Play-by-Play: Trump Tackles the NFL and Turkey Sidelines Traveling Athletes

It's been an eventful start to the season for the Geopolitics of Sports team, and we've had to take a couple of short breaks. But the world of big-time sports takes no such breaks. On the field, the qualifications for the 2018 World Cup in Russia wrapped up with some exciting results. Along with the usual suspects, such as Brazil and Germany, tiny Iceland turned heads as the smallest nation to ever qualify for the soccer tournament. The U.S. squad drew international attention with its performance as well, albeit for a much different reason: For the first time since 1986, the team failed to qualify, despite the U.S. Soccer Federation's massive investment in the sport in recent years. And as usual, the action off the field has been just as interesting....