Sporting Up Blog

By Mark Schremmer Football said goodbye to one of its greatest players of all time this past weekend. The Oakland Raiders’ 23-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium marked the end of an exceptional career for defensive back Charles Woodson. Taking into account everything Woodson achieved collegiately and as a professional, there’s no doubt the Ohio native should be included on the short list of all-time greats. And that’s not limiting him to one of the best defensive backs ever. Instead, Woodson’s all-around skills and success at all levels makes him one of the best...

There are plenty of great division rivalries in professional sports. The New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox and the Denver Broncos versus the Kansas City Chiefs are just a couple. However, the time has come for divisions as we know them to end. No longer should meaningless divisions determine playoff berths and seedings. The most recent seasons in MLB and the NFL are perfect examples why. This past season in the MLB, the St. Louis Cardinals (100-62), Pittsburgh Pirates (98-64) and Chicago Cubs (97-65) finished the 162-game schedule with the three best records in baseball. But since the...

By Mark Schremmer A lifelong Boston Celtics fan, I begrudgingly stood outside Kansas City’s Kemper Arena with my older brother waiting for the Los Angeles Lakers’ team bus to arrive. Little did I know that arriving hours before tipoff of a 1997 exhibition between the Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers would provide me one of my most vivid sports memories. At first, the arrival was a bit of a letdown for my brother, who has rooted for the Lakers since the days of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. When the team bus emerged, only a few players were passengers....

By Mark Schremmer With the 10th week of the NFL season almost complete, the separation between the contenders and pretenders is becoming more vivid. Let’s take a quick look at the five teams with the best chance of winning Super Bowl L. New England Patriots With Sunday’s 27-26 win over the New York Giants, the Patriots remained perfect with a 9-0 record. New England has scored the most points (303) and has allowed the third fewest (169) among teams that have played nine games. Tom Brady passed for 334 yards and two touchdowns, and Stephen Gostowski hit a 54-yard field...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An estimated crowd of 800,000 people flooded the streets of downtown Kansas City on Tuesday to celebrate the Royals’ first World Series title since 1985. Championship parades and rallies are joyous occasions regardless of the team or city. But this one was special. To truly understand why almost half the population of the Kansas City metro area walked miles to see a glimpse of a Royals player or the championship trophy, you must first know the journey this franchise endured. When owner David Glass hired Dayton Moore to be the team’s general manager in June 2006,...