The Journal of Footballing History is a scholarly journal about the history of football (soccer) all over the world. You need to register (or "subscribe" as JOFH calls it) but it's free. Gloriously, gloriously free. After you've subscribed you can enjoy articles on matters such as France's footballing culture, a back and forth about the state of African football, a pair of articles about Euro 2000 and what England's dismal failure at that European Championships tells us about the national side and on shooting from free kicks. There are also short histories of kits, boots, passing and squads and a book review section.
posted on Jun 30, 2008 - View this thread

70 year old Pak Doo-Ik will lead North Korea's prestigious Olympic torch bearers to Beijing this summer. In the 1966 World Cup at Middlesborough, Pak scored the goal that lead his team to a stunning 1-0 upset win over Italy (video). Pak Doo-Ik and the team returned home as heroes, but ultimately fell under the suspicion of North Korean leadership. The team underwent "mental re-education" and were exiled, Pak Doo-Ik spending ten years as a forest laborer. Dear Leader Kim Jong-il later allowed Pak to coach North Korea's national soccer team, and a fascinating 2002 BBC documentary brought Pak Doo Ik back to the international stage.
posted on Mar 27, 2008 - View this thread

Through alcohol and vicodin addicition, trauma, grief, and loss, Brett Favre has thrown the ball for the largest muncipally-owned professional sports team in the United States. After reinventing himself several times over, and leading his team to an improbable string of wins and accomplishments a year after almost retiring, he is Sport's Illustrated's sportsman of the year.
posted on Dec 4, 2007 - View this thread

Trinity University won their football game this Saturday on a crazy play, (somewhat reminiscent of "The Play" minus the mayhem of the fans and band rushing the field.) This one looks more like a grade school game of keep away. What happened to the defense??
posted on Oct 28, 2007 - View this thread

On the same day that Sevilla's Antonio Puerta passed away in Spain, Clive Clarke, a defender on loan to Leicester City from Premiership side Sunderland, suffered a heart attack after collapsing in the dressing room during half-time of a League Cup match with Nottingham Forest, a series of events was set in motion that resulted in a truly great display of sportsmanship
posted on Sep 19, 2007 - View this thread

Streaming NFL Games
posted on Sep 8, 2007 - View this thread

"I'm not from here, so when I was told that what these boys do in the fields makes 'em fast, I didn't believe it." Welcome to Muck City.
posted on Apr 16, 2007 - View this thread

European Fields: Landscape of Lower League Football Gorgeous shots of some football pitches throughout Europe. Taken by Dutch Photographer Hans van der Meer. From SpoFi
posted on Dec 2, 2006 - View this thread

Chris Creamer's sportslogos.net is a vast archive of current and historical sports logos from leagues large and small, brand new or defunct. Some of my favorite retro logos involve mascots (often anthropomorphized) performing sports-related activities. Of course, some were retired for good reasons.
posted on Aug 30, 2006 - View this thread

The Homeless World Cup: "Yes, there is a World Cup for homeless people, made possible with help from corporate sponsors such as Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola and Bank of America."
posted on Aug 9, 2006 - View this thread

Jugadas Espectaculares WorldCupfilter: clipshow of some staggeringly fancy footwork. Even non-fans should love this. (youtube)
posted on Jun 8, 2006 - View this thread

I can't think for you. You'll have to decide. Whether the Birmingham Steeldogs have God on their side.
posted on Apr 25, 2006 - View this thread

Super Bowl XL Commercials
posted on Feb 5, 2006 - View this thread

The Steelers were 7-5, then won their final four regular-season games to secure the AFC's last playoff spot. They went to Cincinnati and won a wild-card game. They won at Indianapolis, which had the league's best record. And then they handed Denver its first home loss in the AFC championship game. And now they're the first 6th seed playoff team ever to win the Super Bowl. History made.
posted on Feb 5, 2006 - View this thread

Bobby Martin, 17 years old, is a noseguard and special teams member for Colonel White High School in Dayton, Ohio. He also happens to be three feet tall, having been born with no legs. He was recently removed from a game during halftime because he wasn't wearing shoes, thighpads, or kneepads. Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed shortly thereafter.
posted on Sep 28, 2005 - View this thread

Supersized in the NFL Analyzing data from the 2003-2004 season, researchers say "more than a quarter of NFL players had a body mass index that qualified them as class 2 obesity" -- equivalent to a 6-foot man weighing between 260 and 300 pounds. Even those players weren't the biggest ones: the study counted more than 60 players -- 3 percent -- with body mass indexes placing them into class 3 obesity, with individual weights approaching 400 pounds. "I don't know what's going on in the minds of coaches", said lead researcher Dr. Joyce Harp, an assistant professor of nutrition and medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Players' growing girth "is a major concern," said Dr. Arthur Roberts, a former NFL quarterback and retired heart surgeon (.pdf file) whose Living Heart Foundation works with the players' union to evaluate heart-related health risks faced by current and retired players. More inside.
posted on Mar 1, 2005 - View this thread

