The all-girls high school I went to in San Francisco had a population of 200 kids on the days everyone showed up. Needless to say, we were a small school. Above all of our distinguishing characteristics, though, we were known for our basketball team. Walk into the Herbert Center gymnasium at Convent of the Sacred […]
Category Archives: Sports Columns
Claire-ification: NFL must do more to help troubled Johnny Manziel
The kid smirks in his mugshot like a high school senior who got pulled over on the way to prom. Except with this kid, the police aren’t crashing a one-night party – they’re intervening in a yearslong bender. Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel turned himself in last week for domestic assault charges stemming from […]
Tanner’s Take: UCLA men’s volleyball is back but may need an assist to win
It’s been a while – a decade, to be precise – since UCLA men’s volleyball was last headed to the NCAA Tournament. But, as good as the 2016 squad is, it doesn’t command a compelling storyline like the 2006 squad, which overcame all odds. The 2006 Bruins were a middling 12-12 by the time spring […]
Claire-ification: Issues in world of sports are universal, we should keep tackling them
There’s a very particular panic that descends upon my psyche whenever I receive an email regarding my work on this column. I worry that someone is reaching out to correct something I misprinted, take issue with a stance or insult me based on my opinion. For example, when I started this column in May with […]
Claire-ification: Athletes’ success should not hide their immoral past
In the past week, two very different celebrity athletes from two very different arenas have had one very similar experience – at least through my eyes. Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning, both retiring athletes in their late-30s, are experiencing a small heyday as their careers come to a close. Manning just won his second-career Super […]
Matter of Fact: NFL commercial talks baby-making, but skips the concussion discussion
Sure, I was born almost exactly nine months after Super Bowl XXX – which, of all the Super Bowls, clearly has the best initials for baby-making – but my dad hates the Cowboys, who won that game 27-17 over the Steelers. So I’m not a Super Bowl baby, but that didn’t stop me from thinking […]
Tanner’s Take: In case football distracted you from UCLA soccer’s National Signing Day
There are a few things I regret about National Signing Day. For one, I woke up at 5:45 a.m. on a Wednesday morning to refresh Twitter a couple times. But, more importantly, I regret allowing football to become the all-consuming beast that it always turns into. The Bruins’ recruiting efforts gave them the No. 7 […]