Named of the UTNE Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World", Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine. He is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence.
Zirin is also the host of Sirius XM Radio's popular weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. He has been called "the best sportswriter in the United States," by Robert Lipsyte.
Dave Zirin is, in addition, a columnist for SLAM Magazine, and the Progressive.
His latest book is Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love (Scribner). Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein called "Bad Sports", "an original and scathing look at how America works.”
Zirin is also the author of A People's History of Sports in the United States, part of Howard Zinn's People's History series for the New Press. A People's History of Sports forms the basis of a documentary co-written and narrated by Zirin called Not Just A Game: Power, Politics and American Sports, produced by the Media Education Foundation.
In addition he has written Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports (Haymarket Books), with a foreword by the immortal Chuck D. Sports Illustrated wrote that Terrordome is "a provocative, sometimes chilling, look at sports and society right now."
His first book "What's My Name, Fool?" Sports and Resistance in the United States (Haymarket Books) has entered its third printing and is available in stores and at haymarketbooks.org.
Zirin has brought his blend of sports and politics to multiple television programs including ESPN's Outside the Lines, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, ESPN Classic, MSNBC's Morning Joe, CNN, MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, Comcast Sports Network's Washington Post Live, C-SPAN's BookTV, and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.
He has also been on numerous national radio programs including National Public Radio's Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation and All Things Considered.
Zirin has debated FOX Sports president Ed Goren on college football's Bowl Championship Series for National Public Radio, Bridgestone Firestone President Dan Adomitis in the pages of the LA Times on whether his company should be the "official tire of the Super Bowl" while in court for using child labor in Liberia, and the issue of steroids in sports with Jose Canseco and John Rocker.
His writing has also appeared in Vibe Magazine, the LA Times, the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, New York Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, the The Pittsburgh Courier, The Source, and numerous other publications.
He loves the Mets, Jets, and Wizards.
The Boston Marathon: All My Tears, All My Love
Crossposted from The Nation“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” – Kathrine Switzer The dead. The injured. The anguish. All the result of bombs that were set to explode at the finish line just over four hours after the start of the Boston ...
Why Major League Baseball Owners Will Cheer the Death of Hugo Chavez
Crossposted from The NationThe death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will mean unseemly celebration on the right and unending debate on the left. Both reflect the towering legacy of Chavismo and how it challenged the global free market orthodoxy of the Washington consensus. Less discussed will be that the passing ...
Crossposted from the Nation Two years ago, I called the Notre Dame football program a moral cesspool. Two weeks ago, I wrote a story about the horrible treatment of women who have accused members of the Notre Dame football team of sexual assault, harassment and rape. These strands knotted together ...
Killing Hope: Why Israel Targets Sports in Gaza
Let's start with a fact. On November 16, the Israeli Air Force bombed the 10,000-seat Palestine Stadium "into ruins." The stadium also headquartered the center for youth sports programs throughout the Gaza Strip. This is the second time Israel has flattened the facility. The first was in 2006 and the ...
The Smartest—or Dumbest—Tweet an Athlete Ever Sent
Crossposted from The NationMany allegedly great minds from professors to school presidents have devoted peals of pages to the multi-billion dollar industry otherwise known as NCAA athletics. Yet no one has quite put their finger on the contradictions, frustrations, and tragicomedy of being the labor in this industry - a ...
It's Over: The NFL's Union Referees Return to Work in Style
The NFL referee lockout is over and we now have an answer to the question, "What does it take to pierce the shame-free cocoon of unreality where NFL owners reside?" All you need, it seems, is condemnation across the political spectrum ranging from the President of the United States to small-town mayors, to even ...
NFL Scab Referees and the Return of TV Bloopers
Crossposted from The Nation As a child, my family owned just one lonely Zenith-brand television with no remote and no cable box. My fearsome big sister controlled the set under threat of violence and would subject me to the lowest form of entertainment: bloopers. Shows like TV’s Bloopers and Practical ...
Why We Should All Root for the Miami Heat
Crossposted from The NationThe 2012 NBA finals presents more than a match-up of two young, exciting, athletic teams. They present a rooting litmus test. In one corner, we have the Miami Heat, a team scorned for being built around a hastily assembled group of free-agent all-stars Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh ...
What If Kobe Bryant Were an Imprisoned Palestinian Soccer Player?
