‘Baldy Paulie will go down in two’ - when Rocky Balboa’s cornerman fought Muhammad AliBurt Young dined out on the anecdote from boxing folklore until his death last week aged 83Wed Oct 25 2023 - 17:00
Mary Lou Retton - the legendary Olympic gymnast who tumbled out of favourShe was criticised for opposing legislation to protect vulnerable young athletes, and her current illness in hospital has led to a rash of conspiracy theoriesThu Oct 19 2023 - 06:00
Dave Hannigan: Brian O’Donovan’s passing casts a shadow over BostonWhether in professional sport or in music, popular Cork man Brian O'Donovan made a huge contribution to life in Boston and his adopted homelandThu Oct 12 2023 - 06:00
Mike Tyson, Tupac Shakur and the fight night that ended with a fatal shootingDave Hannigan: The boxer and the rapper were friends, right up until Shakur was shot dead. The truth about what happened after Tyson’s fight with Bruce Seldon 27 years ago may soon become known, as a man has been charged with murderThu Oct 05 2023 - 05:00
Violence at NFL stadiums: The sickness is a lot easier to diagnose than the cureIncreasing hooliganism by fans has become a blight upon the NFL. Every weekend seems to yield fresh footage of humanity at its very worstThu Sept 28 2023 - 06:00
Golf leaves itself vulnerable to manipulation with its shilling for gambling companiesXander Schauffele’s cringy ad for DraftKings is a bad look for a sport where bettors are trying to influence rounds on the courseThu Sept 21 2023 - 05:00
Dave Hannigan: Messi’s bodyguard catching the eye with his continuous shadow playVigilant bodyguard Yassine Cheuko has become a minor celebrity in is own right as he constanly shadows Lionel Messi, even when the great Argentinian is in action on the pitch for Inter MiamiThu Sept 14 2023 - 05:00
Friday night lights, a most American tradition, has become synonymous with school shootingsThere have been 11 shootings at high school American football games and the season is only beginningThu Sept 07 2023 - 05:00
Donald Trump lying about his prowess at golf is arguably the most relatable thing about himIn America it seems to be an article of faith that every superannuated jock must spin spurious yarns about imaginary brushes with sporting greatnessThu Aug 31 2023 - 05:00
Saudi Arabia’s attempts at sportswashing back in the late 1970s sound depressingly familiarNearly half a century before Neymar’s gaudy G-Wagon laden tour rider, Jimmy Hill took his talents to RiyadhThu Aug 24 2023 - 05:00
Deeply flawed and exclusionary underage system now costing US soccer when it countsRival nations have caught up and the US’s World Cup failure is in part due to a faltering youth production line undermined by an inequitable pay-to-play modelWed Aug 16 2023 - 19:00
Tom Brady’s buy-in to English football adds to growing sense game is now must-have fashionable item among super-rich Famed American football star says he relishes the underdog role and has taken a stake in Championship side Birmingham CityWed Aug 09 2023 - 05:00
Tori Bowie’s death during childbirth highlights racial disparities in US systemAmong the factors putting African American women in more danger are institutional bias, structural racism, generational trauma, a lack of trust in the system, and ignorance, writes Dave HanniganThu Aug 03 2023 - 05:00
Messi will move the needle for US soccer but he can never have the impact that Pelé had Inter Miami will flog a lot of shirts but the game in the USA is as big as it will ever beThu Jul 27 2023 - 06:00
Dave Hannigan: Ritual abuse in locker room puts American college football beyond the paleFollowing revelations of the toxic gridiron culture at Northwestern Wildcats, corporate Ireland has no business hosting the game every yearWed Jul 12 2023 - 19:00
Guff-spewing former football coach now ‘a threat to US national security’ Senator Tommy Tuberville often angers people with his intolerant outbursts, now he’s alarming the White House by blocking military promotions because he objects to abortion policyThu Jul 06 2023 - 05:00
Dave Hannigan: A comic and tragic David Feherty shoots from the hipThis extraordinary book will have tears of laughter rolling down your face one minute, then tears of sympathyThu Jun 29 2023 - 05:00
Always a price to be paid: Baby Gronk, the most famous 10-year-old kid in AmericaWe’ve been down this depressing road before, Earl Woods was the most infamous sports father of them allWed Jun 21 2023 - 17:00
Will the Saudis finally break into America’s national obsession, the NFL? You bet your bottom dollarWith soccer, baseball and basketball already heeding the siren call of Saudi money, it may not be long before American football clubs can be bought by any petrocracyThu Jun 15 2023 - 05:00
US racing faces a reckoning as horse deaths continue to rack upMany Americans are wondering why the Belmont Stakes will go ahead this Saturday at a track where 16 horses have died so far this year, writes Dave HanniganThu Jun 08 2023 - 05:00
Celebrities in firing line as FTX’s collapse prompts high-profile class action lawsuitsIn the wake of the controversial crypto outfit going bust, does every athlete and celebrity in America have to be more cautious now about the products they promote?Thu Jun 01 2023 - 05:00
Remembering Dropkick Murphy, the fighting doctor hailed by drunks and punks Emily Sweeney’s entertaining and forensically researched new book about a celebrated Boston character is a delicious slice of Irish-Americana, writes Mary HanniganThu May 25 2023 - 05:00
LeBron James is a billionaire, but his smartest investment has been in himselfThe NBA’s all-time top-scorer spends millions maintaining his physical prowess - next year his longevity will see him line out alongside his sonThu May 18 2023 - 13:00
