Tomarrow Is A Big Day

Well folks tomarrow marks the day in which alumni set with baited breath as high schools senior football players make their final choice of the school they will attend. I rank recruiting right up there with fantasy football in terms of total waste of time. Before I go on I have to say that I find myself following recruiting just like most alumni do but I also recognize that it is unrealistic to expect these players to be the next superstars of college football. While recruiting is a big part of the game and it extends the excitement of college football into Febuary, once these players step onto campus they will have to produce. While this expectation is held by many alumni it is not always the case. What we tend to forget is, while these kids are talented, they are still kids who act like kids. There are many examples of highly recruited athletes that have fizzled out once they stepped on campus and all Memphis fans have to do is look at the basketball roster throughout the 1990's. You could have the number 1 recruiting class in the nation but if you don't have a good coach than the recruiting means nothing. A perfect example of this is Gerry Dinardo. When he was at LSU he had a couple of #1 recruiting classes but where is he today? Fired from LSU and Indiana he now works for ESPN Radio. So here is a note to all those Ole Miss fans who believe that they are on track to be a national champion contender because someone rated their recruiting class #13, look south and ask yourself "Where is Gerry Dinardo?"

Can Men Be Men?

In today's society there is a growing debate concerning issues of masculinity and men. This was reinforced this week with Newsweek's cover article titled The Boy Crisis. The article focuses on the problems that boys are experiencing today in terms of socialization, education, as well as behavior issues. The article compares the problems that boys experience versus the problems girls face. This issue touches on an idea that I have been thinking about for a while now and that deals with the social problems that men experience and the popularity of college and professional sports. I believe that the reason that the reason that viewership and attendance to sporting events has increased is due to the fact that sports is a safe vehicle for men to be men.

Wherever you turn today men are being told how to dress, how to act, how we need to be more caring and nurturing, and how we need to be more emotional and sensitive. Media entities have grasped on to this notion and run with. Men's magazines tell us that we need to have six pack abs to attract women. Queer Eye For the Straight Guy tells us that we can't dress, we don't know how to style our hair, we need to wax our eyebrows, we need to organize our spaces just so, and we need to have the right wine to go with the Pate that we need to serve to our dates. Today's modern man needs to be an androgenous metrosexual much like that big toothed entertainment reporter Stephen CojoCaru. We are to be feminine and reject much of our masculine traits. So where is the last refuge for men? You either hunt or you can lose yourself in sports. There is a comfort zone in the world of sports. Sports bars and arenas are safe havens for men in which we don't have to care about all of this stuff. We can go to a game with our buddies drink beer, dip, spit, cuss, eat all the red meat that we want, take our shirts off, yell, and be as roudy as we can without going to jail. It is acceptable and we don't have to worry about what people think because the majority people, in the arenas, are other men. Sporting arenas are also an acceptable place for men to cry. It is not acceptable to cry at funerals, weddings, the birth of a child but it is ok to cry when your team has just won the Super Bowl or the National Championship. Hell it is a source of pride because you are more of a fan when it means that much to you.

Sporting events are where fathers and sons bond, where male freindships are built, and where men are comfortable being free. I know that there will be people who disagree with me but if you sit down and apply this idea to your own life, you will see that there is some truth to what I say; that is unless your are a woman then forget everything you just read.

The Two Man Line and Joe Lee

Memphis fans know what I am talking about when I talk about the two man defensive line. This year, due to the number of injuries, the Memphis Tigers started playing a two man defensive line. We had two tackles play inside and the linebackers would come up were the ends would play. Now why am I talking about this? During the playoffs I have noticed that the Steelers have played this front before them the Patriots palyed this front as well. This is the first time that I can remember seeing this front played in the NFL but the Tigers played this at times last year. Now could the Memphis coaching staff be innovative enough to be impacting the game of football as a whole? I think it is pretty cool that the pros are copying colleges again.

For those of you who have been living under a rock, today we moved up to number 3.

Who will the NFL be rooting for?

