Recent Comments

1. 13 days ago on Tank McNamara

   In last year’s Men’s T20 World Cup, the U.S. team beat Pakistan in the first group stage, and advanced to the final eight. (The US and West Indies were co-hosts.)

   So the answer to your question is 2024.

   Yes, it is a disappointment that Mr. Norts Spews missed the tournament.

2. 15 days ago on Tank McNamara

   40? Big deal.

   Katrine Lunde was MVP of the Olympic Women’s Handball tournament last year.

   She was 44.

3. 21 days ago on Tank McNamara

   This is why US sports should have promotion and relegation.

   Owners in the US don’t face a lot of risk. Even if you have a Don Sterling or Dan Snyder, leagues have enough semi-competent owners that the value of their teams keep going up.

   In Europe, truly incompetent management can get a team mired in the second tier for years (see Leeds United or Hamburg), so the bad owners don’t get that benefit.

4. 22 days ago on Tank McNamara

   Fisher’s a solid choice, as “sabotage team to get out of lease and move it elsewhere” is literally the villain story from the movie “Major League.” (I voted for Bev Priestman, Li Tie, and Umar Kremlev, who all stood out from the crowd in other ways.)

   But I don’t see anything that would make Reese stand out from other jerks. What would make her so special?

5. 22 days ago on Tank McNamara

   One of my votes this year went to Bev Priestman, and I still think Eteri Tutberidze deserved the SJOY for 2022.

6. about 1 month ago on Tank McNamara

   My third and final nomination for SJOTY goes to Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association and, as owner of Rolf, Russia’s number one used-car salesman.

   In 2023, after Imane Khalif defeated Azalia Amineva at IBA’s world championship, Kremlev made up a lie saying that Khalif had failed a gender test. (He has refused to give any details about the alleged test.) As such, he is responsible for last year’s threats against Khalif and Lin Yu-ting.

   During the Olympics, he repeated the false claims at a press conference and called IOC President Thomas Bach a “chief sodomite.” Kremlev’s claim that the IBA dropped Gazprom as a sponsor was also revealed to have been false.

   His ethics are what one would expect from Russia’s leading used car dealer.

7. about 1 month ago on Tank McNamara

   As far as I can tell, Belechick never used drones, so Priestman gets dishonored for her innovations.

   There are so many sports jerks that, in order to get my nomination, they have to do something special to stand out. (For example, one of my 2021 nominations was Kim Raisman, the German modern pentathlon coach who paid homage to Blazing Saddles’ Mongo by punching a horse at the Olympics.)

   I considered Guram Tushishvili for a nomination this year, but decided against it because he didn’t stand out enough.

8. about 1 month ago on Tank McNamara

   My second Sports Jerk of the Year nomination goes to Li Tie, former coach of China’s men’s soccer team.

   Li received much criticism for some of his player choices. It wasn’t because he was incompetent. This year, we learned that he had been selling spots on the national team, taking over $7 million in bribes to select patently unqualified players.

   He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in December.

9. about 1 month ago on Tank McNamara

   My first vote for Sports Jerk of the Year goes to a coach: Bev Priestman for her innovative use of technology in scouting.

   Specifically, as head of Canada’s Women’s national soccer team, she illegally used drones to spy on opponents at the Olympic games, leading to a six-point penalty against Canada in the tournament standings and her later firing.

10. about 1 month ago on Tank McNamara

    Post-1900 record – the 1899 Cleveland Spiders still have the all-time record with 132 losses.

    (The worst winning percentage belongs to the 1884 Wilmington Quicksteps, who went 2-16 before folding.)