A few days ago, Jovan Belcher, a Kansas City Chiefs football player,  committed a murder-suicide. He killed his wife and himself, leaving his 3 year old child as an orphan. After Jovan killed his wife, he went to the Chiefs practice facility and shothimself in front of the head coach and th GM. In less than 2 hours after the incident, the Chiefs and the NFL decided that they would go on with the game. That's right, they decided to play the game literally right after the incident. In my personal opinion, this is utterly ridiculous. How do you decide to play a football game hours after your starting linebacker killed himself and his wife? This wasn't some car accident or something that wasn't doneon purpose. This was a willingful act of violence, one that rocked the Kansas City community and locker room.

My point is that football should not be bigger than life. Yes, it is the most popular sport in America. However, the NFL deciding to play the game so soon must pose a question to their motives. I heard some people rationalize this decision by saying that playing a game after the death of a player or family member is good for the grieving ones because it is something that can pull everyone together and help mourn. Fasle. While this may be true in some situations, this one is completely different. The Chiefs player was not the only one to die. He killed his wife and devastated a community. This game should have been canceled. Deciding to play it proves that society values football over life. In a tragedy such as this one, the game should have been cancelledto allow everyone to appropriately grieve.

Canada just got better at baseball...a lot better. The Miami Marlins gave an early Christmas present to the Toronto Blue Jays a few weeks ago. They literally sent all of their best players to Canada in one of the biggest firesales in the history of the game. They sent 120 million dollars worth of players to the Blue Jays in exchange for their 2nd, 5th, and 7th best prospects. Basically, they traded their best players for nothing. Among those traded were household names such as Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, and Mark Buerhle. Many fans seem to forget that this firesale started during the middle of the year. Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Omar Infante, and Randy Choate were all dealt before the trading deadline. This comes at a time when Marlins management promised the city of Miami that they would stop being thrifty when a new stadium was built. The owner of the Marlins, a wealthy art dealer named Jeffrey Loria, used mostly taxpayers money to finance the new stadium that was built in Miami. He always makes money by owning the Marlins because he keeps revenue higher than the cost of the team, no matter what the situation. In this case, he cut payroll from 111 million to 40 million. That's a 71 million dollar profit for the greedy Loria. Owners need to be held responsible by Major League Baseball for injustices such as this, or at least fired. Then again, when you're in charge, it's hard to fire yourself.

My favorite Thanksgiving sports story does not have to do with watching any proffesional or college games on TV. In fact, it was a pick up football game from just a few years ago. As you probably already know, these games can get intense. It was a two hand touch football game with 4 downs and 8 players. These games start out innocently, with the quarterback passing to the little kids and everyone letting them run for touchdowns. Once the real game starts, it gets super competitive. My team consisted of a neighbor my age, aunt, 5 year old cousin, and me. The other team was my dad, grandpa, uncle, and my cousin's 4 year old friend.

The game was tied and we were at the point where the next touchdown was the winner. We had the ball and it was 4th and about 5 yards until the touchdown. I was the quarterback and had until 7 mississippi to throw. I dropped back, looked at my neighbor, and realized he was double covered. My aunt was also covered very well and there was no way she was going to catch the ball anyways. That left my cousin wide open in the corner of the end zone. Now, I had played catch with him before the game and he pretty much only caught the ball if you threw it underhand and right to him. This time, I threw it overhand and a little to his right. He moved over and miraculously caught the ball. We all celebrated and tackled him in victory. It was awesome.

The best Thanksgiving memory that I have had came last year. We got 20-30 family and friends together at my Uncle's house and had a great time. I got to see my grandparents, cousins, uncle, aunt, and close friends all at the same time. It was a mixture of about 3 or 4 families all together. I think it is better this way because you never get bored. Usually, it would be 7-8 family members and it was nice to see everybody, but I got bored pretty quickly. Last year, with all the people, there was never a dull moment. We played many sports, such as football, wiffle ball, and kickball. It got competitive and was very fun.

The Thanksgiving day dinner a year ago was definitely the best. There was so much food that there was probably leftovers that could feed a small nation. Apparently, it took my Uncle and his immediate family months to finish it all. Going back to the sports that we played, I think it was a good bonding experience for everyone involved. Especially team sports, where you haveto work together. I got to know a lot of people from the other families a lot better. Even the people that can't or don't want to play can have fun watching their families play. This Thanksgiving was memorable because I felt like it was the most fun.

Opposition of paying college athletes.

