- Dave Zirin
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Dave Zirin 
Occupation Sports journalism Notable credit(s) The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World
A People's History of Sports in the United States
Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of SportsOfficial website Dave Zirin is an American political sportswriter who is currently the sports editor for The Nation, a weekly published liberal magazine dedicated to politics and culture.
Contents
Career
Zirin's column, Edge of Sports, appears on Sports Illustrated’s website and he is the host of XM satellite’s weekly show, Edge of Sports Radio. Zirin is a frequent contributor to The Nation, a columnist for SLAM Magazine, and The Progressive, as well as being a frequent guest on ESPN's Outside The Lines and Democracy Now. His first book, What’s My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States (Haymarket Books) has entered its third printing.[1][2]
Zirin has also published Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports, and A People’s History of Sports in the United States, a sports-related volume in the manner of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States series for The New Press. In addition to “What’s My Name, Fool?” for Haymarket Books, he has also published “The Muhammad Ali Handbook” for MQ Publications. Zirin is also the published children’s book author of “My Name is Erica Montoya de la Cruz” (RC Owen). "A People's History of Sports" forms the basis of a documentary co-written and narrated by Zirin called Not Just A Game: Power, Politics and American Sports, produced by the Media Education Foundation.
He is also the co-author with John Carlos of The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World (Haymarket Books, 2011).
Controversies
Zirin has repeatedly called for sports boycotts of certain teams, states, or nations for political reasons.
On April 27, 2010, writing for The Guardian, Zirin called for a boycott against sports teams from Arizona, in particular the Diamondbacks, to protest the Arizona SB 1070, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.[3][4] He did however express tremendous enthusiasm and support during the 2010 NBA Playoffs for the Phoenix Suns, who went by "Los Suns" as a statement against the Arizona immigration law.
On June 2, 2010, writing for The Nation, Zirin justified the decision of the Turkish U-19 soccer team to boycott a match against Israel. He described the Gaza flotilla raid as an act of state terror committed by the Israeli government and proposed a boycott of Israel.[5]
On October 6, 2011, during a live interview conducted on the sports cable television network, ESPN, Zirin referred to Hank Williams, Jr. as a racist and proslavery after Williams ‒ the writer and singer of ESPN's then-Monday Night Football theme song ‒ made a political statement in which he seemingly compared multiracial US President Barack Obama to former German national socialist leader, Adolf Hitler.[6] Ultimately, ESPN canceled Williams' long-running theme song ‒ a reworking of his 1984 hit, All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight; while Williams stated that he had actually "quit" the network before ESPN's decision had been made.
Bibliography
- What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2005. | ISBN 978-1931859202
- Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2007. | ISBN 978-1931859417
- Muhammad Ali Handbook, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2007. | ISBN 978-1846011559
- A People's History of Sports: From Bull-Baiting to Barry Bonds, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2008. | ISBN 978-1595581006
- Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love, New York: Scribner Books, 2010. | ISBN 978-1-4165-5475-2
- The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2011. | ISBN 978-1-6084-6127-1
References
- ^ "The Nation > Author Bios > Dave Zirin". http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/dave_zirin. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ^ "Edge of Sports -> Bio". http://www.edgeofsports.com/bio.html. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ^ Arizona: Boycott the Diamondbacks
- ^ "Here Comes Los Suns: Dave Zirin on Sports and Resistance". Making Contact. National Radio Project. 27 July 2010. http://www.radioproject.org/2010/07/here-come-los-suns-dave-zirin-on-sports-and-resistance/.
- ^ Are Teams Right to Refuse to Play Israel
- ^ ESPN, Hank Williams Jr. part ways
External links
Categories:- American columnists
- American sportswriters
- Jewish American writers
- Living people
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