Wrestlers Are Indeed Remembered

So I'm sure everyone heard about Randy "Macho Man" Savage passing away. I remember seeing him occasionally in my younger days. Generally, as we age, at least in my case, I watched wrestling less and less and eventually stopped paying attention to wrestlers and their careers, with the exception of those who went into acting like The Rock (by the way, Fast Five was a great movie).

Despite the fact that I'm not into wrestling anymore, Macho Man's passing is quite the sad occasion. The amount of condolence that I have seen for him on social networks such as blogs and Twitter shows that while many people may view wrestling as fake and easily forgettable nowadays, many people do actually realize that wrestling goes beyond WWF and is a real sport.

R.I.P. Macho Man.

Shut Your Mouth Jorge Posada

Early Saturday evening, Joe Girardi's Yankee lineup had Jorge Posada hitting ninth in the order and DHing.

About an hour later, it was reported Posada had asked out of the lineup for non-injury reasons, and that he was going to speak to reporters after the game. Posada was unhappy that he was hitting last in the order, and felt disrespected by the organization that he has been a part of since 1990.

The sentiment that Yankees "owe" him something is disturbing. Posada, 39, is being paid over $13 million this season, and currently ranks last among qualified hitters, with a .175 batting average. Posada should bat wherever, and play wherever his manager asks him to.

Meanwhile Sunday night, the aging Jason Varitek was behind the plate for the Red Sox. The Sox' captain has been with the organization since 1994, and has accepted his limited role with the team over the last three years, taking pay cuts and diminished playing time to remain at Fenway Park.

The discrepancy in attitude between the two aging catchers is staggering. As Varitek was playing a role in the Sox' 7-5 victory, Posada was off sulking in the clubhouse of the Yankees' billion dollar palace.

The Red Sox "owe" just as much to Varitek as the Yankees to do Posada: none. While both organizations are gracious for the contributions that the players have made over the last decade plus, as long as they are cashing the paychecks, the players best do their jobs.

Wrestlers or Superstars?

http://www.prowrestling.com/article/news/18253

What does the WWE want to do with its company and what direction it wants to move in.

“As detailed in WWE’s press release two weeks ago explaining the re-branding of the company,”

This re-branding includes a new set of terms and on-stage presence to be brought to the company. Recently, an email was released to personnel in the company that specified the list of new words to refer to the WWE wrestlers. The WWE has even sent out memos to companies that do international voiceovers;

“WWE has an information sheet titled "The Language of WWE" that they send out to people that do international voice-overs for their TV shows in other countries. The sheet includes a list of "Incorrect Terminology" and a list of "Correct Terminology."”

Words such as wrestling, sports, wrestlers, athletes, and fight are no long allowed. Instead, the wrestlers are now to be referred to as “WWE Superstars.” The email also includes key terms to be utilized,

“WWE is pure entertainment, WWE is an action soap opera, WWE Superstars are entertainers with tremendous athletic prowess”

I don’t really understand what Vince McMahon intends to achieve by having this new philosophy

Mario's blog

The Heat took a tough game 1 lost to the Bulls. Should the heat be worried after the first game. I believe that they should worry because they did not have a chance against the bulls. The bulls outplayed them in every aspect of the game. If the Heat do not get it together i feels that they will only win one game if that.

Mario's blog

Should Rashard Mendenhall be punished for his comments about Osama bin Ladens's death? He has lost a lot of fans and popularity because of his comments on twitter. I feel as if it he should not be punished because we are entitled to a freedom of speech which means he should be able to freely express himself. The country has really gave him a negative vibe because of his comments he even lost his endorsement with Champion.

Warren Moon Believes Cam Newton Criticism Based on Race

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/14879833/moon-angry-over-perceived-racial-bias-toward-newton

During his playing career, Warren Moon undoubtedly faced racism as a black quarterback in the NFL. He also believed that criticism heaped upon Cam Newton in the weeks leading up to the draft was racially motivated. But if you take a deeper look, Moon's comments have little support.

Moon said, "I don't see other quarterbacks in the draft being criticized by the media or fans about their smile or called a phony. He's being held to different standards from white quarterbacks." Moon is right in that Newton has been heavily criticized for his personality and leadership but to suggest that he is the only one and that it is only happening because he is black is way off base. Just last year Jimmy Clausen, who is white, was expected to be one of the top QB prospects in the draft but was heavily criticized for his leadership skills and ended up falling to the second round.

