Reggie Bush was once a name synonymous with the USC football teams of the early 2000's. Many of us grew up playing with USC on the latest NCAA Football video game only to run the ball with him every offensive snap just because he was that good.
For those who have been living under a rock for nearly the last two decades, in 2010 after a nearly four-year investigation, the NCAA accused Bush and his family for taking payments under the table in a pay-for-play arrangement where his family received benefits such as a house in California, cash payment, and travel tickets in return for his continued play for the USC football program - which, at the time was not allowed by a student athlete or their families while actively on a roster and enrolled at the university. As a result, the NCAA imposed a 2-year postseason ban on USC, ordered the program to vacate several wins during Bush's tenure (including a BCS Championship in 2004), and imposed a sanction of 30 lost scholarships for the coming years on the school. Personally, Bush had year's of stats formally removed, was required to disassociate from the school for 10 years, and had his Heisman Trophy revoked. Since the new NIL rules were passed in 2021, allowing all collegiate athletes to benefit off their Name, Image, and Likeness financially or otherwise, Bush is now attempting to not only restore both his image and the school's but to in the end have his Heisman returned to him - which many feel is the right thing to do. However, the NCAA still upholds their statement that the NCAA to this day does not allow their student athletes to engage in a pay-for-play arrangement of any kind. Bush contends that while his family did benefit from a "would-be agent" who was unaffiliated with USC at that time that he did not entertain any payment as constituted by the NCAA. According to his legal team at the McCathern Law Firm, pay-to-play was "widely understood to mean that Mr. Bush received payment in return for playing football" and not that his family couldn't benefit from his status within the program as long as he himself did not directly take payment for playing in games or participating in on-field activities. Bush's entire Heisman-winning 2005 season was vacated in 2005 as a part of the sanctions imposed by the NCAA. As such, the Heisman Trophy Trust, who governs the award and associated activities, continues it's claim that Bush is ineligible to have his Heisman returned to him. This leads to the famed RB's goal of having his stats returned to him as a part of his suit against the NCAA. If he can get those re-issued to him, there would be nothing to prevent the return of the Heisman - and his standing as one of the all-time best players in collegiate football.
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The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Navy Midshipmen have played each other every year since 1927 (excluding 2020 COVID year when the two were set to meet in Dublin, Ireland). In that time, the series record leans strongly on the Irish with an 81-13-1 lead over Navy. Some may call it a rivalry, but let's be real and take it for what it has typically been the last few years - football in August. Sure we have NBA and NHL playoffs to look forward to after the NFL season is over. But for most of us since early February after the final whistle blows during the Super Bowl, we go through the dog-days of summer "watching" nothing but baseball, tennis, and golf with the college football season looming in the distant future. Well, that time is here now and we have Week 0 of the 2023 college football season approaching this coming weekend. And while yes, it is football, and football that counts - it isn't your typical Saturday in the fall. No, I'm not talking about how it's still 90+ degrees outside for most parts of the country and that the Starbucks PSL hasn't come out yet. I'm talking about how Week 0 has some of the most boring football all season lined up for us when we sit down with our Coors Lights in front of the TV. Let's look at the slate - Highlights here are ND and USC both ranked but playing teams they should handle with ease. Then again, it is a new season and college football where upsets are not infrequent. But that is about it. Not much else to write home about here.
So not only does football not start till 2:30 in the afternoon but the games throughout the day are those you'd typically find playing on a Thursday or Friday night come mid-October. But we'll take what we can get, right? Football is football. It is an excuse to hang out with our friends on the weekend, eat unhealthy food and drink good beer. So although the games on paper may not be a Top-10 matchup, at least we have football that counts. If you're a bettor, there should also be some easy money waiting for you this weekend too - don't take my advice though. Plus, you never know, maybe Navy is in for their 14th win this weekend across the pond. Well, it’s officially that time of year again. March Madness. Now we all know that everyone has filled out their brackets by now and that after only the third day of basketball in the men’s tournament there are no more perfect brackets meaning that no one can get the $1 billion that Warren Buffett offered up for the person who was fortunate enough to predict the almost impossible perfect bracket. Now that all that fuss is out of the way, we can focus on the more important things…like the games maybe? I know it’s very “mainstream” to talk about the tournament right now but hey, that’s what catches everyone’s attention and what everyone is talking about around the water cooler. Every year there are teams like Duke, North Carolina, and Michigan that make the tournament but what makes this competition different than any other are the little guys that get picked by the selection committee. Little schools like Lehigh and Mercer. These are schools that you couldn’t even locate on a map unless you were a proud alumni. The teams that are sent to the tournament to represent these schools are the ones that make each tournament interesting every year. I know that a lot of them don’t make it passed the first few rounds because they’re normally ranked as lower seeds (most of which 10-16 seeds) and they play the higher seeds first which for the most part end up in blowouts with them on the losing end of things; but every now and then there’s that “Cinderella” team that makes it to the Elite Eight or even the Final Four. Who would have ever guessed that eighth ranked Butler would have been the one random team to play UConn in the 2011 Championship game? I don’t think anyone had them going passed the third round that year, I know I didn’t. Who would have guessed that Virginia Commonwealth University of all teams would have made it to the Final Four in 2012? No one. I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that we almost assume that one random team from a small basketball conference is going to end up making a splash in the tournament each year, leaving the impression that they are “for real” and will be a constant threat in the tournament for years to come. In reality, that never really happens. This “Cinderella” team makes it to the Final Four one year and the next year barely makes it past the first round of the tournament if they even make it into the tournament at all. With the exemption of Wichita State who even to this date has yet to lose a game this season and is a 1 seed in the Midwest, there are very few small schools that have consistent success throughout the season and moving into the tournament. Even still, although Wichita State is undefeated they don’t play the elite teams that everyone knows like Duke and Syracuse like teams like UNC or FSU do. I’m sure that if teams like Florida State had the same schedule that Wichita State had this year, they would be playing in the tournament and not in the NIT that seemingly no one pays any attention to. If you’re anything like me, you’ve filled out multiple brackets this year like you do every year (I’ve officially made it to seven brackets this year) one of which is the one that you think has the best chance at being the most accurate, one is the one where things could go either way and you just flipped a coin to choose the winner, one to do exactly the same but instead chose the other team to win this time, and the last one is the one where you basically said “well, this will never happen but it’ll be fun to see what happens”. And again, if you’re anything like me that last bracket probably ends up being the one that is the most accurate at the end of it all. However you choose the winners of each and every game of this wonderful tournament, just be sure to pick a few upsets here and there because if we have learned one thing so far in this year’s tournament with Mercer beating Duke, and Dayton beating both Ohio State and Syracuse in it’s first two games, seeds almost don’t matter at all once the Madness begins. It’s all about heart, teamwork, and a little bit of luck. Steve Smith, formally of the Carolina Panthers, is now a member of the Baltimore Ravens. We all know that the NFL offseason is one of the most boring times of the year. We don’t have any reason to look forward to the weekend now because there isn’t any football on. Unfortunately the National Football League spreads their offseason events out just enough that everything exciting happens by June so we, the fans, don’t have anything football related to talk about for two months before preseason starts. Just a few weeks after the end of the Combine, Free Agency began. Free Agency by far is much more interesting than the Combine; especially when there is a huge class of free agents who are constantly looking to make more money, even if it means they have to sign with an interdivisional opponent like former Defensive Lineman for the Chicago Bears, Julius Peppers did when he signed with the Packers during the free agency period this year. Free agents can affect how a team plays throughout the upcoming season in more ways than one. Sure you have all the big names out there who are looking for a big contract with lots of zeros on the check, but some free agents who are seasoned veterans that might not care as much about the money as they do winning a championship before they retire might be willing to take a considerably less amount of money allowing for the team that signs them to sign other decent players during the free agency period, as well as draft picks. Veterans play a big part not on the field by knowing what to look for and knowing how some of the other players tend to play, but they also can help guide the younger players in the locker room and away from the all the fans and cameras that are constantly put on them. In some ways the veterans are the heart of the team, even if it is their first year the team. Take Steve Smith for example. Smith will be going into his 13th season next year. The first 12 years of his career Smith was the star on a mostly mediocre Carolina Panthers offense. Before Cam Newton arrived a few years back, there weren’t many players on either side of the ball that could compare with Steve Smith’s popularity and leadership attributes. He was a natural born leader who helped lead his team to the Super Bowl in 2004 against the Patriots, which they lost. Nonetheless, they had made it to the Super Bowl mostly on will and luck. Smith was a free agent this offseason