This is a highly debated topic, which has many facts for both sides. Athletes should not get payed until they reach the proffesional level. If we start paying college athletes, it will turn into a business. What's next, paying high school athletes? There's a reason that no amateur athletes around the United States gets payed. It is actually illegal. There are laws in place, as well as ncaa laws that prohibit this. Also, how would the money be spread out? Would you give an equal amount of money to each college athlete? There are thousands of college footballs players alone. If you started paying football players, then you would also have to the other sports too. This includes women's water polo, golf, and other sports that are considered to be unpopular. It would result in lawsuits and cause chaos across the world of sports. College athletes already get huge amounts of money in the form of scholarship, housing, and food. That is more than enough. If you started paying these athletes, I guaranttee that many of them would spend it on marijuana/drugs. The process would be way too complicated and would take away from the college experience of these athletes. Also, it would take away from the school spirit. The athletes would stop focusing on their schoolwork and more on money, which could impair their playing abilities as well.

Sports and politics regularly intertwine, but one major issue has been taken to Congress and that is doping. Whether it is baseball, cycling, or an olympic sport, Congress has made athletes swear under oath that they didor did not use performance enhancing drugs. An example of this is Roger Clemens. The BALCO investigation went through many famous athletes, and included the names of stars around Major League Baseball. The government was running an inestigation on a drug distributer, which made thesefamous athletes take the stand. Many of them lied under oath.

Rafael Palmero and Roger Clemens were two famous athletes that lied under oath. However, Clemens got off free on the technicality that his trainer would not give him up. Politics plays a role because they decide who to investigate and what laws are made to prevent these athletes from doping. So far, they are way behind on anti-doping policies and fail to actually reprimand most of the athletes. Some athletes, such as Barry Bonds, ended up in jail for a while, but they tend to go after the high profile athletes only.

One thing that I have been following is the rise and decline of Eagles QB Michael Vick. It made me really mad when he got out of jail for dogfighting and every single analyst started saying how good ofa person he was now. There were many features done on Vick that described him as an angel that did charity events and spoke to children. Here's my take on it: He only "changed" for the money. At the height of the Michael Vick hype, he had earned 100 million dollars over a 7 year period. Analysts seem to forgive athletes when they start doing good and ignore them when they suck. When Vick startedplaying poorly, there were no features done on how he has changedas a person.

Also, while I am on the topic of forgiveness, athletes get way too many breaks compared to the rest of society. For example, wide receiver Donte Stallworrth killed a man while driving drunk, and only had to spend 30 days in jail. They typical citizen with regular attorneys and an average to little amount of money could have been in jail for at least 50 years. Everybody wanted to forgive Vick when he startedplaying well, but what if he had sucked from the beginning? Would these analysts have accepted him or ripped him to shreds like they did when he was arrested? I think that its ironic how these "expert" analysts want to analyze a person's life, instead of doing their job and analyzing the game only.

steroids adbuster

    The adbuster that I would like to do is from the "Nike, Just Do It" ad. Typically, they have an athlete performing some type of athletic move in their apparel, and try to use this catchy slogan as a means of attracting customers. Nike is an incredibly successful company, but like most clothing companies, they have their merchandise made in a foreign land, China. My problem with this is not that we are taking business away from America, but child workers are paid little money in horrible conditions to help out a corporate giant. So, instead of putting an athlete on the picture and the caption reading "Just Do It", I will replace it with a child worker in filthy conditions working extremely hard. Of course, I will use the same caption.

     This connects to sports because all of the sports companies are guilty of doing this. Nike is the most popular and used one, so this is why I chose the "Just Do It" ad. This adbuster could be interpreted in different ways  One way is that they are forced to "Just Do It" because they have little to no money to begin with. These kids are so poor that they will workin sweatshops for hours for much less than the minimum wage that we are accustomed to in the United States. Some Chinese workers in sweatshops make less than 1 U.S. dollar per day and have employees as young as 6 years old. The second way is that the company is trying to hide the fact that these sweatshops have such bad conditions. People would be less eager to buy from Nike had they known that 10 year olds are making these items.

     My favorite avertisement for sports is the old spice commercial with Greg Jennings. It begins with Greg Jennings lying in bed with a woman and holding up a deoderant stick of oldspice. Suddenly, the bed is on the playing field and Greg Jennings is carrying the bed and the woman through and around defenders. He talks smoothly and even catches a ball, while scoring a touchdown on the end. He makes a witty joke about giving the girl pancakes andthe commercial ends with him smiling and holding up an old spice deoderant stick. The commercial endswith the famous old spice whistle in the backround.

    Athletes are typically used in advertisements directed towards men. Old spice is trying to give you the impression that you will get many more women by using their deoderant compared to rivals. Also, it doesn't hurt that Greg Jennings just came off a Super Bowl victory about 2 years ago. The humor in the video is hilarious, as well. Commercials like these tend to attract many viewers because it featues a star player that is saying funny things. If this was an average joe telling you to buy old spice, you probably wouldn't because no one really dreams ofbeing an average joe. Old spice has a catchy tune and their humor seems to attract many buyers that hope to be just like Greg Jennings.

