NFL Conference Championship games

After last week's total embarrassment going 0-4 in the NFL playoff picks, I achieve redemption today by going 2-0 with last week's prediction of the Colts and Saints making it to Super Bowl XLIV.

Jets and Colts

The Colts and Jets began the Sunday afternoon excitement in a game that a lot of people had going either way. I was confident, however, in the Colts ultimately taking the game.

The game didn't start that way, though. The first quarter ended scoreless, but the whole first half of the game was entirely controlled by NY. Often, the Colts would go through a drive marching down the field, yet they would end up leaving the drive with only 3 points.

Meanwhile, the Jets would respond with touchdowns, giving them, at one point, a 17-6 lead. The Colts put up one more touchdown toward the end of the 2nd quarter, making it 17-13, and putting the team back in contention.

On Twitter, I continuously read conversations, saying the Jets had this one, and the Colts were going to be upset, and all that nonsense. The only doubt I had was because I have this problem with sports gods and the teams that I choose to win. But that's another story for another day...

I maintained my faith, despite all of the doubters on Twitter asking me about this being the biggest upset ever. Game ain't over yet!...

...Well, it wasn't over until the Colts touchdown that came about 7 minutes into the second half to Pierre Garcon. Garcon, who ended up with 151 yards on 11 receptions, and the other big guy for the game, Austin Collie (123 yards on 7 receptions), were able to offensively lead Indianapolis to a 30-17 win over the seemingly unstoppable Jets.

1 down, 1 more to go for me.

With the Jets coming off of a win against the San Diego Chargers, a serious run game, and the top rated defense this playoff season, it did look hard to go against the momentum. Also, with the skeptics of the Colts' ability to get their receivers around Jets safety Darrelle Revis, and the idea of "resting starters" it made the Colts look weaker.

But that's exactly what it was; an illusion. It was all in their heads to rationalize why the Colts could lose to justify why the Jets would win. But no worries. I understand.

Vikes and Saints

The next game was enough to cause a heart attack for anyone who wasn't even a fan of either team. I can tell you that as a Dallas Cowboys fan, who now technically could care less about who wins the Super Bowl, I was DYING at the suspense this game provided.

The beginning of the Saints/Vikings match had the makings of a shootout between the two teams, which I think a lot of people had expected.

Now I had expected the shenanigans that occurred with Adrian Peterson to happen the previous week with Dallas (I guarantee you they would have won that way), but the Saints seemed to take ownice of my game plan and forced AP to fumble - more than once.

In fact, the Vikings had a bajillion turnovers. AP most of all must been using that wave-grease that Cowboys WR Roy Williams usually uses that makes him drop balls. As much as I knew the lack of ball control issue, WHAT TEAM GETS 6 FUMBLES!? The Saints made sure to get points off of the turnovers.

Nonetheless, the Vikings remained tied after the 7 minute mark in the 4th quarter, 28-28. The Saints let them hang around after all. But once again, the Saints defense forced the INT from Brett Favre in Saints territory, ruining the opportunity the Vikes had in winning the game in regulation.

This nail-biter now headed to OT. The Saints began OT on offense, and, rather quickly via passes and Vikes penalties, entered into the Minnesota side of the field. Thanks to a suave completion to Meachem from Brees, the Saints were at the Vikings' 22 yard line. An incompletion following that play caused a 4th and 3 to go situation.

Long story short, Saints kick a 40 yard field goal, actually make it, and the Saints made the Super Bowl for the first time in their franchise's history.

BTW, Drew Brees made a nice post-game outfit selection. Sharp, my friend, sharp.

Super Bowl XLIV Picks

The Super Bowl winner will be the Colts. I will explain why after we see all the players waste time at the Pro Bowl.

The Obvious is Too Obvious?

So the two #1 seeds face off in the Super Bowl as I predicted last week, the Colts and the Saints. It would have been easy to call this way back since the regular season.

But that's just the problem! It's just too obvious. I actually believe that everybody knew this matchup was coming. But who wants to pick the obvious teams? It looks like lazy pick because it's so easy to say they're clearly the two best teams. How often does that happen that legitimately, the two best teams in the league face each other in a championship game?

By seeding, this is the third time the two #1 teams played each other in the Super Bowl. But did that always mean that they were really that good? The world was, in fact, in denial about picking the Colts and Saints. As I explained before, people rationalized who was going to win besides the Colts or Saints.

People constantly tried to pick some sort of underdog because it seems every year, some team people least expected to make it, makes it. I mean, that makes sense, right? I suppose. And then you think about it, and this year, it really would make sense that these were the two best teams. We will see which one is actually THE BEST... in 2 weeks :-)

The Jets. (Yes, with the period at the end)

Ahh yes. The Jets lost. Good run, but you weren't beating the Colts. I won't rub it in though. I'm just going to say that Rex Ryan should have continued the "negative reinforcement" strategy.

In my mind, I see that strategy works the best. When you admit that things are going well for your team, it just messes the world order up, and makes every one work less hard. But mostly messes up the world order.

Saying your team is going to win it all in the conference championship game isn't going to work. This has been proven over and over again i.e. Tracey McGrady, Sports Illustrated (before the teams freakin' win anything they get on a cover), etc. Please, keep putting up the front that you need to play better and I promise you, the gods will allow things to work for you.

All jokes aside, however, (not entirely joking but anyway...) the Colts are a smart-as-hell team with a well-working coaching staff and players that know better. They wouldn't dare let the Jets win. After all, the Colts have a mean defense as well, in case you weren't paying attention.

Penguins and Flyers

Before all the football, there was hockey on NBC, the Flyers and the Penguins. Pittsburgh won in an also exciting sports outing by a score of 5-4.

Now, I hate to make a spectacle of hockey games because hockey is an amazing game, aside from the fights and shenanigans that happen around the game. But this was actually HILARIOUS and I had to share it because if you read carefully, you'll see how much sense this makes.

If you don't know already, one previous game between the two teams included an incident where Flyers' Scott Hartnell was accused of biting the finger of Kris Letang in a fight.

Here, this time, the accusations are from the Flyers' Aaron Asham, stating that the Penguins' goon, Matt Cooke, bit his finger.

All I'm going to say is, since when is it that "usually if you bite somebody"? LMAO! Because people just go around biting people in and out of hockey... oh Aaron Asham...

Here you go, from Puck Daddy's Greg Wyshynski: Penguins-Flyers Game Ends in Another Biting Accusation

*Sidenote: I will admit, after my relationship with a Lightning fan, that Matt Cooke was indeed slightly dirty even as a player on the Caps, and that hit on Vincent Lecavlier was uncalled for. This seems pointless, but I needed this off my conscience.

The Hockey Writers

Enjoy my last piece here on the Caps and Penguins game last week. The critics were hushed in the 6-3 victory over Pittsburgh. Ahhh, yes... #puckfittsburgh.

Happy reading!

NFL Divisional Playoffs - Disappointment

This is how I felt

Hello everybody!

So the NFL Divisional playoff series are now over and I was COMPLETELY, ENTIRELY WRONG in my picks to win. In fact, I was so wrong, I could probably be terminally depressed at the level of incorrectness I had. I'd might as well pack up and go home and sue myself for falsely posing myself as a knowledgeable sports fan...

...Okay, I won't take it that far, but considering I was 0-4 all weekend, picked 3 upsets that went the way they were supposed to, and the only non-upset I picked (Chargers/Jets), there was the hidden upset.

But that's not all my fault. I mean, I'm sure the majority of the world picked the Chargers to beat the Jets. A good number had the Cowboys beating the Vikings. There were more than enough cases of a few brave (and smart) souls chose the Ravens over the Colts. I can tell you that plenty others had the Cardinals winning in a close game against the Saints.

My biggest explanation here for why I failed so badly in my picks was that I mistook these teams who had bye-weeks who were "well-rested" for being "too rested". But apparently, for 3 out of the 4 teams, that was just the NFL just officially played my life. It went sort of like this:

Saints 45, Cardinals 14
Colts 20, Ravens 3
Vikings 34, Cowboys 3
Jets 17, Chargers 14

My Excuses:
Contrary to what I may say, I DO pick teams for a reason, although when I explain them now, it will sound like an excuse. To all my Greeks reading this, please don't ask for the stanzas of "Excuses". I already went through all that. So here we go...

• I picked the Cardinals because of the way the Saints ended the season and the fact that they had a bye-week. I don't know why - maybe it's because the Cowboys had a bye-week their last playoff entry and lost - but I thought that the teams that had sub-par endings and the extra week off would lose. I should have known better because of the close call with the Cardinals in the previous game against the Packers. They should have lost and didn't. Oh well.
• I picked the Ravens because of in their regular-season matchup; the Ravens came pretty close to beating the Colts in a battle of field goals. Also, the Colts were the team that I thought had too much rest. Finally, I was impressed with the way the Ravens played the Patriots in the first round. So I thought, with a little bit of offensive tweaking, they could hang in there at least against the Colts. However, I completely forgot that the Colts were, in fact, the Colts, and they knew better than to sleep in every day, only to wake up to some afternoon television (Maury or something). Shame on me.
• Yes, I chose the Dallas Cowboys to beat the Vikings. Before you assume I did it because of bias, I did not. I chose them because they were on fire. I thought they were the most serious team in this year's playoffs. Their defense went SO hard, with 2 back-to-back shutouts to end the season, and continued the great defensive plays in the first game against the Eagles. The Cowboys offense also came out the last game to win their first playoff game in 13 years. I had to be convinced that Dallas had it going for them.
  There was an underlying feeling, however, that they will have the same type of game they had when they played against the Packers in Green Bay. For some reason, Tony Romo and his squad can't play well west of Dallas, Texas! I also would like to put Nick Folk... I mean Shaun Suisham on the firing squad for killing any shot that Dallas would have at scoring some more points. That underlying feeling of a bad game came to be true, and my heart was broken. Now I need an alternative team.
• I can tell you right now that alternative team will not be the Jets, though. But I'll get to that in a bit. The Chargers were the team that actually played well down the stretch of the end of the NFL season. They won a close one in their last game against the Redskins, but still, one would assume that was a fluke. It seemed more like a foreshadowing of what would happen next. Regardless, I'm still going to say that this was an effort won by the Jets, rather than saying the Chargers lost it. The Jets have been put onto something after the regular season that allows them their defense to REALLY come out and just suffocate the opposing team's offensive talents. I also say the Jets won because the Chargers made it very close, very late, but the Jets held on and won the game. What can I say?

The Jets...

To continue on the issue of the Jets seeing abnormal success this postseason, this is a situation that was created by people like Colts head coach Jim Caldwell. I'm sorry if I offend some people here, but the Jets were LET into the playoffs. They were straight handed two games by the Colts and Bengals to enter into the playoffs. I'll put on the DC dialect for a second and rephrase a sentence and tell those two teams, "Y'all shoulda done NEVER gave that team a playoff spot!"

Now, I'm not saying that the Jets were given a playoff spot to be condescending towards the Jets. My statement is only referring to the fact that because the Jets were allowed in, it gave them new life; therefore, they plan to act upon it. Thus, I fear for the Colts because they may have given the Jets a pass to beat them at the end of the season, but now the question is: how uncompetitive was that game? It's a legitimate question to me.

The Jets did really beat the Bengals in the first round. They beat the Chargers, who seemed impossible to beat just the day before. So can they beat the Colts? We'll see if that comes to bite them in the butt.

I'm just hoping I don't hear those "woe-is-me" Jets fans celebrating so I'm hoping they don't win in spite... >:-D... It also would destroy me to see the Yankees AND the Jets win. But that's just me...

Pick of Shame

Yes. I will still make picks for the conference championship games. Let's go:
NY Jets vs. Indianapolis Colts @3pm -- Colts
Minnesota Vikings vs. New Orleans Saints @6:30pm -- Saints

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Check out the site thehockeywriters.com and see "The Writers" section. A name might look slightly familiar to you ;-).

The Dark Side...

So a bit off topic, but I thought I'd just poke fun at myself for a bit.

I was recently looking for paid jobs on campus, and I just randomly picked ones that looked like they would fit my class and activity schedules. One of the jobs was intramural officiating, and it specifically said that it would have flexible hours...