Moon also wondered why Newton's history in a spread system was being used to question his transition into a professional style offense. Again, Moon claimed that no white QB's were subject to this same criticism and so he concluded that it must be due to the color of Newton's skin. This is a ridiculous suggestion considering the fact that QB's that come from spread offenses are always heavily criticized. In fact, just last year Tim Tebow, a white QB who plays a similar style to Newton, fell to the bottom of the first round amid concerns of his ability to transition from the spread offense.

Moon shouldn't be so quick to pull the race card. If he had done a little research before making his own comments, he would have seen that there were white QB's from just last year that faced similar criticism to Newton and it could be argued that the criticism on the white QB's was more harsh considering they were drafted much lower than Newton who went 1st overall.

Bernard Hopkins Comments Towards Donovan McNabb

http://articles.philly.com/2011-05-11/sports/29532616_1_rich-burg-bernard-hopkins-donovan-mcnabb

Bernard Hopkins has long been a critic of Donovan McNabb. His most recent comments suggest that McNabb isn't "black enough" and that he isn't being true to his black roots.

I believe it's comments like this that prove this country still has a long way to go with respect to race relations. If we want to truly have an equal and just society, we need to stop identifying people as "too black" or "too white". Instead of focusing on how "black" McNabb is or isn't, Hopkins should simply focus on the positive or negative traits he sees in McNabb why or why not he has a problem with them. There is no reason to bring race into the equation. All that does is perpetuate stereotypes that put a strain on race relations. We can't move forward as a society until EVERYONE realizes that there is no "black way" or "white way".

In addition to his racist comments, Hopkins also used an analogy to compare football to slavery. This is such a tired and overstated analogy. Last time I checked, slaves didn't get paid millions of dollars for their craft. And football players don't get tortured and murdered on a whim.

Chad Ochocinco Jack of ALL trades

I'm sure that everyone has heard about Chad and his attempt to pursue a career in professional soccer. He is a phenomenal athlete with extraordinary abilities that most people could only wish to be blessed with. Overall, he has had a good career in the NFL and still has some years left in him. While football is a violent sport, the owners and coaches don't really like to see their players going out and doing things that put them in harms way. This is even prevalent on college campuses across the country. An example is that here at Maryland the football team is no longer allowed have scooters.
With this said, you may understand somewhat how important the health and well being of professional athletes is to their employer. The reason being none other than money, but should the athletes still be able to take risk as they please. It seems that Chad is. This past Saturday he participated in a sport that i feel is much more dangerous than football and possibly one of the most dangerous in the world. He hopped on the back of Deja Blu the rodeo bull and tried to hang on for the full eight seconds. He only made it 1.5 seconds which is actually not bad for someone who doesn't have any prior experience. The event was set up because of a tweet that Chad posted earlier this month. He earned $10,000 just for making it out of the chute but if he could have stayed on for the whole eight seconds he would have earned a new truck and the right to name the bull after Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. Ty Murray, a former world champion rider and a PBR director, coached Ochocinco the last two days at the Gwinnett Arena trying to get him ready to actually ride the bull. "Murray compared the experience to a first-time skier attempting to navigate a run from the top of the French Alps."
When Chad was asked what the Bengals thought about he act he said that he was sure that they didn't like it and he could understand why but he really didn't care. He said that he has never done what the NFL said to do. When chad was asked about the risk that was involved with his act and how it could affect his longevity in a negative way this is what he had to say. "No, every down is a risk to my career," he said. "Every time I wake up in the morning there's a risk to life in general. You never know what's going to happen. One of the things about me is I'm extremely interesting, I'm unpredictable and I am willing to do anything."

Losing to Win

http://losingtowin.wfu.edu/conference-videos/panel-vii/

On April 13 and 14th Wake Forest University hosted a conference called Losing to Win. The conference focused on discussing race and intercollegiate sports. There were a total of eight panels focusing on different aspects of college sports and how they affected the black athlete. Some issues that were discussed include the 2010 Men’s March Madness teams. Of which 45 teams graduated 70% of their white players while only 20 teams graduated 70% of their black players. Another issue is the amount of white coaches in college football. Approximately 95% of BCS head football coaches are white. Approximately 50% of players are African American. One panel also discussed the time D1 basketball players devoted to athletics verses their academics. Division I men’s basketball players devoted an average of 36 hours a week to athletics while devoting 32 hours to academic activities. I watched the video from Panel 7, which was titled Title IX and Gender Equity: Increased Opportunity for Women of Color? Jacquelyn Bridgeman and Alfred Matthewson, two professors of law, were the panelists. They both seemed to be in favor of Title IX because of the great opportunities that it afforded black women. Bridgeman felt that growing up in a small town, the only things to do were to drink alcohol, have sex, or play sports. She felt that sports was a huge outlet and stress reliever for her. She said that Title IX has helped to open opportunities for black female athletes all over the country. She feels that there is stilla strong need for Title IX today. In this aspect, I agree with Bridgeman. I believe that there should be ways in which black women have equal chances at being successful in the world of sports, because there is a tremendous bias. For me however, I feel that there is a greater need to address gender and racial biases and work on changing attitudes of the individual rather than changing the law. I think that the NCAA should establish programs that help student athletes become more tolerant of race.