I woke up and looked at my alarm *11:00 a.m.* crap, I'm late again for work. I've unsuccessfully tried to get fired the last couple days. I hate my job, the people I work with, and just about everything that my company stands for. I got changed and headed over to my job. I took my time getting there, realizing that if I was already 4 hours late, an extra 10 minutes shouldn't really matter. By the time I got there, my boss was waiting for me at my desk. He said, " This is the 3rd day in a row that you've been late, you're fired." I flipped my desk over and replied "You can't fire me, I quit!" He stopped me right there, and said "Hold on just a second. That's the kind of passion I like to see out of my workers. You're rehired!" I replied "Are you serious?" To which he said, "No, I was just kidding, security is coming to escort you out right now." I stormed into the elevator and said that I'll walk myself out. Apparently, the security guards were already in the elevator, and thought that I was trying to attack them. So, they both tazed me. I was taken to the county jail, where I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was lying in a bed and it was morning. Whew, it was all a dream. "Good morning sunshine", said the person next to me. I looked up and it was my cellmate. Damn, I'm still in jail.

Dodgeball is they typical underdog movie. Although the main purpose of the movie is not inspirational, it still has many of the qualities of a sports movie. The movie begins by introducing 2 different gyms. One of the gyms is Globogym, the best and most expensive one. The other is the protaganist's gym, which is called Average Joes's. This gym has n more money to pay rent, and must find a way to come up with some. So, they enter a dodgeball tournament to win $50,000. Average Joe's team consists of a nunch of nonathletic guys who look scruffy, while Globogym, led by Ben Stiller, has ripped dudes.

Patches, a former Dodgeball champion, comes to train the misfits of Average Joe's. In many sports movies, the coach is the one that inspires the players to become the best that they can be. Patches works the players of Average Joe's hard, and eventually they become pretty good. However, he dies and the team is left without a coach before the championship game against Globogym. Death is something that sports movies use all the time to make the viewer feel a connection or feel sorry for the guys of that team. Average Joe's ends up defeating Globogym, partially because of Globogym's overconfidence. Dodegeball was an underdog story that combined humor, but also used the inspiration of a sports movie.

Harold and Kumar: White Castle is my favorite movie of all time. Basically, the movie is about two stoners that get an extreme craving eat at a burger restaurant, but get into an adventure on the way. Harold is asian and Kumar is Indian. Kumar is in medical school and is afraid of becoming a stereotypical Indian doctor like his father wants him to be. Instead, he enjoys smoking a huge amount of cannabis every day so that he can relieve the stress that his father has placed on him. They get sidetracked many times on their way to White Castle. In one instance, they run into Neil Patrick Harris, the guy from How I Met Your Mother. It turns out that he is on ecstasy and is acting crazy. Neil Patrick Harris steals their car and leaves them in a racist part of town where they are arrested for no particular reason. Eventually, they escape and make their way to White Castle. As they see White Castle over the cliff , a police officer corners them in. They use the hang glider that was convienently located in the back of the truck that they stole, and successfully land next to White Castle. They are starving and order almost 100 white castle burgers, when they realize that they have no cash. Neil Patrick Harris walks in and pays for everything as an apology for stealing their car in the first place. The story ends with Harold and Kumar planning a trip to the Netherlands, where they can smoke more weed.

    Certain songs remind me of times that I used to play in competitive sports. On the way to games, I would listen to the same 3 or 4 songs over an over again to get me hyped up for the game. I would change up the songs about once a month. When I hear that song on the radio, it takes me back to a team, or even a specific game that I played in. In high school sports, I had my own walk up songs, so I vividly remember walking up to the plate in each game. Stronger, Headstrong, Faint, and Till I'm Gone, were all walk up songs that I had in high school. When I hear them on the radio, I can connect to a time in my life. Not just in sports, but on a personal level as well. It is cool how songs can trigger both sports memories and times of your life.

   My first sports memories are triggered by smell and sight more than listening to a song. The smell of the dugouts was not a good one, but a distinct smell that could take me back to a time when I played ball. Sight is a big thing that triggers my early memories as well. I still remember the very first baseball field that I played on. It is close to my house, so I see it often. If I see a field that I do not play on often, I will usually remember the game that was played or have a fond memory of something that happened. Whenever I passed by my high school baseball field in the summer, I looked back on the season. I remembered the good and the bad, while feeling weird that I won't be playing there anymore.

      The Rodney poem showed how serious one can take sports. Whether it be a football player like the one in the story, or a junior varsity golf player, sports can make or break someon's day. For me, baseball was extremely important to me. However, I did not take it as seriously as the people in this poem. I think that you should seperate sports and your personal life. It can be hard to to at times, but when they mix, it is not good. The football player from this poem obviously loved football and related it to many things that happened around the town.