So I let the guy know that I was interested, and I have training next week to be a sports official.

One of the sports I would be officiating is basketball. I wanted to let everyone know that I will not be accepting offers to give your college or university the win. You can forget about that. And if anything, I would manipulate the calls to give MY school an advantage HAHA! Just joking.

I promise I will be as fair as possible, but it's interesting, seeing as I'm one who bashes officials and referees quite often and willingly. It would be fun to be on the other side of that. While I understand their job and how it's not easy, I want to do a sort of "inside job" and REALLY get the job of being an official.

I also have the option of being an ice hockey, flag football and indoor soccer official if I wish after basketball season finishes. I'm excited, and I hope I get the chance to learn something as a referee.

Lane Kiffin - the Con Man

Really quickly, I want to know how Lane Kiffin keeps getting top jobs (became coach at USC)! What is this! I heard somebody say it, and I couldn't have said it better: He's a con artist! I agree whole-heartedly! And I don't see any good coming out of Kiffin after the shenanigans he supposedly was a part of at Tennessee.

So then how is it that Carroll leaves USC, and then heads to the NFL to the nearest stop away from USC, and then Kiffin leaves Tennessee? I'm waiting to see who leaves their scandal-filled school to enter into Tennessee. IT'S SHENANIGANS! And nobody is held accountable because these scandals don't get found out until the players are about 2-3 years out of school. It's ridiculous.

I don't like USC, but I have to feel bad for them now (not too bad though).

Mike Wise - "it's hockey"

I have to talk about this being a DC-Native and a die hard hockey fan. In response as to why he believes the Washington Capitals don't receive props for being the lone good team in DC, DC sports "expert" , Mike Wise claims it's because "it's hockey".

And this was the attitude I have been so sick of for so many years. The fact this area gives all the attention to the worst-of-the-worst teams here and ignoring when the Caps do well is a disgrace! The reason is because it is hockey, so why should we care? Hockey is boring and barbaric and whatever other reason.

To cover DC sports, you can't just ignore a MAJOR TEAM just because you don't like it. The team finally have won a playoff round, and this year, once again, the Capitals have an excellent chance again to bring the Cup to DC for the first time as champions. And the option for ALL of sports media in DC, not just Mike Wise, is to ignore that success and to rather spend time on other things...

...Like focusing on why Gilbert Arenas had gun in the locker room even though he's such a nice guy he is, as there's nothing else to talk about regarding the Wizards since they're no good, and the fact that the Redskins are no good either.

I understand that the Redskins will always be #1 in this town, and that's fine. I understand, this is not a hockey-town. That's okay. That isn't my problem. My issue is when I'm being force-fed the Redskins through radio shows, local sports television, and the Washington Post. Of course, I take my liberties and shut it all off and don't listen.

When for the past 3 years I'm still excited to see a huge Caps win on the front page, and satisfied when then a feature story on one of the players is done, I sort of see that as a problem. Ongoing drama gets old. Can we surprise the readers with something new?

Of course I'm running on how I feel about the issue, it's my blog, I can do just that. So I will say that Mike Wise's comment was entirely rude. From reading someone else's post on this issue, I also found out what he thought of hockey fans in general. Anybody who apparently called him out his statement about the Caps not deserving attention was getting defensive because that's just how hockey fans are. Whatever man. Un-Wise.

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Finally...

Fsinally, Haiti has been a poor country suffering for years. Recently though, the country was hit by a 7.0 earthquake. Thoughts and prayers go out to those in Haiti, and all my friends and readers with family in Haiti. I wish all the best.

Wild WILD Card Weekend

I'm sure that title has been used in many publications, but how else can you describe the exciting turnout from the 4 NFL playoff games that occurred this Saturday and Sunday?

The weekend began Saturday with the Cincinnati Bengals facing off against the NY Jets. The Jets started off the game slowly, but their defense was able to hold the Bengals to the only touchdown they received in the 1st quarter until late in the 4th quarter. The Jets run game decided to put on a repeat performance of the previous week and provide opportunities for 24 points.
Final score: Jets 24, Bengals 14

I know I picked the Bengals, but I did put a disclaimer, saying that if the Jets actually won, I wouldn't be surprised in the least bit. I didn't expect the Bengals' offense to be entirely suffocated the way they were last week, yet I did look for the Jets to come out and play as hard as they could. They are the dark horse this NFL postseason.

The Jets will play against the San Diego Chargers Sunday at 4:40pm EST.

Next, the Philadelphia Eagles were set to play the second rematch of the weekend against the Dallas Cowboys. After Philly fans claimed that the Eagles didn't try last week and will come out harder this week, their words seemed to have been true. I mean, the Eagles DID tie the game at 7 all when Michael Vick entered the game for a play.

Just because Dallas had not won a playoff game in 13 years, however, didn't guarantee the Eagles a win. The Cowboys had something to prove: that their late-season run was not a fluke and that they CAN, in fact, win a playoff game.
Final score: Cowboys 34, Eagles 14

Easy as that. The Eagles defense looked entirely weak, as Dallas got about 200 rushing yards and 244 passing yards on them.

Now that that the 13-year playoff curse is off the Cowboys, is it possible that they can use this to go all the way? Well, they'll have to go through the Minnesota Vikings Sunday afternoon at 1:00pm EST.

Today's Sunday match-ups weren't about to disappoint either.

The Baltimore Raven and the New England Patriots was a no-brainer. The Pats were just too much for the erratic Ravens, whose impeccable defense was only a fable from about 3 years ago...

...Not so fast.

The Ravens were up 24-0 by the start of the 2nd quarter. I woke up from my slumber, only to get up close and squint at the television just to make sure that the score was indeed, 24-0. I know I picked Baltimore to win, but I mean, who expects the Patriots would be losing in Foxboro in a playoff game to the Ravens.

Despite looks of the Patriots still hanging around, and the Ravens not scoring another touchdown until the 4th quarter and missing the 2-point conversion on their final touchdown, New England lost. Yes.
Final score: Ravens 33, Patriots 14.

I wonder what Pats coach Bill Belichick is going to blame this one on. It's clearly not the turf this time... Nonetheless, after exacting revenge on the Pats, the Ravens will be put to a much bigger test in the Indianapolis Colts Saturday at 8:15, whom they also almost beat this season in a field goal-filled battle. We'll see how well resting the players fared for the Colts (I will be somewhere to watch this game for my birthday party and a Zeta Founders Day gift).

Finally, the Green Bay Packers and the Arizona Cardinals wanted to blow all of the previous games out of the water and make all kinds of history with their game.

Arizona had taken complete control of the first half of the game, and it seemed like another Dallas/Philly game to be seen. Now, I chose the Packers for victory today, so I had some inkling of faith that this wasn't how the game would turn out. The Packers were MUCH better than this, being the second hottest NFC team going into the playoffs behind Dallas.

So the 3rd quarter begins and the Cardinals went up 31-10 to make matters worse for my pickings. But Green Bay didn't lay down.

I'm in the middle of the meeting while getting scores to my phone, and lo-and-behold, the Packers have almos tied this game up, down only 31-24! Arizona went up 38-24, but Green Bay found its way to a tie. Arizona went up again 45, but the Packers tied it AGAIN with 1:52 left... Overtime.

It looked as if the Packers were going in for the win, and I would have 3 out of 4 picks correct, but then "The Legend of Kurt Warner" continued, as the Cards batted the ball from Rodgers' hands and took it to the end zone.

Final score: Cardinals 51,Packers 45

This game turned out to be the highest scoring NFL playoff game in history. I really did think the Packers could have won the game, riding on that momentum and Aaron Rodgers' leadership of the team. The Cardinals, as victors, will be facing the New Orleans Saints Saturday at 4:30pm EST.

I certainly hope you all are ready for another week of predicted wildness. Here are my Reckless Picks. Ready?

Chargers over Jets
Cowboys over Vikings - disclaimer: I wouldn't be surprised if the opposite occurred
Colts over Ravens
Cardinals over Saints

Yea, pretty random again. I just like to pick for the heck of it *shrug*.

Finally, quote of the day: "There was sarcasm in my Shaq-tweet. He is as powerful as Shawn Bradley." In reference in a Twitter comment about Shaq's "double-double"... I died. Most overrated stat in basketball.


Oh and don't forget, if there's something you'd like to tell me about the site in general or ask a question, you can put it in the guestbook to the right.

And I thought I should share, that I have been accepted as the Washington Capitals writer for one of the top sites for in-depth hockey news and discussion, The Hockey Writers, also known as THW! I'm beyond excited to write to cover a team that I have followed for many years now. However, don't worry, I will still be active here on Crashing the Net :-).

Catch yall later ;-)

A Lot Going On!

Hello all! It's been a while again, but I'm back!

So I just figured I'd tell you all the things that have been going on that I haven't told you about...

Agent Zero?

Yes, I mean that exactly. No, Gilbert Arenas. You are NOT a secret agent. You are NOT allowed to carry guns into an NBA arena just because you call yourself Agent Zero.

There are plenty of gun carriers of all shapes and sizes around the country. I am pretty sure that they do not choose to take their guns into their workplace - and if they did it in DC, I'm 100% sure that's illegal, being a resident here and all.

We've heard all the excuses. We know. And I still don't think Arenas gets it. Mocking and laughing at the situation doesn't make it go away. So David Stern decided to suspend him because Arenas was "unfit" to play; hence, making him a literal Zero in the eyes of his team and the NBA at this point.

Unfit in my mind means that he is mentally unstable, and needs to go seek some help. The fact that he cannot decipher what's a joke and what's not (also going off of previous pranks he's pulled in the past) is a serious problem, and not only has it become detrimental to his team and the people around him on the court, but his lack of seriousness has gotten him in trouble with the law.

If Arenas was to plead anything in the future in the court of law, real talk, I would advise an insanity defense.

USA Won Gold!

I bet none of you cared, but in the World Juniors Hockey Classic, the final was between the Canadian junior ice hockey team and the US team. John Carlson, a Washington Capitals prospect, pulled the OT game-winner about 4 minutes into the sudden death period to give the USA gold. USA won 6-5 in a wild, wild match.

With the US winning their 2nd gold medal ever in the tournament, in a perfect world, something like this would help to prove that we have homegrown talent here in the States, and then bring on a revival of young American kids playing hockey with the hopes of playing in the NHL - then again, if it were a perfect world that already would have been the case. We'll see what happens from here.

Another note I'd like to make on this was one that I'm probably going to lose a couple of friends. Not all Canadians are peace-advocating people who have no bad intentions, as many Americans like to label them. As Team Canada INVITED the United States into their tournament in Saskatchewan (I spelled that right first try by the way).

I read an article about how the Canadians booed the US team and how the "Hockey Gods" disapproved of such Tomfoolery. The US, in my mind was booed for 2 reasons:

1. The US has been "at war" for quite some time now. Many people around the world have disagreed with the US decision to go to war since the beginning. Since then, events involving the United States in Canada, some Canadians have booed the American National Anthem, protested US teams, and booed at US victories made on their turf.
2. The US junior hockey team has been clipping at the heels of Canada's junior team for some years now. The "non-traditional" market of the United States for hockey, I suppose, has given the Canadians some sense of elitism in winning games and who deserves to win the Gold, and in the NHL, the Cup. So in a way, Canada is essentially "hating on" US hockey, who's success seems to be promising.

The result of the booing? Canada loses their shot at winning a gold medal; thus, rewarding the USA with a 2nd golds medal in a decade. It's an interesting look at sportsmanship, and I advise that you check it out.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/sports/2010wintergames/hockey+gods+wreaked+their+vengeance/2414889/story.html

The Real Punk @$$

So apparently, according to news sources today, the Manny Pacquio and Floyd Mayweather boxing match is OFF. Yes, I said it, it is supposedly NOT HAPPENING.

Now, I am not the biggest boxing fan out there (nothing about boxing in particular, it just doesn't interest me like that ), but I am still fully aware of the implications that this match had on the revival of boxing in the United States. Boxing sure isn't what it used to be back in the '90s or before that, but in a fight with supposedly the best boxer right now in Mayweather and the recent winner of the most recent last big fight in Pacquio, this was supposed to bring boxing back to popularity...