Some people said they sucked, but either way they're all here: the 2005 Super Bowl Commercials courtesey iFilm. Meanwhile ESPN dished up an all-time top ten list for Super Bowl commercials and had the readers do the same. (previous posting attempt credit to Doohickie)
posted on Feb 9, 2005 - View this thread

Sports Illustrated explains seven or eight professional soccer/football teams, including highly regarded Manchester United and FC Porto, are interested in "a phenomenon, probably the best player to come out of Brazil" : Jean Carlos Chera, nine years old and 4' 6". A video (additional source) [wmv format, 8MB] demonstrates Jean's abilities.
posted on Jan 27, 2005 - View this thread

Sir Clive Woodward to switch from rugby to football? Sir Clive Woodward is the head coach of the England rugby union team. Appointed in 1997, he has had stunning success, including winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup. On Tuesday, the Daily Mail carried an incredible story: Woodward was planning to turn his back on rugby in favour of association football (soccer). Premiership club Southampton appear to be his next port of call with his ultimate aim, the England football team. Is it possible for a head coach to switch sports like this? Many experts think not. Is there any previous example of a coach switching sports like this?
posted on Sep 1, 2004 - View this thread

Virtual Replay - Shockwave recreation of the major incidents in all the Euro 2004 matches. Select from multiple cameras, players' viewpoints or even the point of view of the ball. note - doesn't seem to work in Firefox.
posted on Jun 16, 2004 - View this thread

Going Poston! - This is a Flash parody about the NFL's most notorious player agents, the Postons, Carl and Kevin. This article from a month ago, pretty much sums up why they're becoming so infamous.
posted on May 13, 2004 - View this thread

"And The 100 Best Ever Football Players Are..." The great Pele, himself one of Time's 100 List, has just presented his very own list, not entirely as diplomatic and Kofi Annan-like as FIFA would perhaps have wished, as it includes, imo, some quirky and interesting choices. It was announced today, so there's time to bitch about unacceptable omissions and incomprehensible inclusions before the print mob get their dirty little hands on it and tell us all what to think.
posted on Mar 4, 2004 - View this thread

In Defense of Football. Which has been hit hard this week. [via a MeFi comment by boltman]
posted on Feb 7, 2004 - View this thread

This Super Bowl halftime, make it to the Lingere Bowl. American TV hits a new low by inventing another sport along the lines of Foxy Boxing and Hot Oil Wrestling. The gridiron action features Team Dream vs. Team Euphoria (featuring washed-up former NFL players as coaches) in full contact football while wearing skimpy clothing. Even weirder, but there will be cheerleaders to cheerlead the players that are already dolled up to look like cheerleaders in some sort of subtle hot lesbian action. It's all pay-per-view, but this "Girls Gone Football" seems more like a new low than a step forward for real women's sports.
posted on Dec 3, 2003 - View this thread

John Elway gets the ball to the 18-yard line. Mark Harmon (not that Mark Harmon...) kicks the field goal to bring his team one point ahead with 4 seconds left on the clock. Kevin Moen catches the ball on the return kick, laterals to Richard Rodgers, who laterals to Dwight Garner. Garner laterals back to Rogers who then shovels the ball to Mariet Ford. Ford then passes back to Moen, who finishes what he started by tackling trombonist Gary Tyrrell in the end zone. So ends the 1982 "Big Game" between UC Berkeley and Stanford. So begins the legend of the weirdest play in the history of college football, complete with audio (wav file).
posted on Nov 20, 2003 - View this thread

On sunday, Rush Limbaugh commented that Donovan McNabb, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, was overrated and was only seen favourably by the media because they want to see a black quarterback do well. McNabb responded, and earlier tonight Limbaugh resigned from his post on ESPN's pre-game show. N.D. Kalu, one of the Eagle's defensive ends, offered this choice quote: "He speaks well, he's well-read, but he's an idiot."
posted on Oct 2, 2003 - View this thread

Putting your faith in your kids. Only a little soccer story about a possible new England goalkeeper but its quite sweet.
posted on Aug 19, 2003 - View this thread

Old Firm dialectics It's going down the thinnest wire tomorrow in the Scottish Premier League (football/soccer/fitba that is) as Celtic and Rangers, with one game left to play in perhaps the most absurd league in Europe, stand equal on points and goal difference after 37 games thus far.
posted on May 24, 2003 - View this thread