      In regards to the the Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs story, I found the questions toward the end to be really funny. The Celtic-Laker rivalry is a huge part of NBA history. It's funny how rival fans can go at one another and fight with each other, but many still hold a mutual respect in the back of their minds. I think this respect comes from knowing that the opposing fan shares the same love of the game that the othere does. I enjoyed playing in rivalry gamesin high school and look foward to playing in more, whether it be IM's or anything else.

Dear Miami Dolphins management,

     Let's be honest. This season is already screwed. Chad Johnson got arrested, David Garrard is out for the year, our offensive line couldn't stop a 5 year old girl, we're starting a rookie quarterback, our defense sucks, and hard knocks was just a bad idea. Since we all know that playoffs are out of the question, can we please lose enough games to get the no. 1 pick in the draft. We always suck just enough to miss the playoffs, and get a shitty draft pick. We could have had Andrew Luck or RG3 last year, but no, we won the most meaningless games of the season.

    This year, we have a legitimate shot to be the worst team in dolphins history. I doubt that there will be more than 3 games won the whole season. So, why not lose on purpose? I mean, by the looks of last season, I think you were already doing it pretty well. Celebrity owners and rich management clearly have no idea how to run a football franchise. The last decent quarterback we had was Dan Marino. Suck it up this season, so we can get a real quarterback, and possibly be relevant in the NFL again.

Participants versus Spectators

      The Participants versus Spectators work showed that there is a fine line between emulating you're favorite athletes, and actually becoming them. There are participation athletes and high-performance athletes. The difference usually comes at the D1 college or professional level. Many participation athletes try to imitate their idols in recreational or local leagues. As you climb the ladder in sports, the competition gets higher and people start to become professional. Then, it gets to the point where the players actually get media attention and get paid. By doing this, they make the transition from spectator to paid proffesional.

     Class, gender, race, and age tend to be factors in what sports spectators watch. For example, the upper class enjoy sports like tennis and golf, while the working class loves boxing. Many white fans like nascar, while many black fans watch basketball. Now, there are still many different races of spectators in all sports. However, there are definately trends as to who tends to watch what. Even in advertisments, companies will target a specific type of person to watch their sport. It is interesting that many sports, such as baseball, have lost popularity in the lower class because of the lack of funds.

I found the Klosterman article to be interesting. It's funny that the game was played between no name schools, yet had an incredible ending.  As an athlete who has played hundreds of games with less than 50 people watching, I can totally relate to how the players must have felt when they looked at the stands. For some athletes, it is completely irrelevent as to how people show up. For me, I loved to have large crowds watching. It just added to the excitement of the game.
If this game had been played between Duke and North Carolina, it would be tabbed as the greatest college basketball game of all time. To be an underdog and win is one thing;it is something else when you win the game with only 3 players left. I have had multiple games where my team was the underdog and won, but something like this has nevewr actually happened. I'm not surprised that this story did not get much attention because it was before the internet. If this same game happened now, at least 2 or 3 local news stations would probably pick up the story. It could even get national attention, such as a mention on ESPN.
    In regards to the Autumn Begins poem, I'm so confused. Here goes my best attempt at it: There was a huge football game in a city that lived and breathed high school football. The hometown team lost, and everybody is sad to the point that they are actually depressed. I can tell the poem uses many metaphors, which I seem to be absolutely horrible at deciphering. As an athlete, there are many times when you feel depressed after losing a big game. However, you have to have a quick memory and completely stop thinking about the game, or it will carry over into your performance in the next game.

My first memory of  playing sports was a game of t-ball when i was 6. I remember playing t-ball at a recreational league in my hometown city. Since I was only 6 years old, I only remember a few things about my first time playing baseball in a somewhat organized game. First of all, I remember that everyone pretty much sucked. At this age, people were still learning to run, so you could only imagine 6 year olds playing an organized t-ball game.
 The one thing that I remember doing in this game was trying to swing like Mark McWire. Now, you have to remember that this was smack dab in the middle of the steroid era in baseball. McWire was hitting 70 home runs in a season and was a total bad ass. After every home run, this guy would throw his bat. As a normal 6 year old watching TV, I tried to emulate him in the actual game.
 Every at bat, I would simultaneously swing and let go of the bat on the backswing. Unlike Mark McWire, there were always baseball moms right behind me. So, I eventually had to change my swing because I would hit people with my flying bat on accident. I remember that I never hit a home run in t-ball. In fact, I did not hit a single home run until my Junior year in high school, when I hit 4. T-ball was fun, but playing baseball became more fun as I got older.