“Why We Love Sports” By Sam Katz
February 26, 2010 by Sam Katz · 470 Comments
I found myself wondering, “What is it about sports that keeps me coming back?”
The sports hater complains,
“What’s the point? Nowadays, with all the performance enhancing drugs, cheaters, gambling, and corporate sponsors, the sport is more fiction then reality.”
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Simply put though, the sports hater’s opinion is wrong.
Why do I love sports?
I love the fresh smell of leather on a new baseball glove.
I love the feeling you get when you walk into places like Dodger Stadium, Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, the Staples Center, the Superdome, and realize that you shared that same feeling with 50,000 other proud sports loving Americans.
I love sitting on the phone for hours with my friends talking about useless statistics that we all believe are going to win us our fantasy leagues.
I love filling out my March Madness bracket knowing I’m about to take 40 other grown men’s money.
I love seeing stars sitting court side at the game. The likes of Denzel Washington, Snoop Dogg, Spike Lee, Jay-Z, Beyonce, and of course the original purple and gold dresser, Jack Nicholson.
I love seeing people go crazy for their 4 seconds of fame on kiss cam, and then laughing at the one pair that kisses even though they are brother and sister.
I love dreaming about taking the field with the guys I’m watching, even though I know if I were to try, I’d be laughed at more times then the “Boom goes the dynamite” kid.
I love waking up every morning to the sound of Colin Cowherd yapping about why Las Vegas should be given a sports team. (He is right by the way, The Herd is always right)
I love getting my daily refresher of sports news and blogs from across the web from my favorite analysts like Keith Law, Chris Steuber, Jason Grey, Eric Karabell , John Clayton, and of course the Babe Ruth of analysts, Peter Gammons.
I love seeing Troy Polamalu try to convince me to buy Head and Shoulders and the Manning brothers try to convince me to buy Oreo’s. I don’t need any convincing guys. I already buy both regularly but still appreciate the effort.
I love getting phone calls and texts from my favorite guys in the NFL; Brooks “Super Natural” Foster, BJ Raji, Patrick Turner, Jamaal Charles, Clay Matthews Jr, David Bruton Jr., Tom Brandstater, Curtis Painter, Rob Francois, Danny Gorrer, Scott McKillop, and of course Ryan “Purv” Purvis.
I love tailgating before college football games with my dad and eating more sausage, pizza, popcorn, nachos, cotton candy, and dippin dots then four of my stomach’s could handle.
So you tell me,
“What’s not to love about sports?”
Sam Katz
President and Founder of Scouting The Sports. Katz authored the Scouting The Sports Top 100 Prospect Book.
American Sportsmanship
February 25, 2010 by Jeff Spiegel · 307 Comments
Growing up, young athletes are taught that playing sports is all about having fun. Then we hit middle school.
At this point, we’re being told the game is still all about having fun, but sometimes through actions, our coach, our parents, and our teammates tell us that they care only about winning.
Over the last couple of weeks, the Winter Olympics have taken over the sports world as the competition for international supremacy. When sports get taken to such a large stage, everything is bigger. The stories are bigger, the crashes are bigger, and even the passion is bigger. Only in the Olympics could I become enthralled with a sport like curling, but last night a funny thing took place in the match between Sweden and Great Britain that really made me think.
This match epitomized everything I love about the Olympics. The match was a tiebreaking match that wasn’t even supposed to be close, with a spot in the semi-finals up for grabs. Great Britain was the clear favorite, holding far more experience over the young Swedish team, but in the Olympics, things like this just don’t seem to matter. In the final frame of the match, after Great Britain had staged a massive comeback, Sweden was just one simple shot away from winning the match. Great Britain had to complete their final shot, after which the Swedish captain would attempt the shot to win the match, and in a simple moment like this, things got interested.
While Great Britain was preparing for their shot, one of the announcers made an off-handed comment about how the British shooter should take up all of his allotted time in order to get in the head, or freeze the young Swedish captain similar to how an opposing coach would ice a kicker in the NFL. There wasn’t a single American in the world watching at 2am that even batted an eye at this comment, until the other announcer jumped all over it.
