1. “Ronnie O’Sullivan studies his hands with a wry smile. These are the hands of The Rocket, the hands of a sporting magician and the best snooker player in history but O’Sullivan spent the morning bunching them into fists in a boxing gym. “I don’t mind if they get hurt,” he says on a sunny afternoon in Chigwell, Essex, “because I wouldn’t have to play in the world championships then.”
Snooker great Ronnie O’Sullivan was typically candid when he spoke to Donald McRae of The Guardian earlier this week.
2. “The gilded impression of the Saturday 3pm kick off is absolute nonsense and so is everything that goes with it. The handwringing. The notion that something about football is lost if a game doesn’t kick off at 3pm on a Saturday. That it means something deeper and more significant. Saturday 3 is sacrosanct, enshrined in law to protect the noble game and the noble time from the ignoble broadcast.
Is the Premier League’s insistence on Saturday 3pm kick-off times pointless? Neil Atkinson thinks so.
3. “The experience brought back myriad memories. Even though I’ve had my share of profound experiences at The Tennessean, at Sports Illustrated, at Newsday, writing books, there was nowhere more important for my personal and career development than the small shitty Review office, located on the second floor of the student center on the University of Delaware campus.”
Acclaimed US sportswriter Jeff Pearlman recalls his memorable time at the helm of a college newspaper.
4. “During its entire run, Tiger Woods PGA Tour raised $771m in revenue before both parties “re-evaluated” their partnership in late 2013. It is hardly rocket-science logic to suggest Woods’s commercial pull is not what is once was. Tournament sponsors are more reluctant to pay him fortunes in appearance fees, for example. Woods has been linked with a clutch of new course designs recently, while he will also open a restaurant in Florida. It only makes sense for him to now contemplate life after golf, such has been the extent of his recent form and fitness woes. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus adopted a similar business model when their careers were on the wane.”
Rory McIlroy’s recently acquired status as ‘the new face of EA Sports in respect of their golf gaming’ was as telling a metaphor as any for golf’s changing of the guard, writes Ewan Murray.
5. “Up until six weeks ago, refereeing in the GAA occupied about as much of my thoughts as, say, reality television — that is to say, not a lot.
“Most of us go through our sporting lives without giving referees a second thought, but every so often the flames of indignation will fire up inside us at a perceived slight or injustice, usually involving our own team, and for a time at least, indifference will congeal into the most trenchant criticism.”
GAA.ie’s Brian Murphy takes us through a day in the life of a GAA referee.
6. “My first encounter with Chris was in the fall of 2011, when Penn State faced Wisconsin in what was both of our sophomore seasons. I recall thinking that he was the best linebacker I had ever faced, and throughout my entire collegiate career this held true. Chris was a tough, instinctive, downhill linebacker with great leverage who was never afraid of contact.”
Writing on theplayerstribune.com, one athlete explains why he still plays American Football.