...And now it's off. Supposedly. Now I keep saying "supposedly" because of the tendency of boxers and their people to just talk, and just say things just to say things, but I digress.

It's off because the reluctance of Pacquio to agree to a full drug test, drawing blood before the fight. This requirement to fight, however, was pushed by Floyd Mayweather and his party. Now that Pacquio doesn't want to take this type of test over a more typical urine test, Mayweather is referring to Pacquio as a "punk a**".

My question is: Who is the REAL punk here?

Of course the obvious answer is both of them. But one is clearly more of a punk than the other. The consensus that I have spoken to has stated that Pacquio is the punk. He can't consent to a blood test even with a bajillion dollars on the line. Whether he did it because he was scared or because he was dirty, I don't call that a punk move. If he was dirty, then sure, that dumba**, but hey he's just trying to keep his job. If he was scared, he was honest about it at least.

Mayweather, however, hides behind the "brolic" facade, when probably Mayweather himself wanted an out to the fight. For whatever reason that would be, is beyond me, but nobody just goes around trying to make somebody look like fool unless they had something to hide or if they were trying to "appear" as the tough one. It may fool his followers and fans, but Mayweather doesn't fool me.

National Championship Game

Alabama rises as the BCS Champion over the Texas Longhorns by a final score 37-21. Texas made it close toward the end, getting the score as close as 24-21, but that was all that they could muster before Alabama went in and solidified their victory.

Just to note, Colt McCoy injured his shoulder in the first half, causing him to have to sit out for the rest of his last game of his collegiate career. He returned to the sideline, however, to watch his team and cheer them on. He also handled himself well in the post-game interview, trying very hard not to cry. I don't know how he did it, because I couldn't do it.

The game was quite anti-climactic, I'm not really sure why, but I didn't feel satisfied after watching this game. I'll probably find out why tomorrow.

By the way, doesn't that smile on Nick Saban look like it hurts a little? Just a little...

Finally...

Alex Ovechkin was named captain of the Washington Capitals earlier this week. He's up for the challenge. Since then the team has won their 2 games under his captaincy and now go on a 3-game road stretch.

And Andre Dawson was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I personally would have wanted Edgar Martinez and Alomar in the HOF, but that's not my decision. Baseball writers do want to keep the HOF pure as ever anyway. So it seems as though they are very stingy with their inductions now. Another year, I suppose.

NFL Week 17 - Last week of the season :-(

The last week of the NFL season has come and gone. After all of the crazy scenarios that were possible (especially in the AFC) and the debacle of who's to be rested and such, the playoff picture has been set.

With the real games starting this coming Saturday, what ended up happening was that 3 of the 4 of these final match-ups will be the same match-ups that we will be seeing this coming weekend. The teams lined up are as follows:

Saturday:
NY Jets vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys

Sunday:
Baltimore Ravens vs. New England Patriots
Green Bay Packers vs. Arizona Cardinals

*Indianapolis Colts, San Diego, New Orleans Saints, and Minnesota Vikings with a 1st round bye.

Even though these are the folks who potentially have a shot at winning the championship, there are a couple of honorable mentions that I would like to give out before we get to who wins real stuff...

Honorable mentions

Houston Texans: They finished this season 9-7 today after defeating the Patriots 34-27. This would be the first time they finished over .500 since they entered the League in 2002. Then they decided to do it against the Pats, while also almost beating the Colts earlier on in the season. The Texans also almost made the playoffs for the first time, doing their part to win, and only needed the Jets to lose to the Bengals tonight. Their QB Matt Schaub has had more passing yards than anyone else this season as well. Even though Houston is staying at home this season, they've come a long way, so watch out in the next few years.

Atlanta Falcons: I didn't realize this until it was pointed out, but the Falcons never had back-to-back winning seasons until last season's 11-5 record and this season's 9-7 record. Not even during the Vick days did the team have 2 consecutive over-.500 seasons. But regardless, Matt Ryan however has silently improved year by year and has made the Falcons competitive. It might have been more noticeable had the Saints not overshadowed their division with pretending to go undefeated throughout the season. Nonetheless, Atlanta won't be a team to be reconciled with, especially if the balance of power allows only 1 team from the NFC East in the future.


Carolina Panthers: They were not over .500 this year, or even in the running for a playoff spot. But even after their atrocious start to the year, the Panthers finish the season 8-8. They could have chosen to try and fight the Lions and the Rams for the #1 draft pick. They could have fired coach John Fox for losing, or the players could have resigned and finished poorly. But the Panthers stayed with it, and played hard in their final games - including beating Minnesota 26-7, and giving the Giants the business and taking them out the playoffs essentially by a score of 41-9. I will say, however, that Jake Delhomme's days might be over in Carolina.

Kyle Orton: And finally, I would like to give honorable mention to Mr. Kyle Orton, QB of the Denver Broncos. How the hell this man has remained in the NFL, is beyond me. It's not even like he's been in and out of starting for teams, but since he was starter for the Bears, he has been named a starting QB. In my mind, after playing at Purdue, he was chillen on the street, and Da Bears came around and asked him to toss a football. He does. And then they were like, you have a pretty decent spiral and you can throw far. We need a new QB since Grossman didn't work out. Come with us. And that was how Mr. Orton became an NFL QB. Then he showed that he failed, and then went to Denver. Only to not be the biggest reason Denver fails, because in fact their coach took that honor. Mr. Josh McDaniels chose to constantly call out his players, especially his personal nemesis, WR Brandon Marshall, and refused to coach the team properly. Thus, Kyle Orton got away with being a failure, and he will probably remain the Broncos' starter. Gosh man, how do you do it? You go, boy!

The Honorable Honorable Mention goes to Aaron Rodgers. Not just because I want to put a picture of him up here, but because he was able to have the 4th highest QB rating this season, and get his team to the playoffs, AND throw for only 7 INTs (2nd lowest) with the offensive line he had. Sure, he was only sacked like, 50 times, along with being rushed and hit and hurried and whatever other action done to him by opposing defenses... but he definitely got his team where they needed to be, throwing for 30 touchdowns and allowing them to have a shot at the Super Bowl. What a stud... QB.

I don't know what it is but I like this look over the clean cut one... We can see his toughness with the skull cap and beard

I guess as a side honor, we can congratulate the St. Louis Rams on the #1 pick, and the Detroit Lions for having 3 wins on the year....

... Oh and the Cleveland Browns for having new life - 4 straight wins and Mike Holmgren as their new president. Maybe life won't be so bad in the Dog Pound...

...And I am leaving the Washington Redskins out of this. They've endured enough this year.

Playoff Picture

Many people I have noticed feel as though most of the playoff teams completely mailed it in this last game of the season, knowing that they were going to the playoffs the following weekend i.e. the Eagles, Bengals, Patriots, and the obvious ones, the Saints and the Colts.

Of course that was the case with the Colts, who oh-so upset the hell out of the world when they mailed in their season the 2nd to final week of the season, and to a degree, the Saints, although I do think the Saints' first 2 loses were genuine. Either way, I agree, some teams did put it away and left it for the playoffs.

But if you seriously think the Eagles didn't want home-field advantage, I don't know what you're smoking but it must be good. Dallas, having exorcised the December/late season demons this season to regain their NFC East champ status, has a good shot of repeating a win on Saturday. Of course, I wouldn't say the Cowboys will shut out the Eagles, but the Cowboys have shown that they might be able to get over that playoff game hump. We will see.

The Bengals and Jets game could also be a mail in. I might have to agree with that one somewhat, seeing as the Jets wouldn't have scored that many points had Cincinnati really tried. But the Jets do have a lot of confidence and momentum riding into the playoffs. They have a pretty decent defense, and with one of the NFL's premier cornerbacks Darrelle Revis, they might be able to do the "impossible" (according to now Chad JOHNSON again) and stop the Bengals offense, the way they got to the playoffs.

I hope that the Colts didn't forget to play football, because even though I'm still baffled at how the world got so upset at their blatant refusal to have an undefeated season, I still am not sure how the way their last two games are going to help them. While I don't personally feel like an NFL team cheated me of something I should have, I am concerned for the fact that the Colts are probably facing more pressure to win the Super Bowl than had they not tried their antics to "rest players". Having technically 3 weeks off before the playoffs is not always a good thing.

Oh, you want predictions? Very quickly, I will call the winners of the 1st round of the NFL playoffs: Bengals, Cowboys, Ravens, and the Packers. Kind of arbitrary, right?

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Hope you enjoyed this NFL season as much as I did. I thought it was one of the more entertaining years in football recently. Definitely looking forward to the playoffs now. May the best team win!

Happy New Year with the NHL Winter Classic!

Welcome to 2010! The NHL welcomed back its fans and viewers today, January 1st, with the annual NHL Winter Classic. The 2010 game was played in Fenway Park and featured the Boston Bruins against the Philadelphia Flyers in a snowy and cold atmosphere of over 38,000 fans.

This year's Classic was one of the more lower scoring games, although with the number of chances by both teams throughout the entire 60 minutes, it could have been higher. Regardless, it was a very energetic and well-defended game.

In defense (no pun intended), the goalies did what they were supposed to do, which was stop the puck, and that they did.

The Flyers began the game well, with Flyer Dan Carcillo winning the fight against Bruin Shawn Thornton scoring the first goal early into the second period past Tim Thomas. They continued the momentum through the rest of the game, keeping up chances and taking shots.

Then, after a few power plays in Boston's favor to create opportunities for their own offense, with about 2 minutes left in the game, down 1-0, the Bruins, old man Mark Recchi put one in to tie the game.

It wouldn't take that much longer for the Bruins to complete the comeback, as Marco Sturm scored the game-winner in overtime. Bruins ended up winning 2-1.

As a die-hard hockey fan, I LOVE the NHL's Winter Classic. It's such a great national showcase that exposes the game in a unique fashion to casual fans, long-time fans, and the person passing through channels. It's always fun to see more than twice the number of fans that would be at a regular game outdoors in the snow.

And the games themselves always feature intense match-ups with long-time rivalries between franchises. The game has remained competitive as well, as the highest goal differential has only been 2 goals in the 6-4 win by the Detroit Red Wings over the the Chicago Blackhawks last year.

Seeing that this year was in Boston in Fenway Park, I would have no complaints of a Winter Classic game in Yankee Stadium, even though there was already one in NY. There is much speculation of a game there next year featuring the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers. Again, no complaints here.

There are a few more match-ups though that I would love to see.

• Whenever the St. Louis Blues become good again, I would like to see them play against the Colorado Avalanche in Colorado.
  
• After sometime when enough time has passed since the last Red Wings game, it would be fun to watch them play the Avs in Detroit as well, bringing back the old playoff series (Patrick Roy and Chris Osgood fight ring a bell?).
  
• If people in Hartford wouldn't be so opposed to it, the Carolina Hurricanes could play in Hartford, Connecticut against the Caps.
• Of course, there can't be anything wrong with the Toronto Maple Loafs... Leafs playing their intra-province rivals, the Ottawa Senators. They used to meet in the playoffs every year in some serious and bloody 6 and 7 game series.
  
• Likewise, the other intra-province series, Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames should also be fun.
  
• Minnesota would be a great host city. It's always snowing up there! Minnesota in the North Stars jersey facing off against the Columbus Blue Jackets or some relocated team could be entertaining.

I wonder if you could have a Winter Classic in the DMV, like having one at Camden Yards or something...

USA Olympic Team

After the Bruins/Flyers game, the 2010 USA Olympic hockey team was announced. As a player would be announced, some adorable little kids turned around with the name of the player on the back of their jersey.