GQ ranks Maryland Basketball Fans as the 5th Worst in the Country

GQ magazine recently ranked Maryland Terrapins basketball fans as the 5th worst fans in America. As a Maryland basketball fan, I was beaming with pride when the article was first brought to my attention. Do I want to have a reputation as soft fan that is welcoming to our rival guests? Of course not!

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to make the game day experience a bad one for families and children coming to the game. There is no place for profane chants in the Comcast center and using the “F” word makes us look very bad. It is nothing to be proud of.

There is no shame, however, in being considered a hostile crowd. We can take pride in the fact that other college basketball fans consider us to be intimidating and antagonistic. Jeff Allen of Virginia Tech has said that he hates playing at Comcast. This is the type of reputation we want to have. We want opposing players to dread coming to College Park. Celebrating a big win doesn’t always have to be a riot. However, there is no harm in large public gatherings of jubilation. It is just a matter of not escalating the situation. Terp fans are extremely passionate about their basketball. We don’t take well to outsiders intruding on our turf.

The GQ story brought our fandom to national attention, and I couldn’t be happier. I would like to move up in the rankings, but I think that would take more winning. Love it or hate it, this is part of our fan culture. We are proud to be feared. Hopefully under new coach Mark Turgeon, our passion will continue to burst from the stands. Maryland fans are great because of their passion.

Why Baseball is Just THAT Awesome

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." 
-Terrence Mann, Field of Dreams (1989)


Perhaps of all of my favorite movies, Field of Dreams leaves me feeling the most vulnerable (not vulnerable in the "oh please do not let me see a dead rabbit on the street today, I am still very sensitive and upset about a break up and will probably cry over the fuzzy little guy," but vulnerable in the sense that "WOW I just saw field of dreams and think all of my dreams can come true" vulnerable). There are many reasons why, but I want to focus on a select few right now:


Terrence said it best in the quote above. I think it is impossible to try and put that idea in better words than Terrence did. The Great Depression, World Wars I & II, the Civil Rights Movement (we'll get to that later), Vietnam, The Gulf War, Bush, September 11 (I am sure I am missing a few big events in our history but I never said I was a history guy so shut it)...and baseball is still here. In fact, in the last twenty years, even baseball saw a moment in its history where people wondered if the game can ever be the same again with the steroid era. But here we are, not five years past that, and already we just witnessed "the year of the pitcher." There is no parallel to baseball in the way it has stood the test of time. Baseball has never seen an entire season lost due to lockout. Baseball has always been there for when the kids get out of school for the summer, when the weather is perfect for being outside for hours tossing a baseball.


For those of you who have not seen Field of Dreams: 1) shame on you. 2) please contact me immediately and I will schedule a viewing, but for now all I can say is ***SPOILER ALERT***. "Doc" Graham wished for a "Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases - stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag...That's my wish." For those of you who have never played a game of baseball (softball counts in this context, too), perhaps "Doc's" words will give some sort of description for that unmistakable feeling when you are playing. To trot out to your position, take a grounder from the first baseman, feel the dirt and gravel run through your fingers as you guide the ball into the pocket of your mitt...to bring your glove - ball and all - up to your chest while your fingertips feel for the seams...and to send it right back to the outstretched arm of the first basemen...all in the most routine fashion just to do it again a moment later, and, if you are lucky, have the throw back beat the base runner...there is really no feeling in the world like it.


