ESPN reported on racist European soccer fans and their assaults on Black soccer players while they played on the field. BBN recommends watching the ESPN expose.
Complete Story...

Woody Sauldsberry died this month. He was the NBA's Rookie of the Year in 1958.
Complete Story...

(nyt) After France was booted from this year’s World Cup on Tuesday without winning a match — amid scenes of selfishness, indifference and indiscipline — the French news media piled on about the humiliation to the country and the misbehavior of its players. There were calls for a complete restructuring of the French team: its management, its method for choosing players, its training. But there is a more troubling aspect to the reaction to the defeat, which has focused on lack of patriotism, shared values and national honor on a team with many members who are black or brown and descended from immigrants. The philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who has often criticized the failures of French assimilation, compared the players to youths rioting in the banlieues, France’s suburban ghettos. “We now have proof that the French team is not a team at all, but a gang of hooligans that knows only the morals of the mafia,” he said in a radio interview.  More...

William Bennett talks about sleeping with three to four women per day and giving his wife STDs. "It's hard to say which I love more, Basketball or sex," Bennett said. "I seldom used protection. " . .  More...

(ap) With a furious kick on the final lap Wednesday, Shani Davis stuck his skate across the line and won his second straight gold medal in 1,000-meter Olympic speedskating. . . . .  More...

(charlotte observer) Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry died early this morning from injuries suffered when he "came out" of the back of a pickup during a domestic dispute in northern Charlotte, according to police. Police said he died at 6:36 a. m. at Carolinas Medical Center where he had been taken early Wednesday afternoon. Police haven't released a cause of death.  More...

(BBN Editors) In the photos (view source) Sammy Sosa's skin appears much lighter than his dark brown skin. Is the lightening of his skin the result of bleaching, the consequence of steroid use or photoshop? . . . .  More...

(examiner) American Meb Keflezighi broke away from Kenyan marathon ace, Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, to win the ING New York City Marathon. An American had not won the race since 1982. Keflezighi's winning time was 2:09:14, a personal best. Cheruiyot was second in 2:09:56. Jaouad Gharib of Morocco was third in 2:10:24 and American Ryan Hall was fourth in 2:10:36.  More...

(bbc) Brazil will become the first South American country to host the Olympics after the city of Rio de Janeiro was chosen to stage the 2016 Games. Rio won a majority of the 95 votes at the meeting in Copenhagen, eliminating Madrid in the final round. Tokyo and Chicago had already been knocked out. "The world has recognised that the time has come for Brazil," said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Chicago's early exit was a surprise, after bookmakers made them favourites.  More...

(jezebel) What could make the convoluted saga of Caster Semenya's disputed gender even more public and upsetting? How about a makeover? Yes, Semenya is now on the cover of South Africa's You magazine, wearing makeup, a dress, and a new hairdo. Four inside pages also show Semenya in a variety of stylish outfits, including leather pants and a sequined top — all of which You says Semenya wanted to buy after the photo shoot. The feature includes an interview, in which Semenya says, "I'd like to dress up more often and wear dresses but I never get the chance," she says. "I'd also like to learn to do my own makeup. " She continues,I've never bought my own clothes – my mum buys them for me.  More...

(sports24) Women's 800-meter world champion Caster Semenya is facing intense scrutiny about her gender because she is African, the president of the South African athletics federation said Thursday. The 18-year-old Semenya won her first world title after revelations surfaced that she was undergoing a gender test to prove she was a woman. "It would not be like that if it were some young girl from Europe," Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "If it was a white child, she would be sitting somewhere with a psychologist, but this is an African child. " Chuene also said there was no evidence to prove Semenya was doing anything wrong.  More...

(reuters) Alexis Arguello, the three-times world boxing champion who was elected mayor of Nicaragua's capital last year, was found dead on Wednesday in an apparent suicide, local media reported. Police in Managua were investigating Arguello's death from a gunshot wound and are expected to reveal more details later on Wednesday. Arguello had battled drug and alcohol problems and admitted to having contemplated suicide in the past. Arguello, 57, retired from the ring in 1995 with a record of 82 wins and eight defeats with 65 knockouts. Known as "The Explosive Thin Man", Arguello was the sixth man to win world titles in three different weight divisions and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.  More...

(espn) His voice shaking at times, Alex Rodriguez met head-on allegations that he tested positive for steroids six years ago, telling ESPN on Monday that he did take performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers during a three-year period beginning in 2001. "When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day," Rodriguez told ESPN's Peter Gammons in an exclusive interview in Miami Beach, Fla. "Back then, [baseball] was a different culture," Rodriguez said. "It was very loose.  More...

(nydn) It's always dangerous, but never boring, when a newspaper sports columnist uncorks a political thesis. Enter Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel. Bianchi thinks that there are some unsung heroes who deserve credit for helping put a black man in the White House - and they are athletes. "If you're searching for tangible reasons why it became possible for Barack Obama to make his historic run at the presidency . .  More...

(newsday) After initially suggesting that Isiah Thomas is "lying," the chief for the Harrison police department yesterday went even further in rebuking the former Knicks coach's story that the medical issue that brought authorities to his Westchester home early Friday morning had to do with his teenage daughter. "My cops . . . know the difference between a 47-year-old black male and a young black female," Chief David Hall told The Associated Press.  More...

(bloomberg) The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics' ruling body to ``look further'' into whether some members of the gold-winning Chinese women's team were too young to compete at the Beijing Games. ``We decided to look at it further,'' Sandrine Tonge, a spokeswoman for the IOC, said by phone today. ``It's not an official investigation. '' Doubts about the ages of He Kexin and other members of the Chinese team were raised following Chinese media reports from last year that, if accurate, would indicate they were younger than the 16-year-old requirement for competing in Olympic gymnastics. He was listed as 13 years old in a Nov.  More...

(indystar) As the sanctioning body of America's most popular auto racing series, NASCAR is all about speed. But some question whether it is moving fast enough on diversity issues as the series arrives in Indianapolis this week for Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. "It's a sport that's evolving," Brian France, NASCAR's chairman and CEO told reporters last month at Michigan International Speedway. "It's a sport that is reaching out in lots of different ways to be more diverse. .  More...

(E&P) Newspaper sports departments remain nearly all white and male -- and progress towards diversity is painfully slow, concludes a "report card" on sports staffing released Thursday at the annual meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE). The report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES) surveyed 378 APSE member newspapers and Web sites, and said they had earned a "C" for "racial hiring practices," and an "F" for gender hiring practices. "This report shows that in 2008, 94% of the sports editors; 89% of the assistant sports editors; 88% of our columnists; 87% of our reporters; and 89% of our copy editors/designers are white, and those same positions are 94%, 90%, 94%, 91%, and 84% male," wrote Richard Lapchick, director of TIDES, which is housed at the University of Central Florida. This was the second time TIDES studied sports staffing diversity for APSE. The previous study in 2006 did not assign report card grades.  More...

(foxsports) We owe Isiah Thomas and Sean Salisbury an apology. That's how bad the discrimination and sexual-harassment allegations 32-year-old Mauricia Grant brought against NASCAR are. Compared to the environment allegedly condoned at the popular racing series, the former Knicks coach's reputation for calling female executives "bitch" and the ex-ESPN analyst's habit of photographing and displaying his steak were greatly overblown controversies. After reading through Grant's official lawsuit complaint, you'd get the feeling that NASCAR was filming an updated version of "Roots," beginning with the slave-ship scene where the captain is looking for a "black wench belly-warmer" to tide him over on the long journey home. Damn! If you're looking for confirmation of NASCAR stereotypes, you can pretty much find them all in Grant's $225-million lawsuit.  More...