Goaltenders:
Tim Thomas, 35 (Boston Bruins)
Ryan Miller, 29 (Buffalo Sabres)
Jonathan Quick, 24 (Los Angeles Kings)

Alternate Candidate:
Craig Anderson (Colorado)

Defense:
Brian Rafalski, 36 (Detroit Red Wings)
Ryan Suter, 25 (Nashville Predators)
Paul Martin 28 (New Jersey Devils)
Mike Komisarek, 28 (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Erik Johnson, 21 (St. Louis Blues)
Brooks Orpik, 29 (Pittsburgh Pittsburgh)
Jack Johnson, 23 (Los Angeles Kings)

Alternate Candidates:
Matt Niskanen (Dallas)
Ron Hainsey (Atlanta)
Alex Goligoski (Pittsburgh)
Matt Carle (Philadelphia)
Rob Scuderi (Los Angeles)

Forwards:
Zach Parise, 25 (New Jersey Devils)
Chris Drury, 32 (New York Rangers)
Dustin Brown, 25 (Los Angeles Kings)
Jamie Langenbrunner, 34 (New Jersey Devils)
Paul Stastny, 24 (Colorado Avalanche)
David Backes, 25 (St. Louis Blues)
Patrick Kane, 21 (Chicago Blackhawks)
Phil Kessel, 22 (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Ryan Kesler, 25 (Vancouver Canucks)
Bobby Ryan, 22 (Anaheim Ducks)
Joe Pavelski, 25 (San Jose Sharks)
Ryan Malone, 31 (Tampa Bay Lightning)
Ryan Callahan, 24 (New York Rangers)


Alternate Candidates:
Jason Pominville (Sabres)
David Booth (Panthers)
Scott Gomez (Rangers)
T.J. Oshie (Blues)
Brian Gionta (Canadiens)

Make of the team what you will. There were a number of American players left off the roster; Dustin Byfuglien is one of them. The team, in my mind, lacks size and variation in skill (they all play a similar style). But the USA has a speed advantage and they are very strong in goaltending, with the best goalie this season, Ryan Miller as the starter. The backups should give the team confidence as well.

So what the team could be forced into is a situation to use their speed to find a way through the opposing defense to score a goal or two, and rely on their goaltending to give them a chance throughout the game. A bunch of 2-1, 1-0 games are probably the types of games they can win. Brian Burke says that they're "playing to win" so all we can do is hope this team can perform well enough to do so. *shrug*...

It didn't work out 20 years since the 1980 USA Olympic Gold Medal team - so maybe 30 years? We'll see...

From SportsZone - "10 Years, 10 Games: The Very Best of the 2000s"

Hello all! I apologize for the hiatus. It was the end of the semester, and one would figure I would be writing every day. However, before I knew it, I was traveling to Orlando, Florida, so I was nowhere near a computer most of the time, and if I was, I still had no time to post anything. I was on.... how do you say; vacation.

Then I came back home yesterday, and of course after an early morning flight and early morning wake ups in the past 3 days, I slept.

Nonetheless, happy New Year! It's 2010; not only another year, but another decade! As we enter into a new decade of sports moments, we can't move on without revisiting the previous decade's moments from 2000 to 2009.

After hearing from a good friend of mine, Dan King, that he wrote a whole write-up on the decade's top games and moments, of course I took a look at it. Trust me, it's a great piece of nostalgia, and I would like to direct my readers to his sports blog, SportsZone (link posted under this section).

If you have comments about the post, the past decade in sports, or anything else related, feel free to put them on this page, or comment on Dan's blog as well.

Hope you enjoy the read!

http://sportszone.auatv.com/2009/12/31/10-years-10-games-the-very-best-of-the-2000s/

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What do I have to say you ask?

Well of course, I'm going to give you a couple MY favorite moments:

1.) Of course being a part of Red Sox Nation, very little in life as a whole can beat the 2004 World Series. Not only was it the World Series championship that broke an 86-year drought without winning it all (with many bumps and bruises and close seasons throughout the 86 years), but what tops beating the New York Yankees to get to the World Series.

Then, on top of beating the Yankees, the fashion that they did made it even more special. Boston decided to play, starting in Game 4. They ultimately came back from 3-0, becoming the first team in MLB history to come back from being down 3 games to none to win a playoff series.

I can't even go into detail to describe every game to state why this was the most awesome thing that could happen just to beat the Yankees alone from the "Bloody Sock game", to the wild comebacks, to scoring on Mariano Rivera. To finalize the magic though, the Red Sox went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals - a gift from the Big Man.

Yes. I cried. LOL.... I sat down in my room watching the final Game 4 of the World Series, called my best friend, and we were trying to make a case not to go to school the next day. I think we did the same after the Yankees series, too...

... The 2007 World Series was also a great moment for me. Honestly, it is not anywhere near the 2004 World Series, as some would agree, but it certainly is a joy to watch your team win a championship. Not only did the Red Sox win 1 World Series, but they won 2 in 3 years after going almost a century without any.

2.) The same year, I would also have to put the Washington Capitals drafting Alexander Ovechkin on the list of decade moments. It wasn't a game, but it did quite some wonders for an NHL franchise and a league that were suffering. The Red Sox winning is self-explanatory. This requires a little more explanation.

Prior to Ovechkin's drafting, I was never too pleased with the job Washington Capitals' general manager George McPhee did in Washington. I actually halfway feared that McPhee would want to trade the 1st round draft pick for some star player or pick the #2 pick that year, Evgeni Malkin. I wasn't the only one with that concern either.

Now don't get me wrong, I watched videos of the two before they were drafted multiple times, then being a member of the Washington Capitals' message boards crew. I defintiely thought that Malkin was amazing and he was very talented. But clearly, Ovechkin had something different that defined him as the #1 draft pick in the 2004 NHL Draft.

Lo and behold, the Capitals selected Alex Ovechkin! I was at a draft party at Dave and Busters that year (got a poster signed by the Secretary of Defense aka Rod Langway, Yvon Labre, Joe Reekie and Craig Laughlin there too) and the Caps fans there just went wild!

This draft pick would put the Caps on the NHL map. At first, it was because we had one of the most explosive players in the league (after all, this was noted his first year as Ovie was the Calder Trophy winner aka Rookie of the Year), but soon we received media attention, giving us a look at a more charismatic Ovechkin. His marketable skill, talent, and personality really gave the Capitals a chance to finally be shown on national showcases.

Also fueled by the media-created rivalry between Ovechkin and the next year's #1 pick, Sidney Crosby, and the already existing team rivalry between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the NHL as a whole gained new life and new viewers, showing a more exciting side to hockey.

If the NHL takes notice of the fans' love of Alex Ovechkin, and makes him a more forefront face of the League, the NHL might have a chance to gain major popularity in the United States. Of course, a couple more things might need to happen before that, but Ovechkin's drafting will be a major factor in the NHL's success, if he continues his own success.

These are just a couple favorites, but if you want to know more, feel free to ask!

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Also note the comment box/guestbook on the right side of the page. If you would like to be an occasional contributing writer to this site, have an overall comment on the page, or have a question, you are more than welcome to post it there. Otherwise, comments on an individual post go under the post you are commenting about.

Saints No Longer Undefeated...

Yes, I know I'm a little late on the post... Been sleeping hard in the midst of the snowstorm of the weekend.

But the Dallas Cowboys did what every other team couldn't do for the past 13 weeks of the New Orleans Saints' season. The Cowboys pulled off a dominating performance against the Saints to win 24-17. Not only did this win end the Saints' run, but it also put themselves in control of their own destiny to make their own run for the playoffs.

Cowboys DE Demarcus Ware not only played in the game after suffering from a sprained neck and being carried out on a stretcher out of last week's game against the Giants. Nope. He had 2 sacks and 2 forced fumbles, giving the Cowboys the defensive attack that they needed against the potent New Orleans offense.

QB Tony Romo didn't disappoint either. He has had ZERO interceptions in the past 3 games, and he threw for 22 completions. Despite December historically being the worst month for the Cowboys, Tony Romo has been playing the best football out of his entire career - that came through in this Saints game.

Of course, WR Miles Austin did his thing, with 7 receptions for 139 yards. I have to say, I definitely enjoy watching him play......

However, the Cowboys could not win without some type of drama. With Dallas up 24-3, the Saints went marching in (had to do it) with 14 unanswered points, cutting the Dallas lead to 24-17.

It doesn't end there - after all, that's not enough drama for a Cowboys game. The Cowboys decided to play conservative football, and instead of pushing for another touchdown on 4th down, they let Nick Folk kick for a field goal; a 24-yard field goal that would seal the deal for a Dallas win over the then-undefeated Saints...

NO GOOD!

As a Cowboys fan, I almost DIED at the sight of an NFL-kicker, who made the PRO-BOWL one time, miss a crucial FG at such short yardage. The worst part of the missed FG kick?

I called it.

Afterward, I was doing my trademark rocking-chair motion with hands folded, pleading to the screen that the Cowboys hold on because the playoffs depend upon it. Not to worry though, the Cowboys defense stepped up when it was needed most.

Demarcus Ware up and sacked Saints' QB Drew Brees with less than 20 seconds left in the game, forcing the ball out of Brees' hands. However, a fumble was not called, on account of the ball coming out from the force of the hit. I thought, "Bull," but I would be vindicated. An almost identical play by Demarcus Ware forced a definite fumble, which was recovered by the Cowboys to seal the win.

Dallas follows through with a knee on the final play of the game, winning 24-17.

Thankfully, Nick Folk is no longer a Dallas Cowboy. Instead, the NFL leader in missed field goals (with 10) has been replaced by... SHAUN SUISHAM! Ironically, the Cowboys play Suisham's former team, the Washington Redskins, who lost today in a humiliating loss to the NY Giants, 45-12.

As a Cowboys fan, I hope not to see Suisham miss crucial FG's from short yardage like he did in the last Cowboys/Redskins game. Should be fun to watch, nonetheless.

Which leads me to the next point...

The New Orleans Saints were bound to lose. Something about them just did not feel right for them to be go undefeated. Their vulnerabilities were exposed in the wild 33-30 win over the Redskins in Week 13, and the following week against the Atlanta Falcons where they also barely won 26-23. If the Cowboys went into the Super Dome on top of their game, the Saints would have to play a quality team after those previous losses.

It also didn't help New Orleans that they did not have a strong defense: The Saints were 25th in Pass defense and 18th in defending the run, and that's just the short story, aside from allowing 30 points from an offensively struggling Redskins team. With the Cowboys going in with receivers like Miles Austin, a strong running game, and Tony Romo playing better than he ever has before, it set New Orleans up for failure. All Dallas had to do was to bring out all of this in one game, along with their defense to stop the offense. And they did just that.

It's nothing personal; I kind of wanted to see the Saints go undefeated with the possibility of 2 undefeated teams, the Indianapolis Colts and the Saints. But when I saw that the Cowboys had a chance against the Saints (many doubted that chance) as long as the conditions were right, I thought about the opportunity for Dallas to redeem themselves in December to make the playoffs (and finally win a game there too).

From here on out though, I wish the Saints luck. They'll be fine since the Vikings don't look so well either, losing 2 out of the last 3 games, including this week's loss to the Carolina Panthers, 26-7. So the Saints can breathe.

Finally...

I'll be in Florida fortunately and unfortunately during the Cowboys and Redskins game (leaving Friday), although I will be watching. I'm excited for sure; for the trip and the game.

I'd like to give a shoutout to the Washington Caps as well, being #1 in the entire NHL. A good 2-1 Western road trip showed fans the Caps might finally be a legitimate team finally. I mean, for the first time in a LONG time, I heard the words, "The Caps are the more experienced team, and it shows" in the 6-1 win against the Northwest Division leading Colorado Avalanche. It's a good time to be a Caps fan indeed.

“Hockey in the Hood” – But is the Hood in Hockey?

“Hockey”, “cities”, and “minorities” are not words most commonly used in a sentence. When people think of the sport of hockey, they do not usually associate people of color in general with the game.

I come from a background that traditionally does not participate in winter sports. My parents hail from South America – where ice hardly even exists. The turnaround for my involvement in a winter sport came when I was growing up; despite being encouraged to do lady-like things, I went to a Washington Capitals game and fell in love with the sport of hockey. I learned everything about the Capitals and the entire sport, and within about a week's time, you would have thought I knew everything about the game. Since then, I have remained an avid fan of hockey and the Capitals.

