Thought I'd get back into this...

I haven't blogged for a while and I figured it's time I start back up. For all zero of you that read this blog, look forward to some posts coming up in the near future.

College Magazine Articles

Here are links to my articles for College Magazine:


Here We Go Again: Conference Realignment 2.0

NFL Week 1 Preview

NFL Week 2 Preview

Top 10 College Football Traditions

You Can’t Spell Fraud Without “The U”

In the waning weeks of one of the most tumultuous college football off-seasons in recent memory, news comes out that, buy it or not, a former University of Miami booster and current prison inmate named Nevin Shapiro provided over 70 former and current Miami athletes with impermissible benefits. According to Shapiro, he even has bank statements, receipts, and photos proving that his allegations are in fact true.

The fact that Shapiro is now in federal prison for his role in a $930 million Ponzi scheme may damage his credibility. But, according to Yahoo Sports, eight former Miami football players have confirmed receiving some sort of special treatment from Shapiro, including former running back Tyrone Moss who says that he collected over 1000 dollars from Shapiro. Some of the names that have been thrown out as former players who received these benefits include current NFL All-Pros Andre Johnson, Devin Hester, Frank Gore, Vince Wilfork and Jonathon Vilma. Also listed was current Miami quarterback Jacory Harris who saw significant playing time last season and is currently in the middle of a battle for the starting quarterback job this year.

            Those who have been in favor of paying college athletes all along will use this predicament as a launching pad for their argument, but I do not think that this, or any situation such as the one at Ohio State, supports the idea that these athletes should get paid a stipend, simply because they are already getting paid! Whether or not they use it to their benefit, a four-year college scholarship is worth much more than face value because it can be used for so much more in the future. If the NCAA would allow schools to pay athletes, it would not only be wasting money, it would not help the allocation of impermissible funds. Not all people are fortunate enough to go to college, let alone go for free. Paying college athletes would not only be sending the absolute wrong message, it could perpetuate a problem that supporters of paying athletes wanted to end in the first place.

            One aspect of this story that is not going to be paid as much attention to as it deserves is the fact that, ironically enough, former Miami Athletic Director Paul Dee was the chairman for the Committee of Infractions concerning USC’s Reggie Bush who, thanks to Dee and his crusade, ended up giving up his Heisman Trophy after allegations of taking impermissible benefits himself. Not only is this one of the purest examples of hypocrisy that I have ever seen, it is inexcusable for an AD not to know what is going on at his school. A football coach should not be allowing this sort of behavior to happen under his nose either, but when push comes to shove, a coach’s job is to win games; an AD’s job is to make sure that the athletic programs that he oversees are running cleanly.

            Talking heads will talk about what sort of penalty Miami should get for this. Should they get the so-called “death penalty” like SMU did in the ‘70s and ‘80s, or will it be a slap on the wrist? I do not know and I will not speculate.

            All I know is that there is some good that comes out of this whole situation. Come September 5 when Miami comes to Byrd, I will be holding up a sign. It will be rather plain, but to the point. It will say “Nevin Shapiro.”

It was all good until...

... The last sentence.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&page=wojciechowski-110812&sportCat=golf

I respect Gene, but I think he got a little ahead of himself on this one. He says that this the tree is, "where Rory lost the PGA Championship." So, if Rory did not injure his wrist on that shot, he would have automatically won? I think not. Rory is good, but not good enough to be guaranteed major championship wins before the first round is even over.

Got Our Guy

Now, before I start typing this rather lengthy blog post I must make a statement. IN NO WAY DO I BELIEVE THAT THE TENNESSEE TITANS WILL RESEMBLE THE WORD "GOOD" THIS YEAR. WE DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH TALENT AND WITH A NEW COACH AND A DEPLETING DEFENSE, WE WILL STRUGGLE. ANYTHING THAT I SAY THAT SOUNDS AS IF I THINK THE OPPOSITE, IS JUST THE FAN IN ME, NOT THE SPORTS AFICIONADO. With that being said, I am incredibly delighted this morning. In fact, I am up at 10:30, and that in and of itself is rare. But, by signing Matt Hasselbeck, we killed so many birds with one stone. First off, we have someone teach Locker and take him under his wing. I can think of very few quarterbacks that would be better than Matt because most of the really good QBs in the league (I know there's Brady, Brees, Manning...) are not the world's most phenomenal citizens. Second, we will win more games with Hasselbeck than with Locker, albeit not THAT many more, but more nonetheless. I've also heard from many sources that Hasselbeck and Locker have a pre-existing relationship but that should come as no surprise as they both played ball for the last 4 (or more) years in the Pacific Northwest. Once again, I see no way we make the playoffs this year, but if things go right, I expect some great things in the future. After all, I was one of the few Titans fans that actually liked the selection of Locker at number eight. But, for Pete's sake, sign CJ to a contract. Give the man what he wants. He is the best running back in the NFL. If you say AP is the current holder of that title, come see me. I got numbers, but that's a blog for another day. I'm just excited for football.