This question is a good one considering that the NFL needs the Steelers and the Seahawks to play in the Super Bowl. Why? They will need viewers in order to maintain the ad rate that they are currently receiving. The Steelers bring a large national fan base, something the other three don't have. What Seattle has is a marketable player in Shawn Alexander, The NFL MVP. While the Broncos have a following it is nothing compared to what the Steelers. The Panthers have been to the Super Bowl but they do not have the national following or the appeal for the novice fan who watches the NFL sporadically. This year's game while not reach the numbers of previous decades or even come close to Super Bowl XXX, when the Cowboys beat the Steelers.

What will be sad is if the commercials outshine the play on the feild and the NFL cannot afford that because viewers while tune out and the broadcast will lose out. We can't have the game that we did last year but we can only hope that we don't return to the days of the massive blowouts.

What happened to Indy? Up until yesterday I thought I had seen both of Peyton Manning's tank jobs, the 2000 divisional and 1996 game against Memphis but yesterday he just flat out did not show up niether did Marvin Harrison. I hated Peyton in college but love to watch in the NFL and I kind of felt sorry for him until he began to blaim his line. While it was true he should have kept his mouth shut. Oh, I wonder how he feels about that stupid kicker? One name comes to mind Scott Norwood.

So much for the Bears vaunted defense. God, I truly hate Steve Smith and I am not a Bears Fan.

The only joy that I had, watching football, was watching the Redskins lose. As long as I live I will never, and I mean never, root for the Redskins, Yankees, or the UT Volunteers. I don't care if Jesus Christ himself played for these teams, I'd still would root for the opposing team.

Writers Block

I am currently struggling to find my wit and wisdom from which my posts come, therefore I have decided to add a little wit and wisdom from other people.

Violence, in its many forms, is an involuntary quest for identity. When our identity is in danger, we feel certain that we have a mandate for war. Marshall McLuhan, War and Peace in the Global Village

I've known women who thought football was worthless and brutal. But they just don't understand the nature of the male. Most of those big time collisions don't really hurt. The players are dressed and protected. They are young and strong. Anyway, the fact is that young men enjoy it. Nothing is going to stop it. If we could just have a Super Bowl between Russia and the United States, instead of all those tanks and ballistic missiles, things would be alot better. Paul Brown

Jonesing for a Game, Man!

I am sorry that I haven't written in awhile I have been going through detox and I have been having football dts. This is always a sad time for me because I go from engrossing myself in football every day of the week to a few games on the weekend and finally to nothing. The NFL playoffs have been anticlimatic and I have yet to get excited about them. I pray that next weekends games are better than this past ones. These past games can't be fairly judge anyway because we had a week of some really great bowl games and anything and the NFL truly had a hard time competing with the bowls. Well anyway I am off to find a fix either in a book aboout football or tapes of old games.

What Happened To the Greatest College Football Team of All Time?

This is what happens when the you count your chickens before they hatch, sometimes they don't hatch. That is what happened last night when USC lost to Texas. The Longhorns wheren't given much of a chance because they were going up against the Greatest College Team of All Time. How could USC loose? I will tell you how play a team with a defense that is fast and hard hitting. They play a team that isn't intimidated by the Trojans and who are willing and able to go toe to toe with them. They play a team who truly has the best player in the country and who has a chip on his shoulder. I just wish that next years greatest team of all time actually lives up to the hype. Oh and we saw why Reggie Bush won't be the superstar that he is hyped. As was shown last night you can rattle his cage when you hit him and neutralize his speed.

Hey Everybody I am a Communist!