and decided that he did not want to resign with the Panthers and decided to accept a three-year deal from the Baltimore Ravens allowing him to lead players who are much younger than him but also some that have already tasted what it was like to be a world champion if they were on the team in 2012 when the Ravens won the Super Bowl against the 49ers. He will have an established quarterback in Joe Flacco (who is being overpaid by millions of dollars), and really has a good chance to have a few last goes at winning the Super Bowl before he retires. DeMarcus Ware signs with Broncos filling a very empty gap in Denver's Defense. Of course there are defensive players other than Julius Peppers who made big moves during this free agency period. Within minutes of the free agency period opening, the Dallas Cowboys released multi-time Pro Bowler, DeMarcus Ware. Of course I would be remised to believe that Ware was actually sad to be leaving Dallas and “Jerry World” only to sign with the league runner-up, Denver Broncos on their newly revamped defense that will sure be a sight to see once week one comes around in September. I don’t know why anyone would want to actually play there. They have constantly put up mediocre records each and every year since their last Super Bowl win in the 90’s, yet they continue to be one of the most talked about teams each year during the preseason and even before that. Every time you turn on the television and you hear analysts debating the topic of what team will win the NFC East in the upcoming season at least two thirds of them say the Cowboys. Why? Beats me. You would be foolish to say that they don’t have a fantastic roster on paper with players like Dez Bryant and Tony Romo (depending on the week). However year after year they somehow manage to self-destruct. The problem with the Dallas Cowboys is not Head Coach, Jason Garrett or Quarterback Tony Romo. The real problem with the Dallas Cowboys is Jerry Jones who undermines every decision that is made because everyone who works for the organization is afraid of him. Granted, I would be too because when you change head coaches and defensive coordinators faster than a blink of an eye and you resign you underdeveloped “wonder-boy” of a quarterback to extensions all the time when no one else would agree with your decision making, you know there’s a dictatorship in Dallas. Now, I did not start to talk about free agency just so I could get off on a tangent about how the Cowboys are one of the most poorly run organizations in the league; that much is self-explanatory, unless you’re a Dallas Cowboy fan. I started to talk about free agency because it can show not only how some players can completely change an organization with the right people and system around him, like Alex Smith in Kansas City last year under the leadership of Andy Reid; it can also reveal the true colors of the front office of organization. Now I’m not saying that every team is going to go rushing after all the top tier skill players like the overpaid QBs and Running backs, because frankly, most teams don’t need those types of players because they have those positions filled already (unless you’re the Browns, they never have those positions filled) and really good teams with good management will give their quarterbacks and other players essential to the success of the team extensions before their contract is up so they never have to worry about losing them. How a front office is managed, how quickly they recognize the needs of the team, and how swiftly they take those players in which they need on their team off the free agency market shows what a front office is made of and how well the head coach and his staff get along with the owner, president, vice-president, and the GM, etc. James Harrison, who once was a dominant force on defense and still very well might be, is now a free agent who might not get another chance to sign with an NFL team for more than a year. Teams like the New England Patriots, and Pittsburgh Steelers have this process down pat between the guys in the suits, players, and coaches. They have realized that there will always be players who are just as good willing to take others places and are just younger and willing to take less money. If there is a player who’s contract is expired and he meets with the team to talk about resigning with them but can’t take anything less than what he is expecting because he believes that he is invaluable to the organization, the team says goodbye to them and doesn’t even bat an eye when they watch the “invaluable” player walk out of the room now having to find a new team to sign with. We’ve seen this with players like James Harrison, formally of both the Steelers and now the Bengals as well. In the Spring of 2013 when Harrison’s contract was up, he wanted more money than the Steelers thought he was worth and they not only let him go, they were completely fine with him signing with their interdivisional rival, the Cincinnati Bengals. Unfortunately for Harrison, it seems that his time in Cincinnati is now done as well spending only one year with the team. I guess they thought he wasn’t worth the money Harrison was demanding either. It seems to be that Harrison is now stuck between a rock and hard place in his life. Does he retire and call it a career? He did win a Super Bowl with the Steelers in 2010 after all. Does he take less money and hope that another team who desperately needs a veteran Linebacker on their team signs him? Or does he risk it and stick to his guts and refuse to lower his price at the risk of not playing in 2014. I suppose only time will tell.
No matter which of the 32 NFL teams you’re a fan of, this time of year is almost (emphasis on the “almost) as exciting as a Thursday Night Football game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tennessee Titans. Nonetheless, it is still fun and interesting to see where all these players who we have all become so accustomed to seeing play for one team for most of their career, end up. Usually you end up forgetting that a certain player changed cities and when you see them on the highlight reel scoring a touchdown on Sunday night after all the games have finished week 1, it will be a pleasant reminder of how this otherwise unremarkable time of year in the NFL has made an impact on the new season. So we all know that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is by far the most popular driver in all of NASCAR; that much is a given. He has been a in the spotlight and expected to do great things throughout his entire career. When Junior joined the Sprint Cup Series (known then as the Winston Cup Series) in 1999 at 25 years old, he finished the season in 48th position in the standings out of a total of 69 racers. Although it is estimated he won around $162,000 that year, it was nothing compared to his dad who was already a legend in racing and came in seventh in the standings at the end of the season earning about $2.7 million. Obviously there was a huge difference between the two but hey, Dale Jr. was only a rookie. It doesn’t matter if you’re a racing fan at all, there are two names that most people know when you talk about NASCAR with them. The Petty family and the Earnhardt family. Those two families are royalty in the racing world and no matter what driver you’re a fan of, there’s a good chance that you wouldn’t mind seeing either of them win a race…unless they beat out your driver for first, in which case you’ll despise them for the next week or so until the next race. They all are fantastic drivers, there’s no denying that, and they all have likable personalities. With the untimely death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. at the 2001 Daytona 500, it’s almost a given that most would admit that they would have liked to have seen him race for a much longer time and that Dale, while on home-stretch of his career, was still a good enough driver to win many more races before retiring. The racing world didn’t get enough of Junior and Senior racing against each other. In someway you could say that Dale Earnhardt helped make his son more popular because they would race against each other every week. Maybe because the entire racing community, drivers, pit crews, and fans alike respected Dale Sr. so much it has helped his son gain such a popularity and helped him gain it very quickly in his at the time, young career. Now that we are 15 years into Jr.’s racing career in the Sprint Cup Series, he has won the Daytona 500 twice (2004, 2014) but has never won the whole series at the end of the series down at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Of course when you have Jimmy Johnson winning the championship almost every other year I guess it would make it a bit difficult for you to have a turn at the top of the standings. Three weeks into the 2014 season, Junior has managed to finish in the top two in each of the races this year. He won the Daytona 500, and has come in second the last two weeks both at Phoenix last Sunday and Las Vegas today. Actually, Dale would have won if the race today in Las Vegas had been one lap shorter. He was leading the final laps of the race when he started to run low on fuel. Unable to slow down due to the fact that he had Brad Keselowski running right behind him in second, Earnhardt kept on pushing his car and unfortunately was just a turn away from the finish line when he ran out of fuel. Although he still came in second, and there were 41 cars that finished behind him, you can bet that everyone was feeling for Junior at the end of the race today on that last turn when he ran out of fuel and saw started to lose his lead. Well, maybe everyone but Keselowski. Although Dale Jr. didn’t win today’s race at Las Vegas, it is still good to know that he is running at full speed again and is racing really well thus far in the Sprint Cup Series. Before his victory at Daytona in February, Earnhardt hadn’t won a race in 55 weeks going through the entire 2013 season without a win (missing two races due to concussions) while also coming in second an amazing five times. As the finish to the 500 neared, it seemed as if everyone wanted Junior to win. There is a mutual respect in the Earnhardt family in NASCAR and for someone who hadn’t won a race in more than a year yet was finishing races consistently in the top 10 or 15 and who is such a big part of the sport, it was good that he won the race. Now that he is winning and is seemingly unstoppable so far in 2014, the sky is the limit for Dale and his Crew Chief Steve Letarte for the final year that the two will be together at Hendrick Motorsports. Letarte will be working for NBC Sports and NBCSN next season as an analyst definitely making this year much more of a “must win” season for the duo. When you think of the successful teams in any professional sport, whether it is basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, football, etc.; there’s a pretty good chance that there are one or two really good, if not great players who are on that team who help make that team who they are and keep them competitive with the rest of the league. Sometimes you have two or three of these really good players coming together to increase their chances of winning a championship as in the case of the “Big Three” of the Miami Heat. Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, and Lebron James all took less money than they could have received from other teams if they hadn’t all signed with the Heat. They of course did this so that they could be one of the best teams, if not “the” best team in the NBA for years to come. We all know what has happened since and it shows that success can be achieved by players being less selfish and trading money for what will hopefully be future wins. There are also many teams who, with the right leadership and management in the front office, are able to win based off of belief that they can achieve greatness by working hard and having good relationships with their teammates and coaches. This seems to be most prevalent in college sports where the players are playing for pride and for each other rather than for future paychecks. While there’s a hope of someday going professional in college, you first have to succeed in collegiate athletics both as a team and an individual in order to even have the opportunity to prove yourself professionally. In collegiate sports you’ll find teams like Wichita State University and their men’s basketball team who has gone undefeated this season and is an unlikely favorite for the tournament later this month. A team full of nobodies who has gone to join a very select group of teams to have ever played the game of basketball. This is what believing in your abilities and getting along with your teammates both on and off the court can do for a team; and although it is not a given that just because you get along with your teammates and coaches that you will win a championship every year, it does go a long way. If only professional athletes would keep that in mind after they leave school. What about the teams who just can’t seem to get the right player to drag them out of that dismal 11-year losing streak they’ve seemed to have locked themselves into? What can they do to climb their way out and finally pull together a season where they actually have a chance to compete in their respective divisions, not to mention their leagues (let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves). Teams like the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL, Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons in the NBA, Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks in Major League Baseball and many other teams in other leagues continuously seem to fall below what is expected of them each and every year which soon creates a norm for their organizations causing fans to automatically count them out even before the preseason begins. With a lack of fan support comes a lack in ticket and merchandise sales that then lowers the fan support even further; soon causing for economic downturns in the cities that those teams represent. One thing leads to another and while one initially wouldn’t think of a sports team’s performance on the field to change the economic landscape of the region it’s located in, it does. Fans want to be proud of their city’s teams and while there will always be those die-hard fans who were seemingly born in raised inside the stadium or arena, if the team doesn’t improve over time, there wont be any chance to increase the amount of those life long fans who have the teams flags flapping in the wind on their doorstep. While the team will still sell tickets to games, there will be a decline in season ticket-holders, merchandise sales, and a decline in enthusiasm and excitement that is supposed to surround each team each and every game day. The Jacksonville Jaguars over the last few seasons have had issues selling tickets for games, which resulted in not just national blackouts on television networks, but local blackouts as well. Now while the Jaguars are not the only team in the NFL to have to worry about these issues with selling tickets to ensure their games could be broadcast on television, it is still a somewhat comical issue of ticket-sales for the organization who had a uniform and logo rendition last year and are focusing on regenerating their organization and giving it an almost complete makeover to restore some interest in the team again. While in 2013 there were less blacked-out games than there were in 2012, it is almost worth the effort to reach for the TV remote to flip the channel to the Jags home game against the Buffalo Bills just to see the ratio of filled and empty seats. Attendance in Jacksonville has become so dismal that the team has even covered multiple sections of the stadium located near one of the end zones with a giant tarp with the team’s logo on it just to cover up some of the empty seats. Let me make it clear that the Jacksonville Jaguars are not the only team in America that is struggling with selling tickets and having fans at home tune in to watch their games. There are plenty of teams that have this issue and have had it for as long as a decade or more. The issue is that most of these teams do not have an exciting player to watch on their rosters. If you look at the Cleveland Browns roster you’ll find the names of Josh Gordon, Brent Hoyer, and Joe Haden; not necessarily household names who are going to sell tickets. This issue isn’t just league specific either. Take a look at the Philadelphia 76’ers roster for this season: Nerlens Noel? Thaddeus Young? Michael Williams-Carter? While you could make the excuse that they’re a very young team, you still have to be able to produce revenue if not win. However, it just so happens that it is wins that produce revenue. But if you as an organization know that you have a good chance of not generating very many wins for the upcoming season, wouldn’t it be in your best interest to draft, sign, or trade for an exciting and at least decent player that fans will want to come and see play even if they know there isn’t a good chance that your team will win the game? Lets go back and pick on the Jaguars once again. They have maybe two players on their whole roster that fans of pro football know the names of off the top of their head, Maurice Jones-Drew and Justin Blackmon. With MJD’s recent performances, or lack-there-of, based off his proneness to injury and Blackmon’s off-the-field issues, the team really has no “go to” guy that fans can rely on to be there every week who is going to keep positive buzz around the organization throughout the week leading into the week drawing more attention to the game. So how does a team become more successful when it’s one of the worst teams a league has to offer? Well, you could take the route that many of the teams who have had the first pick in the draft have taken over the last few years; just take an offensive lineman. I’m sure that although the big guy is a very good ball player from somewhere in Texas and is going to give your quarterback an extra second in the pocket to make up his mind and get rid of the ball, he’s not going to be able to help that QB’s pass more accurate or help the receiver for which that pass is intended actually catch the ball any more times than he normally would. While the O-linemen are necessary for a team to have, there really isn’t a reason that they should be drafted with such a high pick when they’ll most likely be available in later rounds; especially when your team really needs a good quarterback or another skill-position player. I hate to revert back to the Jaguars again, but they are the perfect example for this type of situation. In the 2013 NFL Draft they had the second overall pick with which they took Offensive Tackle Luke Joeckel out of Texas A&M University. What did this accomplish for them? He got hurt halfway through the season and was out for the rest of the year. Overall, it didn’t really do anything for the team and they still had a terrible offense. Now, for a team who really needs both a quarterback and an exciting player to watch, the Jags didn’t really do the best job with drafting Joeckel who really could have been drafted in the 2nd round by the Jags who would have ended up with a better overall draft. Though you could say that the Kansas City Chiefs who went from 2-14 to 11-5 in one season experienced the success they had because of their number one overall pick in the 2013 draft, Eric Fisher who was also an Offensive Tackle. Though it’s probably due to the fact they hired a real coach in Andy Reid and signed former 49’ers QB Alex Smith; both of which were major upgrades from the previous two men who were in their positions. Moving away from the aspect of terrible teams, what do organizations do who have one, two or even more players who are exciting to watch and continuously bring in big crowds yet cant seem to get out of the .500 win/loss record? Teams who seem to have the potential to compete each and every season but when half the season is gone and an NBA team is fifteen or more games below an even record they just seem to never get the job done. Of course there are off years and rebuilding years, but when your team has ten straight “rebuilding” years, I think it’s pretty safe to say that you’ve moved past rebuilding and moved on to “rotten” or maybe even “terrible”. It can be easy to forgive or allow for more time and excuses for teams with small markets because they might not just have the same interest or financial means to compete with teams who constantly steal all the big names, but when you have a team like the Brooklyn Nets who are located in the heart of New York City, one of the biggest media spotlights in the nation when it comes to sports and they have a terrible record, it becomes a problem. With names like Deron Williams, Jason Terry, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce, there really shouldn’t be an excuse for the mediocre record they have. Of course it is head coach Jason Kidd’s first season coaching in the NBA; just one year removed from retiring as a player and he could be the scapegoat as to why the team didn’t live up to its high standards if the organization decides to move in a different direction at the end of the season. Probably one of the most overrated NFL teams are the Dallas Cowboys who are projected by “experts” every year to win the NFC East yet they rarely finish with an overall record over the .500 mark and have only won the division three times in the last 16 years. Each of those times they haven’t made it past the Divisional round of the playoffs. “America’s Team” is one of those teams that you either love or hate; there is no in-between. Getting over the hump that is winning the division is something that talent just sometimes can’t win alone. The Cowboys have many talented players like Tony Romo, DeMarcus Ware, and Dez Bryant who draw fans from across the country to their games each and every week but don’t seem to have both the talent and the work ethic and support between teammates that is essential to win a championship. Turning a team around is something that can be accomplished in many different ways. You can draft players to help your team win, sign free agents, hire great coaches and front office personnel, or trade for veterans. No matter which way it’s done, there is one thing that needs to be established and that is a sense of stability. Without a stable foundation of coaches and other staff, there will never be one single philosophy or strategy for a continuous period and when players have to learn new a new playbook each season and get to know the new coaches and staff every few months, more time will be focused on that than is needed therefore losing time that could be spent on practice, film study, etc.
