We wake up to the news that Aaron Hernandez has taken his own life. It’s on every screen and speaker—a string of firecrackers popping through the cybersphere. A man, not yet 28-years-old, has tied a bedsheet around his neck and hung himself from the window of his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, […]
Author Archives: Ken Shulman
Who Bombed the Borussia Dortmund Bus?
Who Bombed the Borussia Dortmund Bus?
On Tuesday afternoon, just after it pulled out of a hotel in Dortmund, Germany, the Borussia Dortmund team bus was rocked by three explosions as it headed to the club’s Champions’ League quarterfinal against French club AS Monaco. One Borussia player–Spanish international Marc Batra–suffered a broken wrist. A German police officer was also slightly […]
The Fight of his Life
The Fight of his Life
An Away Games heads up. Adonis Peguero is a promising 20 year old welterweight from the Dominican Republic who never dreamed he’d be fighting for his people’s dignity when he first laced up his boxing gloves three years ago. We’re traveling to the DR next week to film his story for Away Games. […]
Away Games launches its first learning units
Away Games launches its first learning units
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our first four learning units, in partnership with PBS Learning Media. Created for students in grades 9-12, Away Games Learning Units use sport as a means for students to approach some of the most intriguing and complex issues of our time. With a skillful blend of video, text, […]
German Soccer Uber Alles
German Soccer Uber Alles
A drowned Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach. Seventy-one migrants suffocated to death in a truck outside of Vienna. A razor wire fence strung the full length of Hungary’s border with Serbia. These are the tragic icons of Europe’s refugee crisis, images that finally shattered the world’s indifference, moving it to tears, […]
No Glitz, Just Guts: Schuyler Bailar
No Glitz, Just Guts: Schuyler Bailar
There are those who bare their writhing souls in public to make a living. And there are those who do it to make a difference. Schuyler Bailar is one of the latter. As a high school student in Washington, D.C., Bailar was a record setting swimmer who’d been recruited by several top women’s college […]
Behind Closed Doors: When Sport Is Silence
Behind Closed Doors: When Sport Is Silence
Last month, on a Wednesday afternoon, the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox played a game in an empty stadium. Baltimore was still a cauldron following the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American man who died in police custody. Fearing further violence, city officials shuttered Camden Yards. The teams played their nine […]
Cry the Beloved (Soccer) Country on the Fourth of July
Cry the Beloved (Soccer) Country on the Fourth of July
Much, probably too much, has been made of Ann Coulter’s “j’accuse” on soccer, the metric system, and any person or phenomenon not born and bred in the land she claims to love. Writing in jest and obvious haste, the conservative pundit construes the world’s most popular game as the province of elite mothers anxious to […]