Welcome new readers! The SportsThink Weekly Read highlights my favorite sport-related article of the week. On the last Friday of each month, I send out the Monthly Review, a longer digest of readings and other content of interest. Most articles are recently published, but some are not; the only rule is that I’ve read them within the past week (or the past month, in the case of the Monthly Review). Some are relevant to my day job as a professor teaching courses on the business, history, and philosophy of sports. Others are just plain interesting, relevant to my life-long obsession with the games we play. I also occasionally share articles and assorted musings on Twitter. The newsletter is free, but comes with two requests. 1. I’m always open to suggestions, so send me the good stuff that you read! 2. If you enjoy the newsletter, please share it with other folks who might enjoy it as well. Finally, I try to focus on non-paywalled writing, but if you find yourself unable to access anything, just hit reply to the email and I’ll do my best to get you a copy. Thanks for reading!
For The Sport Academics and Almost Sport Academics
My department at UT Austin is hiring a non-tenure track position in Sport Management/Physical Culture and Sport Studies, to start this fall. Ph.D. students in the ABD phase are encouraged to apply. I know it’s late in the job cycle, but please consider applying or sharing with folks who might be interested. Good colleagues, good students, bad parking, good BBQ, etc.
The Weekly Read(s)
Couldn’t limit myself to one this week (and technically the second contains 4 articles, so you get 5!).
Up first is David Roth’s Brett Favre And The Thin Line Between “Making Plays” And “Massive Fraud.” How’s this for an opening line: It was generally to his credit, and essential to his appeal, that Brett Favre played football like someone who might eventually wind up implicated in some kind of sprawling fraud. As you may have heard, that is exactly what the legendary QB has been implicated in. Roth is funny and incisive as ever in this piece on said sprawling fraud. An infuriating read, but very well done.
Now, for something totally different: Global Sport Matters’ latest issue, dedicated to sport and sustainability. Run out of Arizona State University, GSM puts out consistently strong content from a mix of journalists and academics. This issue, like the ones before, is of particular interest to scholars looking to expand their research agendas, as well as students/early career folks thinking about the directions to take their careers in the sport industry. I like all four pieces here, but Alex Kirshner on the future of golf is particularly solid; Kirshner is always good. Meanwhile, David Goldblatt argues that “to save itself, sport must join the fight against climate change,” which aligns with a point I’ve made in this space before: if we want people to care about climate change, we need to show them how it is affecting the things they love. In our case, sports. Lots to think about across these four articles.
As always, thanks for reading. Please share the newsletter with friends, family, colleagues, and nemeses.
See you next week,
Tolga