It’s 6:30 a.m. on a Monday, the November sun is just rising over Percival-Molson Stadium, and I’ve already been up for an hour so I can practice Lacrosse with my teammates. Based on the inconvenient timing, you wouldn’t know that my team represents McGill across North America. Some of the[Read More…]
Behind the Bench
Behind the Bench: Athletes as activists
Following weeks of protests over racial tensions at the University of Missouri, dozens of members of the school’s football team announced that they would not practice or play in any games until members of the university administration resigned. Within days, the president of the multi-campus university system stepped down, and[Read More…]
The NHL has a character crisis
“Character” and “leadership” are terms thrown around a lot in professional hockey. Hockey culture expects players to fit into a specific mold of physical and mental toughness, applauding those who play through pain and injuries. Unfortunately, these expectations can condone violent, harmful behaviour while castigating players for things outside of[Read More…]
Behind the Bench: Ladies in the locker room
Misogyny is alive and thriving in the boys clubs of sports and sports journalism. Three female reporters were temporarily barred from entering the Jacksonville Jaguars’ locker room after the team’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts by an usher who, according to Graham Watson of Yahoo Sports, was unsure whether women[Read More…]
Behind the Bench: Just don’t let it be a tie
The very last tied game in NHL history was played between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers on April 4, 2004. It was anything but slow. The Hurricanes took an impressive 4-0 lead in the first period before allowing six unanswered goals to start out the third. Carolina recovered[Read More…]
Behind The Bench: A September to remember for Marcus Stroman
The last time the Toronto Blue Jays were atop the AL East this late in the regular season, the European Union did not exist, Billboard’s No. 1 song was Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” and Liam Neeson was nominated for an Academy Award. Since the transcendent 1993 World[Read More…]
Behind the Bench: Deflategate – More than just hot air
The NFL clearly loves scandals. American Football’s pantheon appears to thrive off the infamy of its improprieties and missteps. It is stunning that a corporation with financial access to the best lawyers, publicists, and advisors in the world can have a punishment policy that seems to equate domestic abuse and[Read More…]
Behind the bench: Hanging ’em up
There is a saying that athletes die twice. Once in retirement and the other time just as we all do. Patrick Willis rejected that idea when he announced his retirement from football at the relatively young age of 30. “Retired doesn’t mean you’re dying, it means you’re putting something to[Read More…]
Behind the bench: Mourinho, soccer’s witch doctor
Henry Winter of the Daily Telegraph once said, “When [José] Mourinho walks into a press conference, he makes Machiavelli look like an innocent schoolboy.” It’s a hyperbole, but it’s not untrue. Over the course of his illustrious career, Mourinho—the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’—has turned every team that he has coached into[Read More…]
Behind the bench: Nothing but Nets
As long as I have been watching the NBA, I have been a New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets fan. Yes, those Nets. The team that has had a cumulative .447 winning percentage since the 2003-2004 season, the year I started following them. However, this is also the franchise that was purchased by[Read More…]