Having lived in the DC-Metropolitan area, many assume that it is an anomaly for people of color to have an interest in the sport of hockey. It’s not too farfetched to guess either; according to the 2009 roster count in the NHL, there are only 25 black players out of the 700+ total players. That is a slight improvement from the 18 that were in the NHL in 2006. What many fail to realize, though, is that there is quite the following in the sport of hockey.

A long-time DC resident, Mike Lewis, identifies with being a Caps fan. He states that even as a black man, he has followed the team since the early days in the 1970s. Lewis stated that had he been given all the supplies to play hockey he would play it: “Probably if I was younger though.”

Lewis also shared his knowledge of the Capitals’ former black players. He knew of Donald Brashear, who played on the Capitals from the 2006-2007 season to the 2008-2009 season, and of the NHL’s second black player, Mike Marson, who played on the Capitals’ inaugural roster in 1974.

He did note a similar thought that many other people of color have expressed before: “If there were more black people in hockey I would watch hockey more.”

This issue of minimal minority players in the game is not because of the lack of effort from the NHL. Aside from their Hockey is for Everyone diversity program that created the 39 inner city institutions in North America, the NHL’s A.S.S.I.S.T. grant system provides $10,000 to the program that seems to have done the most in that year to make an impact on their players.

A player from the Fort Dupont ice hockey club in Southeast Washington, DC, Austin Palmer from St. Alban’s high school, commented on how the NHL does help their program.

“The NHL does enough to support our program,” says Austin. “They’ve donated a lot of money and time and they have the Hockey in the Hood tournament. We also practice with Alex Ovechkin, which is helpful to know that they care.”

Fort Dupont: the example

Being a hockey fan at an early age, I always heard about local hockey programs in the area. The Fort Dupont ice hockey program is the oldest minority program in the nation, founded in 1978. The founder, Neal Henderson, remains the head coach of the team.

At Fort Dupont, the team manager, Betty Dean, pointed out one man on the ice in particular, Ralph Featherstone. He began to play at Fort Dupont when he was in the 7th grade until he was admitted into the Naval Academy. He continued playing hockey there, playing on the Navy’s hockey team from his sophomore year, and becoming the team captain his senior year.

Featherstone has finished his collegiate career and after being stationed at various places around the country, he has returned to the DC-Metropolitan area. Now stationed at Quantico, Featherstone drives to Southeast Washington, DC every Monday and Wednesday for the Fort Dupont ice hockey practice to contribute back to his former program.

After practice, a few players spoke about their experiences in the program. They all had different reasons for joining the program in the first place.

Katherine Baker, a 6th grade center, simply thought that hockey was sport that was the most fun to her.

“I do play other sports,” she said, “but hockey seems like the most fun and energetic, and it takes a lot of work and ethic.”

Others mentioned that others got them into the sport of hockey.

Austin Palmer, from St. Alban’s High School said “I was 5, so I just started to play it since my friend got me into it.”

They take their hockey expertise on other teams than Fort Dupont as well. Austin plays at St. Alban’s and another player, Marc Ray, plays for Gonzaga High School’s program.

Austin seemed the most prepared for his path to continue hockey beyond high school, and hopes to play in college. When asked if he had aspirations to go into the NHL, he seemed positive.

“”Yes that would be nice; The NHL would be great,” said Austin. “I’m looking at Clemson, University of Virginia, UNC-Chapel Hill, Cornell, and Duke.”

His plan to get noticed by the NHL: “I’m going play really hard in college, play really well, and hopefully I will draw some attention.”

Katherine was also positive about her future plans involving hockey. When asked if she plans to play college hockey and to somehow make it into the NHL, she responded with an adamant, “Yes.”

“It’s going to take a lot of work and effort,” she said when asked how she plans to do that, “but I can do it.”

After hearing a couple more stories about former players on the Fort Dupont ice hockey club, speaking with current players, seeing how Henderson has remained deeply involved with the program, and their appreciation of the attention to the program, it became apparent that there is, in fact, an interest in the black community with the sport of hockey.

Fort Dupont is not the only place where a large group of inner city kids get the opportunity to play. There is the Ice Hockey in Harlem program, programs in South Philadelphia, and more to create the 39 total inner city programs throughout North America. If logic presented itself in this situation, there would have been a positive correlation between the number of inner city programs, and then number of minorities in hockey.

However, the statistics in the NHL do not support this evidence of a growing population of hockey players and fans in the minority community.

But there still are so few players of color in the NHL! Why?

So if the NHL is doing all in its power to help create young players of color for the future, then what is the problem?

John Drysdale, a sociology professor at American University, suggests that the lack of players of color in the NHL actually is founded in the lack of players in the college ranks. According to a study by the JBHE Foundation (a group of black sociologists), blacks make up only 2 tenths of 1 percent of the 3,500+ hockey players in college hockey.

Drysdale continued, “Most famous college hockey programs do not bother to venture into inner cities and into racially diverse areas. They tend to remain in well-known hockey regions, where the population will be mostly whites.”

Drysdale responded to the possibility of the lack of black role models in the sport of hockey causing young black players to become discouraged to continue on to play in the professional level and to even try for college level. He agreed with the idea, further stating that, “if there are only less than 20 black hockey players in the NHL and even fewer at the college level, then the odds of them getting to those ranks are very low.”

He expanded the statement, saying, “This is what pushes minority kids to move on to more popular sports among their community, where they feel as though have a better chance at going pro.”

With all of this in mind, and in trying to find out the DC Department of Parks and Recreation’s role in increasing the publicity of ice hockey in the city, they did not say much on how they support of hockey programs in the city.

“It’s rather difficult to support hockey programs because of our budget so we can only accommodate to the Fort Dupont club,” said communication director John Stokes of the department.

From the information gathered then, one can state that much as there is a general interest in the sport of hockey, and some support from the NHL, the problem of the lack of players of color seems to involve reasons that the NHL cannot control, like the lack of attention from college recruiters and city funding for more programs.

So is there anything that can increase the number of minorities in the game?

One solution that could help increase the numbers of minority players in hockey involves requiring college recruiting programs to have a minimum amount of players from a southern region. This move would allow different types of people with different styles of playing to become involved in hockey at a higher level. The same recruiting rule could be instituted for the NHL in scouting programs as well.

The result of seeing a more diverse group of hockey players various regions can provide others a new mindset to the game and a chance to seriously consider a career in ice hockey, seeing that the odds of them making it are much higher.

Either way, if the NHL really hopes to increase its numbers of minorities in the game, they will have to reach out to selecting players to show an example for others.

“It would be nice to see more,” said Austin from Fort Dupont, “It’s exciting, kind of inspiring to see more players of color in the game. I’m as inspired as you can get, but it wouldn’t hurt.”

If these programs aren't producing NHL pros, then what is their purpose

For now, these programs in inner cities can provide a place for young kids to have another choice for a sport to play, and for kids to just have fun, aside from being a place to help build potential profressionals.

As a product of the inner city hockey program in Fort Dupont, Featherstone spoke on what he learned from the program that helped him in his future experiences in hockey at the Naval Academy.

“It may be a little cliché, but Fort Dupont taught me teamwork, especially putting the team’s needs over self needs. I also was taught about hard work, and to keep on pushing when you’re tired.”

Also a current contributor to the hockey program, Featherstone explained the importance of Fort Dupont and how it serves the community.

“What drew me back to the program was the evolution,” he said about returning to help coach at Fort Dupont. “When I started to play, Fort Dupont was the only outlet for young black kids to play hockey and take part in the game.”

Featherstone added, “Now the program has grown so much. There are kids from all different backgrounds. There used to be only lower income kids who came in to play at Fort Dupont. Now there are kids from all kinds economic backgrounds; it’s much more diverse now.”

Conclusion...

The interest in ice hockey from inner city kids and people of color has been proven to exist. However, whether this interest that has increased over the years can be translated into a more diverse NHL has yet to be seen. Nonetheless, these programs should continue to grow and provide opportunities for kids from many different backgrounds to be exposed to such a great sport. After all, hockey IS, indeed, for everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last Words...

Phew! This piece was a lot of work to construct. A lot of planning, phone calls, questions being answered (and being declined to be answered), writing, re-writing, re-writing, re-writing, re-writing, and more re-writing (like infinitely) went into this post. It was originally a "term article" for a class, but I figured it was interesting enough to expand upon.

Credits

I would like to thank the Fort Dupont ice hockey program for being so accomodating while I was there visiting and afterwards. Coach Neal Henderson and Team Manager Betty Dean were great, and I fully support what they've done to keep this great program running.

Also from the program was Ralph Featherstone, accepting to do an interview on short time, and the players mentioned in the article. I certainly wish them the best of luck in all that they do.

Thanks to my dad for driving me to Fort Dupont, and my mom for asking about the article. That means you read the first blog post! Thanks for reading!

Thanks to my people who read this article, helped me think it through, and who wanted to help even if you didn't get a chance to. Especially Jake Russell. I called Jake the day I thought about it and constructed the initial outline and contact list with him. This is why I call you my colleague and my "techinical other half" lol

Anyone else I left out, please hit me up and I will put you in, or at least be happy because you know who you are...

....I feel like I'm writing album thank yous. My apologies. Let me get back to business. Comments are welcomed, and please, this is a general assessment of the issues, so don't get all upset if I left something out.

Thanks for reading and PLEASE pass this along!

I'm back! One more post before the big one...

I'm back! Classes are over, and I have more time for you all! Still busy, but I'll do what I can.

While I was gone there have been some developments in the world that I did not comment on until this point. One included that Tiger Woods nonsense that belongs on E-hollywood or something like that, and not on ESPN.

I was hoping that it would just go away and that it would be this little incident that happened, and I wouldn't have to comment on it. But it hasn't. There have been some (meaning like 2) pieces of good analysis in a sports view on his "transgressions" and how that would affect things, in a moderate format. Unfortunately though, the women are now coming out of nowhere and keeping this story alive and making it sound more like a gossip story than sports.

I stole this plea to let these shenanigans go from my good friend, Marc Cowans from his Facebook page lol. It basically says everything that's needed to be said on the matter on a sports site... and I didn't feel like talking about it anymore.

"We deserve nothing. I cannot believe, nor do I understand, the American media
or blogosphere. Yes, I understand that Tiger has cheated on his wife, but in
light of true crime. But the questionable moral judgment from individuals like
Mark Sanford, Elliott Spitzer, and Bill Clinton deserves this level of
scrutiny much more than a man whose success we measure in fairways hit and the
number of colored jackets in his closet. Now that he has taken a leave of
absence, please let this story go. I wonder how low you want to see him go. smh
(shaking my head)"

So as you can see, sure, he did something awful and terrible. But it's not our place or the sports world place to pay attention to all the details. It doesn't affect our lives as it would if a politician was spending their time taking part in "transgressions" over fixing a bill or something.

It's not like Woods killed somebody. He cheated on his wife. He does NOT get a pass on this at all, and yes I am judging him in my head because as a woman, it's quite disgusting, going out
there doing any and every woman out there (and going bare? Really? That's asking for judgement)... I digress...

But for real, men, especially athletes, are going to cheat. I expect them to cheat anyway, but that's a personal problem. The story was relevant to the point that he got into a car accident and is okay. After that, it was superflouous. Please, leave the issue.

Ovie: too tough?

In lieu of Alexander Ovechkin’s recent suspension after a knee-on-knee hit on Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Tim Gleason, and a game misconduct in the previous game against the Sabres, many have begun to ask the question if Ovechkin’s playing style is too dirty. They question the fact that he’s the league’s highest scoring player, but plays a style of hockey that endangers not only others’ careers, but also his own career.

Far too often have people accused European players, especially Russians, of being too soft when they play, and that they are too afraid to make a hit on an opposing player. So now I find it extremely interesting that people are now complaining that Ovechkin is too rough and should tone it down.

Haha! This picture had me rolling on the floor.

So what the hell do these people want?!?!

As a Capitals fan, I would like to defend Ovechkin’s actions during these past few games and his overall style of hockey. Unfortunately, I can’t allow Ovechkin to make knee-on-knee hits on other players. Even his coach, Bruce Boudreau, isn't a huge fan of his recent acts of aggression. He calls his playing style “reckless”.

