John Jeansonne

John Jeansonne 5/4/13 Reaction to Jason Collins shows enlightenment

Whatever the Robert's Rules of Order in this already sweeping discussion of NBA veteran Jason ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 4/24/13 '42' gives nod to Wendell Smith

As an old newspaper person -- a member of the fraternal order of ink-stained wretches ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 4/17/13 Boston Marathon's spirit - and race - will live on

Anyone who has witnessed the Boston Marathon even once knows what it means to that ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 4/13/13 The hypocrisy of 'amateur' in big-time college sports

Perhaps we all are brainiacs, closer to genius status than we realize. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 4/6/13 Stan Isaacs was one of a kind

I already miss the "Isaacs Ratings of Esoteric Distinction," the annual April Fool’s appraisal “in ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/14/13 There's precedent for Armstrong coming clean

When it comes to great champions whose accomplishments include a black belt in chutzpah, Lance ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/13/13 Public sends mixed message on athletes' drug use

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Lance Armstrong aside, is everyone else playing fair? ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/12/13 Talk of Charlotte Hornets return creating a buzz

Last Sunday's AFC wild- card playoff game was just the most recent reminder of identity ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/5/13 The number 13: To be feared or embraced?

If, as anecdotal evidence suggests, athletes are bigger suckers for superstitions than the general public, ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 11/30/12 Viagra in sports? Athletes try anything

What Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall said he "has heard," that some fellow NFL ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 11/27/12 Athletes can thank Miller for their millions

The only reason to feel sorry for today's fabulously paid professional athletes is that too ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 11/26/12 The unique style of John Gagliardi

Sometimes we miss things even before they're gone. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 11/19/12 Maryland now sold on keeping up with Joneses

Long before Maryland and Rutgers declared themselves bound for the Big Ten and its larger ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 11/16/12 Amid the noise, Tebow an innocent bystander

Though visually quite similar, there is a mighty chasm between Tebowing -- the pose on ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 11/14/12 Tennis is right to enhance its testing

There is a New Yorker cartoon depicting an endless series of cows jumping over the ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 10/25/12 Jeansonne: The Islanders of Long Island

Reflect on the team logo: Long Island put the map on the Islanders, and within ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 10/11/12 Knight group and how colleges should work

A parallel universe to autumn's opulent college football scene, where fabulously paid coaches direct big-ticket ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 10/10/12 Hard to keep Lance on hero pedestal

F. Scott Fitzgerald's take was, "Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy." ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 9/26/12 Hot Topic: Should Seahawks 'give it back'?

Ethically speaking, should the Seattle Seahawks be expected to give back Monday night's victory? ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 9/10/12 All that '2nd' talk is done, Andy Murray is No. 1

Do not tell Andy Murray that nobody remembers who finishes second in sports. In four ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 9/8/12 Jeansonne: Roddick was good for the game

This year's U.S. Open again has demonstrated what a global sport tennis is, how the ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 8/26/12 Best-of-three sets for men getting lobbed about

Not so much a rumpus as a rumination, the idea of a more compact best-of-three-sets ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 7/25/12 Olympics bring joy, optimism to host cities

Something certainly could go wrong at the London Olympics. It's a given, in fact, that ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 7/24/12 PSU, the 'death penalty' and success with less

Shutting down Penn State football altogether would not have been the answer, any more than ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 6/21/12 Nesconset's Michta a champion race walker

In this place where cars and commuter trains rule, Nesconset's Maria Michta is attempting to ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 4/10/12 Jeansonne: Lenzi's lesser-known Olympic tale

Here is my personal Mark Lenzi story, on the occasion of his death on Monday ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 3/17/12 NCAA: Cinderellas having a ball

For those college basketball fans (and probably some coaches and players) who long have believed ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 2/14/12 What happened to the high school mile?

Valentine's Day is as good a time as any to ask whether America's romance with ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 2/2/12 On politicians and Super Bowl wagers

In their unending quest to be populists, politicians can't seem to resist the notion that ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/25/12 The dichotomy of Joe Paterno's legacy

Though Joe Paterno's reputation was that of a humble man with sincere efforts to emphasize ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/11/12 New book explores Tiger Woods' collapse

While golf, as Mark Twain said, may be "a good walk spoiled," Orin Starn's new ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 11/15/11 Penn State community strives to move forward

What Penn State is searching for, now that Joe Paterno has been fired and the ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 11/1/11 Missouri in the middle of it all

This latest round of conference roulette is all the fault of my school, the University ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 9/21/11 ESPN's 'Renee' looks at sex change in sport

Renee Richards' struggle with personal identity and public acceptance is an obvious enough narrative in ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 9/3/11 It's tradition: Roddick serves as mentor

Andy Roddick had just given Jack Sock a hard lesson in big-time tennis Friday night ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 9/2/11 Is code of conduct stifling personality?

With daily U.S. Open crowds far in excess of 50,000, it might be difficult to ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 8/31/11 U.S. Open winners embrace the chaos

What separates the U.S. Open from the three other Grand Slam tournaments is the rumpus. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 8/30/11 Is Serena Williams the greatest ever?

