Dave Zirin | |
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| Born | 1974 (age 51–52) |
| Education | Macalester College (BA) |
| 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 Sports |
| Website | edgeofsports |
Dave Zirin (/ˈzaɪrɪn/ZY-rin; born 1974) is an American political sportswriter. He is the sports editor forThe Nation, a weeklyprogressive magazine dedicated to politics and culture, and writes a blog namedEdge of Sports: the weekly sports column by Dave Zirin.[1] As of January 2022, he has authored eleven books.
Zirin was born inNew York City.[2] He is ofJewish descent.[3][4] He graduated fromMacalester College inSt. Paul, Minnesota.[2]
Zirin was the host of theEdge of Sports Podcast, hosted by the Slate/Panoply network. He also co-hosted "The Collision: Where Sports and Politics Collide on Pacifica Radio" with former NBA playerEtan Thomas. Zirin is a contributor toThe Nation, and has been a columnist forSLAM Magazine, andThe Progressive. He has been a guest onESPN'sOutside The Lines andDemocracy Now!.[5][6]
His first book,What’s My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States (Haymarket Books) has entered its third printing.[5][7]
Zirin has publishedWelcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports, andA People’s History of Sports in the United States, a sports-related volume in the manner ofHoward Zinn'sA People's History of the United States series forThe New Press.[5][8] In addition to “What’s My Name, Fool?”, he has also published “The Muhammad Ali Handbook” for MQ Publications.[9] Zirin is also the published children's book author of “My Name is Erica Montoya de la Cruz” (RC Owen).[10] "A People's History of Sports" forms the basis of a documentary co-written and narrated by Zirin calledNot Just A Game: Power, Politics and American Sports, produced by theMedia Education Foundation.[11]
Zirin is the co-author withJohn Carlos ofThe John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World (Haymarket Books, 2011).[11]
He writes a blog namedEdge of Sports: the weekly sports column by Dave Zirin.[1]
Zirin has repeatedly called for boycotts of certain teams, states, or nations for political reasons.
On April 27, 2010, writing forThe Guardian, Zirin called for a boycott against sports teams from Arizona, in particular theDiamondbacks, to protest theArizona SB 1070, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.[12][13][unreliable source?] He expressed support during the 2010 NBA Playoffs for thePhoenix Suns, who went by "Los Suns" as a statement against the Arizona immigration law.[14]
On June 2, 2010, writing forThe Nation, Zirin justified the decision of the Turkish U-19 soccer team to boycott a match against Israel. He described theGaza flotilla raid as an act ofstate terror committed by the Israeli government and proposed aboycott of Israel.[15]
On October 6, 2011, during a live interview conducted on the sports cable television networkESPN, Zirin referred toHank Williams Jr. asracist andproslavery after Williams, the writer and singer of ESPN's then-Monday Night Football theme song, made a political statement comparingmultiracial US PresidentBarack Obama toAdolf Hitler.[16]
In an undated interview, Zirin said, "I never wrote that I believeBonds has never done steroids." He continued: "unlike oh so many others, the man never actually failed a steroids test. Is there a ton of circumstantial evidence that the man juiced? Absolutely. But he is still the best player I've ever seen. The best player of what will go down as the anabolic era."[17][unreliable source?] Zirin said that, rather than steroid use, "much of the reaction to Bonds is simply bad old-fashioned racism".[18]
As Zirin becomes evermore recognizable, he joins a rich tradition of Jewish sportswriters and commentators that includes Howard Cosell, Tony Kornheiser and Al Michaels. When I asked him about his Judaism, he told me that, more than anything, his sense of being Jewish is "a commitment to questioning what I'm told is true."
If as a Jewish male, sportswriter I get bombarded by jackasses for saying Palestinians are human, can't imagine what Arab/Muslim folks get.
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