And of course it’s reckless! The worst part about his knee-on-knee hit was that Gleason wasn’t even hurt! Ovechkin was the one who was day-to-day with an injury from the hit. I fear that if Ovechkin were to continue playing with reckless abandon, he DOES, in fact, run the risk of giving himself a possibly career-ending injury. As the Capitals’ star player, the face of the NHL, and possibly one of the greatest to ever play in the NHL, that would be a DISASTER.

But do I necessarily want him to change his game? Not really... Yes, I would like Ovechkin to thinking about how he plans to make a hit, especially since now, the referees are going to scrutinize him. Ovechkin, being as big and strong as he is, should consider the force and angle at which he chooses to make a hit on an opposing player.

However, I am not going to ask him to stop being aggressive toward other players, and I want him to continue to deliver bone-crushing hits (cleanly). His badass-ness is what draws his fans in; his mixture of a European scoring touch and a North American sense of toughness.

People complain too much about Ovechkin. He's too tough, he's too cocky, he's too talkative, he's too fun, he hits too hard, why is he blocking shots, he's too direspectful, he's this, he's that. It's annoying! Why would people prefer the usual unmarketable hockey player?

Ovie's charisma, talent, style, and yes, craziness have all won over millions of fans. Even fans who couldn't convert to Caps fans are at least Ovechkin fans. He, alone, could keep the NHL alive among a wide audience. I definitely had a conversation last night with a guy from Kenya about Alex Ovechkin. How 'bout that!

He's refreshing to the league and its fans. We can't afford lose him to injury, but we also can't afford to diminish his star quality. I mean, Ovie is that guy that guys can have a man-crush on, but ladies can still love - yup, I said it. Aside from being an unconventional stud, that badass attitude when he says "No one can kill me" has us all hooked.

You wouldn't want to change that now, would you?

Week 14 Picks

Sunday

Saints over Falcons

Ravens over Lions (I wouldn't be surprised if it went the other way though)

Packers way over Bears

Texans over Seahawks

Colts over Broncos

Dolphins over Jaguars (always wanted to know, are there jaguars in Jacksonville?)

Sabres... I mean Bills over Cheifs

Vikings over Bengals (I want to watch this one)

Patriots barely over Panthers (because if they lose they'll have to go into time-out like a kindergartner... right Adalius Thomas?)

Jets over Buccaneers

Titans back, over Rams

Raiders over Redskins (Raiders look fly all of a sudden)

sigh... Chargers over Cowboys (don't say I don't have any faith in my team. I think Dallas has a shot if they play WELL. Dumb penalties aren't going to cut it.)

Eagles over Giants

Monday

Cardinals over 49'ers (surprise day maybe if the reverse happens?)

Finally...

The story will appear in the next post. Enjoy it! I hope it's somewhat informative. Apparently my professor loved it, so we'll see if you do, too.

Caps with a solid 2-0 win against the Sabres

So I'm back home from school for Thanksgiving break - VERY crazy but finally no work or classes to concern myself with. This means that not only do I get to eat a whole lot tomorrow and watch football, but I can finally watch Caps games live on my television! No radio; don't have to go anywhere; don't have to
watch some bootleg version... LIVE AT HOME!

This meant that I was able to sit down and focus and see for myself what this team does well and what it needs to work on. Granted, I've been visualizing through radio broadcasts, reading post game reports, and watching just to see the team win at bars and restaurants. So now I can see it from a truly analytical perspective.

The Caps played the Buffalo Sabres tonight at the Verizon Center, and they ended up winning 2-0 after a series of epic events. We'll get there though.

The Capitals began the game as they normally would, spending quality time with the opposing team's zone, but not getting too many quality chances. he first goal of the game was scored 6 minutes in by Alex Ovechkin from a nasty wrister, where Ryan Miller couldn't do anything to stop it. After that, however, the scoring chances in the first period were 5-1 in the Sabres' favor.

Aside from the number of scoring chances, the Caps seemed to keep the Sabres with minimal opportunities and shots following the first period. The Caps themselves seemed to posses the puck more at the same time.

Through 2 periods there were no penalties, until about halfway through the 3rd period:

Scenerio #1: *through my eyes* Alex Ovechkin, a typically hard hitting player, went to the much smaller Patrick Kaleta on the Sabres, and did quite a hard body check on the side into the glass, but nonetheless it was a great hard hit on a player that didn't brace himself properly.

Scenerio #2 (the one that matters):*through the officials' eyes* Ovechkin recieves a boarding major penalty, a game misconduct; thus, he was kicked out of the game.

So this puts the Caps in a particularly interesting situation: A team that has problems on the penalty kill, a 1-goal lead, and no more Ovechkin, this was quite the nerve-wrecker. However, the Capitals didn't even allow a shot by the Sabres the whole 5 minute power play, and also managed to kill off one more penalty toward the end of the 3rd period.

Eric Fehr then gave the Caps some insurance, and the team held off a last stand by the Sabres to win 2-0.

What I noted

As I mentioned before, I was able to follow the Caps more closely tonight, and actually be able to truly scrutinize the team's play. In doing so, found a few points that contributed to tonight's win,and that the team did differently from previous matches.

Me with my analytical face to watch the Caps game - in my bed lol

• The team seemed to sacrifice massive offensive power and shots in exchange for a more solid defensive presence. Saw multiple blocked shots, a more aggrssive defense, and quick disposal of rebounds.
  
• Related to defense, The 4th foward, Mike Green, reset himself in time from offensive plays to return back to his post on defense.
• The Caps took the penalty kill seriously tonight. A team traditionally with PK problems, especially this season, it was nice to see a strong effort being perfect on the kill.
  
• The team played a full-60 minute game; contrary to the normal 40-minute offensive outburst and then defensively collapsing, killing their leads. Mind you, the Caps have had a lead in EVERY game this season (25 games), only to lose it in devastating fashion.
  
• When Alex Ovechkin was taken out of the game, the other lines stepped up and continued to produce.
• When Alex Ovechkin was in the game, he was constantly out there creating chances and kept his legs moving.
• Dumb penalties were kept to a minimum (the killer in the 3rd period of the Senators loss), and by minimum, I mean we had one dumb penalty (the one on Ovie was questionable).
• Caps have hella injuries. Good rotation of lines, especially on defense. People will come back soon, but we're deep in Hershey, so it's not soooo bad.
  
• Simeyon Varlamov is reliable. The saves he was making were borderline miraculous. Congrats on his first regular season shutout by the way.
  
• All of this occurs after Bruce Boudreau accusedthe team of quitting on him, and questioning the capability of the Caps to hold a lead, saying that during the 4-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators, he had a feeling the Caps would lose the lead and didn't want to pull the "hate to say I told you so".
  

Hopefully the Caps don't need that type of encouragement ALL the time if they want to win. They have an opportunity now to redeem themselves against the Montreal Canadiens.

Allen Iverson - Retired?

Okay, I'm hearing conflicting reports. Comcast Sportsnet says that Iverson has not really retired. He is seriously considering it, but he will have further communication with his former head coach at Georgetown, John Thompson, to discuss whether he should or should not retire.

However, ESPN is all talking about "Iverson's legacy" and it's on their bottomline.

This Iverson situation, being a local-story of sorts, I think I'm going to stick with the Comcast reports; considering he hasn't even officially filed the papers.

So don't fuss yet you ladies who only watched basketball to watch Allen Iverson, it's not QUITE over; just yet. And you'll see him on TV somewhere anyway.

Turkey Day/Weekend Football Picks

Thursday:
Green Bay over Detriot
Dallas over Oakland
Giants over Broncos

Sunday:
Tennesee over Arizona
Philadelphia over Redskins
Tampa Bay over Atlanta
Miami over Buffalo
St. Louis over Seattle <-- Just for kicks Carolina over Jets Indianapolis over Houston San Diego over Kansas City San Francisco over Jacksonville Minnesota over Chicago Steelers over Baltimore

Monday:
My heart says New Orleans, mind says New England
*prove me wrong please!*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally, R.I.P. to D.C. icon Abe Pollin, former Caps' owner and now-former Wizards' owner...

Hopefully everyone has a great Thanksgiving break, and throughout the rest of the holidays. Umm.. I know I keep saying I'm going all incognito and stuff, and I am. Trust me. I am. But I will keep appearing every now and then. But until my huge story is out, don't expect to see me. LOL.

What makes a REAL fan?

So today I joined my friend and colleague Jake Russell from thehogs.net to watch the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys match up at the bar. We began the day meeting up in McDonald's, me in my Cowboys jersey and Jake featuring his famed Sean Taylor Redskins jersey.

Needless to say, we caused quite a ruckus on the way to the bar with passing cars honking their allegiances and people stopping telling Jake that, "She's in the wrong colors." Granted, when you're a Skins fan hooking arms with a Cowboys fan, people will feel the need to correct you. My response: "Oh... Well, 'DC' stands for 'Dallas Cowboys'... Seeing as we own this city.

Once we reached the bar, Jake keeps calling out all the Cowboys fans not wearing jerseys, claiming they're "not real fans", including one in the bar I was sitting next to. He claimed to have been a Cowboys fan since the '70s. He just wasn't wearing a Cowboys jersey or shouting and screaming the whole game.

I then remembered this commercial that asks, "What's a real fan?" and then went on to suggest if it was the clothes they wear, or if it was how loud they shout it. The commercial concludes with the statement that "it's what's on the inside that matters..."

So I had to really think, what DOES make a real fan?

I mean we all know that I'm the Washington Capitals fan who has a thousand things to show the world that I'm a Caps fan. I've got jerseys, shirts, posters, rally towels, blankets, autographs, pictures with players, autographs, and the notorious Washington Capitals tattoo on my back.

At the Washington Nationals game in September with Jake

Thus, the question arises: "does that make me a real down-ass fan"?

I personally would say that having "things" from your team alone doesn't signify TRUE fanship. Because of course, one could just hide all those things or give them away once the team goes down the drain. So there must be more than things.

It's not just how loud they shout it either, because that can go away when the team goes down the pooper as well. Continuing with the Washington Capitals, the team built a really nice fanbase over past couple of seasons. They won the Southeast Division in consecutive years, and changed their jerseys in the 2007 season. Those things and a couple of other factors led the fanbase to grow in the DC area and now even outside the DMV area.

Now, imagine if the Caps played poorly (heck, even if they continued the season the way they play now) for the rest of the season... People, regardless whether they have paraphernalia, will shout a little bit less every portion of the season where their team does worse.

So I guess there must be more than saying you're a fan and wearing things that say that. It must be what's inside then. So what is inside that should count?

I may have A LOT of Capitals gear at home and in my room at AU, the car, my computer, etc. But think about it: I have accumulated all of those things over a number of years. For example, I have para from the 30th season in the franchise's history. That was about 5 years ago. I acquired my first jersey in the 1999-2000 season and then went up from there. Therefore, time following a team is factored into being a fan.

I also believe that knowledge about the team that you are following is important. While one may know every player on the team now, and know all the stats from the past 2 or 3 seasons, you have the lack of time following the team.

I think a bigger fan would know the past events of their team, featuring information like the founding date of their franchise, playoff appearances, championship history (if applicable - in my case it's just appearances lol), real rivals and the history behind the rivalries, division history, former players (at least the major ones), major stat leaders, and maybe miscellaneous facts here and there.

A real fan would also know the game that they are a supposed fan of; meaning that they would know the rules, know the current state of the team, and be able to participate in group discussions regarding their favorite team (if the situation calls for it - I mean I was silent for a minute during today's drudgery match).

Now granted, this is all a mon avi - in my opinion - but I hardly find reason to disagree with this criteria for knowing a real fan from a bandwagoner or a fake fan.

