Metering is ON

telander

Rick Telander biography

Rick Telander has been the lead sports columnist at the Sun-Times since April, 1995. He previously was a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and ESPN, …

Read More

Search recent columns

More Columns

Junior Seau suicide signals inherent danger of football

The “paddle-out’’ Sunday with all those folks on surfboards in the Pacific near Junior Seau’s house in Oceanside, Calif., was a nice gesture for the deceased linebacker. Why, even his former teammate Drew Brees rode a long board out for the water-splashing ceremony. But none …

Prep all-star game: Hoops with a higher purpose

First off, it’s important to know there is violence in our inner-city world. Second, it’s very important to know that the beauty of sport, the joy of play, can help fight the mindlessness of gunshots, gangs, and drive-bys. Third, please remember the image of good …

John Lucas, Joakim Noah shine, then get erased

Sports are all about ‘‘what if,’’ aren’t they? So what if the wounded, out-of-sync Bulls can make it past the 76ers? Past, let’s say, the Celtics, then past the dominant Heat and on to ...? Absurd. But what if? Otherwise, we might as well roll …

Bulls must win and go home

The odds are against it, but the Bulls have a chance to win Game 6 Thursday against the 76ers in Philadelphia. This, obviously, is the Bulls’ biggest game of the season. Lose, and it’s over. All of us can cradle our heads and say, What …

Phil Emery’s first pick throws us a curve

Bears general manager Phil Emery said he was looking at “a core of about seven players’’ for the 19th pick in the first round of the draft. That could have meant anything from an offensive guard, tackle, wide receiver, to a defensive end, defensive tackle …

Michael Jordan is a disgrace as NBA owner

RICK TELANDER: Michael Jordan golfs, skis, goes to resorts, smokes cigars and looks beautiful. But he seems to stand for nothing. No charities, no statements about world issues, no cares beyond himself.

  • Telander: Delonte West’s ‘willy’ episode bound to make ears perk up

    A lot of things happened this week in sports, but my interest needle went straight to premier NBA nut case Delonte West. In a game against the Utah Jazz, the Mavericks guard fouled Jazz swingman Gordon Hayward and then tracked him down, jammed his finger …Read More

  • Gary Bettman doesn’t have the guts to stop NHL’s head-hunters

    RICK TELANDER: How did you like it, Gary Bettman? There it was, right in front of you — a man almost killed on the ice. Or maybe just paralyzed. You were in the stands at the United Center on Tuesday night, observing much the way a Roman emperor must have observed in heightened blood lust as his gladiators hacked away at slaves and lions.

  • Insanity of Chicago violence has some sporting challengers

    It’s astounding what’s going on in this city, in front of our eyes. Citizens — mostly young, black males — are being shot to death at a rate that would define Chicago as a site of active international warfare, were it not a thriving community …Read More

    • Derrick Rose’s nemeses: The nicks

    What are the Bulls in the playoffs without Derrick Rose? Is it possible we may have to find out? With only about two weeks left in the season — eight remaining games for the Bulls — it’s looking more and more as if Rose is …

    Telander: Ozzie Guillen made complimentary remarks about Fidel Castro in 2008

    RICK TELANDER: Obviously, baseball lifer Ozzie Guillen was given a mouth so he could put his foot into it. If he doesn’t have a forum to watch him do his acrobatic and outrageous comment stuff, it’s like a tree falling in a forest. There is a noise, just no ears. Thus, no apologies needed. Not so this time.

    Telander: Cubs might have new brass, but this team looks like the same old losers

    OK, Dale Sveum, Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, Jason McLeod and all you other new boys in Cubs management —you get it now? This isn’t Boston, or Milwaukee, or even San Diego, some of your former MLB stops. This isn’t even, specifically, Chicago. (Two teams here, …

    Bad end to first date for Cubs

    RICK TELANDER: Opening Days are tricky. You don’t know whether to sing in joy because another spring is here, the grass is green and beer costs $7.50 a cup or to mope and be depressed because the Cubs lost. Again.

    Faith of the franchise: Theo Epstein is the star attraction

    RICK TELANDER: Has there ever been a baseball team whose superstar was the ... president of operations? Hello, Cubs fans!

    Northwestern not rewarded for doing things the right way

    Division I college basketball in Illinois has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Bradley, Loyola, DePaul, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Chicago State and UIC went a combined 51-164 this season, with no winning records. No Illinois team made it to the NCAA …

    Baseball season in Chicago could be dreadfully dull as Cubs and Sox are projected as also-rans

    If the Cubs and White Sox are flying machines, they’re not bombers or jets or Airbuses or even hot-air balloons. They’re wood-and-canvas contraptions launched at Kitty Hawk, sent clattering westward just above the tree line of the United States. The pilots are anonymous. (Can you …

    Tiger Woods re-earns his stripes with victory at Bay Hill

    That roar you just heard was the sound of Tiger Woods coming back, trumpeting to the golf jungle that he is ashamed, embarrassed and wounded no more. Woods, now 36, won the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., shooting 13 …

    < Previous
    • 1
    • 2
    Next >