U.S. OPEN SERVES UP HOMEGROWN TALENT; NFL KEEPS TAKING HARD HITS
BULLS OF THE WEEK
This is such a big weekend for the United States Tennis Association — operators of the U.S. Open — with an all-American women’s singles final coming out of a semifinal round Thursday that was also all-American.
The big runs this week by Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, Coco Vandeweghe and 37-yearold veteran Venus Williams marked the first time since 1981 a final four of Americans made the semifinals at the U.S. Open — and the first time since Wimbledon in 1985 that it has happened at any Grand Slam major.
The Keys-Stephens final — the first all-American U.S. Open showdown since Serena Williams defeated her sister Venus in 2002 — is a big deal for tennis television, media, social media, merchandising and all-around fan engagement in the U.S. The bonus upside is the players are just 22 and 25, respectively.
How ironic is it that there’s this kind of run by American women the same week all-time great Serena Williams gives birth to a baby girl?
It has also been a bullish week for baseball’s Cleveland Indians, who not only won a franchisebest 15 straight games going into the weekend, they did so with a run differential of plus-81; best of any team since the 1939 New York Yankees.
Yet the real bull of the week is sports itself. It, of course, takes a back seat to the real-life devastation of hurricanes such as Harvey and now Irma and human violence such as Charlottesville, Va., but in this era of digital and social media, sport has proved to be everything from a muchneeded distraction and entertaining diversion to a powerful fundraising tool and unifying force in times of difficulty and turmoil.
The ways sports personalities, teams and leagues have stepped up these past few weeks have illustrated the power of sport at its best. That power was epitomized by J.J. Watts of the NFL’s Houston Texans, the face of an online fundraising campaign that has raised more than $27 million for hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
The Los Angeles Dodgers were on a winning pace that put them within striking distance of “best regular season ever” status until they ran into their first slump two weeks ago. They entered Friday night’s game against Colorado having lost 12 of their last 13 games.
The good news for Dodgers fans is this: The near-flawless play that put them 54 games above .500 in late August has the team well-positioned to easily win the National League West, even with the Arizona Diamondbacks winning a franchise-record 13 straight entering Friday’s action.
Yet it is the NFL — the biggest sporting industry in the world at US$14 billion in annual revenues — that is the biggest loser this week.
Instead of celebrating its status as the world’s leading TV and fantasy sports juggernaut with the new season’s kickoff Thursday night, the league and commissioner Roger Goodell are knee deep in negative and controversial storylines, from politics and race to health and justice. It’s not good for business these days for the NFL shield to be synonymous with either domestic violence or concussions.