Crossposted from The NationImagine if a member of Team USA Basketball—let’s say Kobe Bryant—had been traveling to an international tournament only to be seized by a foreign government and held in prison for three years without trial or even hearing the charges for which he was imprisoned. Imagine if Kobe ...
Adam 'MCA' Yauch: Our Ambassador From Atlantis
Crossposted from The Nation“Born and bred Brooklyn U.S.A. They call me Adam Yauch but I’m M.C.A.” In the ’60s they said, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” When it comes to remembering Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died on May 4, I don’t trust anyone under 30. Adam Yauch and the Beastie ...
Want to Understand the 1992 LA Riots? Start with the 1984 LA Olympics
Crossposted from The NationIf you don’t light the fuse, the bomb won’t blow. But striking the match and lighting the fuse are only the final steps in a process of creating a deadly explosion. The match that set off the 1992 LA Riots was struck when a videotape showcasing five ...
25 Years Since Al Campanis Shocked Baseball: What's Changed and What Hasn't
On April 6, 1987, all eyes in the world of sports were supposed to be on the fight to end all fights: Marvelous Marvin Hagler vs. “Sugar” Ray Leonard. In this pre-internet era, ABC's award-winning news program Nightline with Ted Koppel was devoting its broadcast to that epic long-awaited encounter, ...
Jackie Robinson, Trayvon Martin and the Sad History of Sanford, Florida
Crossposted from the NationSanford, Florida is a city that will now be known for all times as the place where Trayvon Martin was killed for the crime of Living While Black. It was also the place whose institutions – the police department, the local press, and even the city morgue ...
Why Protests Should Be a Part of Super Bowl Sunday
Crossposted from The NationThis Sunday, the greatest multitude in the history of the United States will be tuning into the same television show at the same time. The 2012 Super Bowl, to be played between two major media markets, the New England Patriots and New York Giants, kicks off at ...
College Football's Logic: Why Joe Paterno and Penn State Would Shield a Child Molester
Crossposted from the NationAfter forty-six seasons coaching at Penn State University, coach Joe Paterno now faces a crisis that could burn the storied football program to the ground. And if recent charges are true, his legacy deserves to burn along with it. For those who haven’t heard, longtime assistant Jerry ...
Why I'm Boycotting Major League Baseball's All-Star Game in Arizona
Crossposted from The NationOver the last year, civil rights organizations, politicians, sportswriters and baseball players have asked Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to move Tuesday’s 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona. He chose not to listen and now I choose not to watch. If I lived within a day’s ...
Tennis Anyone? What Li Na's Grand Slam Win Tells Us About China
Crossposted from The Nation's blogThe Women's Tennis Association could not be happier today. With her victory in the French Open on Saturday, Li Na became the first Chinese tennis player to win a major singles championship. Her historic triumph brings an unprecedented opportunity to market the sport to China’s perceived ...
The NCAA and Jim Tressel: Giving Eric Cartman the Moral High Ground
Crossposted from The NationIt’s fitting that Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel resigned in disgrace on Memorial Day. This is, perhaps, the most misunderstood holiday on the books: a day used by politicians to celebrate war, which was first organized by freed slaves to honor Union soldiers buried in a ...
Why Lance Armstrong Will Survive '60 Minutes' and the Feds
Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is now facing the systematic disemboweling of his legacy as an athletic icon. As revealed Sunday on 60 Minutes—a show that usually doesn’t do sports features unless there’s a synergistic tie-in with CBS Sports—three of Armstrong’s teammates have testified to a federal grand ...
Sports, bin Laden, and the New Normal
Howard Cosell said that "rule number one of the sports jockocracy" was that sports and politics don't mix. And yet last night, at the ballpark in Philadelphia, we received another reminder that some political expression is deemed not just acceptable but glorious. When the killing of Osama bin Laden reached ...
The Crackdown on Bahrain's Jocks for Justice
Al’a Hubail is a legend in the world of Bahraini soccer. In 2004, along with his brother Mohammed, he led the national team on a rollicking VCU-esque run into the Asian Cup semi-finals. Hubail then became the first Bahraini player to win the prestigious Golden Boot Award after scoring five ...
This Year’s Final Four: Beyond “Cinderella vs. Sinners”
Before the media becomes too engorged on this Cinderella vs. Sinners narrative, it's worth noting that while superficially true. It's also fraudulent, moralistic hooey. The final horn hadn't even sounded on Sunday before our beloved sports blabbocracy thematically defined this year's NCAA hoops Final Four. It was to be the ...