Perhaps This Public Image/Persona Thing Has Gone Just A Little Too Far: Luís Campos Lopes, the manager of the Portuguese football team Vitoria de Setúbal has just been sacked for "projecting a negative image of the club". [Link in Portuguese, but please read on.] The reason? Just watch the photo-sequence in the main link. Luís Lopes had trouble putting on his Setúbal vest during a crucial game with Benfica! I.e. the powerful sports media in Portugal and Brazil have had a riot with the photographs and the poor widdle proprietors were embarrassed. So? He may not be a brilliant manager - but isn't this blatant lookism? Isn't "image" becoming much too big for its boots, as it were, in professional sports? [Here is the only English language reference I could find. Please scroll down to "Luís Campos".]
posted on Mar 31, 2003 - View this thread

O-H-I-O! I know Metafilter's not exactly a huge group of sports fans, but this was a great (and unexpected) victory! Go Bucks!
posted on Jan 3, 2003 - View this thread

Slippery football players. Probably not a new way to avoid getting tackled, but an interesting use of technology nonetheless. It certainly didn't help them win. And who's gonna wash those uniforms, hmm? [OK, I haven't posted in a while, so forgive the formatting gaffes...]
posted on Nov 14, 2002 - View this thread

Soccer team loses 149-0 on intentional own goals. I've heard of taking dives but this sounds a bit much!
posted on Nov 2, 2002 - View this thread

The Rec.Sports.Soccer Statistics Foundation is heaven for all football buffs (attention: proper football). For example, what is the worst football team in the world? Or when did the most ridiculous penalty shootout happen?
posted on Sep 6, 2002 - View this thread

Seahawks Stadium was open to the public for the first time this past weekend, with activities on the field for kids, concession stands open with video menus advertising $3.25 hot dogs, and tours of the private box seats and the media room. It's a large stadium with fantastic views of downtown Seattle from some seats and views overlooking Elliot Bay from the western railings, the best hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars can buy.

On Saturday, the first day of the public open house, a man jumped to his death from a northwest ramp of the stadium.
posted on Jul 22, 2002 - View this thread

Is Univision's coverage of the World Cup, like, way better than ESPN's or what?
posted on Jun 25, 2002 - View this thread

Ready To Rumba? Or Samba? Will England or Brazil go through in tomorrow's crucial World Cup game? Predict at your peril. I'd love Brazil to win but, no doubt influenced by the treacherous utterances of Pele and Jairzinho[see penultimate link], say England will tragically but deservedly win 2-1.
posted on Jun 20, 2002 - View this thread

World Cup Conspiracy. Here's one for the X-Files. The Azurri believe they were the victims of a conspiracy to oust them from World Cup 2002.

Alessandro Del Piero broke his usual cool exterior as anger seeped through. "In ten years of my career I have never complained," said the Juventus star, "but in four games too many strange things have happened."
posted on Jun 18, 2002 - View this thread

Korea 2-1 Italy. A classic World Cup in the making? First it was Senegal dumping out the French, and then the Argies and the Portuguese were left biting the dust. Spain and Ireland fought out a nail-biting penalty shoot-out, Saudi Arabia got hit for eight, and now South Korea continue their miraculous journey by sending Italy home. Next on the cards: let's hope for another classic when England take on Brazil!
posted on Jun 18, 2002 - View this thread

One of the teams in the Mexico vs. USA World Cup game made history. As of before the game, the USA has never won a knockout game of the World Cup - Mexico had never won a knockout game of the World Cup when not in Mexico. Click the article to see which team made history - or if you don't want it spoiled, don't click at all!
posted on Jun 17, 2002 - View this thread

The ugly side of football: man dies in Moscow riots. The World Cup has been great so far, but it was only a matter of time before things got out of control.
posted on Jun 9, 2002 - View this thread

How two perfect moments in time brought such tremendous joy and pride to a nation. To me, this truly is the world's most beautiful game, if just for moments like these. I wish everyone could feel this kind of passion for something, whether it be football or not. Sadly, we may never experience this kind of a reaction to anything here in the US.
posted on Jun 4, 2002 - View this thread

Check out this soccer/baseball stadium. You can fold the baseball field and roll in the soccer one. Animation here. Amazing.
posted on Jun 1, 2002 - View this thread

World-wide obsession I am told these sports betting sites are readying themselves for an onslaught of World Cup Soccer traffic never seen in history. Will you play? Does it make the sport uplifting or uncouth?
posted on May 29, 2002 - View this thread

Captain of Irish World Cup squad Keane sent home
This is big news here in Ireland. He's our best player - he keeps the team together on the pitch. But after some incidents in the past couple of days, and some prima donna style behaviour (something he's always been known for), he's been told to feck off. I think the manager did the right thing, but I can't help thinking that our chances of getting out of our group have been diminished...
posted on May 23, 2002 - View this thread