I recently received this comment to the post I wrote about the suicide of Tony Dungy's son, James. I have been trying to think of a way to respond to someone calling me a communist because anyone who knows me can state that I am anything but a communist. I find it interesting, though, that someone felt so strongly, about what I wrote, that they resorted to name calling and questioning my intellectual capacity. While it is true that I only finished the 3rd grade he didn't have to go and call me a communist. So before I go any further I want you to read what anonymous wrote, in response to my post:

"When the media reports on a death, yes, it is important to report the cause. What are they suppose to say, "sorry, but the coroners office told us cause of death, but we're not going to pass that information on to our viewers, even though thats our job." The kid killed himself, hate to break it to you, but that does qualify as news. I for one dont want my news censored because it my hurt someones feelings. Give us the truth. Nothing more, nothing less. I think your post might be the dumbest thing Ive ever read in my life. With all the things wrong with ESPN, reporting on a cause of death is not one of them. If you don't like freedom of the press, China is always looking for some cheap labor in their gulags".

I say that the media should leave the Dungy family alone and I suddendly become dumb and someone who doesn't beleive in the 1st amendment. In today's society if you have a different opinion on a subject, people feel it necessary to resort to name calling and character assination. I guess that the days of intellectual debates are over? The zeitgeist of the times calls for people to be lumped into groups and pigeon holed into certain beliefs. People from the South are no longer Southerners, we are Red Staters. As if every Southerner is a Republican. If you believe in God than you a Religous Right Wing Zealot. And if you are a Sourtherner, who is religous, then you are a Southern Right Wing Republican who voted for Charleston Heston as your President, because don't you know all Southerners own guns (Another Favorite). We are not free thinking adults we have become labels. Labels that have been conveinently defined by popular media outlets, who need content to fill the pages and airwaves that we consume only a daily basis. And this is why I feel that the media outlets should leave Tony Dungy and his family alone. Content! ESPN does not have to rely on another TO story because now they can dig into every minute detail of James Dungy's life. I watched yesterday, ESPN made James Dungy's funeral into star watch. Who was at the funeral? How will this effect the Colts chances of winning the Super Bowl? How will this effect Peyton's ability to read a defense? Lets go to Sal Palintonio to see how this will effect Marvin Harrison's ability to fart. It wasn't about James or Tony Dungy and the issues that caused this tragedy it was about Warren Sap, Herm Edwards et al who showed up to the church. This is what I have a problem with because ESPN is going to milk this through the Playoffs but they will be nowhere to be found 20 years from now when Tony Dungy is tromented by the thoughts that he could have done more for his son. But they don't have a problem taking advantage of someone's death in order to fill air time but what do I know all I want to do is piss on the Constitution because I am a Communist. Well I am off to buy my Che Guevera shirt, a copy of Marx's Communist Manifesto, a sickle and sledgehammer, and a one way ticket to China. Talk to you later Comrads.

Does It Get Any Better Than This?

Since I have been a Memphis Tiger fan I can't remember two better days than these past two. Yesterday we won our second bowl game in three years in which Deangelo had one of his average games in which he only rushes for 233 yards and 3 touchdowns and tonight the basketball team comes from behind to beat #8 Gonzaga by 11. For a program that is trying to position itself to get in a BCS conference in 2008 we are doing some good things. The TV exposure alone has been priceless.

Tony Dungy

I just read an article that dealt with the death of Tony Dungy's son. I really feel for him because of his loss and I hope that ESPN and other media outlets leave him alone. This is not a time to park a reporter in Tampa and in Indy watching the every movement of the Dungy family. Let this family greave in peace. It is not a story that sports fans or celebrity watchers need to know, it is a personal issue. When I saw this story I was a little shocked because the media is so quick to report that it was an apperant suicide. Have they no shame? Is this really something we need to know? Couldn't they have just reported that he died and been done with it? In reporting that it was a suicide, it makes things worse for the family because the parents feel even more responsible for the death of their child . They are going blame themselves because they will think that there was more they could have done or they should have noticed that something was wrong. With the media coverage these emotions will only be intesified because of the attention that the story has been given and will receive. I wish that the executives, at the media outlets that are reporting this, lived under the same microscope that athletes and coaches operate, maybe then they would see that somethings should be off limits. As a society have we no shame?

Well Folks We are #4!

The last time the Memphis Tigers were ranked in the top 5 was in 1996. Thanks to one of our most hated rivals , Loserville, the Tigers moved to #4. I would like to thank the University of Kentucky for beating Loserville saturday. Go Big Blue!

