It was during the Vietnam War that Simon & Garfunkel posed the question, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” The message was as clear as it was powerful: The cynicism wrought by the war, and the civil rights movement, had stripped America of its heroes, the symbols […]

[Read more →]

Here in our little corner of the world, we have a bad habit of making issues more complicated than they really are. We have an aversion to simple solutions. I don’t know why. It must be due to some strange fungus that grows in our government buildings – a fungus that paralyzes the brains of […]

[Read more →]

Coming so soon after the Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, it would have been downright un-American if the New England Patriots had trounced the New York Giants to win the Super Bowl. No one city deserves to corner the market on our most coveted trophies. Heck, Boston was almost […]

[Read more →]

In the spring of 1970, Sports Illustrated sent me to Mississippi to gather the material I needed to do a cover story on Archie Manning, the senior-to-be quarterback at Ole Miss, for the college football issue that would be published that fall.
He belonged to an exceptional crop of quarterbacks that included Jim Plunkett of Stanford, […]

[Read more →]

Nobody asked me, but…
A few weeks ago, I argued that now would be a good time for University of Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks to retire – he’ll be 67 when the Cats open against Louisville this fall – and turn the reins over to Joker Phillips, the offensive coordinator who’s done such a splendid […]

[Read more →]

If the Giants lose their first playoff game, you can bet the New York media will rip Coughlin for giving the Patriots his best shot instead of essentially giving his team a week off.

[Read more →]

If there was still such a thing as “academic integrity” in big-time college sports, the NCAA would give Florida State an ultimatum: Get rid of Bobby Bowden or get the death penalty. It should make no difference that Bowden is the current record-holder for career victories in what should be called The Overemphasis Division. He […]

[Read more →]

Bobby Petrino is a slimeball. Just typing his name makes me want to take a shower. He’s a serial liar, yet he keeps getting jobs. That says as much about the people who hire him as it does Petrino.
The news that Petrino has bolted the Atlanta Falcons for the University of Arkansas comes on the […]

[Read more →]

Louisville’s Brian Brohm got my vote for the Heisman Trophy. So go ahead and call me a homer. I plead guilty as charged, but with mitigating circumstances, as I shall now explain.
In my book, Brohm was the front-runner going into the season and I saw nothing to change my mind as the Cardinals stumbled to […]

[Read more →]

Welcome to the first Billy Reed Sports Poll, which will be conducted regularly on an informal basis to gauge the sentiments of local fans about personalities and issues. The results will be published when we get a minimum of 25 responses.
[…]

[Read more →]