Forget about Palestine, Afghanistan and Venuzuela, Britts are praying for Beckham's foot and Uri Geller is set to help. Meanwhile, Argentines forget their economic woes, but the Financial Times fears this could kick start a second Falklands War. Is sport this important in your country?
posted on Apr 14, 2002 - View this thread

That game is tomorrow. But any predictions on the final outcome? I couldn't find any previous years predictions and how close some guesses were, but the only link of note was this. 31-28.
posted on Feb 2, 2002 - View this thread

I like football as much as the next guy, but this has to be the lamest attempt at "sports humor" I've seen in a while.
posted on Jan 25, 2002 - View this thread

A botched call late in the 4th... and now New England is in the AFC championship game. A hometown call?
posted on Jan 19, 2002 - View this thread

Is Michael Strahan a fraud? In Sunday's Packers-Giants game, QB Bret Favre basically fixed it so that he would be sacked and DE Michael Strahan would break Mark Gastineau's single-season sack record. Most sports columnists have pointed out how lame this is, with some saying the league should intervene and take it back. A similar situation occured four years ago in women's NCAA basketball where Nykesha Sales was given a "gimme" shot to break her school's scoring record.
posted on Jan 7, 2002 - View this thread

There's lots of controversy about Nebraska playing for the national championship in tonight's Rose Bowl because they didn’t win their division or conference and got crushed 63–26 by Colorado in their last game of the season. [more inside]
posted on Jan 3, 2002 - View this thread

"It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't World War III" Watch the Browns/Jaguars game? Maybe it was a bad call, but throwing plastic bottles full of beer? Anybody who knows me knows I speak out loudly and firmly against the ridiculous sports culture we have in this country. This incident makes me ashamed to be a Clevelander, even a transplanted one. What is it that gets people this riled up and stupid?
posted on Dec 17, 2001 - View this thread

Can things at Notre Dame football get any worse? '"Due to a selfish and thoughtless act many years ago, I have personally embarrassed Notre Dame, its alumni and fans," O'Leary said in a statement released by the school Friday.' Oops.
posted on Dec 14, 2001 - View this thread

This coming Sunday 1,643 men will start hitting each other and continue to do so for at least 17 weeks: NFL Football is back! But what happened to all the dynasty teams? And what drives its fans to play God? Is it the end of the quarterback? The real question is how many players will have run-ins with the law...
posted on Sep 3, 2001 - View this thread

stopping football holigans in the gambia security forces banned from football tourney - "the beating of some of the footballers, team officials and supporters of the opposing team which resulted in the admission to hospital of a footabller and the serious wounding of some supporters is a total violation of fair play and can no longer be entertained by the committee." well you've got to draw the line somewhere
posted on Aug 26, 2001 - View this thread

NFL Realignment. Seattle returns home. North and South finally get representation after being discrimated against for years by East, West, and Central. And of course, plenty of work for designers and coders to integrate new graphics and site changes. Yippee!
posted on May 22, 2001 - View this thread

Liverpool win the cup triple. It's the kind of thing bring a tear to your eye even if you're an Evertonian. I always said Golden Goals were a great idea.
posted on May 16, 2001 - View this thread

The XFL is dead! Now who had May 10th in the pool?
posted on May 10, 2001 - View this thread

Go to a football match. Police arrive with tear gas and start a riot. 130 people die. I wonder if the police get some kind of bonus for killing innocent civilians...
posted on May 10, 2001 - View this thread

The XFL takes to the field this Saturday.
posted on Feb 2, 2001 - View this thread

Superbowl Sunday meets The Matrix Some of you may not need a reason to watch the phenomenon that is Superbowl Sunday. Others of us need technological cajoling. Here's a video demonstrating the replay special effect. (Sorry about the Verizon ad.) via slashdot.
posted on Jan 24, 2001 - View this thread

Maybe the candidates will care to make a small wager? Harvard and Yale prepare to duke it out in the next Ivy League heavyweight rumble.
posted on Nov 16, 2000 - View this thread

Duke kickers testify in gender case. Asked to rank her leg strength, Sims Lenhardt told jurors: "It was inferior to other guys out there. I would say 35 yards was probably the most she could kick."
posted on Oct 11, 2000 - View this thread

Weak leg? A female kicker is suing Duke University because she was cut from the team. She says it was because she's a woman, the coach says she wasn't as versatile as other kickers on his roster. With colleges passing illiterates through based on football skill, I'm skeptical that a coach would make a roster decision based on sex.
posted on Oct 3, 2000 - View this thread

Dennis Miller explained... How many football fans will check this on Tuesday mornings to find out what the hell he's talking about?
posted on Sep 8, 2000 - View this thread

Oh great...another sports riot. Let's hope soccer never catches on in the states. Just imagine what our football hooligans would be up to...
posted on Jun 20, 2000 - View this thread