Choreography and Improv
by Peter J. LeithartDespite 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 »
Therapeutic Culture
by The EditorsThe First Things Podcast, Episode 19. Featuring: Philip Rieff’s The Triumph of the Therapeutic and the 2016 season in college football. Continue Reading »
Baseball: Practices for Coming Home
by Jeffrey BilbroThe American pastime offers a balm for our restless, competitive, and often militaristic culture. Continue Reading »
March Madness? Just Say No
by Gilbert MeilaenderA 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 »
A Lost Chapter from Herodotus Concerning the Super Bowl
by Kaitlyn LandgrafAnd 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 »
Sporting Transcendence
by Richard J. MouwRecently 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 »
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 »
Remembering Number 84
by George WeigelHe 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 »
On College Football (and Blaming ESPN)
by Mark BauerleinThe season ends in a few days, the first year of a playoff, and TV ratings will be astronomical. For real lovers of the game, though, the ones with an historical sense of things, it’s getting difficult to watch. How can you appreciate the contest when so much bad behavior by players happens? Continue Reading »
America's most
influential
journal of
religion and
public life
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
influential
journal of
religion and
public life
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
Filter Tag Articles
Subscribe Today!
