The Goodnewspaper The 2025 Sports Edition

My own sports-playing days never evolved past middle school soccer and basketball. But well into my 30s, I remain a self-proclaimed number-one fan. I’ve got my teams of choice, both real (Go Pack Go!) and made-for-TV (We’re Richmond ‘til we die!), but no matter the league, team, or competitor, I get goosebumps over a Cinderella story, a rush of adrenaline watching a game-changing goal, and inspired by an athlete using their platform for good off the field, court, track, or pitch. What do all those things have in common? They give us something to root for — a reason to care, to hope — that goes beyond winning or losing. This feels especially true in the recent exponential growth of women’s sports. Aside from a happily ever after for Taylor…

The adrenaline rush of racing down a field, or court, as the game clock ticks away can be hard to beat — but it turns out that cheering on the sidelines has its health benefits, too. A new study from Waseda University found that watching sports has a measurable impact on people’s well-llbeing, regardless of whether a preferred team was winning. The 2024 study was accomplished in three parts: first by conducting data analysis of existing research on 20,000 Japanese residents, hosting an online survey of 208 sports fans, and lastly — and most crucially — measuring the brain activity of participants as they watched sports clips. The study was led by professors Shintaro Sato and Kento Nakagawa, as well as Keita Kinoshita, an assistant professor from Nanyang Technological University…

Mental health struggles are a growing concern among athletes. Fortunately, a new no-cost mental health resource, The Courage First Athletes Helpline, expanded its access in 2025. The national helpline aims to meet the needs of athletes, coaches, and their families who are struggling with feelings of anxiety, depression, substance use disorders, and more. “A lot of the contacts that we get are related to emotional abuse or emotional maltreatment,” Cathy Beach, national program director for The Courage First Athletes Helpline, said in a press release. “That line between strict coaching and what might be detrimental to mental health later on can be really fuzzy … I would say the main issue that we get reached out to is about kind of that treatment as an athlete and maybe how that…

According to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, football tackles account for 300,000 annual sports-related concussions, which can later lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). To the average sports viewer, head-to-head tackles may look like a swift, seamless throw-down — but to the player, it’s the equivalent of driving a car into a brick wall at 30 miles per hour. As experts gather emerging data on the value of Guardian Caps — soft-shelled helmet covers designed to reduce concussions — they’re utilizing other methods. For Ben Peterson, former head of player health and performance for the San Francisco 49ers, that means using artificial intelligence to guide player safety. An AI tool called Digital Athlete creates a three-dimensional rendering of players and runs them through data-driven simulations to flag probable hazards.…

GOOD Learn more about the history of sports-related concussions in “Another Player Down,” a documentary short produced by independent newsroom Retro Report. youtube.com/@RETROREPORT BETTER Donate to the Concussion Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting veterans, athletes, and all individuals affected by concussions and CTE. concussionfoundation.org/ways-to-give BEST Track and support “return to play” and concussionrelated policies on a national level using The Sports Institute’s legislation tracker: thesportsinstitute.com/sports-legislation-tracker…

When it comes to golf courses, people are more likely to think of environmental problems — not solutions. And that’s fair. In California, for example, the average 18-hole golf course guzzles up 90 million gallons of water per year — the equivalent of 136 Olympic-sized swimming pools. But the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Arizona has been working to clean up golf’s reputation, and has been certified as a zero-waste event by UL Solutions for the past 12 years. With WM as its title sponsor, the event has developed innovative ways to divert 100% of waste from landfills through recycling, composting, and energy conversion. Lee Spivak, who leads WM’s advisory services team, said that the event is a guinea pig when it comes to testing out new environmentally friendly measures,…