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Thom Loverro

Thom Loverro

tloverro@washingtontimes.com

Thom Loverro has been a professional journalist since 1977, working for a number of newspapers, including eight years as a news editor and reporter for The Baltimore Sun, where he covered government, politics, and crime. He moved into sports writing when he joined The Washington Times in 1992. He moved to The Washington Examiner as a sports columnist in 2009 and returned to The Washington Times in 2013, where he is currently the lead sports columnist.

Columns by Thom Loverro

FILE - NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces the start of the fourth round of the NFL football draft in Cleveland, in this Saturday, May 1, 2021, file photo. Training camps are opening on time in preparation for the 2021 season after the league navigated through a pandemic to play an entire schedule and the Super Bowl in 2020. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

LOVERRO: Goodell and the women running interference for the NFL owners

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has recruited another one of his cheerleaders to protect "The Shield" -- former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White -- to investigate the latest sexual misconduct allegations against Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder that emerged from the recent House Oversight Committee roundtable.

February 22, 2022
The main parking lot at the Los Angeles Angels Tempe Diablo Stadium remains closed as pitchers and catchers are not starting spring training workouts as scheduled as the Major League Baseball lockout enters its 77th day and will prevent pitchers and catchers from taking the field for the first time since October in Tempe, Ariz., Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) **FILE**

LOVERRO: Labor strife leaves fans numb to universal DH approval

There was a time when the debate about the designated hitter in baseball was as passionate and bitter as the divide over COVID-19 vaccines. You picked your friends based on whether or not they thought the refusal to adopt the DH by the National League had been handed down from Mount Sinai, or if they looked upon the American League's embrace of the designated hitter as blasphemy.

February 16, 2022
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks at a news conference Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

LOVERRO: Goodell is big on promises, short on delivery

Roger Goodell's time running the NFL has been a reign that reeks of hypocrisy -- particularly when Goodell is forced to address the sins of the league when it comes to the treatment of minorities and women. But the stench has been perfumed by the $15 billion in annual revenue and high ratings in the barren wasteland of network television.

February 10, 2022
Dan and Tanya Snyder, co-owner and co-CEOs of the Washington Commanders, pose for photos after unveiling their NFL football team's new identity, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, in Landover, Md. The new name comes 18 months after the once-storied franchise dropped its old moniker following decades of criticism that it was offensive to Native Americans. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) ** FILE **

LOVERRO: NFL’s ‘investigation’ of Washington was a sham from the start

Last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a roundtable with some former employees of the local NFL franchise, now known as the Washington Commanders, and before that, the Washington Football Team (and before that, the Washington Redskins). When the roundtable was over, the list of embarrassing allegations against owner Dan Snyder and his organization was longer than the line of Commanders fans looking to get new gear at Ghost Town Field.

February 8, 2022
In this Oct. 7, 2007, file photo, Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor carries the ball during an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Landover, Md. The Washington Football Team plans to retire late safety Sean Taylor's number before its upcoming game against Kansas City. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

LOVERRO: Indian advocates suggest new use for Washington’s discarded helmet logo

The Washington Football Team -- now the Washington Commanders -- certainly has no more use for its old Redskins Indian head helmet logo. So Donald Wetzel is asking the team to give the trademarked symbol -- a striking and dignified design that his Indian grandfather helped create -- back to the people it was intended to honor.

February 2, 2022
San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds celebrates after hitting his 756th career home run against the Washington Nationals during the fifth inning of their baseball game in San Francisco, on Aug. 7, 2007. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and David Ortiz appear to be the only players with a chance at Hall of Fame enshrinement when results are unveiled Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, with Ortiz most likely to get in on his first try. Bonds and Clemens are each in their 10th and final turns under consideration by voters from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, file) **FILE**

LOVERRO: A generation learns the truth with Bonds, Clemens left out of Hall of Fame

The Cheated Generation finally got handed the check Tuesday. Their heroes, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, were passed over by baseball writers for the National Baseball Hall of Fame for the 10th and final time -- and it was like that moment when the mark realizes he's just been scammed: Pain. Anger. Lingering disbelief and delusion.

January 26, 2022
Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera looks onto the field during an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Mark Tenally) **FILE**

LOVERRO: Rivera has the wheel, but the road looks the same

Before the distance grows too far from the 2021 Washington Football season and people say nice things about it -- character, right direction, all the words we've heard before at so many other season closures -- let's do an inventory.

January 10, 2022
Washington Football Team quarterback Taylor Heinicke (4) gets up slowly after taking a hard hit in the second half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Roger Steinman) **FILE**

LOVERRO: Don’t expect to find any soul-searching with this Washington franchise

You might have been able to stir up some sympathy if they were a sympathetic lot. But this franchise is a magnet for scorn and ridicule, from the half-empty seats in Landover to the "we-bought-custom-benches-too" sidelines in Dallas to the squalid corridors of the headquarters in Ashburn. All of it earned.

December 27, 2021