A few weeks ago, my father found his father's old baseball glove. (To call it a glove would be a gross overstatement, as it was more like one of those foam fingers you cheer with at ball games - except instead of foam it is made of 100 year old leather and has no big finger that you can make look like a middle finger if you are awesome enough. It really looks like this, but black.) I asked my father if we can have a catch with it, and though you have to use two hands instead of one to catch the ball, something hit me...that glove felt as natural in my hand as my own glove does now. How is it, that a difference of 100 years of technology, leather, and use was as second nature to me as is my glove is? The answer, I realized, lies not in the shape of the glove, or the size of it; the answer is that having a catch comes naturally to all American boys. I guarantee that if I gave anyone else that glove to have a catch with, it would not have been any different - they would have been able to use that over sized leather hand. After teaching a baby how to walk on his/her own, what is the next activity done to help improve motor skills and coordination? Tossing a ball to him/her, then having he/she toss it back! "Catch!" We are all brought up being taught how to play catch. It is in our blood. Now, I am not a crier. It is not a Macho Man thing, I just really do not cry anymore. (Ok maybe it is a Macho Man thing) But, at the end of Field of Dreams, this scene always makes my eyes raaiiiinnnn. When Ray turns to his dead father, and asks him to have a catch, just like he was a boy, THAT is the beauty of baseball. It connects generations. It buries grudges and feuds. It can make two people into best friends in the time it takes to round the bases. When you step on that field, you feel as though nothing in the world can stop you. I still go out and pretend that I am Robin Ventura, taking a bare hand from third base and throwing on the run to gun the runner out...even though there is no runner. Baseball allows for dreams like that; in fact, it is encouraged to dream in baseball.   


They say a baseball is the perfect object for a man's hand, that you cannot throw anything faster than a baseball because of its perfect shape and size. If that is not a sign that it is a game rooted in more than just men, but our hearts and souls, I don't know what is. While writing this post did make me tear a little, I do hope it got how I felt across: that baseball is more than a game. Like Ray Kinsella said, when standing on his home-made baseball field..."Maybe this is heaven." I think it is Ray, I think it is.


Ilan Weitzman

Rashard Mendenhall"s Controversial Tweets.

On the night of May 1, 2011, news broadcasts across the world presented information regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden. It is assumed that Bin Laden was the culprit to orchestrating the 9-11 attacks that occurred against the United States in 2001. Following the terrorist attacks the U.S. became engaged in a War on Terror in Afghanistan. After 10 years of war, U.S. forces finally found and killed the mastermind behind the 9-11 attacks. Upon releasing the news of Bin Laden's death, Americans raved, rioted and displayed their nationalism like none other. However as the nation was so proud and thankful for the death of Bin Laden; Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall viewed this incident differently than the rest of America. Mendenhall's use of Twitter.com social networking website provided the foundation for the general public to view Mendenhall's thoughts regarding the killing of Bin Laden. A series of Mendenhall's tweets read as follows:

“What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people hate a man they never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side.”

“I’m not convinced he was even behind the attacks. We have really seen no evidence to prove it other than the government telling us.”

“I believe in God. I believe we are all his children. And I believe he is the one and only judge. Those who judge others will also be judged themselves.”

The tweets clearly display the opinion that Mendenhall feels is related to the Bin Laden killing and War on Terror. After publishing these tweets, Steeler's President Art Rooney II issued the statement, that he and the Steeler's organization were very proud of the U.S. military efforts. Rooney also said he would make it a point to sit down and discuss the controversial tweets in which Mendenhall presented on the Twitter website.

Mendenhall's tweets were radical and stirred up an immense amount of controversy not only in the sports world but in the eyes of Americans worldwide. In a time were loads of nationalism were being displayed, Rashard Mendenhall's opinion suggests there is no reason for such a strong sense of American Pride at this time...

As a Steeler's fan and proud American, I feel that Rashard Mendenhall is nothing more than a senseless fool.

Rajon Rondo Deserves Applause

In the time it takes a fan to go to the bathroom and back to their seat, Rajon Rondo had his elbow popped back into place in the locker room, and came back out to the court to lead the Boston Celtics to victory in a crucial Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semis.

Just a few minutes after hitting the floor and having his elbow bend like a wet noodle, Rondo was back out there. For the rest of the game, he looked to be playing with one arm, drastically favoring his uninjured right hand, but made impact plays as the Celtics pulled away from the Heat to make the series 2-1 in favor of Miami.

It was a truly inspiring, gutsy performance, which is not something that I've come to expect from NBA players in recent years. Watching Rondo run the offense with his left arm hanging limply beside him brought me to my feet in my apartment as I cheered the spunky young point guard.

Despite being on the outside of the "Big 3" for the last three seasons, Rondo has arguably the team's most important player. With the Heat drawing close, one of Rondo's first plays back in the game involved him getting his left (injured) arm in a passing lane, and taking it himself for an easy dunk. On the replay you could see him wince as he batted down the ball, but the adrenaline took over as he glided to the basket.