As I previously stated, there have been many players who have signed for less money than they could have been entitled to in order to make more cap room for other players who could help the team win more games eventually leading to championships. Tom Brady and Tony Romo are the most recent stars that have made headlines restructuring their contract to open up cap room for their teams. This gives more money for coaches and GMs to play with when it comes to free agency beginning each spring. All the players have to worry about after the restructuring is finished is how the organization is going to make the best use of that money. The Increasing Trend of Improper Use and Illegal Possession of Firearms by Professional Athletes2/26/2014 Raymond Felton being escorted out of a New York court after posting a $25,000 bail. Unless you’re a devout New York Knicks fan you probably wouldn’t know who the person in the above picture is. I would even venture to say that most wouldn’t know who he was if he were wearing the classic orange, white and blue jersey of the historic New York City based basketball team. As you now know, Raymond Felton is a point guard for the New York Knickerbockers who have been struggling this season even with All-Star Carmelo Anthony and the team needs all the help they can get when it comes to having somewhat decent players on their team. Even though Felton isn’t quite on par with Derrick Rose (that is, if he ever gets over all his injuries and plays the way he did before tearing his ACL and Meniscus), he is still a vital part of the Knicks’ organization. Fortunately for everyone’s favorite team from New York, Felton although arrested on Tuesday morning (February 24th, 2014), posted bail and was allowed to practice on Wednesday. According to Knicks’ head coach Mike Woodson, after practicing on Wednesday, Felton is cleared by the team to play in New York’s game at Miami on Thursday. According to the NBA’s CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement for all of you who don’t know what that means), Felton cannot be suspended by the league for just an arrest. The legal process has to be carried out first which means that Felton could possibly be playing in games all around the country while stopping at the court house literally hours before he suits up for the night for a month or more. It is only after the case is closed that the NBA can take action against Felton, which of course is almost a one hundred percent guarantee that they will. Plaxico Burress won Super Bowl XLII with the New York Giants in 2008. No matter what the suspension or fine is for the point guard, while the season progresses there is still the ever-growing and definitely under-discussed issue of NBA players who possess a firearm and carry it with them. Why any of them would bring one to the state of New York where gun laws are some of the strictest in the entire United States is beyond me; especially one that is not registered to them or at all. If you need an example you don’t have to look any further than the National Football League where Wide Receiver, then of the New York Giants, Plaxico Burress brought a gun with him to a New York City nightclub and ended up shooting himself in the leg with it. Dumb? Try idiotic. Not only was the gun not supposed to be in the nightclub, it wasn’t even registered to him. I guess if you’re going to break one law you might as well break another at the same time right? This of course happened back in December of 2008 literally just months after he caught the game-winning touchdown pass to push the Giants passed the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. Burress was served 20 months in jail after being sentenced to prison for two years. Burress has at least made it back into the NFL after being released from jail signing a one year deal with the New York Jets in the Summer of 2011 and then with the Steelers halfway through the 2012-2013 season due to WR injuries on Pittsburgh’s roster at the time. Unfortunately, he isn’t the player he was before being hauled off, not to mention that he was also two years older, thus resulting in less job security. Burress did not play in the 2013-2014 season due to being placed on the season-ending Injured Reserve list for the Steelers. Of course, the National Football League is not the NBA and may have different punishments for Raymond Felton. That is, if they get the opportunity to punish him at all; he might just be sentenced to prison time just like Burress. Though Adam Silver, the successor of long-time NBA Commissioner David Stern who just took the position on February 1st of this year might want to make his mark on the league and send a league-wide message that the participation in any illegal activity or the possession of any illegal object or substance will not be tolerated by the league. Teams that Gilbert Arenas has played for throughout career: Golden State Warriors 2001-2003, Washington Wizards 2003-2010/'10-'11, Orlando Magic 2010-2011, Memphis Grizzlies 2011-2012. He is now currently playing for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association. Another very similar instance to this whole debacle in New York is the one that took place in Washington D.C. back in 2010 with then NBA star Gilbert Arenas who was a staple for the Wizards for nine years before he broke his gun out in the locker room during a dispute with another teammate. Arenas never spent any time in jail due to a plea agreement that he accepted. Had Arenas been arrested in New York for the same reason, it is almost certain that he would have been incarcerated, lucky for him that D.C. isn’t quite so tough on their gun laws. The main difference between the situations that Burress and Arenas found themselves in and that of Felton is that while Burress and Arenas committed both their crimes in public and were carrying the firearms with them at the time of their respective incidents, Felton didn’t have the unregistered weapon with him at the time of his arrest. The night before he was put in cuffs, Raymond Felton’s wife, Ariane Felton, whom he is currently in the process of divorcing, brought the weapon to a police station in Manhattan essentially wanting him to get arrested and stating that she was just tired of him having it in the house and claiming Raymond had waved the gun in her face on several different occasions; the most recent of which was on February 14th. What a romantic gift for Valentine’s Day. Felton is now not allowed to have any sort of contact with his wife for the next six months to ensure her protection. Felton turned himself in the morning after. Only time will tell if the Knicks’ player will be suspended and fined by the league, sentenced to jail time, or both. Though from what we know from previous incidents of professional athletes and their misfortunes with firearms, the situation is most likely not going to turn out well for Felton even though he technically is only at fault for having possession of an unregistered firearm with ammunition that is illegal in the state of New York. He never committed any crimes with or even shot the gun so in a twisted way; his situation has the possibility of working in his favor. Though it is certain he will receive some sort of punishment, if not from the law then from the league and vice versa, he might not get as tough of a punishment as Burress did when he shot himself in the leg that night in 2008. No matter what the consequence, I think we can all agree on two things: one, don’t bring your guns to New York or own any guns in New York. And two, it’s probably about time that professional athletes learn how to use their brains; not just when it comes to firearms but life in general. As much as we “normal people”, meaning those of us with less than 200,000 Twitter followers, would like to think that these athletes aren’t anything more than big, tall guys who can run fast and jump high; and as much as some of them probably wish the limelight would stop following them for a while to at least have some privacy in their lives, they aren’t leading normal lives and the limelight is not going to stop following them everywhere they go reporting every move they make as they make them. The sooner that they realize that they are held to a higher standard than your normal American and that they have thousands if not millions of people who look up to them, the better. Maybe then will they understand that they need to take responsibility for their actions and that just because they have more money than they’ll ever need and all the fame they could ever want, they also need to suffer the consequence of their actions.
If you’re like every other American then you definitely need a good dosage of football right about now. And to think, it hasn’t even been a month since the Seahawks demolished the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVII. What are we all going to do for the nearly seven months until the regular season for the NFL picks up again (who really cares about pre-season anyway?)? We could watch the never-ending NBA season whose playoffs seem to last just as long as the season itself. Of course, there’s always March Madness that only lasts for four weeks and basically is the one month out of the year that non-college hoops fans pretend they care about sports. Baseball? Spring training is just now getting started and while pitchers and fielders report to camp, I’m pretty sure its safe to say that opening day and the All-Star break are the two most exciting things that are going to happen in the baseball season until October rolls around. Of course we do have a lot of good golf, tennis and hockey to watch as well with the Masters coming up literally beginning the same weekend as the MLB regular season and who could forget all four tennis Majors that will come and go before we even see an NFL player put a helmet on for training camp? Spring is swiftly taken over by the NBA and NHL playoffs with a mention of the Kentucky Derby in May somewhere in there. Summer becomes monotonous with the never-ending highlights of barehanded grabs by shortstops who throw the ball to first base just before the runner’s foot hits the bag and never-ending NHL playoff series’. Let’s quit thinking about how long of a summer it’s going to be before we can start to trash-talk with our friends about how bad the Miami Dolphins are again and talk about the NFL news that’s happening right here and now! This last weekend leading into early this week (February 22-25) all of your favorite collegiate football players have once again gathered together and come to Indianapolis, IN, for the annual NFL Scouting Combine. We all know who the great players were while playing against other college teams, but how good are these players going to be in the National Football League? Obviously this is what the Combine is meant to help measure and predict every year with some of the best young athletes in the country coming from schools as big as the BCS National Champions, Florida State, or as small as the little colleges like Fresno State where QB Derek Carr made his claim to fame (other than being the younger brother of another great Fresno State Quarterback, David Carr, who, as we are all aware was one of the biggest draft busts in the history of the NFL). Yes, this span of four days is where the little guys get to make a name for themselves in front of NFL coaches and scouts from around the league and where the projected first-rounder’s are meant to prove analysts right. Defensive End, Jadeveon Clowney (SCAR) runs an official 4.53 second 40-Yard Dash...faster than Texas A&M QB Johnny Manziel. On the other hand, how good of a barometer is the Combine when it comes to the actual ability of these hopefuls when they’re on the field when it’s 3rd and 2 and your team really needs the first down? One of the biggest scrutiny’s of the Combine is that it just doesn’t measure the intangibles of the players when it comes to being clutch or getting the job done when there is no “next play”. Sure it shows coaches how fast the players are going to run forty yards down the field at top speed but when is an offensive guard really going to need to do that? Oh and I’m sure that measuring how far a 250lb outside linebacker can jump is really going to convince the front office of the Green Bay Packers that they should draft him in the second round rather than the first. Of course this is not to say that we should just completely do away with the Combine either. While a lot of the events that happen throughout the over-done tryouts do seem like a giant waste of manpower and a good way for the NFL to cling on to that last bit of attention from the media before it is briskly taken away by March Madness, some of the results that come from it can be valuable. However, for the most part the entire process is one giant glorified guessing game. Remember that one great Quarterback from LSU who could throw the football 60+ yards from his knee? Who was that again? Oh yeah, JaMarcus Russell. How did throwing that football go for him in the 26 total games he played between 2007 and 2009 in the NFL for the Oakland Raiders? Well, five years after the last game he played in and now weighing 300+lbs hasn’t really helped him to become the savior he was projected to be after winning the BCS National Championship in 2007. Hey, at least he got his 6-year/$61 million contract with $32 million of it guaranteed. Along with those who did really well at the Combine and burnt out within their first two years in the league, there are those like Tom Brady who had anywhere from an average to an absolutely terrible Combine and play in the NFL for 15 or more seasons not to even mention being a first ballot Hall of Fame Inductee. So what determines whether or not a player is going to succeed in the National Football League? Sure it has a lot to do with the individual player’s ability and physical intangibles, but there is much more than just physical ability. Work ethic, brotherhood, and the system in which both the offensive and defensive schemes are set up are what make the difference between winning the Super Bowl and just barely making the playoffs. Quarterback Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M measured 5'11 3/4" and 207lbs at the Combine in Indianapolis this weekend and was quoted saying "I'm probably one of the most competitive people on the face of this earth". (Courtesy of ESPN). The system in which the player is drafted into is just as important to ensure personal and team success, if not more important than what the player is able to do single-handedly. Let’s take a quarterback who is drafted #1 Overall in this upcoming draft this May. If a team like the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Cleveland Browns drafts them, there is a very high chance that the player will not succeed. This is by no means a shot at either the Browns or the Jaguars but I’m pretty certain that it’s basically agreed upon by most that they are two of the most unsuccessful teams in the league over the last 10 years. When was the last time you heard of a skill position player starting his career with either one of those teams and becoming successful in the league? You haven’t, at least recently. Why? Because there isn’t enough support at the offensive line for the QB’s to get their passes off well enough that they can make accurate throws to their receivers, or to allow the running backs to gain more than 3 yards per carry. Sure teams like the Jags, Rams, and Browns have been working on protection for the last few years through free agency and the draft but what good does drafting all of these young players do for your organization when you have a never ending carousel of coaches and General Managers each season, all of whom have different views as to how to rebuild a team? It doesn’t do you any good at all.
