Who Am I?

My name is Tom Knecht, and I'm a professor and former college athlete.  I've taught The Politics of Sports at the University of Denver and Westmont College for over 18 years.  Much of that course material draws on my original research.  22ZIN offers this class, but without all of the quizzes, papers, or tuition.     

Why am I qualified to write on politics and sports? 

• I was a highly recruited high school quarterback who had a mediocre college career as a linebacker/safety at Stanford University and the University of Idaho.  I played for Hall of Fame coaches Denny Green and Bill Walsh.      

• I was the head men's and women's golf coach at Westmont College, where I led both teams to numerous last-place finishes. 

• I am a good golfer if I don't have to chip.

• I read the sports section first.   

• I've published a book on presidential leadership in foreign policy and authored numerous political science articles on subjects ranging from foreign policy to celebrities running for public office. 

Why 22ZIN? 

One of the staples of Bill Walsh's West Coast Offense was 22 Z IN.  The Z (the wide receiver on the right, see below) runs a 12-yard in, the tight end spots up over the middle, the fullback runs a swing, and the X (the other wide receiver) runs a backside post.  The play was so crucial in Walsh's offense that he usually scripted it into one of the game's first two possessions.  (Scripting means a pre-determined series of offensive plays that allowed Walsh to see how the defense reacted to different formations, routes, and blocking).  Here is what it looked like in the 1993 Stanford playbook, along with the actual script in Bill Walsh's handwriting from Stanford's win over Penn State in the 1993 Blockbuster Bowl:

You can see the play in action at the 50-second mark of the 1993 Blockbuster Bowl as our quarterback, Steve Stenstrom, hits our late, great tight end Ryan Wetnight over the middle for a nice gain. 

Okay, you get that 22 Z IN is a football play.  Why is it a website?  Part of the reason is that 22ZIN is an homage to FiveThirtyEight's clever name (there are 538 Electors in the Electoral College) and amazing content (it is my go-to social scientific site for all things American politics and sports).  But, closer to the truth, I've always thought 22ZIN was, somehow, a cool name for something other than a football play.  My former teammate Bryan Schultz once said that if he owned a racehorse, he'd name it 22ZIN.  Schultz never bought that racehorse, so I stole the name.  

What's this Blog About?

22ZIN examines the politicization of sport in America and around the world.  It will not cover the type of politics that screwed you out of a spot on the Little League all-star team.  Instead, we'll explore how governments shape how we play, watch, and think about sports.  22ZIN features four types of articles, essays, and posts:

1.     Social scientific research on the politics of sports.  People are often confused by the "science" part of political science or social science.  "Science" means a lot of things, the most important of which is that knowledge is non-normative (i.e., more than just my opinion).  For example, we'll learn that presidents spend more time talking about sports than they do the Supreme Court (i.e., social science).  Whether presidents should spend less time talking about sports is a different question (i.e., opinion). 

2.     Discussion of Current Events.  I'll use 22ZIN to comment on developments in the political and sporting worlds.  I have two goals here.  The first is to provide context.  For example, it is impossible to understand the 2021-22 MLB lockout without understanding antitrust law, collective bargaining agreements, Curt Flood, and Marvin Miller.  The second goal is to offer my take on these issues.  Here, I bench the "science" part of my job and freely offer up my opinion.  You might disagree with my opinion, which is fine. 

3.     Using sports to teach politics.  Over the years, I've found that most students in my Politics of Sports course know much about sports and little about politics.  Using the familiar (sports) to teach the unfamiliar (politics) is an effective teaching/learning strategy.  For instance, we'll learn how the 1960 World Series explains the Electoral College, how we can understand political parties by looking at our own sports fandom, and how nation-states and sports teams use the same techniques to build allegiance. 

4.     Pure Politics.  I'll occasionally write essays that have nothing to do with sports and everything to do with politics.  I'll focus on topics that are poorly understood by the general public, including

• Your view of elections is probably wrong.

• Interest groups generally don't buy off politicians. 

• "Doing your own research" is usually a mistake.

How to Read This Website. 

Each article will have two sections.  The Box Score gives you a quick summary of what you need to know.  The Complete Game provides in-depth analysis.  

There are several articles within each section—e.g., Presidency, Congress, Courts, Other, and Pure Politics. The sections are meant to be read sequentially, like chapters in a book. However, I’ve also tried to write each article as a standalone. That means there is some redundancy in concepts, theories, terms, and cases. When these redundancies pop up, I briefly remind the reader of what they need to know and point them toward articles that feature a more complete explanation.

Acknowledgments

There are a lot of people who helped make this blog possible. Thanks to Tom and Laurel Lippert for a masterful job of editing. My talented research assistants, Caleb Liebengood and Britta Roper, are responsible for a lot of the data collection. My brother-in-law Brian Anderson is a tech genius and helped me create this website. Thanks to all my former Politics of Sports students for helping me to think through these issues. And thanks to my family, Nicole, Jake, Annie, Gary, and Kathy for their love and support. I owe a lot to so many people, but am solely responsible for any screw-ups.

Contact

You can contact me at tom@22zin.com