Rondo put his career on the line, risking further injury, for his team. There's a reason he's become one of the most respected players in the league, and his undeniable toughness evidenced last night makes it even easier to draw comparisons to Jason Kidd, one of the greatest point guards in the history of the league.

Gary Williams Gone, Who's Next?

When the news broke that long time men's basketball coach Gary Williams was retiring after 22 seasons it was significant to more than just Terp students, fans and alumni. Not only did this story receive coverage from the Washington Post, the Diamondback, the Baltimore Sun, and other area broadcasts and publications, but it also received coverage on ESPN.com and SportsCenter. Many questions were raised as to why he was leaving, and what impact this would have on the recently recruited freshmen's decision to stay committed to Maryland. But, more importantly, in my opinion, is the question of who will replace him. The Washington Post speculates that his replacements will either be Jay Wright of Villanova, Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh, Sean Miller of Arizona, Mike Brey of Notre Dame. All white males. This is important because eventhough the number of black and minority head coaches is increasing steadily the ration of black and minority players to coaches is still staggering. According to NCAA study shows slow progress with women and minority hiring, in all three divisions of men's college basketball in the 2008-2009 season there were 124 black male coaches and 21 minorities at non- Historically Black Colleges compared to 840 white coaches. I wonder if our new athletic director will give a minority candidate the opportunity to coach and succeed at this university.

For more information contained in this article go to http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/NCAA/NCAA+News/NCAA+News+Online/2010/Association-wide/NCAA+study+shows+slow+progress+with+women+and+minority+hiring_05_19_10_NCAA_News

Attack from Social Media

It was interesting to see the country's overall reaction to the announcement of Osama Bin Ladin's recent death. Over the past couple of day's people have shown a bunch of mixed reactions, positive and negative. I would not want to get into the right and wrong's of what Bin Ladin did during his time in power of the Taliban. (Well mainly because there would not be much good to discuss). What I do have a problem with is the amount of animosity there has been towards people that would not consider "death" a good thing. Regardless of the fact that we do know that Bin Ladin has been the most iconic villian in American (and maybe even the world) society since Hitler, death is never something to be rejoicful off. Now I do not want to come across as someone who supports terrorism cause i certainly do not, I actually heard the news of Bin Ladin's death in Las Vegas and you bet I started to celebrate and downed a couple beverages, but the fact remains that when someone dies, people have the right to mourn. What I am leading into here is the amount of hate Steelers Running Back Rashard Mendenhall has receieved over his latest tweets discussing the death of Osama Bin Ladin. Now I do not have a Twitter account so I cant go and see exactly what he said, and the context in which he said, but I did hear from plenty of people about the incident. I am just shocked by the fact that American's have been in such a hurry to hear what other people think (in this case a professional athlete), and when they hear something they dislike, they are quick to judge this person. Where I was raised, I was told not to judge anyone on something they say, especially if you do not know this person at all. A person should be allowed to speak there mind, and say what they feel on a certain issue, as that is the reason Twitter and Facebook have come so far. So why does it feel like anytime a celebrity has something to say, the public is so quick to judge. I do not believe it is fair, as we are holding these individuals to an even higher standard than they already have placed themselves in by being a celebrity in the first place. In the words of Charles Barkely, celebrities have a choice if they are or are "Not a Role Model." So i feel like if someone of higher status comes out with something to say on one of these social networking sites, that American's are using to hear about other people' lives and thoughts, than give them a break if it is something you may not want to hear about. What do you think?

NCAA and their double standards

Back in the day, athletes were told that if they had a problem, and could not talk to their, parents, relatives, friends, or teachers that they always had a true confidant, and athletes knew that they always had their coach. But now the dynamics of the relationship has changed, coaches on various levels can no longer interact with their players, in fear of being charged with impropriates. But with all the money that the NCAA makes from these players, where do they get off with all the ethics on one hand, and allow coaches to commit some of the severe violations that they do. And why you might ask, is that all that really matters is that the school makes as much money as they can from these athletes.

The NCAA has strict rules regarding what school athletic departments can and cannot do, and when they violate them, we have seen the severe penalties. For example the 2007-08 season was completely stripped from the University of Memphis for violations regarding players and SAT scores (but the coach was cleared of any wrong doings), and the USC football team was placed on probation for impropriates during the 2004 season involving Reggie Bush (again coach not punished), and finally Kentucky’s Men’s Basketball Team is currently being investigated for possible violations when rap mogul Jay-Z was in the locker room during the NCAA Tournament.