So, after the Combine we have to wait another two months for the Draft to come around in May and then four more months after that to get to regular season pro football. With the constantly changing draft boards as the “stocks” of the players go up and down dependent on their attitudes and performances at the Combine both physically and intellectually, no one really knows for sure what the 2014 NFL Draft has in store until it actually begins and even then there is still the possibility of a trade for a team to move up a few picks to ensure they get the player they believe has the potential to help them get to the post-season and inevitably the Super Bowl. Only time will tell if there will be anyone from the 2014 draft class who will become the next Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, or Tom Brady; nonetheless, there is sure to be at least one rookie who will take the league by storm in 2014. Four years ago in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the United States lost to Canada in the gold medal game and walked away from the tournament with a silver medal. Of course we could blame that all on the Canadian’s having “home-field advantage” essentially playing in their own backyard. Naturally we Americans would come back in four years at the Sochi Olympics to reclaim what was rightfully ours right? Wrong. Although the United States was the highest scoring team leading up to their semi-final matchup against our friends to the North essentially demolishing each team that they had played against. The 20 goals scored leading up to the game wasn’t going to save them from a very determined and very good Canadian team. The Canadians ended up winning the game with only a 1-0 final count but throughout the entire game there was little to no offense on the part of the United States. In the first period Team USA was able to get 11 shots off on goal but unfortunately they were not able to capitalize on any of them. Throughout the entire game the U.S. would get into offensive territory, shoot one time, and then lose possession of the puck enabling the Canadians to regain possession therefore allowing them to dictate the pace of the game. Now, I’m not saying that the U.S. just let their heads down after Canada scored their goal. No, they most certainly did not. And to be completely honest, the game was very good and entertaining to watch. But if there was a way for the Canada to take control of the game while only scoring one goal, that’s what they did. Although the United States wouldn’t be playing in the gold medal game against Sweden on the final day of competition (also the day of the closing ceremonies), they would be playing in the bronze medal game against a very good team from Finland. Finland? They’re that good? Actually, they are. Most would be surprised to find that the Finnish team is actually the most decorated having won the most medals in men’s hockey since men’s hockey was an Olympic event. Oh, and let’s not forget that today, February 22, 2014 is the 34th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” where the United States upset the Soviet Union in the Semi-Final game to play none other than who in the gold medal game? Finland, that’s who. It would be fitting that the U.S. would defeat the Finnish again if not for a gold medal then at least for a bronze. As stated before, up until the Canadian game the U.S. had been the highest scoring team of the Olympics having scored 20 goals in only four games. Ok, so what if they were shutout against Canada? They could totally put up some points against Finland. Well, unfortunately it was the other way around. The Finns put up two goals in the first two periods that the Americans should have totally been able to overcome or at least tie in the final period but somehow the U.S. let the game get away from them committing unnecessary turnovers and penalties that left the team more short-handed then needed for a good portion of the final period. In addition to the turnovers and penalties the Americans didn’t get enough shots off in order to even intimidate the Finnish defense. They were having the same problem they had the day before in the semi-final game against the Canadians; no consistency when it came to offensive pressure. One shot, change of possession; another shot, change of possession. Although this makes for great competitive hockey for both teams, Team USA never gave themselves a chance to score a goal in this game which inevitably resulted in just that. With the score at 2-0 in favor of the Finns entering the third period, all that was needed was for time to expire and they would win the bronze. Well, they didn’t want to take that chance knowing that any team can score multiple goals in a short amount of time. Naturally the Finnish kept playing hard as any team would and to display that any team can score quickly in hockey, they did just that. In combination with the miscues of the Americans, the Finns put up another three goals before the game’s end. Wow, that sounds like a lot like what happened 34 years ago to the day in Lake Placid, New York when the U.S. scored three goals in the final period to beat the Soviets…Well, I guess what goes around comes around. Maybe it was a good thing that the U.S. lost on Saturday, this way they can catch the next flight out of Sochi to get back to the states in time for the NHL season to start back up again on Monday and Tuesday. When drafted number one overall in the 2010 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams after losing the BCS Championship game at Oklahoma University to the Florida Gators, Sam Bradford was expected to be the one to turn it all around for the Rams who went 1-15 in the 2009 season. Obviously the Heisman Trophy winner arrived at the “Gateway to the West” knowing that he had a lot of work to do and there was a whole city’s worth of expectations for him to exceed in his first year with the team as was made apparent by the 6 yrs./$78 million contract that was given to him before he even played a down for his new team. Needless to say, Bradford hasn’t lived up to those expectations quite yet though he isn’t entirely to blame due to the lack of talent on the rest of the Rams’ roster on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Oh, and let’s not forget the constant carrousel of coaches moving in and out of the organization; no quarterback has ever succeeded having multiple coaches within the first few years of their career. In his fourth year as an NFL player, Bradford only made it through six full games in 2013 before tearing his ACL on a scramble while attempting to avoid a hit in week seven at the Carolina Panthers on October 20th, 2013. With the rest of the 2013 season out of question for Bradford, there was little to no hope for the Rams either. Bradford was replaced with the ever-popular Kellen Clemens who everyone is a huge fan of (totally joking of course), and St. Louis finished the season with a 7-9 record. The question that now faced head coach Jeff Fisher was whether or not Bradford was the quarterback of the franchise and whether or not his job would be safe with the very little cap room the Rams have available for 2014 ($17.6 million). At least that was the question until today when Fisher announced that Bradford’s job as the starting quarterback for the St. Louis Rams was safe (at least for next season) and that Bradford was taking the necessary steps to ensure that he heals up and is ready for training camp late this coming summer. It is still questionable to some as to whether or not Fisher is making the right call keeping Bradford for the foreseeable future. In the four years he’s been in the league, he hasn’t done anything spectacular to say the least and although the Rams aren’t finishing 1-15 anymore, they’re still finishing every year with an “ok” record. Many may say that if Bradford hadn’t been hurt for half the year then the Rams would have finished better than 7-9 last season with Clemens at the helm. That may be partially true but let’s face it, they wouldn’t have made it to the playoffs either with San Francisco and Seattle dominating the NFC West and the Arizona Cardinals being a solid third finishing the season strong. In all honesty, the Rams have a tough road ahead of them. With the little cap room they have this year to spend on signing free agents as well as new draft picks, there is little room for improvement in 2014. Although their first round pick from last year, Tevon Austin out of West Virginia University, did do well after the halfway mark; with his lack of experience and the almost expected injuries to occur on the offensive line that always seem to plague the Rams, it is almost certain that St. Louis will end up at the bottom of the division if not even the NFL next year. Only time will tell if passing up on Robert Griffin III in the 2012 draft was a smart move. From what we saw last year from RGIII the Rams are better off with Bradford. Then again, we can always blame Dan Snyder and the very much burnt-out Mike Shanahan for his less than stellar performances in 2013. In the case of both Griffin and Bradford it is hard to judge their true talent and ability as professional football players in the National Football League due to poor coaching and lack of support talent-wise for them to work with. Though if it doesn’t work out for either one of the two, I’m sure we all know a guy who would be the first one to raise his hand and volunteer for either job like a kid trying to suck-up to the teacher on the first day of school…Tebow Time anyone? “Do you believe in miracles?” That one question asked by broadcaster Al Michaels is probably one of the most repeated quotes in sporting history. Of course we all know when and why it was asked in the midst of the United States Men’s Hockey Team’s clash with the all-mighty and favored Soviets back in the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics. It was a game the entire nation anticipated and watched and in some ways it was even more important than the Gold medal game against Finland (in which of course the US won the Gold). Few people who aren’t old enough to remember the 1980 Olympics even realize that the game against the USSR wasn’t the Gold medal game. Of course, for such a great story there had to be a subsequent movie made about Team USA, right? Of course! In all honesty, the movie was how I learned about the game and the team and I’m sure that there are thousands of other people my age that learned about it the exact same way. However, we’re not here to talk about how old anyone is…what is important is to recognize what happened just this morning in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics almost 34 years to the day of the anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice”.