Sorry Kurkjian...

Tim Kurkjian recently published an article on the underrated athleticism of baseball players:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=6614933

It's not even close, baseball players are the least athletic of the four major sports (and five if you include soccer). I know Kurkjian pointed out tons of players who were recruited to play other sports out of high school or whatnot, but you would find more players from other sports who were recruited to play sports different than their current one than those in baseball for sure, and that is purely based on the fact that they are all better ATHLETES than baseball players. I agree with Adam Jones in that baseball players could probably be more successful in, lets say, the NBA than an NBA player could be in the MLB. But that has nothing to do with athleticism. I've always contended that baseball requires the most skill (just beating out hockey) out of the four major American sports, but SKILL does not MEAN athleticism. Sure, hitting an 80 mile-an-hour 12 to 6 curveball is one of the hardest things to do in sports, and hand-eye coordination can be argued to be a part of the umbrella term athleticism, but it is not strength, speed, or agility, which I consider to be the three most important parts of athleticism. I also think that Kurkjian needs to stay away from the whole dunking thing. He cites players like Chris Young who are 6 foot 10. If you're 6'10'' (or anything above 6'3'' for that matter) and you cannot dunk a basketball, all I have to say is shame on you. I was a baseball player all my life. I claim to be an average football and basketball player, but I do not claim to be a superior athletes. There are exceptions in the MLB, but the league is not full of superior athletes.

Gary

At about 4:30 this afternoon I was lying in my bed flipping between SportsNation on ESPN2 and some show on the Food Network. I flipped back to ESPN2 and instantly saw a "Breaking News" update that shocked me to say the least. Gary Williams is retiring. For those of you who are at UMD for your first year and are just starting to like Maryland Basketball, I can understand the resentment of this announcement. After all, Gary's team didn't do much at all last season. We failed to make the postseason for the first time in God knows how long, and those of us who have witnessed Gary's teams throughout the years were just as PO'ed about it as the new fans. But what those of you who are new to this University do not understand is how much Gary meant to this institution. He was more than just A coach. He was OUR coach. Even more than just winning a national championship, he did it the right way. I would love to win every year, but if there's cheating involved, it just wouldn't be as sweet. Gary did not cheat. Period. He had made it his crusade not to. By winning the right way in 2002, it was a slap in the face to those coaches who cheat (cough, cough, Calhoun, cough). But I'm not complaining about the money that Jimmy won me this year. The 2002 National Championship was great; one of my fondest memories to be honest. But, what I respect Gary for that goes even beyond that is the fact that he took the job in the first place. After the Len Bias incident and Lefty Driesell's retirement, the NCAA looked for every reason to give Maryland the so-called death penalty, and they did under Bob Wade by giving them three years probation, no postseason play for two years, and no televised games for two years. Gary stepped in to his Alma Mater at arguably the most difficult stretch this athletic department has ever witnessed, and with the help of Walt Williams, he turned a downtrodden program into one of the nation's elite once again. I grew up going to games. First in Cole and then at Comcast; even before I became a student. Now that I know that this would be my only year in college seeing Gary fist pump his way down the sideline, I wish it would have gone a whole heckuvalot better, but I am thankful for the 22 years that Gary gave this University. For a variety of reasons, it is so difficult to be successful coaching at your Alma Mater, but Gary made it work. It wasn't always pretty and there was really never a dearth of controversy, but 22 years speak for itself. To be honest, I don't want to speculate as to why Gary retired. It may or may not have something to do with Jordan Williams leaving. I don't know. If I did know, my name would be Gary Williams and I would have a nice, shiny National Championship ring on my finger.