So at the bar I would say that the guy who Jake decided to question his Dallas fanship fits this criteria of fanship, even though he was not wearing Dallas Cowboy colors or a jersey. Hence, Jake just looks like a hater :P

~~~~~~

Just to conclude the story, nobody was hurt watching this game. However, the atrocious 7-6 win over the Redskins by the Cowboys was certianly emotionally painful on both ends. Even though my team won, I became upset that the Cowboys only seemed to play with real emotion in the last 5 minutes.

Along with the fact that Dallas played an awful game, especially offensively and the defense gave up too many passing yards, everybody was irriated at the 500000000 minute hiatus between Jason Campbell's "out of bounds toss" and the missed field goal by Redskins' kicker Shaun Suisham*. I mean, I was happy that after all those shenanigans going over the play over and over again, the Skins missed a kick from 39 yards; but I was also mad that it took SO LONG, only to see a missed FG.

It was a rough game to watch, but oh well: a win's a win, and I can be upset right now that Dallas played poorly for 55 minutes, but I can only hope that my concerns will be quelled by Thurday so I don't spoil my Thanksgiving dinner.

Side note

I just have to state that today was cardiac-Sunday for a lot of fans in the early games - including Lions and Browns fans. As I saw someone tweet today, this was the battle for the "Loserweight title" LOL! But for real, it seemed really entertaining, and congrats to the Lions for the shootout win: 38-37.

I'm also going to congratulate Real Salt Lake for winning the MLS Cup tonight against the LA Landon Donovan-David Beckham Galaxy.

And yes, I know. I blogged today, even though I'm extremely busy, and I probably should be working on something else. But I had to keep the masses entertained! Hope you all enjoyed, and if you have any comments regarding what constitutes someone as a real fan, feel free to comment below and put your input.

Oh well, after this loooong post, I must say a tout a leur until I finish this project, or if something pops in my mind for an easy post. Stay fresh!

*** Somtimes I type too fast and make mistakes lol.

Hard at work...

Hey yall! Hope you've been loving the blog so far.

I'm going to be working on one big project for the next month, so my posts will be fewer than usual in the coming weeks. But not to worry! Definitely catch up on older posts you never read, or re-read a favorite or two.

This project is going to be big, as it is partially for a class, but I'm doing more work than needed as I really want to know the answers to the questions I'm asking, and I'm making it a bigger story to expand upon outside of the class...

... What was that?

No!!!!! I can't tell you what the project is! It's a surprise! Because when it's all finished, it's most likely going to show up on here as one huge post that I'm going to want you to read and pass along to everyone that you know.

What I CAN tell you though is that it's going to be interesting, and even though you may have heard of the issue, or have thought about it, it's much more complex that one may think it is, and it's going to be from a perspective that is not heard often.

So all I can say is to be patient with me. If I have the time to post periodically, then I will. But my focus will be in this assignment.

Ha! Now I got you all excited for my big project! Well, stay close and you'll get to read it soon. Trust me.

Thanks,
Angie

College sports day :)

So I decided to change it up today and bring it to college sports, an not just college football, but an issue that affects many sports, but specifically women's basketball. This was because I was chatting with American University's ladies' team and I heard a lot about the lack of defensive knowledge going into the college game from the head coach and the players. Then I thought about it, and realized that society’s focus is rarely, if ever, on defense and less scoring.

Our culture likes to focus on high scoring in sports. The NHL tried to change the rules in its game to allow for more goal-scoring in order to attract fans. Soccer is considered a boring sport because their games usually end with a score no higher than 2-1, but in contrast, we are highly entertained by a 121-119 NBA basketball game.

This culture of high-scoring has permeated sports so much that people tend to forget the other important aspect of a game: defense. People have admired strong defensive teams such as the Pittsburgh Steelers and their “Steel Curtain” days, but typically, defense is not the sexiest part of a sport.

The issue of the lack of defensive knowledge seemed to affect the AU women’s basketball team, so I spoke with two players, Raven Harris and Ashley Yencho, and their head coach Matt Corkery. In discussing their upcoming season, I tried to find out where they were when they came in terms of defensive talent and knowledge.

Sophomore point guard Raven Harris is certainly one of the better players on the team, coming from a strong high school basketball program at Princess Anne High School, who were champions every year she was on the team. Harris was also able to score over 1000 points during her high school career. She clearly had the type of offensive talent that can win games.

However, once she got on the AU team, Harris had difficulty adjusting to basketball at the college level.

“I was a couple steps behind,” Harris said about her struggles learning defense. When I asked her what she had to work on, she gave me a look and laughed, saying, “A lot.”

Junior point and shooting guard Ashley Yencho gave a similar response when asked what she needed to improve on defensively. She further explained that high schools (just like us sometimes) do not particularly care for defensive concepts.

“In high school,” said Yencho, “you only play a 2-3 zone or you play man.”

Nonetheless, both players feel as though they have improved immensely between the beginning of last season and this season. “Getting yelled at and reinforced really helped me out a lot,” Yencho said with regards to Corkery’s influence on her play.

Harris also added that she was getting better at defense, as Corkery has worked with her.

According to what I found then, players go through years of playing basketball, and no matter how well their program did, a player is still unprepared for the defensive responsibilities at the next level. That seems a little unfair. Of course, Coach Corkery agreed.

“Without sound defense, a team’s chances to win are greatly diminished. They don’t know when to be and where to be. They don’t know ‘come here’ from ‘sick ‘em.’”

Corkery seems baffled at the fact that high school coaches do not demand enough from their players on defense. I was too. So I asked him why he thought that was the case.

“A lot of coaches aren’t well-versed in defensive fundamentals of the game.” Corkery said. “It may be because they themselves just weren’t exposed to it, or it may be that they’re not taking the time to study the game.”

However, as previously mentioned, the issue is being dealt with, as players feel more confident in their defensive skills going into this season with Corkery as their head coach for now a second season. We will see how well the players have improved then, as Corkery implemented a stronger and more aggressive defensive style for this season.

Other aspects of the team should also be able to help them in their quest to top the Patriot League. The Lady Eagles’ players are riding on much improved team chemistry, and as the season goes on, they feel like that will carry them to better skill development through working together.

If the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate goal for the season for the Eagles, developing a strong defense might be their best bet in winning. After all, Drake says it best, "You gotta take that D!"

*horrible I know LOL!*...

And big ups to The U, Swagger U, the University of Miami, or however you'd like to address them for the 52-17 crushing of UVA. Made me quite pleased...

I refuse to make mention of the Capitals as well. I'm going to let that one ride out until they consistently perform the way they played last night against the Panthers, winning last night against the division opponent 4-1

I concede...

Fine, fine... So the Yankees win in 6 games. Go out and party. You won Game six 7-3 and you played better in that game than the Phillies. Congratulations. Be happy... BUT...

This just means that ALL teams can erase all of their records, and if you didn't win or were in the World Series, you can pretend it never happened and start all over again! It's about to be a brand new season and we are all 0-0 now. In a Kansas City Royal's fan's mind, they are technically in first place in the division at this point! Milwaukee Brewer's fans are in the running for an actual playoff spot for the 2nd time in 3 years! And the Red Sox... well, they can believe they're back to reappearing in the World Series again ;-).

The fact is, is that the end of a season in any sport can be seen as a relief period. I definitely enjoyed watching the World Series games this season, and playoff periods in your favorite sports can be super entertaining. And of course, for instance, when hockey season is over, I'm really sad - that's my favorite sport of all time to watch. But when it's all said and done - no pun was originally intended - You can get back to believing that your team has a chance to make it. After all, we all have the same record now.

So I'm not mad at the Yankees at all for winning the World Series. In fact, what World Series? My mind is on the future, considering the Red Sox made move #1 this offseason already, acquiring Jeremy Hermida from the Florida Marlins for a couple of minor league pitchers (Jose Alvarez and Hunter Jones) today. Clearly, Angie and the Red Sox are on the same page.

I do not concede however...

That Anze Kopitar is better than Alex Ovechkin. But he's really really REALLY good. I'm going to go out on a limb actually, and say I think he's slightly better than Sidney Crosby. I'll save that discussion for The Hockey Blog, my second blog site where I write with a team of other hockey fans. For right now though, he's overtaking Ovie the Gr8 in points as Ovie is sidelined for a couple weeks.

Unfortunately though for Ovie's team, the Capitals are going to need to prove their true talent and the true depth that we have in scoring. Because the thing is, the Caps HAVE the ability to score and to get goals from other sources that Ovechkin. It just needs to show. That secondary scoring that is.

Losing 3-2 to the Devils on a usual day may not be THAT big of a deal, considering that's usually how the Caps fare against the NJ hockey team. I mean, the Devils have always been known to sink teams down in the ice with defense enough to bore a team from trying to penetrate with inability to get through. Worse yet, they still have Martin Brodeur in goal.

The issue here is that the Caps have been struggling BEFORE Ovechkin went down with the upper body strain, and THAT'S where my concern stems from... Hence, my urgent message for Washington to step it up in these times so that when Ovie does return to the lineup (hopefully in a week or so), the Caps will return to unstoppable status (from last year).

I have difficulty enjoying the cardiac manner in which the team has played against teams they are better than this season though. The Caps started all right, but increasingly played more games under tight circumstances and playing well for only about 30 minutes. Not a good look Washington if you're trying to win the Cup.

Hmm... the C-high Young Winner? LOL! (I know, I know, awful)

Tim Lincecum... I have nothing to say on the matter. Not saying that I have any affiliation with the issue, but that substance should be legal by now. If Michael Phelps and Tim Lincecum are avid users of the substance, and you see the type of crazy-good talent they can STILL produce, I can't imagine how awful it could be. Just sayin'... And why the surprise?!? Call it profiling, but I'm not surprised at all.

Roy Williams, is a #1 Receiver...

Hahahahahhaha! Roy Williams still calls himself a #1 receiver! Hahahahaha! Phew... Okay, I'm done...

Really though? REALLY?!? HOW is that so? Seeing as he doesn't receive the 2nd most passes on the Dallas Cowboys behind Miles Austin and Patrick Crayton, that doesn't look like a #1 receiver to me.

Not only is that a reason that's keeping me from believing that, but clearly, his performace over this season hasn't been any better than last season with the Cowboys. His inability to get open for Romo, and then Romo just finding guys that will, has just made Roy Williams look like a fool for saying that.

What to do with him! I guess if he really thinks that, as long as he's going to stay quiet about it until the Cowboys win the Sup... I mean, finish the season, then I can live with it (yeah, I know, shameless plug).


And finally thoughts and prayers go out to those killed and wounded (and their families) in the Fort Hood shooting that took place today at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

Philly, New York, and Mad Football

In this Sunday in sports, the Philadelphia Eagles demolished the New York Giants and the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies. I was hoping that Philly would sweep NY, but I guess you can't have it all.

In Game 4 of the World Series, the Phillies had Joe Blanton on the mound and the Yankees put on CC Sabathia on short rest. The Yankees immediately took control, getting 2 runs in the 1st inning.

It wasn't until the 4th inning when the Phillies came back and tied the game. The second run was questionable, however, as Ryan Howard coming from 2nd base ran and dove to touch home plate, but he never made contact with it.

What I found funny was just by how much he missed it,considering not only his hand missing the plate, but the fact that even his leg could have touched it and it flew right over.

At 2-2, the Yankees fired right back, scoring two more runs to go up 4-2 in the 5th inning, and recieve the 4th run on a sort of "soft" play. Nonetheless, the Phillies were back down.

The Phillies seemed sluggish for the rest of the game until the 7th inning when Chase Utley reminded Sabathia of the 2-homer performance he had in Game 1 by crushing the ball, putting the Phillies down by only 1 run.

Pedro Feliz followed suit by homering in the 8th inning, tying the game at 4. Unfortunately for the Phillies, the top of the 9th was their worst inning yet as they put Brad Lidge in the game. Lidge gave up 3 runs after allowing Johnny Damon to literally run around the bases.

Lidge started off smoothly, causing Hedeki Matsui to pop out and then struck out Derek Jeter. Then after Johnny Damon's single, he stole 2nd base, got up from his slide and continued on to 3rd base, which the Phillies seemed to forget about.

