Jameson's Sport Writing Portfolio

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is one of the greatest strikers of modern European football. A staggering physical presence combined with impeccable ball control and striking skills, Zlatan dominated the early 2000s as one of the most-coveted attackers in football. He's one of a few players to play for three of Italy's Serie A's "Big 5" clubs, won multiple Puskas, FIFPro, and individual league honors throughout his illustrious career and even dominated American soccer in his late 30s. He also brought incredible international awareness to Swedish football. Yet, there is one major prize Zlatan had ample chances to win but never captured: the Champions League. Despite being on superstar teams, some of them stockpiled with talent, Zlatan remained without a Champions League trophy well into the twilight of his career. How? Why? What kept one of the best strikers from hoisting the European Cup? To understand the persona of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, I'll use a reference from Diego Mara...

If you're like millions of people around the globe, cabin fever has probably set in horribly and you can't wait for the day when you can go on the street without worrying about catching a deadly disease. If you're a sports fan, you've already got some sort of release with the return of the UFC two weeks ago and now in Germany, Bundesliga soccer is back. As a soccer fan, I can't say I've really paid attention to the Bundesliga this year, despite this being one of the most competitive seasons to date. From Saturday to Monday, eight matches were played across the country in desolate venues. The eerie playing atmosphere was fun at first but now most fans realized this could be the norm for quite a while and that is unnerving to some. Nevertheless, it was good to see live soccer for the first time and we were treated to some incredible matches, equipped with high goal-scoring and socially-distant celebrations. The Bundesliga is back, but this is a matter of healt...

The 2020 NFL Draft was a weird enough experience in itself, you know with all the inter-connected Zoom calls; watching team coaches, general managers and owners basically pick players from their living rooms with their kids watching their beloved parents, hard at work, carefully selecting which stud college football prospect fills a role desperately needed within the team roster. At times, watching the draft made me wonder whether the GMs were making the call or whether their kids were putting in their two cents. More often than not, the audience waited for Roger Gooddell to announce the pick after it had been a solid ten minutes before they even went to the commissioner's live feed. Yea, it was an interesting NFL Draft, to say the least, but what really made this draft a must-watch were the picks made by the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles in the first round and the second round, respectively. Instead of addressing serious...

Joe Thornton is one of the greatest natural hockey players to ever grace the ice. He was gifted with incredible vision and passing abilities, with the talent to set up goals from ridiculous angles. He is one of the biggest point producers in NHL history and one of a handful of players to win scoring titles for two different teams. With all his talent, size and skill, Thornton had a lustrious NHL career, but even with all of these accolades, he was never able to win hockey's most coveted prize: the Stanley Cup...why? Even before he was an NHL player, Thornton's legacy in hockey lore was cemented early on. In his junior hockey years, he was a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on the Ontario Hockey League, a sort-of small market team for Canada's junior leagues. In his second season with the Hounds, Thornton posted 123 points. Only at 18 years old, the St. Thomas, Ontario native was a lock for the NHL. He put small-town Canada on the map not only being from a small...

Manchester United was once the best football club in England and for the most part, the world. It's the club that produced huge stars such as David Beckham, George Best, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, and dozens of other names. A lot of United's success was built around their world-class manager: Alex Ferguson. A manager that was so successful, he was even knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Ferguson produced some of the best teams in the world, including the 1999 team that won the English Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions League, the last English team to win a treble that included a continental tournament win. From 1986 to 2013, Ferguson's teams won a total of 38 trophies. But in 2012, the cross-town rivals Manchester City won their first Premier League trophy, signaling the beginning of the end of Man United's dominance over England and Europe. United's demise has led to the rise of multiple other clubs in England. But what exactly happened a...

Well, friends, we are only a day away from NFL kickoff Sunday. We've already gotten to witness the first opening game on Thursday night with that Packers-Bears snoozefest. Sunday should offer some much more compelling games. Now, though, all eyes are going to be on the New England Patriots (once again) after they picked up Antonio Brown off waivers following his release from the Oakland Raiders. Yet again, the Patriots went out and nabbed a disgraced yet insanely talented wideout for Tom Brady to target. It's a tale thats beginning to become lore in the NFL: if the first team doesn't want you, New England certainly will. AB's addition is another example of the Patriots' front office wisely waiting for the drama to die down so they can secure a Top-5 talent without having to overpay the player. AB will be signed to a one-year contract, so he is not guaranteed to be a stud under Bill Belichek's guidance and playcalling. But he is Antonio Brown, the same receiv...

With the new season of European club football upon us, I thought it would be good to discuss some of the summer's biggest transfers. Many big names in the game are prepping for next season with their new clubs. Some of the transfers were predictable, others totally out of the blue, but I can guarantee you the excitement for the newest season is real. In this post, I'll break down some of the most surprising and entertaining transfer sagas this summer. Let's dive in: 1) Juventus: De Ligt, Ramsey, and Rabiot Juventus had probably the best transfer period of all the clubs in Europe, as they operated in efficient and clinical fashion to secure the signatures of Welsh CM Aaron Ramsey from Arsenal (free transfer), French CM Adrien Rabiot from PSG (free transfer), and Dutch CB Matthijs De Ligt from Ajax ($95 million). Juventus signed six new players, but these three stand out because of the way they were nabbed by the Italian superclub. First came Aaron Ramsey in January, ...