Dave Hannigan: AR-15 golf marks new departure in US fetishisation of rifleWeapon has been used by many mass murderers in the US, including last week’s Allen Outlets Mall massacre in TexasThu May 11 2023 - 06:00
Dick Groat was the type of dogged competitor who made ‘every swing count’ - a family traitBaseball legend who died aged 92 last week was also grand-uncle to Brooks KoepkaThu May 04 2023 - 06:00
Plastic baubles for sporty kids seen as start of a slippery slope in North Carolina State senators open up another front in the culture wars as they introduce bill opposing the granting of participation trophies for kids in youth sportsThu Apr 27 2023 - 05:00
Dave Hannigan: Liam Brady? Paul McGrath? UCC freshers’ soccer team? Funny where life takes you Yards from Arsenal tube station, memories of the first flush of a journalism careerWed Apr 19 2023 - 13:00
Meet Dillon Brooks, the most hated man in the NBAMemphis Grizzlies’ Canadian star has made himself the player opposition fans love to hate with endless stream of trash-talking and intimidatory tacticsThu Mar 30 2023 - 05:00
Will Trump’s lawyer be too busy to worry about Italian club SPAL’s relegation woes?Joe Tacopina’s passion is buying up Italian soccer clubs, but he has more pressing business - keeping the former US president out of jailThu Mar 23 2023 - 05:00
For St Patrick’s Day in the USA, how about less drinking and more hurling?We should use our national holiday to showcase our native sports rather than celebrate boozed-up buffoonery, writes Dave HanniganThu Mar 16 2023 - 05:00
Dave Hannigan: Greta Andersen, the greatest female swimmer in historyAn Olympic gold medalist she also set 18 world records in marathon open water competitionThu Mar 09 2023 - 06:00
Case of Brandon Miller shows skewed priorities of US college sportsUniversity of Alabama and its demented fanbase are happy to keep their star player on basketball court despite his alleged involvement in a shootingThu Mar 02 2023 - 05:00
Tiger Woods’ pathetic tampon stunt another example of his terminal adolescencePuerile and pathetic tampon stunt shows the more time passes, the less this middle-aged louche character seems to learnThu Feb 23 2023 - 05:00
Marty Walsh: the Designated Survivor swapping Biden’s administration for ice hockeyDave Hannigan chronicles the remarkable career of the son of a Connemara couple who will swap a powerful position in the Biden Administration for a lucrative role in the sport he lovesThu Feb 16 2023 - 05:00
Shamrock Rovers, the Down footballers and bullfights - remembering Brendan BehanThursday marks the 100 year anniversary of Irish playwright’s birthThu Feb 09 2023 - 05:00
Knicks’ owner James Dolan keeps finding ways to make a bad situation worsePoliticians and pundits alike speak out against man who uses facial recognition to keep enemies out of Madison Square GardenThu Feb 02 2023 - 05:00
Gervonta Davis case another example of boxing turning a blind eye to domestic violenceBoxer beat Hector Luis Garcia in Washington only 10 days after being charged with batteryWed Jan 25 2023 - 17:00
Smackdown meets Succession as Vince McMahon gets back in the gameWrestling’s head honcho has left a tawdry trail of scandal in his wake and been aptly described as ‘cheerful tour guide to the dark side of the American soul’Wed Jan 18 2023 - 17:00
Ken Block, the original ‘hoonigan’, left his mark in more ways than one His driving talent was always matched by marketing genius, the ability to tap into the zeitgeist of a global subcultureWed Jan 11 2023 - 19:00
Russian ice hockey star Alex Ovechkin too close to Putin for comfort ‘Ovechkin the goal-scorer is Ovechkin the ardent supporter of Putin. He is no hero’Thu Jan 05 2023 - 05:00
Pelé and the Cosmos: How the Brazilian conquered AmericaAmericans who know nothing about soccer still know who Pelé was and what he representedThu Dec 29 2022 - 22:30
Dave Hannigan: American conservatives bid to censor stories of struggleDave Hannigan: In America now some conservatives are seeking to ban school and library books containing references to the more uncomfortable aspects of the nation’s historyThu Dec 29 2022 - 06:00
Brittney Griner, used by Putin and now also by right-wing US cultural warriorsBrittney Griner, used by Putin and now also by right-wing US cultural warriorsThu Dec 22 2022 - 05:00
JoAnn Hagen’s pioneering career as a woman punching for pay to finally be recognisedJo-Ann Verhaegen will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this coming JuneThu Dec 15 2022 - 05:00
USA World Cup results mask unanswered questions at homeGreg Berhalter’s side continually fails to tap into enough of the population to wake a sleeping soccer giantWed Dec 07 2022 - 17:30
Conor McGregor’s fame these days reduced to spouting offensive guff on TwitterThree defeats in four fights since 2016 has made a mockery of his tiresome claims of invincibilityWed Nov 30 2022 - 17:00
Mike Tyson’s curious metamorphosis continues with foray into the cannabis businessBoxer’s curious metamorphosis has included the baffling excising of how he was convicted of rapeWed Nov 23 2022 - 19:00
Uber, coups and coffee shops - The fall from grace of Turkey’s World Cup hero Hakan Sukur is the World Cup’s fastest goal-scorer but has since suffered a dramatic fallout with Recep ErdoganWed Nov 16 2022 - 17:30
Dave Hannigan: The day of the anti-Semitic sons of bitches is upon usAntics of Kanye West and Kyrie Irving have highlighted the presence of a seedy underbelly of antisemitism in American lifeWed Nov 09 2022 - 17:00
American referees leaving the field as wave of violence engulfs children’s gamesEpidemic of assaults on referees and umpires across America every week symtomatic of a very sick societyWed Nov 02 2022 - 22:42