The second announcer seemed nothing short of appalled at the suggestion of such a childish action, and I could not figure out why. Then everything became clear. This announcer went on to explain how the sport of curling was all about respect, and the British team would not have even considered such an act. The announcer compared it to walking right through someone’s putting line in golf (a definite no-no), and continued to emphasize that the thought suggested by the American announcer would never have even crossed the minds of the British team. Never. And yet, as Americans, we are trained at a young age to win at all costs through the sports we watch on television, and through our coaches’ advice throughout the years.
This was one of those moments which make the Olympics so great. It’s a chance to see other perspectives not just on sports, but sportsmanship, and respect. Sports is about more than winning, and sometimes we are taught that the only way to have fun is to win, when in reality sports is about having fun, and winning the right way.
This isn’t to say there is something wrong with icing a kicker, or stalling in baseball, it’s just that winning is about more than that. Winning should be earned on the field, not through tactics designed to make the other team fail. Our games need to be more about ‘us’ winning, than ‘them’ losing.
The Olympics are a time when people from different backgrounds, nationalities, and points of view all come together, and it is an opportunity to learn that should not be overlooked. Regardless of which side of the argument people found themselves on while watching curling in the wee hours of the morning, it was an excellent reminder that every once in a while we all need to step back and rethink where we are coming from. Even if we’re American.
Sorry Ernie, It’s Time To Go
February 22, 2010 by Jeff Spiegel · 196 Comments
It has been a long time coming, but Ernie Kent needs to go.
Kent’s response? “We knew we were going to have a tough season, but I feel we’re moving in the right direction, and we’re going to be very good.”
Oh wait, sorry, that was Kent’s response early last season when the Ducks were cleaning the cellar of the Pac-10. Funny how things tend to repeat themselves.
Ernie’s reaction this season? “I’m going to ask people again to be patient. I know they’ve been patient for all of last year, we’re in the middle, toward the end of this year – this team will come. This team has a great run in it, and it really does, too. They just still need to grow some more, they do, and we’ll just get back to the drawing board and keep working with them.”
Sorry Ernie, the patience is gone.
The patience was gone when the ducks returned four of their five best players in 2007-2008 from an elite eight team, only to limp into the tournament and blow an early lead resulting in a first round exit.
The patience was gone when the Ducks finished an abysmal 8-23 last season, including an impressive 2-16 record in conference play. Did I mention the Ducks brought in a five-star and two four-star recruits as freshmen for the 2008-2009 season? The 2008-2009 season included losses to Oakland, the University of San Diego, and Saint Mary’s and an unbelievable fourteen game losing streak.
Somehow Ernie kept his job, and here we are, staring at another awful season of Duck basketball full of false hope and high expectations. Now here is a statistic that will blow your mind:
Over the past two seasons the Ducks have lost 36 games and have outscored their opponents in the second half in only five of those games, and by no more than five points.
It gets better.
In the second half of every loss this season, the Ducks have either tied or been outscored by their opponents. Every time.
The casual basketball fan might look at these numbers and think, “So what?” But most basketball fans, or anyone who has played an organized game of competitive basketball knows one thing: halftime is where adjustments are made.
In my opinion, coaches have very little affect on the course of a basketball game, outside of their substitutions. Halftime, however, is where a coach sits his team down and explains to them exactly what the other team is doing, and how they are going to beat it. In every instance this season, Ernie Kent has been out-coached here. Every single time. This means Kent was out-coached by Wayne Tinkle, Eric Reveno, and Greg Kampe over the past two seasons. Wait, you haven’t heard of the head coaches from Montana, Portland, and Oakland?
If this happened half of the time, you could begin to think this is an anomaly, however losing the second half thirty-one out of thirty-six times is not only unthinkable, it’s indefensible. This doesn’t even address the issue that the Ducks lost twenty-five of these games by double digits, meaning the other team probably had the scrub-unit in. The Ducks were even getting outscored by the other teams’ benchwarmers.