After the defensive mental lapse by Philadelphia, the Yankees took 3 runs in the 9th, and took out the Phillies 1-2-3 to win 7-4. They now have a comanding 3-1 series lead on the Phillies.

I wouldn't completely count out the Phillies yet, but of course, this doesn't look good for Philadelphia fans/residents/those who hate the Yankees. It would be absolutely epic if the Philles were to come back from being down 3-1 in a series, but it would be difficult.

It would be nice if Big-Mouth Jimmy Rollins would have backed up his pretentious prediction on the series, but he hasn't done much for the Phillies to win. And if they want a chance to win, he will have to get things going for their offense so that people like Howard and Utley have more to work with. I mean, a 2-run shot is better than a solo shot...

Game 5 will be tomorrow, same time, 7:57... still haven't recieved an answer as to what that's about. Stay tuned for a pitching matchup between Cliff Lee and A.J. Burnette.

NFL Week 8

The halfway point of the NFL season has been one of the more interesting weeks all season.

Rams 17, Lions 10

I would like to start off that I am shocked that the Lions couldn't pull the win against the St. Louis Rams, considering they were FAVORITED to take it! But they ended up losing (as they always do) 17-10. I'm even more shocked that the score was a lot higher than I had expected. I predicted somewhere between 6-3 to 9-7. But nope! Freakin' 17-10! lol...

Ravens 30, Broncos 7

It was delightful to see the Ravens play well again, defeating the Denver Broncos 30-7. Denver is now no longer undefeated, leaving only the New Orleans Saints as the only undefeated team left. The Broncos did play more subpar teams than quality teams, except for Dallas and New England (or have they really changed their names to the Boston Patriots now?). However, 30-7 was a prime victory for the Ravens, who have suffered from 3 straight of hard losses against the Bengals, Patriots, and Minnesota.

Vikings 38, Packers 26

Minnesota and Green Bay faced off today - yes, yes, Brett Favre's first game back to Green Bay as a non-Packer. When FOX went to the broadcast of the Packers game, all I heard was hostility. It was kind of hilarious to hear the massive amounts of boos, and to see all the Favre bashing signs in large contrast to the "We still love you" and "We miss you" signs for Favre.

The first half was awful for Green Bay. The Packers' offensive line gave Aaron Rodgers NO time. When he did have time, he was subject to being diven to the ground by 300 men. So there was little success, if any, for the Packers in the first half.

With the Vikings up 17-3 going into the 2nd half, however, the Packers had a hightened sense of awareness. They decided to pick themselves up and score 17 points in the 3rd quarter, and with just over 10 minutes to go, they were only down 31-26...

...And then Brett Favre comes in and destroys Green Bay's dreams of an epic comeback as Minnesota did on their own turf. After the Packers failed on the 2 pt conversion after their touchdown and missed the 51-yard field goal, Minnesota got a touchdown with 3:09 to run the game. Green Bay was unable to get anywhere, as they reverted back to 1st half form, and then Minnesota took the ball away, and won the game. The End.

Cowboys 38, Seahawks 17

In other games, Dallas played the way they should, defeating the Seahawks 38-17. The Cowboys have usually played poorly and have had to cut it close in the end of games against lower teams, but this game, they clearly looked superior. Good look for the team as they play the Eagles next week.

Eagles 40, Giants 17

Speaking of the Eagles, they destroyed the Giants 40-17 at home. With the number of turnovers throughout the whole game and the lack of concern by the Giants, I feel like they deserved to lose like that. Plus it humbles the NY fans/people.

And Tennesee beat Jacksonville 30-13... Congratz on the win today, Titans. You are now no longer winless. Vince Young was the QB today... think about that.

Phew! A lot of typing today. But a lot happened lately! I had to update y'all! Thanks for reading!

Catholic University vs. Emory and Henry

So yesterday I had to travel with a few others all the way from American University to Catholic University to cover a football game. Catholic played this school I had never heard of, Emory and Henry University in a close game, but ended up losing 13-1o.

I went in, and it was, an... interesting set of hours spent there. This was my first experience at a Division 3 football game, and it is VERY obvious of the difference in a D1 football program and a D3 program.

First of all, nobody knew where the stadium was! These were students who had NO IDEA how to get there. Now I understand that not everybody can enjoy the beauties of football, but as a student on YOUR OWN CAMPUS, I feel like you should at least know the buildings and landmarks on your campus at this point of the year - freshman or not.

Secondly, after the trek (oh man was it a trek) to the stadium, it was not much of a "stadium", but a field - akin to the field at my small, private former high school: there was one side of bleachers of about 10 rows, and the field. At least there was a small press box though on the top.

Mind you, this whole time, there was only one guy in charged of ALL the athletics on Catholic's campus, and he was EXTREMELY helpful in our research and access to the team and its stats. *shout out to him* But he really wa over at the cross-country event, then had to run over to the football game to help us out a little bit.

And in the game itself, the playcalling wasn't very diverse. Both teams stuck with the quarterback draw, along with a couple more running plays. Any passes didn't go for more than 10 yards, if they ever passed. Even the "Hail Mary" at the end of the game by Catholic only reached mid-field, instead of hauling it to the endzone.

Nonetheless, it wasn't awful. Big ups to D3 programs for even having football... unlike SOME campuses in the country.............. (no names).

When I returned home, I sat down and wrote the corresponding article for the game to beat the deadline (there will be a video explaining the behind-the-scenes action). For your viewing pleasure, I have posted it with this blog:

Despite Catholic University's best defensive effort all season long, they were unable to capitalize on multiple offensive opportunities, causing Catholic to lose 13-10 to Emory and Henry University.

Contrary to the final score and other offensive mishaps though, Catholic did not play poorly either.

Although Catholic gave up the first touchdown of the game, they blocked the extra point and were able to score the next 10 points through one field goal and a touchdown run in by John O'Brien.

The Cardinals then were able to stop Emory and Henry's offense for another drive, and seemed to have the momentum to keep their opponent down.

Early into the third quarter though, the Wasps came out strong and were able to score a touchdown. But even with the lead, Emory and Henry could not penetrate the Catholic defense for the rest of the game.

Catholic actually led in time of possession in the second and third quarter, and was able to march down the field into Emory and Henry territory up to the redzone.

However, the mistakes made in the Cardinals' inability to create opportunities deep in the Wasps' territory and ultimately to score points kept them down and eventually gave them a difficult loss.

One of the most outstanding mistake for the Cardinals was the field goal kicking. Catholic kicker Brendan Deluca missed four field goals, including three from very short distances and one with 1:09 left in the game from 40 yards.

Nonetheless, teammates seemed to be sympathetic towards Deluca's failed field goal attempts. Receiver Mike Smith, who had four catches for 58 yards, said that the missed field goals were not as much of a factor in the way the rest of the team played.

"Not at all; we still played hard," Smith said. "If you're not on the field goal team, there's nothing you can do about it. You can just watch and hope he makes it. It was just a bad day for him."

Regardless of the tough season, the team continues to have confidence, especially in the coach. When asked about whether head coach Dave Dunn deserves the bad rap he received from the fans today, Smith commented, saying their coach "puts everybody in the best position to win." Smith continued, "When you look at the yards, we dominated on offense and defense, and everybody makes a mistake. You're coaching on the fly."

Catholic focused on the positives from the game, and noted that it was just an "off-day" for the team today in reaching their full potential to win against Emory and Henry.

"It went really well for us actually," Smith said about the game. "We played hard on every aspect of the game. It's just that it came down to little mistakes, and when we got down to the endzone, we couldn't capitalize, and out kicking game wasn't at our best."

Dunn further elaborated on the things that catholic did to give themselves a chance to win.

We followed the game plan up until we got to the redzone. We outgained them to up to double their yardage and didn't turn the ball over." Dunn also did not forget to mention that Cardinals held the number one player in rushing yards in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), Caleb Jennings, to under 100 yards.

Their biggest faults in today's game according to the coach were "mental mistakes."

Catholic's next game is against Guilford University at home. When asked about what could be changed, Dunn said, "We're just young in the skilled spots on the offense." Dunn also added that they lost many players from last year on defense as well; thus, making the Cardinals an "inexperienced team" versus a young team."

Smith said simply, "We just have to want it in the end."

However, Dunn isn't going to focus on the four botched field goald, the missed opportunities in the redzone, the fans' displeasure, or even next weekends's game or next season. "My goal is to have a good practice tomorrow."

2009 World Series Game 3

The offensive floodgates finally opened last night as the Yankees defeated the Phillies 8-5 at Citizens Bank Park. (No I didn't catch the game because I went out for Halloween).

However, I am watching toniight, as the Phillies try to even up the series at home in Game 4. Joe Blanton will pitch for the Phillies, resting Cliff Lee, and CC Sabathia on short rest will be on the mound for the Yankees.

I mean, for my prediction to be correct, the Phillies would have to win the next 3 games in a row... To be honest, I don't see that happening. But I can see them winning in 7 games. I think in order for either team to win actually, it will have to go to 7 games.

Both teams are just so evenly matched in good pitching and offense (numbers wise) that it will have to be a punch-for-punch series. I think the Phillies are better though in base running and hitting anything other than home runs than the Yankees; hence, why I picked them to win.

Side Note...

THE EAGLES ARE GOIN INNNNN!!!!! Like, I don't even like the Eagles, and usually, I hate anything affiliated with Philadelphia, but I do enjoy a good football game. The Eagles at the end of the first half are up 30-7 agaisnt the New York Giants with mad takeaways and passing it down the field.

Then again, I might just be excited because I'm pulling for the Phillies against the Yankees.

I'll cut the Redskins fans some slack today... they have a bye week. LOL!

At the same time, my team, the Cowboys just went up 21-10 by the end of the first half against the Seattle Seahawks. Which makes me happier.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed.

*Posted at 2:50pm

Back in Action! New World Series Order

So after helping to construct another blog, The Hockey Blog, and getting through midterms and all of that junk, I'm back!

Tonight was Game 1 of the 2009 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies - just stating in case you've been under a rock lately.

The battle between the two prideful cities is what I think will be one of the most exciting World Series in recent times. As much as I dislike the Yankees, you can't say that the World Series matchups they've played in have been boring and uneventful, from a neutral fan's perspective.

Philadelphia definitely proved themselves to be the top of the National League, running over all theri opponents this playoff season. New York did the same until the last series, however, it seemed like as if the Yankees were only giving the Angels a "mercy game," as they clearly looked like the better team throughout the whole series.

Tonight's game featured two of the best pitchers in this postseason thus far: former Cleveland Indians CC Sabathia (and ALCS MVP) for the Yankees and Cliff Lee for the Phillies. Aside from the pitching matchup, the offenses of both teams are comparable, despite the lack of acknowledgment of the Phillies' offensive power.

...

However, this game didn't speak of the pre-game notions of what was expected. The Phillies ended up handing it to the Yankees, defeating them 6-1! . From early on in the game, Chase Utley gave Philadelphia the leading offense through 2 solo home runs. Later in the game though, the base running of the Phillies provided the final 4 runs to put away the Yankees.

Cliff Lee was ultimately superior in the supposedly-spectacular matchup between him and Sabathia. He pitched through 8 innings, but the of course, the Yankees had to spoil the shutout in the bottom of the 9th with 1 out. Nonetheless, Lee pitched exceedingly well.

Sabathia on the other hand did a decent job until he gave up the first home run to Utley in the 3rd and actually pitched through 7 full innings. The Yankees bullpen, however, screwed it up for New York, putting them down by more runs; thus, the game ended 6-1.

I'm excited for Game 2 now, not only because the Yankees are going in down 1-0 in the series and I'm reading all of these stats that now favor the Phillies, but I still think this will be an exciting series. Yes, even if the Phillies beat the Yankees in 5 as Mr. Rollins stated (which I won't lie, I don't think will happen).

Pedro Martinez and AJ Burnette are projected to start tomorrow night at 8pm (listed as 7:57?????) for Game 2 in New York. So I'll see you at the barrrrr... or if you're not there, enjoy where ever you're watching!

*Oh! I forgot! I never predicted anything! Phillies in 6 games.
And if anybody has any way that my frat Ryan Howard can meet his soror here in DC, please let me know! :)

Side Note:

Washington Capitals play against the Atlanta Thrashers Thursday night as well, and guess who traveled with the team - Tomas Fleischmann! He was out with an injury due to a blood clot in his leg, and should be back on the ice soon. It's definitely promising, and it's good to know since there are ample things Fleischmann can bring to the team's offense and defense... err, power play maybe?