Off the Pitch

No one likes to have to go to the hospital. Whether it’s illness, injury or visiting a loved one, hospitals can be scary places, especially for kids.

But thanks to a new initiative from the Spanish football magazine Panenka and the creative agency We Are Xuxa, children are being given new strength at hospitals across Spain. 

Called Las Batas Más Fuertas, the inspiring collaboration is converting soccer jerseys into hospital gowns for children.  

Finding a good soccer children's book can be difficult for true fans of the beautiful game. You want something easily accessible for a youngster, but you don’t want something condescending or trifling.

Fortunately, there’s “G is for Golazo: The Ultimate Soccer Alphabet,” a kid’s picture book released Tuesday by Triumph Books. 

“G is for Golazo” is a follow-up to “B is for Baller,” a similar idea for basketball. In this soccer children's book, author James Littlejohn pulls into more than 100 years of soccer references to go through the English alphabet.

Javier Hernandez has gone through his share of hairstyles. The latest Chicharito hair color has to be the best. 

Hernandez made a bizarre post on Instagram on Friday night, less than 48 hours before West Ham’s season-finale against Watford. Sporting a surprised look and a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos, Chicharito debuted a bright orange hairdo.

There was some good news on Tuesday. In the aftermath of the Notre-Dame fire, which is being viewed as an accident and not arson, the iconic Paris landmark remains structurally sound. France president Emmanuel Macron vowed the cathedral would be rebuilt and millions of Euros are pouring in to aid the effort. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is probably America’s greatest badass. A lifelong fighter for women’s rights who joined the Supreme Court in 1993, she’s fought off cancer more times than you’ve fought off the urge to eat that last slice of pizza. 

At 86, she’s doing her best to stay in shape, despite being diagnosed with cancer three different times (colon, pancreatic, lung). RBG’s biweekly workouts are no joke, as Stephen Colbert found out last year. Honestly, she works out more than I do and probably 90 percent of politicians in DC. 

Hope Solo is getting a movie deal.

The former USWNT No. 1 goalkeeper, who helped the U.S. lift the 2015 Women’s World Cup trophy, will have her life story developed into a feature film, a news release announced on Tuesday.

"Hope Solo is a force of nature who broke down walls in women’s sports, both as a player and as a humanitarian,” writer/director Christine Crokos said in the release. “Her story is one of pure trailblazing and fierce athleticism — one that many generations to come will honor and look up to.”

Pelé is generally considered the greatest footballer of all time. The U.S. has been looking for its own version of Pelé ever since the Brazilian graced the NASL more than 40 years ago. 

It turns out, we’ve had our own Pelé all along, and he’s the most polarizing figure in the country.

Donald Trump has been given the nickname of Pelé by a select group of people who know more about his sporting abilities than perhaps anyone in the world.

Americans loves celebrities like apple pie and making fun of baseball. It’s why late night TV shows constantly barrage us with uninspired interviews of famous actors trying to get us to watch their new thing.

But occasionally, a late night show does something truly inspired. They bring on a soccer player, someone who can actually keep the viewers who aren’t in states where marijuana is legalized awake.