The final straw was a recent interview with former Duck Fred Jones, who addressed the Duck basketball situation with the following quotes:
“If you look back at our teams, we had three guys that had to carry it every night” and “We have some of the best facilities in the country, with the best backing of Mr. Knight, (and) I feel like we should be top-tier in the country.”
For those of you not catching his drift, what he was trying to say was that the Ducks should be way better than they are, and he wasn’t exactly defending Ernie Kent’s honor. When a former player sits through an atrocity of a game (against Cal on Saturday), and can’t even defend his former coach, the Ducks have problems. Did I mention the Ducks had one assist on Saturday? One Assist in an entire game.
The situation can best be summed up in a story from the Duck game at Oregon State on February 6th when the Oregon State student section began chanting, “Goodbye Ernie.” A fellow University of Oregon student’s response to his Beaver friends: “Thanks for donating again to the Fire Ernie Kent Fund.”
I wish I could say that it’s a good time to be a Duck, but at least we have football to look forward to (cough, cough).
Are The Lakers Better Without Kobe Bryant?
February 19, 2010 by mspokny · 75 Comments
I keep hearing this one in the media, and frankly I just don’t get it.
It really seems like one of the most asinine things that I have ever heard.
Without a doubt the Lakers are not a better team without Kobe Bryant.
Considering all his injuries this year, he has been playing superb.
It really is a testament to his amazing skill that he is still considered either the best or second best player in the league despite having multiple health issues this year.
Even with the injuries, Kobe is averaging 28 PPG, 4.6 APG, 5.3 RPG, and shooting 46.1% from the field.
All of those numbers are on par or better than his career numbers.
Kobe has sustained a dislocated ring finger, broken index finger, sprained ankle, back spasms, sprained elbow, pulled groin, and 4 stitches in his right eye this year. Plus he has a lingering pinky issue that required surgery in the off-season that has yet to fully recover.
Once he gets rested and his body recovers, the Lakers are absolutely a better team with him on the court.
By: Morgan Spokny
blogtalkradio.com/bline
Big Time Athletes, Interviews and Attitude.
SUNDAY SOUP: What Happened to All the Funnies?
February 15, 2010 by Bucknabachi · 636 Comments
Now that a full week has gone by since the conclusion of Super Bowl XLIV, and the dust has finally settled around the actual game, lets take a look back at what is supposed to be the second best part of the big game: commercials. Super Bowl Sunday is known to be the perfect combination of comedy and football, but this past Sunday makes fans ask the question: What happened to all the funnies? This is an issue that has been prevalent throughout most TV watching now a days, but was epitomized during the Super Bowl, advertising has taken a turn for the worse. One can look back on the days of Budweiser’s “whazzzup” and still get a little chuckle. However, this past weekend, aside from an occasional commercial with cute kids who either: A) Talk stocks and bonds or B) Bitch slap grown men in defense of their momma, most commercials simply received a yawn or, at best, a sympathy laugh. Super Bowl Sunday is arguably the one time a year when viewers will actually sit around and “shhh” each other during commercials. The question is: how long will previous advertisement cover the disappointment of today’s commercials? The thought that companies actually spent an average of $2.6 million dollars for 30 seconds of airtime (That’s roughly $87,000 a second in case you were wondering) to produce a blow off commercial is just baffling. Maybe the recession has forced companies to cut any sort of creative/marketing-enabled mind from their staff and was left with what we saw last Sunday. If that is the case I would like to mention that I am available for hire, and would cost a lot less than $2.4 mil. All jokes aside, I would like to present my five worst Super Bowl Commercials from last Sunday’s game and give a little critique on just what made them such a waste of money:
**I do realize that by choosing to write my column on these five ads that I am further promoting these companies by supplying them with more publicity. And although I am not writing a glowing review on their advertisements I believe it was the great Johnny Drama who once said, “No publicity is bad publicity.” I also recognize that these commercials were successful in the sense that I do in fact remember them, but remembering and purchasing are two different things. With that being said, I believe with the few followers we currently have on Sundaysoup the damage will be minimal, and am prepared to bash the ads anyways. Thank you.
