Daniel J. Flynn

Rik Mayall called himself the “People’s Poet” on the iconic ’80s comedy series The Young Ones. But the funnyman employed a wordsmith more revered by actual people to pen the lines of “Noble England.” Just days after Mayall’s fatal heart

Chael Sonnen, in the wake of a failed drug test in the lead up to his UFC 175 bout, has called it a career. Sonnen owns notable wins over Yushin Okami, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Michael Bisping, and Shogun Rua. But

Demonstrative enthusiasm for European football stands as a popular passive-aggressive way that Americans announce their superiority vis-à-vis the rubes next door. Like smallpox, Nazism, and Cliff Richard, soccer is something that Europeans should have kept to themselves. We’ll instead take

Chael Sonnen has been removed from the UFC 175 card after testing positive for banned substances. The news adds to the soap-opera quality of a main-card bout that appears doomed. The original plan pitted the light heavyweight against rival Wanderlei

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver responded to Donald Sterling’s lawsuit to block the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers in a halftime interview during Game 3 of the NBA Finals. “It’s so unfortunate that that’s what we’re talking about,” Silver held.

“Et tu, Brute,” former Georgetown coach John Thompson said of Big East rivals who fled the conference on ESPN’s “A Requiem for the Big East.” “It’s just that simple.” He didn’t mention Syracuse. He didn’t have to. The rivalry between

The Sports Hangover throbs after watching Cotto-Martinez live from Madison Square Garden, pulling a Rosie Ruiz on a Central Park road race, and a ride home on a Peter Pan bus whose air conditioning unit imitated his machine siblings in

Chris Weidman has gone from undercard nobody to headlining the UFC’s biggest annual event in his four-plus years in the promotion. As the UFC middleweight champion prepares to solve the vexing problem that is Lyoto Machida at UFC 175, Weidman

NEW YORK–The HBO Cotto-Martinez pay-per-view card immediately gave viewers their money’s worth in an exhilarating brawl with a stunning finish in the first fight of the main card.  John Jackson dropped Irish Any Lee with a massive right hook in

NEW YORK–Miguel Cotto entered the ring in silence and darkness. He exited it bathed in the limelight and saluted by the roar. Miguel Cotto knocked Sergio Martinez down four times en route to punishing the champion into a defeat on

NEW YORK–Madison Square Garden plays host tonight to a pay-per-view middleweight championship bout between titlist Sergio Martinez and challenger Miguel Cotto.   More so than the aging boxers, the venerable venue appears less about now than nostalgia. The Garden supplied

NEW YORK–An energized crowd of thousands of Miguel Cotto supporters packed the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Friday afternoon for the weigh-ins for the Cotto-Martinez pay-per-view card tomorrow evening in the main arena. With spotlights gyrating to the Puerto

Christiano Ronaldo enjoys the highest salary of any soccer player on the planet. But his millions, and the Western medicine that accompanies it, prove no match for the sorcery of a Ghanaian witch doctor.  “I know what Cristiano Ronaldo’s injury

Don Zimmer was more baseball than you. For the last six-and-a-half decades, he had been playing or coaching baseball–in the U.S., Japan, Mexico, and wherever teams would pay him to do so. From 18 to 83, he worked on the

Ken Stabler sued the NFL over brain injuries. So did Jim McMahon. But Troy Aikman, a posterchild for enduring concussions during his halcyon days in the 1990s, refrained from joining the litigation joined by more than 4,000 fellow former players.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver meets today with Al Sharpton for a talking to on what the league must do to combat racists from owning NBA teams in the future. Why not hold a summit with David Duke? Sharpton was, of

A day after news surfaced that Dan Marino had filed suit with fourteen other players against the NFL last week, the Hall of Fame quarterback intends to withdraw from the legal action, the South Florida Sun-Sentinal reports.  “It was never

Floyd Mayweather, prize fighting’s king of prizes, has dumped Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. The move comes in the immediate aftermath of chief executive officer Richard Schaefer’s resignation from the company. “After more than 10 years with Golden

One plaintiff in the new lawsuit against the NFL made it all the way to the Hall of Fame. Several of his co-plaintiffs never even made it into an official game.  Dan Marino played seventeen seasons in the NFL, setting

The weekend settles the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals matchups. The coming weekend may give us a Triple Crown winner, a new middleweight champion, and French Open victors. Procul Harum Good, Boko Haram Bad I much prefer Procul Harum to

As their crosstown counterparts did in the NFL’s May draft, the Houston Astros select first in Thursday’s Major League Baseball draft. Unlike the Texans, the Astros can’t count on a sure thing or trade the pick if they get cold

Media critic Neal Gabler calls the NFL a league for white males. Did he intend to hit the “H” on his keyboard instead of that “F” two buttons away?  “It isn’t a coincidence that the rise of the National Football

Do believe the hype. Warlley Alves employed a diverse arsenal of strikes, takedowns, and ground-and-pound to dominate Marcio Alexandre Jr. in a battle of undefeated middleweights at The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil finale. Alves followed up a massive overhand right with

Are all those women saying Ernests Gulbis is “sexy” or “sexist”? I can’t quite make it out.   When 17th-ranked Ernests Gulbis takes the clay against Roger Federer–a man he labels “boring”–on Sunday in the fourth round of the French

Barack Obama said yesterday at the White House Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit that he’s “sure” he endured concussions playing on the gridiron as a kid. We knew he grabbed a lot of “interceptions.” Who knew he played