thiel and Rudman labored under the Seattle Post-Intelligencer globe until the print edition died an undeserved death in March, 2009. Art continued on at its online successor seattlepi.com while working on SPNWs creation. His radio commentaries can be heard Friday and Saturday mornings and Friday afternoon on KPLU-FM 88.9. In 2003 he wrote the definitive book about the Seattle Mariners, Out of Left Field, which became a regional bestseller. In 2009, along with Rudman and KJR 950 afternoon host Mike Gastineau, Thiel authored The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists, a cross between historylink.org and Mad Magazine that has become mandatory reading for any sports fan who has an indoor bathroom. A graduate of Pacific Lutheran University as well as two dead papers and a live one, the News Tribune of Tacoma, he has become a fan of entrepreneurial online journalism because it allows him to continue a lifelong passion to take the English language to places it rarely visits willingly, and does not involve the cleaning of kennels or stables.
Pandemics of coronavirus and racism, a failing federal government, raging unemployment leading to a depression, and MLB can’t figure out how to play nice. D’oh!
Pete Carroll believes players drive the NFL. Nice sentiment, but no. It’s the owners. They cower behind Roger Goodell, unwilling to take personal responsibility.
Despite the pandemic’s spike in Florida, the defending champion Sounders will join the rest of MLS in Orlando for a seven-week tournament. Test kits, everyone?
In his 2018 book, former Seahawks DE Michael Bennett recalls an encounter in Renton of protesters protesting the NFL players’ protests. Therein lies an idea.
A powerful video by NFL players seemed to take Commissioner Roger Goodell hostage. His willingness to speak their words has put him back in Trump’s Twitter range.
Saints QB Drew Brees stepped in it big time this week. Seahawks QB Russell Wilson stepped around it. When pro sports return, the locker rooms will be difficult.
Despair runs deep in Russell Wilson because of “a lot of hate in America” following George Floyd’s murder. Minnesota’s governor thinks it’s the final chance for a fix.
LB Bobby Wagner took to the streets to see for himself. He discovered racism and covid-19 are alike: They sicken many, kill some and there’s no vaccine for either.
Plotting a comeback on the field, Seahawks’ second-year DE L.J. Collier also wonders how many more African Americans must die at the hands of police.