Sports Perspectives

The heroic story of the Steelers’ first-ever draft pick — William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, the Steelers' first pick in the 1936 NFL draft.<br>Pittsburgh Steelers

With their first-ever draft pick in 1936, the Pittsburgh Steelers chose a bona fide celebrity, a dazzling Notre Dame man who’d thrown the winning pass in the greatest college game ever played. He never played a down in the NFL, but he did fight in the Battle of the Bulge.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, right, and coach Ryan Day. The Buckeyes paid their assistant football coaches a total of $7.245 million in 2019, according to data compiled by USA Today, and Day is due $5.4 million this year.<br>Adam Cairns, Columbus Dispatch/TNS

PERSPECTIVE

Don't drop non-revenue college sports in hard times; cut football coaches' salaries

There are truths about college football that would have existed had the novel coronavirus pandemic not crippled the world. But those truths, with the season threatened, are laid bare at the moment.

World War II veteran Ken Mallory gives a presentation at his Bradbury, Calif., retirement home.<br>Courtesy of Judie Miller/TNS

COLUMN

Military hero deserves a moment, even if the Dodgers can’t give it to him

After a lifetime of stoic courage, the 95-year-old World War II veteran would finally be properly thanked for his service. It was going to happen at Dodger Stadium last Saturday.

Babe Ruth's postseason tour drew 5,000 fans to the Hartford Baseball Grounds on Sept. 15, 1918, and 3,000 more when he returned on Sept. 23 -- just as the flu epidemic was taking hold.<br>Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images/TNS

PERSPECTIVE

During the 1918 pandemic in Connecticut, Babe Ruth drew big crowds at the worst possible time

Barnstorming was a way of life for star players of the era. The only way for many fans to see them was in exhibition games played in places where there were no major league teams.

The Auburn Tigers mascot greets the crowd during the first half of the SEC Football Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Dec. 2, 2017, in Atlanta.<br>Hyosub Shin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

PERSPECTIVE

Disruption of football season would be very bad for all of college sports

In interviews this week, several athletic directors and college sports officials acknowledged a distressing reality: A canceled football season would cost the industry billions, forcing athletic directors to consider layoffs, drastic pay cuts, and potentially canceling so-called Olympic or nonrevenue sports.

In a March 25, 2020 photo, cars line up outside of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., for preregistered patients to get drive-thru coronavirus testing.<br>TNS

PERSPECTIVE

As our sports venues become hospitals, there's little to cheer but much to admire

If an empty stadium isn't enough to epitomize this jarring new sports reality, then here's more to wrench your gut: the enormous facilities housing our favorite fields of play are transforming into emergency medical centers.

COLUMN

Living without sports will teach us something about how much we really need them

The rest of this year probably will be a laboratory experiment that none of us ever thought we would see: months on end with no live sports at all.