By Ken Reed

Win-at-all-costs (WAAC) ethos greatly damage sports, which at their best are a great socio-cultural practice.

The WAAC mentality sees sport as a metaphor for war, in which opponents are evil and must be conquered. It’s a mindset that sees only one thing of value in athletic competition: winning.

Vince Lombardi was quoted […]

League of Fans sports policy director, Ken Reed, has a new book out. It’s titled, The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place. It is Reed’s fifth book.

Here’s a short description of the book:

Sports, at their best, matter. They can positively impact society and a large […]

Guest Essay

By Alden S. Blodget, with Thomas Babson

The problem

Here’s what my grandson said about his experience as a referee in youth soccer:

“I did not like being a ref one bit, and I’m very happy to be done with it. It was very stressful, and I hated all of it. I […]

By Ken Reed

Larry Fedora is the head football coach at the University of North Carolina and he had a few interesting things to say at ACC football media days this week.

Fedora believes that if football declines in the United States — due to links between playing the game and CTE, a chronic […]

The following is a guest submission to League of Fans from Gerry Chidiac, a high school teacher and freelance sportswriter with over 30 years of experience in Canada, the United States and Africa.

It’s unfortunate that we often forget the people who come second.

Jackie Robinson is rightly honored as the first African-American to play […]

— Guest Submission by Gerry Chidiac

It is becoming clearer than ever that mental health issues are very real and very prevalent in our society. There are few of us who are not impacted, either by living or working with people who struggle, or dealing with our own mental well-being.

Mental health issues are nothing […]

By Ken Reed
The Huffington Post
January 17, 2018

It is widely believed that the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) does the worst job representing its players of all the pro sports league player unions in the country.

Enter Cyrus Mehri, one of the nation’s most effective social justice and worker […]

By Ken Reed
The Denver Post
November 17, 2017

Youth and high school football players in this country experience more full-contact practices during the season than their college and professional counterparts.

Does that make any sense?

The brains of youth and high school players are still developing. Yet, we allow them to […]

By Ken Reed
The Huffington Post
August 25, 2017

In a land of people who treasure their freedoms, why do so many people hate Colin Kaepernick for exercising his First Amendment-sanctioned rights?

I truly appreciate the fact that the national anthem is very meaningful to a lot of people. To some, it’s […]