If you are old enough — and I certainly am — you might recall a New York Giants’ loss strikingly similar to this season’s 0–40 opening-night shellacking administered by the Dallas Cowboys. Worse, even. Fifty years ago, the Giants were bludgeoned by the then-Oakland Raiders, 42–0. It could be said…

Do you believe in nostalgia? Visit Lake Placid, N.Y., and you will be immersed in countless references, souvenirs and images recalling the moment in sports history when sportscaster Al Michaels hyperbolically asked 34 million American viewers, “Do you believe in miracles?” It’s a central feature in the village’s international claim…

Gallows humor might be the only reasonable response to the accelerating college conference mayhem. Given the disorienting realignments, The Athletic has suggested such potential “traditional rivalries” as the John Denver Classic (Colorado vs. West Virginia — “Rocky Mountain High” vs. “Take Me Home Country Roads”); the John Wooden Bowl (Purdue…

At the conclusion of this essay, would you mind completing a customer satisfaction survey? You know: Were you Very Satisfied? Satisfied? Neutral? Dissatisfied? Very Dissatisfied? Would you give this One Star? Two, Three or Four? FIVE!?!?!? Do you wish you had spent the time reading the comics instead? Just kidding…

Here is an argument that the Women’s World Cup was not “an unmitigated failure” by the U.S. national team, as Fox Sports commentator and former men’s national player Alexi Lalas called it; that the Americans’ loss to Sweden in the round of 16 would “not be remembered as the day…

What Australian soccer star Sam Kerr wished for prior to this women’s World Cup — “a Cathy Freeman moment” — now appears to be an absolute necessity for her team. …

Hang around long enough and you suddenly could be celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary. A great thing for lots of reasons. And maybe it’s inevitable that on that occasion your spouse gifts you a little paperback that chronicles the culture and events in the year of your nuptials. …

So the suicide watch for newspapers goes on. The New York Times is shutting down its sports section and the Los Angeles Times essentially is doing the same, transitioning away from game stories and team beat coverage to a so-called “magazine” format. It’s just sports, yes. But as Mark McDonald…

(This appeared in Newsday’s Act2 section) It was reported that the late British novelist Martin Amis, when the first of his four grandchildren was born, dryly noted that “being a grandfather is like getting a telegraph from the mortuary.” He was in his 50s at the time. That’s not a…