It is in the domain of the hypothetical to ask whether Serena Williams belongs in ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 6/23/11 The appeal of John McEnroe, then and now

It was New York Post columnist Maury Allen, preparing a John McEnroe yarn on a ... Read more »

Horseracing 6/11/11 Jeansonne: Valdivia had clean trip through slops

Air quotes aren’t ever necessary to describe the “clean ride” by Ruler On Ice jockey ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 6/2/11 Jeansonne: Include Duque in golf's return to Cuba

A New York Times report last week that the Cuban government has given preliminary approval ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 5/1/11 Jeansonne: Winning couple makes own sweet music

Yesterday's royal vetting, a thorough inspection of fitness levels among more than 8,000 participants in ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 3/28/11 Jeansonne: Forget conferences, it's about teams

This is a modest argument against the appropriateness of basketball-conference boasting during the NCAA basketball ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 3/1/11 Old rivalries still alive in tennis expo

What Monday night's Madison Square Garden tennis exhibition proved, apparently, is that opposites attract great ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 2/4/11 Playing mind games with Tiger Woods

Remedial golf, for Tiger Woods, would entail old training techniques to reestablish Woods' proven ability ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/11/11 Luck's NFL decision is nobody's business

Here's some free advice for Andrew Luck - as if he needed more right now: ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 12/10/10 Big East may be developing identity crisis

What the Great Conference Shuffle of 2010 proves is that football still is king in ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 9/13/10 Jeansonne: Nadal shows an ability to adjust

Beyond the combatants themselves, swashbuckling Rafael Nadal and mutineer Novak Djokovic, last night's U.S. Open ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 9/13/10 Federer held off young challengers

Champions and former champions know the drill: Revolution always is in the air and nobody ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 8/30/10 Do top stars hog titles or motivate others?

Supposing - and this is a colossal, absurd "if" - that Roger Federer hadn't been ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 8/21/10 Jeansonne: Rocket shot himself in the foot

Much worse than acknowledging steroid use, legal experts agree in the matter of Roger Clemens, ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 8/14/10 What should be the limits for righting a wrong?

HARTFORD - There may be no more delicate surgery than rewriting history. No solitary action ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 8/13/10 What should be the limits for righting a wrong?

Maybe the IOC helped fix the future, delivering the message that it would not tolerate ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 7/10/10 Jeansonne: World Cup soccer has its toehold

There still is another World Cup game to appreciate Sunday. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 7/7/10 Jeansonne: LeBron's reputation at risk

An hour television special for LeBron James to announce where he intends to play ball ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 7/4/10 Hot topic: Not everyone is enamored of the LeBron free-agency phenomenon

Never has so much been made by so many for so long over so little. ... Read more »

Basketball 7/3/10 Jeansonne: Not everyone enamored by LeBron

The whole affair feels like the Hot Stove League on steroids. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 6/21/10 Jeansonne: Soccer is big in U.S., too

Not a soccer nation? The United States has been making landmark progress. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 6/19/10 One name is the game in Brazil

Part of the mystique of Brazilian soccer, like the inconceivable angle from which Maicon scored ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 6/16/10 Jeansonne: Brazilian players' names shine

John Jeansonne examines the unusual nicknames of Brazil's most famous athletes. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 5/24/10 Jeansonne: Despite loss, SBU's journey was fun

Stony Brook may have lost, but their unexpected run to the NCAA lacrosse quarterfinals was ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 4/24/10 Jeansonne: Study gives thumbs up to trading down

Yale professor show that it's basically a coin flip that a player is better than ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 3/30/10 Jeansonne: St. John's isn't St. John's anymore

With some high-profile coaches turning down St. John's, many say the program just isn't what ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 3/19/10 Jeansonne: Focus more on grades, not hoops?

A proposal by the Secretary of Education would force NCAA teams to graduate 40 percent ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 3/16/10 Jeansonne: Golfing is exactly what Woods should be doing

So Tiger Woods will return to competitive golf at the Masters on April 8, 19 ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 3/13/10 Jeansonne: Are colleges signing athletes too young?

Where should college coaches draw the line when offering scholarships? ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 2/23/10 Jeansonne: Positive HGH test must wake up MLB

London rugby player's positive test for HGH should make MLB rethink its stance on drug ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 2/12/10 Jeansonne: In search of relevance, a little danger has been added to Winter Games in recent years

No edition of the Olympics arrives without some stewing over whether such an expensive, ephemeral ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/23/10 Jeansonne: Baseball insiders down on McGwire

Many well known people within baseball are still very displeased with Mark McGwire. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/22/10 Jeansonne: The Fourth's amendment on McGwire

Adolphus Busch IV, whose family used to own the Cardinals, had harsh words for Mark ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/22/10 Jeansonne: College coaches' salaries keep soaring

The salaries of big-name college football coaches have skyrocketed, though spending does not always equate ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/14/10 Jeansonne: Scholarship football at Nassau CC a smart move?

Is this a good idea? Nassau Community College announced Thursday a plan to award football ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/7/10 Jeansonne: Of celebrities, sports and TMZ

Tiger Woods is proof that sports are big-time celebrities in today's obsessive pop culture world ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/6/10 Gilbert Arenas an affront to late owner's legacy

Time for another fan vote in our nation's capital. Twelve years ago, a plebiscite was ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 1/6/10 Jeansonne: Arenas an affront to late owner's legacy

Gilbert Arenas faces possible jail time as well as the indefinite suspension issued by the ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 12/21/09 Jeansonne: Big-time aspirations can't fund small college football

Fan excitement and desire for football on campus overshadow financial realities. ... Read more »

John Jeansonne 12/17/09 Jeansonne: Hofstra football cuts part of a trend?

There is no rule that a college must have a football team. Academia, in fact, ... Read more »