The United States might have set a new record for the earliest average waking time for the country as a whole today with today’s USA/Russia game beginning at 7:30 EST. All over the country; West coast, East coast, Hawaii, and Alaska, there were people up at the crack of dawn to watch the beginning of the very anticipated game between the two…could you say, long-time rivals? The game most certainly did not disappoint either. Throughout the duration of the contest there wasn’t really one clear team that dominated the game. Back-and-forth, back-and-forth the puck went from one end of the ice to the next. Although very competitive and tough, the game was not high scoring at all; which you could say was almost expected. The game played out like any other, tied 2-2, until with just less than five minutes remaining in the third period when Fedor Tyutin of Russia sent the puck sailing into the back of the United State’s net. With host country team’s crowd erupting in the stands reacting to what seemed to be the winning goal, the officials overturned the goal saying that the net behind USA goalkeeper, Jonathan Quick had been moved from its original spot. According to Olympic ruling, any goal that is made when the net is not in the correct spot is disallowed. Therefore, the game was still tied 2-2 at the end of regulation. With the game heading into overtime it only added to the suspense and drama on the ice between the two teams. Patrick Kane, normally of the Chicago Blackhawks, had two perfectly makeable shots in OT, one of which I think my grandma could have made when Kane decided to try and 5-hole Russian Goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky, which didn’t work. Nonetheless, overtime was essentially a time-killer because at the end of overtime the score still remained a tie, which meant that the game would be going into a shootout; one of the greatest ways to end a game in sports. If the rest of the game didn’t prove to you that the two teams were equal in talent then the shootout most definitely did. Very few times do you ever see a hockey shootout go more than the standard three shooters before a winner is determined. However, this game was special right from the start so why would we have even dared to think that the winner was going to be crowned in just three tries? Surely four tries would be enough though, right? No? Alright then, five for sure. Not even five? Six? Seven? Nope, eight. Yes you read that correctly and you don’t need new glasses; eight shots for both sides were needed to determine the victor of the game. Man, you’d think that both teams would have run out of players to use for the shootout. You’d be wrong again with that assumption. Russia used minimal players for the shootout mostly utilizing Ilya Kovalchuk who was stopped on the last shot for Russia by Quick. That’s not the impressive part, what was impressive was that the United States only used one, that’s right, ONE shooter for all eight shots. You’d think that would be a rather gutsy decision for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Team USA coach Dan Bylsma to make. Perhaps it was, but hey, if it’s working why fix it, right? T.J. Oshie, yes that T.J. Oshie, the one that no one until today knew about unless they were a St. Louis Blues fan, the one who last season in the NHL only made seven goals; on eight attempts made four goals on Bobrovsky which was good enough to win the game for the USA. In a way I’m sure we all kind of wish that Al Michaels was there calling the game again to leave us with yet another unforgettable quote, but this time was different. This time the United States wasn’t an underdog and in some points of view (although few and far between) were even favored over the Russians on their home turf…or ice in this case. Did the Americans need a net that was moved to force overtime? Sure, but sometimes you just luck out that way and fortunately for all of us who live, breathe, and obsess over sports here in the great U.S of A, we came out on top. If I were to have asked you to name one offensive lineman on the Miami Dolphins this time last year, you might have been able to name one (one being Mike Pouncey, brother of Maurkice Pouncey of the Pittsburgh Steelers who were both teammates at the University of Florida). However, unless you’ve been living under a rock the past several months, you should know by now of the alleged bullying scandal between Miami teammates Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. Martin, as we all know essentially quit football about halfway through the 2013 season stating that he had been harassed by Incognito to an extent that he just couldn’t play with him anymore and needed to step away from the game for a while. Incognito, naturally defending himself, has repeatedly stated that he has done nothing wrong and that all the text messages he sent to Martin were no more offensive, racist, or vulgar than any other message that had sent to him in the past. It was all good fun in Incognito’s mind and teammates hanging out and pulling each other’s leg. Of course all of this is all good fun until someone decides to become emotional about it all or take a joke the wrong way. I’ve seen some of the messages that Incognito and Martin had exchanged and to tell you the truth, from what I saw it was nothing worse than what my friends and I send to each other. Although I cannot speak for Martin, it seems to me that maybe he just took some of the messages the wrong way. Then again, I’m not him. Who am I to say that he shouldn’t be offended by something that I’m not? I don’t know the guy and I don’t know what he has been through. That being said, I don’t feel that Incognito was trying to offend Martin at all. Rather, he was only doing what I am sure many other seasoned NFL players do to other, much younger ones; make them tougher both emotionally and physically through a sort of hazing that you might find at a state college fraternity house. I feel that in his mind he was just having a good time as I stated earlier and it unfortunately just got taken out of context on Martin’s end of things. This does not mean that I am excusing Incognito at all, because I most certainly am not. Especially today with the release of the private investigator, Ted Wells’, report about the whole situation in the Dolphins’ locker room. According to Wells’ report, not only was Incognito harassing Martin, but Mike Pouncey was doing the same to a different extent. In the report, Wells found text message transcripts of the teammates talking trash behind Martin’s back after he had left the team in the midst of all the scandal that was playing out on the national level. Naturally this does not help Incognito’s case at all and to make matters even worse, Incognito seemingly cannot prevent himself from tweeting things about the whole mess. It was just this last week, right before the report came out that the infamously violent and difficult lineman went on a Twitter rampage saying that the text messages would show that he was not bullying Martin in any way. Obviously this did not hold to be true now that the report has been made public and if it has done anything for him, it has only made matters worse. Who knows if or when the two players will ever play in the NFL ever again. It is almost certain that Richie Incognito will not be playing for the Dolphins due to the unwanted negative press and media coverage that this has brought to the team; and maybe the same can be said about Jonathan Martin. However, questions still remain, will either play in the NFL next year or ever again? Will either get suspended and if so, for how long? We all know that if either of them do play for another NFL team again that it will most definitely be headline news and will bring attention, wanted or not, to the teams in which they sign with. Martin, only going into his third pro season might still have some potential to help a team try for a Super Bowl run. Incognito on the other hand? Well, he will be heading into his eleventh season in 2014 if a team is willing to take a chance on him; and with a past like he has filled with fines from the league due to being unable to control his emotions on the field and letting others know it by swinging helmets and fists alike, it is hard to say whether or not he will get another chance. If he gets that chance, it will be the fourth team he has played for (Rams: 2005-2009, Bills: 2009, Dolphins: 2010-present). What can you say about Derek Jeter? Five-times he won the World Series; thirteen-times he was voted an All-Star while also earning five Gold Gloves, five Silver Slugger Awards, and two Hank Aaron Awards. If that doesn’t get you into the Hall of Fame on your first ballot, I don’t think anything will. Derek Jeter had always wanted to play shortstop for the New York Yankees. It was his childhood dream, and if he were to tell you that he was going to be doing exactly that for 20 years when he was only playing Little League, well, I don’t think you would believe him. I mean, who would? Kids have dreams all the time about becoming astronauts, doctors, and lawyers. Some of course are more obtainable than others. But to say that you’re going to play for the Yankees and actually do it? Near impossible. Fast-forward to today and we see that the Captain not only played Shortstop for the Yankees, he redefined the position. I’m sure that if you were to go up to any kid and ask him to three baseball players, Derek Jeter would be one of them. Jeter IS baseball. He is everything that the sport means to the country. In the Pantheon of all Yankees greats you have Mantle, Gehrig, Ruth, Jackson, DiMaggio, and Jeter. All greats, all World Series champions, and of course, all Hall of Famers. Ninth on the all time hits list with a total of 3316, Jeter is the leader in hits of all active MLB players. Although we may not be seeing him surpass the all time leader, Pete Rose, who has 4256 career hits, I’m sure that the five World Series rings help to lessen the pain of not being number one. The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees have probably one of the greatest rivalries between two teams that any sport has to offer. Both belonging to the American League East, they play each other quite often and you can bet your pocketbook that every time they compete against each other it is in primetime under the lights on ESPN or another major sports network. But I digress. This season will be no different of course, except for one thing. Each time that the Yankees play the Sox, I guarantee that the broadcasters will be mentioning how many more times Jeter will play them at Fenway Park and at Yankee Stadium. Each time there will be some kind of tribute that shows a montage of images or video clips of Jeter and the Yankees playing the Red Sox. I can imagine due to the extraordinary length of the Major League Baseball season that this can (and probably will) become quite monotonous unless you’re just an absolute, head-over heels, crazy Derek Jeter fan. Then again, who isn’t an absolute, head-over heels, crazy Derek Jeter fan? Even if you absolutely abhor the Yankees you still can’t help being a Jeter fan. The guy has never done a thing wrong. When was the last time you turned on Sportscenter at night and read “Breaking News: Derek Jeter tests positive for HGH” or “Derek Jeter demands 10 year contract worth $200 million”? (Yes, that was a shot at Robinson Cano if you were wondering) Never! That’s when! Number 2 has always been a staple for what the MLB wants to be viewed as. He’s the poster-child and rightfully so. No one makes it what will be 20 years by the end of next season in any professional occupation sports or not without doing something right. For those of us who have been fortunate enough to have seen him play, it surely has been wonderful; and for our children and our children’s children who unfortunately wont have that opportunity, us who have will be able to tell them about what it was like seeing possibly one of the top ten players to ever play the game compete at the highest level for two decades. Oh and one more thing: the Yankees last regular season series for the 2014 season is at Fenway Park against the Red Sox. Even though most of us hope that series wont be the last time we see Derek Jeter play, it sure is quite the way to go out if it is. You couldn’t script the end of such a legendary career any better than that. If you were to mention the sport of speed skating to any American a good 90% of the time they would automatically associate the sport with the eight-time U.S. Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno who is no longer competing; that is, if they had heard of the sport at all. Obviously the sport of speed skating is not big in the United States and probably won’t be for a long while, if ever. However, in the Netherlands it is as popular as ever with the country producing some of the finest racers the world has to offer. With the men’s 500 meter qualifying and final rounds being held today, the world that does not revolve around the unique racing sport was introduced to the two Mulder brothers. Michel and Ronald Mulder are both 27 years old and both born on February 27th, 1986; that’s right, they’re twins. The odds that two brothers would even make the Olympic team for their nation in the same discipline is already unlikely enough as it is, but identical twins? Well, they say there’s a first time for everything, right? With a final time of 69.46 (+0.15) for Ronald and 69.312 (0.00) for Michel, they won the bronze and gold medals respectively. Gold and bronze… what is missing from this picture? Oh yes, Silver. Unfortunately for Ronald who had posted the second best time immediately after his brother’s gold medal winning race, there was just one more race to go.
Jan Smeekens who, coincidentally is also Dutch, ended up stealing the silver from Ronald by only 0.01 of a second; that’s right, one one-hundredth of a second. In fact, it was so close that the judges had to recalculate the time. The original final time left Smeekens in third. Yet upon further review, by the nearest of margins (literally the tip of the blade on Smeekens’ skate) the 1-2 finish by the brothers was split-up. Of course no one is going to complain about “only” winning a bronze medal at the Olympics; and the Netherlands did sweep the podium with two brothers winning gold and bronze in one event. Heck, that’s three medals for one nation right there; I’m almost certain a country like Jamaica would give anything to receive that many medals at one Winter Olympics let alone one event. Then again, word is they have a killer bobsled team this time around. Everyone who pays any attention to college basketball knows the name Jim Boeheim. The Syracuse Orange coach’s own name is synonymous with legendary names like Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Knight. It is also a given that the Orange are constantly a preseason favorite when it comes to the teams likely to make it to the Final Four each year, five months before even a single game has been played. Like I said, we all know this already. But the 23-0, 2013-2014 Syracuse team is one that everyone has their eyes on. On February 1st when the Duke Blue Devils came to the Carrier Dome to take on the Undefeated Orange who were at the time only a still impressive 20-0, Boeheim and his boys might have had their most difficult challenge to date just barely beating out the only current Division-1 coach who has more wins than him, Mike Krzyzewski. With the final score of 91-89 at the end of the game, it only seemed appropriate that the game between two for sure NCAA Hall of Fame coaches would need to go into overtime to determine the victor. With #1 Syracuse Orange’s 57-44 victory tonight over the Clemson Tigers, they only have eight more games before the beginning of the ever-anticipated NCAA tournament of which they will highly favored. Of the final eight games only one really pops out…Syracuse at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday, February 22 where the Blue Devils will try to prove that it was only a fluke that they were beaten when they visited Syracuse not even a month beforehand. Who will win-out? Who knows, but in the end we all know it’s going to be a great one. Wichita State University. Just about as many people know where the school is located on a map as do those who know what animal their mascot is. Before last year’s NCAA tournament they were just as popular as Florida Gulf Coast University and “Dunk City”; meaning they weren’t popular at all and aside from the very proud alumni and current students of the school who are supposed to believe that their school’s basketball team will make the tournament every year, the Shockers weren’t on anyone’s map. Even with the fantastic season that made almost no news during the 2012-2013 season, no one really knew who they were. Obviously that changed once the tournament began when the WSU became the season’s “bracket-buster” knocking out Pitt in the second round 73-55, Gonzaga in the third round 76-70, La Salle in the Sweet Sixteen 72-58, and Ohio State in the Elite Eight 70-66, only to finally come up short against the eventual champions, Louisville with a final score of 68-72.
There always seems to be that one team from that one small school that almost no one has heard of that just happens to pull off all the upsets in the tournament each year. Last year it was the streaking Wichita State Shockers of whom no one was paying any attention to. If this season follows last year’s script there will only be one little difference, WSU is definitely not going unnoticed. Being one of only two undefeated teams remaining (the other of course being Syracuse) and with perfect record thus far of 25-0 after tonight’s 82-73 win over the “mighty” University of Northern Iowa Panthers, the Shockers only have six more games to play before the start of the tournament; three home and three away, although with opponents like Southern Illinois, Evansville, Loyola Chicago, Drake, Bradley, and Missouri State left on their schedule, I wouldn’t expect any upsets. Wichita State has only made the NCAA tournament ten times in their history with a combined tournament record of 12-11. What were they doing the years they didn’t make the tournament you ask? The years they weren’t so bad that they had to sit at home watch the games on television, they were invited to play in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). Even of the twelve times they got invited to play in the NIT they still only had a record of 8-11. Even when the Shockers made the tourney for the first time in six years back in 2012 they lost in the second round to the surprising and Virginia Commonwealth University “Dream Team” that made it to the Final Four that year. Although each of the last two season they have improved, I’m not quite sure anyone is ready to bet the house on Wichita State’s chances to make it to this year’s tournament Championship yet. Back in 2009, many considered Alex Rodriguez to be at the top of his game, the peak of his career. Unfortunately, we know now that he had been taken banned substances, or performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Of course this shouldn’t have come to be a surprise seeing how he had admitted in the past to using steroids for a three-year span while playing for the Texas Rangers. Did we really think that because he admitted to using steroids in the early 2000’s that we would just forgive and forget? Apparently that was the case, and the public did so…until early this past year when Rodriguez had reportedly been a client of Doctor (or so he called himself) Anthony Bosch. Bosch for many years had been running a Biogenesis clinic down in Miami, Florida and all the while had been providing steroids and other types of PEDs to some of the game’s biggest players like the Milwaukee Brewer’s own Ryan Braun and Rodriguez himself. During the summer of 2013 Braun was found guilty of lying to MLB investigators about his use of these illegal performance enhancers and was given a 65-game suspension as a consequence for both his participation in the scandal with the Biogenesis clinic as well as lying to Major League Baseball as well as the public. While Braun went quietly, Rodriguez had no intentions to follow suit. After being found guilty of PED use from Anthony Bosch’s clinic where Bosch has even been quoted saying that he personally injected A-Rod with the enhancement drugs, Rodriguez immediately retaliated public statements stating that he had not been administered Human Growth Hormones (HGH) from Bosch. On August 5th, 2013 Rodriguez was slapped with a 211-game suspension which naturally he appealed allowing him to still be eligible to play through the appeal process. The suspension eventually was reduced to 162 games at the end of the 2013 season, effectively suspending Alex Rodriguez for the entirety of the 2014 season next year. In the wake of the suspension in outrage, Rodriguez filed several lawsuits against the MLB attempting to either reduce the suspension or eliminate it all-together firmly stating multiple times that he was innocent and that the allegations against him were a deliberate move by Major League Baseball as well as the New York Yankees to remove him from the game. However, on February 7th, 2014 A-Rod dropped all the lawsuits that he had previously filed against the league not giving any specificity as to why. We can all assume that the dropped suits are a result of Rodriguez coming to his senses or maybe finally listening to his lawyers telling him that he would never win this battle with the MLB due to both the overwhelming evidence and testimonies against him as well as the power and influence of the league. Only time will tell if we’ve seen A-Rod in a Yankees jersey for the last time or possibly in any jersey for a Major League team. With only 4 more years left on his lucrative 10-year contract he signed with the Yankees back in 2007, it is hard to say whether or not he will play in the league again. He is set to make another $86 million (2014: $25 million, 2015: $21 million, 2016: $20 million, 2017: $20 million) throughout the remainder of the contract and that, in combination with being 38 years old, being a 12-time All-Star, and a World Series Champion, makes it unlikely that he will consider restructuring his deal with the team after his suspension to make less money allowing the Yankees more room to sign talent to make another run at a championship before his retirement which is definitely coming if not before, then definitely when the contract expires. Below is a map of the small, mountainous town of Sochi located just off the Black Sea in South-West Russia, just North of the small Eastern-European nation of Georgia. The map allows you to also browse the surrounding area as well.
