High School Football Players Across Country Take Knee for National Anthem

Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the national anthem is spreading across the country, and taking root at high school football games.

Common Dreams
By Common Dreams

High school football players across the US followed San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's lead and declined to stand for the national anthem Friday night and Saturday afternoon. It appears that Kaepernick has started a movement with his silent protest during the national anthem during a pre-season game on August 26. Kaepernick said

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Stadium Frenzy Ignores Economics

As the economy bounces back from recession, so is stadium construction in the U.S. The structures cost more than a pretty penny, but few seem concerned about economics.

Erik Hare
By Erik Hare

The roar of the crowd is electrifying and the bubbling solidarity of the fans cheering on their team swells an intoxicating civic pride. The emotional arguments for professional sports are strong, of course, but is there a solid economic case for building sports facilities? The short answer to that question is: rarely. In fact, most cities have

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NFL Teams Boo’ed Over Cheerleader Pay Practices

Professional cheerleading isn’t all pompoms and team spirit — sometimes it’s also $2.85 an hour. With lawsuits being filed, the public is learning about a darker side to the sidelines.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
Super Bowl Football

LOS ANGELES -- For professional cheerleaders, it can hardly get much better than a job with an NFL team. The glitz, glamour and national television exposure attract thousands of women every year to audition for the prized spots, with only 30 to 40 per team being chosen to hold the pompoms. Some, including actresses Teri Hatcher, Sarah Shahi and

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What’s In A Name? Controversy Over NFL’s ‘Redskins’ Heats Up

In recent remarks, President Obama seemed to support those who argue that the football team name is offensive to Native Americans.

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese

The German poet Christian Morgenstern once wrote that “all seagulls look as though their name were Emma.” While the ideological notion -- that what one is is more important than what one is called -- has held sway for centuries in conversations of equality, cultural identity and nationalism, as Morgenstern pointed out, names cast an imediate tacit

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Report: Billionaires Rely On Public Assistance To Build Sports Stadiums

Though often touted as key to a city’s prosperity, expensive sports stadiums are rarely worth the investment.

Martin Michaels
By Martin Michaels

Despite having billions in personal wealth, the owners of professional sports teams are increasingly relying upon taxpayer subsidies to pay for stadiums or renovate existing ones, ThinkProgress reports. Across the U.S., taxpayers have been asked to foot the bill for lavish stadiums that have gone over-budget by some $10 billion in recent

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Grassroots Peacebuilding: Palestinian, Israeli Youth Turn To Sports

After months of building ramps and a halfpipe, the skate park finally opened in Gaza in April.

Martin Michaels
By Martin Michaels

Since the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have remained at a standstill. Illegal settlements are popping up throughout the West Bank and the 1.7 million living in Gaza remain under strict military blockade. Peacebuilding and dialogue has necessarily shifted to the grassroots level, where Palestinians and Israelis

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