But what is the significance to this, well last year; football programs like the University of Texas and Ohio State grossed millions from their programs while graduating close to 60%. Now one might see this as a relatively high number, that rate is extremely reduced when we look at minorities. These school need to take the same zealous approach to graduating these money making athletes, as they do in their approach to turning record profits every year. And for those that feel this is an unfair task for a school and that the student needs to have some responsibility, I do agree, but when you look at school like Notre Dame, Duke, Vanderbilt and Stanford, that are graduating over 90% of their team, we see that this can be done. The NCAA has shown time and time again that thou their mission statement might be to educate, promote, preserve and protect the highest standards of business ethics, while setting the highest degree of integrity, the bottom line for most school seems to be the all mighty dollar.

Mike Tyson: Too Good For Anybodys Good

If you really think about it Mike Tyson was the best heavy weight fighter to every be apart of boxing. The man was amazing, he would knock out opponents out in 90% of his fights and a large percentage of those were in the first round. Nobody else could say they did things like this, it was electrifying. Tyson won 26 of his first 28 fights by KO/TKO - 16 in the first round. Everyone before Tyson were great fighters but Tyson was more than that he was a knockout artist. 


And what is more exciting than witnessing a man hit another man so hard that he cannot get up. Not that his is not willing to fight more he is just incapable. This is what Tyson did regularly. But because Tyson was so good he has done irreparable damage to the heavy weight division. No longer are people willing to watch heavy weights "box", no now they want to see a knock out in every fight and preferably during the first round. Because of "Iron Mike" fans of heavy weight boxing have seen the light and until there is another boxer in this division able to destroy their opponents in such a devastating manner as Tyson the division will not come back. 


People have learned to settle for the lower division because you would not expect to see a knockout in middle or welter weight fights. For them it is ok to show their technique and be defensive fighters, the expectations are lower. But heavy weights like basketball players are now fighting a ghost and have huge shoes to fill. 


Henry

9/11

So I figured with everything that happened last night AKA the massive U.S. eruption over the news that Osama Bin Laden, now would be a good time to remember how much sports mean to this country. I'm sure we all remember exactly where we were when we heard the news about 9/11. I woke up to my mom yelling in shock. She ws watching the TV after the first plane hit and when the second plane came flying my mom was watching it and it scared her. I come from a military family so this scared us maybe more than most. Once that plane hit the twin towers, we knew there was a chance that my cousins or step-dad would be heading to war somewhere. But back to the blog and its importance.
I do not think there is anything that can bring a country together more after tragedy or triumph then sports. I remember when FDNY hats were the most popular hats anywhere. Does nobody remember the permanent change that it did to the NFL? Prior to 9/11, the Superbowl was always held on the last sunday of January but after they pushed back a week due to the attacks, it has never been changed back. But I remember once things got back to normal. I have hated the Yankees my entire life but I loved watching that first home Yankee game after the attacks. Sports bring us all together like nothing else.
This summer when the Men's U.S. soccer team moved on, everyone bonded. Everyone. I am not a huge soccer fan but I have never been more excited for anything in my sports watching life than when Landon Donovan hit that to tie it up with time almost out. I was in the middle of my appartment screaming with excitement all by myself. But the cool thing is I knew that I was not alone. I knew that Americans everywhere were doing the same thing as me. I know there are a lot of crappy things going on in sports these days but lets all remember how great they are when we need them too.

Typical draft analysis

So I did a little bit of research before the NFL draft and the athletic stereotypes that we have heard over and over again were on full display. White players have high motors and work very hard. Black players are naturally talented but are lazy. It drives me crazy. You ever notice that besides Charles Davis, I'm pretty sure all of the "draft experts" are white. Kiper, McShay, Mayock, Billick, all white. For instance, there were a huge load of players projected to go in the first round at the DE/OLB position. Three were white, 13 were black. This is all according to walterfootball.com. All three of the white players at that position that were supposed to go in the first round allegedly have high motors, amazing work ethic and fantastic leadership qualities. When I looked at their analysis of the black players, I found that less than half of the black players projected to go in the first round had such qualities listed about them. They would say that they take plays off and are lazy. Are you telling me that J.J. Watt has never went 80% on a play to try to get some energy back. It is unbelievable. I find that these experts are stupid any way. I'm sure some of them had Leaf over Manning several years back. Sweet call.