5. Dodge Charger: A Man’s Last Stand
First off, being a man does not suck. I get where they were going with this and applaud them for the concept, but this is just plain depressing. Yea, yea, you make sacrifices for your wife blah blah. What fan wants to sit at their TV on the biggest macho man-day of the year and admit to having no control over their life? If you are trying to highlight how manly your car is, spend more than 12 seconds of your minute long commercial broadcasting it. Either that or make me laugh during the other 48 seconds, but do NOT expect me to listen to a mono tone voice of a guy spieling off about how bad it is being a man, with nothing to look at but dudes’ faces. Dodge could have easily set up some very funny scenes depicting the story line told throughout the commercial, but instead chose to go with a boring narration, perhaps, in attempt to save some money after spending all of their budge on the time slot, I really don’t know. But there is one word that summarizes this whole commercial: botch. Big time.
4. Focus on the Family: Tim Tebow
I know, I know, making fun of Tebow is a bit cliché, however, like with most instances Tebow related, this criticism isn’t really his fault. The reason family first comes in at number four on the list is simply because the amount of hype it received forecasting some sort of major advertising controversy. The commercial was nothing of the sort, and all viewers were left with was saying “uhhhhh, ok?” So I guess I will take some of the blame for this let down, next time I will be sure to not believe the hype.
3. Go to youtube and type in GoDaddy Super Bowl, pick any one.
I may catch some heat on this one, and my man card may be called into question a little bit, but GoDaddy commercials are the definition of a cop out. Maybe it’s my inner competitor talking, but they routinely take the easy way out by showing what pretty much looks like the intro of a porn before cutting out and tempting viewers to go to their website if they want more (which for most heterosexual guys they usually do). If you view it from that standpoint, the commercial has succeeded. The social aspects of why this is an effective form of advertising go much deeper than Bowl of Bills is willing to get into, but one thing is for sure. In all fairness, if someone offered me a lot of money to show a bit of skin, I just may give in as well, but for everything Dana Kirkpatrick has done for feminism by pioneering her way into NASCAR, she throws it all away with every provocative GoDaddy commercial she stars in. It is disappointing and cheap. GoDaddy and Ms. Kirkpatrick receive an A for effectiveness, but an F on creativity, averaging out to another bad Super Bowl commercial.
2. Boost Mobile – Super Bowl Shuffle
Football players shuffling around rapping about hip thrusts, cheetah print thongs, and spray on tans? No thank you. Not only does this commercial provide zero laughs, but it also does a horrible job at advertising the intended product: Boost Mobile. Viewers can barely hear the poor lyrics rapped about and have no idea how to relate the demonstration to cell phones. Now I have been informed that this was a recreation of the original Super Bowl Shuffle, which was performed by the 1985 Chicago Bears, however, this fact provides no excuse for a flat out bad commercial. The rap barely has anything to do with the product! Only snack and beer companies can get away with producing a commercial that has nothing to do with what they are selling and put a brief plug of advertisement in the last few seconds. Not that I expected better from Boost Mobile, but weak performance nonetheless.
In Dockers defense, they got screwed over with the placement of the commercial a little bit. I like the theme of “time to start wearing the pants” and applaud them for their confidence in their product to be able to give away free pants, but it is Super Bowl Sunday; not very many guys wants to see a parade of men stomp around in their whitey tightys. Maybe the ad would have gotten a little more lee way from me had the commercial right before it, not had guys walking around with no pants on as well. When I saw back-to-back commercials of dudes in underwear, I was shocked and inspired to write Bowl #2 about bad advertising. The scary thing is, if all we can come up with, as a nation, is men in their underwear, we are in a deeper recession than I thought. Sorry Dockers you are at the top of the list, should have saved your money.
Hope you enjoyed this man sized filling of Bowl of Bills, as always, there is plenty more where that came from. Stay tuned to Sundaysoup.com
By Jon Bills