The Twenty-Second Winter Olympics located in Sochi, Russia officially begin tonight with the Opening Ceremony airing tonight at 7:30 EST and if you’re anything like me you’ll be glued to the television for the entire four hours it is airing. With competition beginning yesterday these Winter Olympics are probably the most anticipated of all the Winter Olympiads due to the increased amount of events in which there will be medals awarded for. During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, there were a total of 86 events in which medals were awarded for. Fast-forward four years later to 2014 where the number of events will be increased to 92. The six new events actually pan out to be twelve due to some of the events including men and women’s competitions as well as the introduction of Women’s Ski Jumping. The competitions include:
· Ski Halfpipe (Men & Women) · Ski Slopestyle (Men & Women) · Snowboard Slopesyle (Men & Women) · Snowboard Parallel Slalom · Women’s Ski Jumping · Biathlon Mixed Relay · Figure Skating Team Event · Luge Team Relay · Women’s Ski Jumping Now whether the introduction of these new events is a good thing for the games or not is up to you to decide. Personally, I feel as if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is just trying to spice up the winter games due to the apparent lack of attention and interest in the games. Although the addition of events may add viewers, I am sure that most would agree that even still the Summer Olympics trump its winter little brother. Although the games have only just started, it will be interesting to see what the interest is both on the National and International levels. Tonight's dominant win over the Clemson Tigers was a major statement for the Florida State Seminoles and most notably Red Shirt Freshman Jameis Winston. With the 37 point win over the Tigers, Winston looked like a seasoned veteran rather than a QB from Alabama making his sixth career start in a Seminoles uniform. With the only major damper on his evening being a miscommunicated interception intended for Orlando's own Kenny Shaw, Jameis threw for over 300 yards for the fifth time this season... and he's only 19.
With the 5th ranked Noles coming into "Death Valley" to take on Tajh Boyd and the #3 Tigers, it was rather disputed as to whether or not they were underdogs. With a very impressive 63-0 win against a then 25th ranked Maryland Terps team which was expected to at least put up a fight, Jimbo Fisher and his team had some time to rest up before traveling to South Carolina for this season's first matchup between two Top 5 ranked teams with their bye week last week. With a final score of 51-14, the Noles demolished what seemed to be very poised Clemson Tiger team... well, until the first play from scrimmage at least. That's right, the very first play of the game Tajh Boyd dropped back and quickly fired a bullet to his Tight End who FUMBLED IT! With the Noles Defense recovering the ball and Jameis Winston throwing a 22-yard Touchdown to Travis Benjamin on their first play (much unlike that of the Tiger's), the Florida State never looked back. Many might make the point that the result of this game was due to the lack of production on the Offensive side of things for Clemson; however, let's not forget about the highly underrated (at least until tonight) FSU defense. Intercepting Tajh Boyd twice and forcing two fumbles, the Defense forced four total turnovers, of which they scored 24 points off of. Whether it was the young and very talented Jameis Winston or the Nole D that caught your eye, it will be interesting to see on the night of Sunday, October 20th where FSU will be ranked in the first official BCS standings of the season after losses to UF, TAMU, Georgia, LSU, Stanford, and of course Clemson; all of which were ranked in the Top 25. Naturally, after Alabama's convincing win (is there any other?) over Arkansas, they will be the top ranked team in the land and Oregon is projected to win big over Washington State. So where will Florida State land? Will they jump #4 Ohio State into the Number 3 spot they just bumped Clemson off of? Or will they do even more and take the #2 spot from Oregon due to the strength of FSU's ACC schedule as opposed to the PAC 12 schedule of Oregon? Maybe they'll take the #4 from OSU (although it seems unlikely that the Buckeyes will move at all due to their relatively small 10 point win over Iowa today). However the BCS Rankings line-up on Sunday, it is almost guaranteed that they won't look the same by the time the Bowl Games come around in January and late December. -Jacob Well the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament certainly did not disappoint this year. Tonight, for all those who watched, were pleasantly treated to two utterly fantastic semi-final games. Yes sir, this year'r Final Four was one of the best in recent history. We first had Louisville come back to win a stunner of a game against Wichita State University who at one point lead by 12. Was it the lack of experience that WSU has in the tournament that lead to their defeat? Or maybe it was the experience of a savvy Rick Pitino who is one of the greatest coaches in collegiate basketball history and is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame. Pitino, who has quite the resume with seven Final Four appearances and now heading to his second National Championship game, has an impressive 663-239 career coaching record with NCAA teams and is the only coach to have officially taken three schools to the Final Four. Of course the Cardinals were the favorite by just about everyone other than those from the state of Kansas and the Cinderella school Wichita State. Nonetheless, when I turned the game on just after halftime I was glued to the television the entire second half and all the while wondering how in the world WSU was holding on to the lead they had. Then, the experience of Louisville kicked into high gear with about five minutes left and the momentum shifted to Louisville's favor. Some may say that the deciding factor that pushed Louisville over the edge was the dramatic and gruesome injury that Sophomore Guard Kevin Ware accrued in Sunday's win over Duke. Surely the injury inspired the Cardinals to perform at their very best when crunch-time came Saturday against Wichita State.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes in the bowels of the Georgia Dome while the Cardinals celebrated their highly anticipated win over the Shockers, Michigan and Syracuse were both preparing for their own matchup. Experts and fans everywhere were much more unsure about who would be victorious in the second matchup Saturday night as compared to the first, what should have been, blow-out between Louisville and Wichita State. Michigan, who took Kanas to overtime late last week and overcame the powerhouse with much thanks to the John Wooden Player of the Year Award winner, Trey Burke who had a double-double with 23 points and 10 assists and a pivotal last second 3-pointer with five seconds left in the second half, was more-or-less the underdog in their matchup against the Orange. The game however, was nothing like the high-scoring performance some thought it would be. The Wolverines won by a sloppy five points in their 61-56 win over Syracuse. On Monday April 8th we will crown the new NCAA Men's Basketball National Champions. The 1 seeded Louisville Cardinals will face the 4 seeded Michigan Wolverines. Both teams are averaging points in the high 70's in the tournament so for most of us who fall in love with great offense and drool over rim-bending dunks and 3-pointers hitting nothing but the bottom of the net, we're sure to be in for a good one. No matter who the winner is Monday night, I'm sure I speak for most of the college basketball fan base when I say that I'm just glad neither Duke or Kentucky ended up in the National Championship; yet even better, the Final Four. -Jacob Langlais Like many sports fanatics in the month of March, I have created my bracket(s) for the annual Collegiate basketball tournament. In fact, I have actually created five. In all honesty, I have never been the biggest fan of college basketball; but with each passing year I catch that seemingly unavoidable fever that is March Madness. Now that I am in college and am going to Florida State University, I feel a growing interest in college basketball. Even though my Noles didn't make it to the tournament and were swiftly eliminated in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) by Louisiana Tech, I have grown to embrace what is known as March Madness. Last year I created my very first bracket and finished in the 66th percentile. Not bad for a first-timer. I wanted more though. I decided that the next year I would pay much more attention to the tournament and the teams participating. This year, I have created a cornucopia of brackets. I have looked over the statistics of many of the teams who were fortunate enough to clinch a ticket to the big dance and have created five different brackets as previously mentioned. I intended each bracket to be less and less likely to happen. Meaning that in a perfect world, my brackets would be worse as I looked each of them down. One of my five brackets is an upset bracket. I figured that this bracket would do the worst of the five and as expected, it is the worst of the five being in the 67th percentile. Of my other four remaining brackets, three are currently in the 87th percentile while my first bracket is just under the 98th. Ideally, I would like this to be in the 100th; but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. In my eyes, my brackets are surprisingly accurate and I am at the top of all the groups I am a part of excluding the public ESPN brackets and those associated with The World Wide Leader in Sports. Throughout the remainder of the month I will be returning to the subject of the tournament to discuss the progressions of each day until the tournament.
-JL |
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