Slaves to the Game? Adrian Peterson and the “S” Word
Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Vikings All-Pro running back, “went there," and now there’s no going back. In a moment of supreme frustration with NFL owners and their lust for the lockout, Peterson said, “It's modern-day slavery, you know?" For sportswriters inclined to cozy up to Commissioner Roger Goodell, Peterson’s words were ...
Say it Loud on Opening Day: Baseball Must Move the All-Star Game from Arizona
First run at thenation.com At the risk of profound understatement, it’s been a difficult 2011 in the state of Arizona. Jared Loughner’s shooting spree that grievously injured Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six, including 9-year old Christina Green, was a national horror. The killings also focused global attention on Arizona’s ...
Kazemi and Abdul-Qaadir: Recognizing the Courage of Muslim Athletes
In one of the most astounding polls I’ve ever seen, Gallup reported earlier this month that 69% of Americans were “following the events in Egypt closely,” and 83% of them “sympathized with the protesters.” When you consider the kind of rampant Islamaphobia that’s infected the body politic of this country ...
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April 15th, 2013
The Boston Marathon: All My Tears, All My Love
Crossposted from The Nation“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” – Kathrine Switzer The dead. The injured. The ...
March 8th, 2013
Why Major League Baseball Owners Will Cheer the Death of Hugo Chavez
Crossposted from The NationThe death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will mean unseemly celebration on the right and unending debate on the left. Both reflect ...
January 17th, 2013
Crossposted from the Nation Two years ago, I called the Notre Dame football program a moral cesspool. Two weeks ago, I wrote a story about ...
November 19th, 2012
Killing Hope: Why Israel Targets Sports in Gaza
Let's start with a fact. On November 16, the Israeli Air Force bombed the 10,000-seat Palestine Stadium "into ruins." The stadium also headquartered the center ...
October 8th, 2012
The Smartest—or Dumbest—Tweet an Athlete Ever Sent
Crossposted from The NationMany allegedly great minds from professors to school presidents have devoted peals of pages to the multi-billion dollar industry otherwise known as ...
September 27th, 2012
It's Over: The NFL's Union Referees Return to Work in Style
The NFL referee lockout is over and we now have an answer to the question, "What does it take to pierce the shame-free cocoon of unreality where ...
September 24th, 2012
NFL Scab Referees and the Return of TV Bloopers
Crossposted from The Nation As a child, my family owned just one lonely Zenith-brand television with no remote and no cable box. My fearsome big ...
April 15th, 2013
The Boston Marathon: All My Tears, All My Love
Crossposted from The Nation“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” – Kathrine Switzer The dead. The injured. The ...
March 23rd, 2012
Jackie Robinson, Trayvon Martin and the Sad History of Sanford, Florida
Crossposted from the NationSanford, Florida is a city that will now be known for all times as the place where Trayvon Martin was killed for ...
November 19th, 2012
Killing Hope: Why Israel Targets Sports in Gaza
Let's start with a fact. On November 16, the Israeli Air Force bombed the 10,000-seat Palestine Stadium "into ruins." The stadium also headquartered the center ...
March 8th, 2013
Why Major League Baseball Owners Will Cheer the Death of Hugo Chavez
Crossposted from The NationThe death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will mean unseemly celebration on the right and unending debate on the left. Both reflect ...
May 2nd, 2011
Sports, bin Laden, and the New Normal
Howard Cosell said that "rule number one of the sports jockocracy" was that sports and politics don't mix. And yet last night, at the ballpark ...
February 5th, 2012
Why Protests Should Be a Part of Super Bowl Sunday
Crossposted from The NationThis Sunday, the greatest multitude in the history of the United States will be tuning into the same television show at the ...
June 12th, 2012
Why We Should All Root for the Miami Heat
Crossposted from The NationThe 2012 NBA finals presents more than a match-up of two young, exciting, athletic teams. They present a rooting litmus test. In ...
'Dirty Wars' by Jeremy Scahill
Why have you started a comedy festival in northern Michigan in the middle of winter?
Because if you were here in the dead of winter in the middle of nowhere (which is actually somewhere to us), you'd need a few laughs too ... Continue Reading
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Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 2/27/12
