News

US Should Stop Future Olympic Bids

Oct 3, 2009 - 5:21 PM

COPENHAGEN -- Eleven shots of tequila were lined up across the bar. The guy paying, a member of Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid committee, assured me that he wouldn't be doing all 11 by himself. It was a...

Chicago Aims Big, but at What Cost?

Oct 1, 2009 - 7:00 PM

Editor's note: This is an updated version of an earlier column.COPENHAGEN -- Forgetting the need for prim-and-proper behavior, the staid, stuffy members of the International Olympic Committee broke...

MIA MJ Insulting, But Chicago Endures

Oct 1, 2009 - 10:00 AM

COPENHAGEN -- Oprah is here. Oprah is smiling. Oprah is talking to the Great Danes, both humans and dogs. Oprah is shopping on the Stroget, the world's longest pedestrian street, carrying a colorful...

Night in Mannywood: Fans Blind to Truth

Jul 17, 2009 - 5:23 AM

LOS ANGELES -- Here in Mannywood -- Section 51, Row H, Seat 15, Wig Size M -- no one cares that the hero committed a hideous baseball crime. Nor do they care that a writer from the civilized world is...

Premier Dynasty of Era? Red Wings Making Case

May 24, 2009 - 8:33 PM

CHICAGO -- They are a mind-numbing machine, really, almost monotonous in their dominance, discipline and staying power. Sport in the 21st century isn't conducive to a dynasty lasting a dozen years,...

Ovechkin, Sid the Kid Give NHL New Life

May 10, 2009 - 9:52 PM

WASHINGTON -- There are times, when the house lights are down and the Verizon Center is bathed in red, that Alex Ovechkin seems like much more than a rock star and Charles Barkley's choice as the...

Homers Won't Erase A-Rod's 'Roid Stain

May 8, 2009 - 11:15 PM

BALTIMORE -- Where they make oversized Styrofoam syringes, I'm really not sure. But several fans were waving them Friday night as Alex Rodriguez, charter member of the ever-swelling Superstar Juicers...

Izzo's Best Coaching Job: Quieting Critics

Mar 29, 2009 - 9:19 PM

INDIANAPOLIS -- On his tippy toes, he might be 5-10, very easy to lose in the enormity of a football stadium where faces look like matrix dots and crowd noise drifts to the ozone. But no one strikes...

Worst Job in College Hoops: Kentucky Fried Chaos

Mar 27, 2009 - 8:20 PM

BOSTON -- Tubby Smith is much too dignified to laugh out loud, or LOL in the text-message age. But for all the abuse he took at Kentucky during a decade that was absolutely dreadful -- a national...

Pitt Has Mighty Muscles - Not Stuff to Win

Mar 22, 2009 - 9:04 PM

DAYTON, Ohio -- DeJuan Blair's arms are so humongous, he wears bicep bands, tiny strips of cloth stretched to the brink of snapping. At 6-foot-7 and 265 pounds, he could play tight end in the NFL or...

Caution Advised on Calhoun's Nice Story

Mar 21, 2009 - 10:00 PM

PHILADELPHIA -- Uh, oh. Jeff Adrien was posing for the cameras and woofing, enjoying this blowout a little too merrily. You could say it was a "Yo, Adrien!'' moment in Rocky Balboa's city, and while...