Why Is ESPN Trying To Sell Me Madden 2006?

I was flipping through the channels the other day and came upon a show,on ESPN, that centered on guys playing Madden 2006 while wearing certain players NFL jersey. This has to be the most blatant scam I have seen in a while. All this show was a a more stylized version of the infommercials that come on late at night. The problem that I have is that ESPN tried to pawn this off as entertainment as oppossed to a commercial. The whole purpose of this show is to sell video games, much like the And 1 Mix Tour and tapes are meant to promote the shoe brand. How dumb do the ESPN executives think that we, as viewers, are? As consumers become tried of the constant barrage of advertisements companies are looking for new and creative ways to sell thier products. Hence the creation of the Madden 2006 competition show. I would really like to see the Neilson ratings for this show. I truly wonder if there were people who fell for this show?

New segment

I will be adding a new segment to my blog, in the upcoming weeks. I plan to interview sports business professionals, in order to help those that are thinking about making it a career. I want people to understabd what they are getting into before they get thier hopes up and then have the dashed that working in the sports field is not what they thought. Now I have made it my career but I was a bit naive when I started graduate school thinking it was going to be fame and fortune. I am trying to counteract stories people see played out on TV and the movies, i.e. Jerry Maguire. He is a character in a movies and he is pure fantasy. Now I had some really great professors who taught me alot but your education while only get you so far. That is why I have decided to do this so people don't make thier decision blindly. So if there are any questions or certain fields/specialties you want explored please leave a comment and I will do my best to get you an answer.

Deangelo Update

In the last week Deangelo has been named to the Walter Camp 1st team All American Team and today he was named to the AP 2nd team All American team. While I am still disappointed that he didn't win the Doak Walker Award, he is being recognized for his acheivements by others.

BCS Bias

Last night I was disappointed that Deangelo Williams didn't win the Doak Walker Award but such is life. After thinking about the award I have come to the conclusion that the Non-BCS schools should create their own seperate league that could be comparable to Division 1 AA. In this league you would have the WAC, The Mountain West, CUSA, the MAC, and the Big Sky conferences. You would play all of your non-conference games against these teams and you could compete for the Non-BCS national championship. In doing this you could also have a playoff system that would lead to the champion being crowned. You can use the bowls as playoff sights and have the championship played in a warm climate city. This would only hold true for football because there are a few of these schools could compete for a national championship in basketball. In doing this you can invigorate the programs by creating a viable incentive to play for. If the BCS won't let us in maybe it is time to create a new system. There are the haves and the have nots, and non-BCS schools are the have nots so maybe this system will change that image that these schools have.

Memphis and the Graduation Rate

Well I some good news and bad news Memphis fans. The Memphis Football team ranks in the top ten in graduating football players but the bad news the graduation rate of the overall student body. I have to say that I am trully embaressed, as an Alumni of the Uof M, that Memphis only graduates 33% of the overall student body. I repeat 33%. 1 out of every three students attending Memphis will graduate. To me this is mind boggling. What is going on that they cannot graduate more people? I truely am afraid what I will find if I dig any deeper.

BCS and collusion

To say that the BCS system is unfair is a understatement. There are 117 D1 college football programs and a majority of them do not have a chance to play in a BCS bowl before a game is even played. Last year was a beautiful sight when Utah crashed the party and won the Fiesta Bowl but that was a once in a while occurrence. The big six BCS conferences have colluded to keep the "smaller" conferences out of the BCS picture. It is a situation of the haves and the have nots.The have nots have their bowl ties ins and the haves have the national championship, as well as the money that goes along with it. The way it is now we will not have programs like Miami or Florida State, teams that built a program from nothing and have become BCS powers. The BCS has made provisions for "smaller" schools to be able to play into the the bowl picture but it is not enough. What is enough is that BCS schools can schedule the smaller schools, as non conference games, beat them and leave. Every so often you have surprises such as UT-Memphis(1996) and Southern Miss-Nebraska (2004). What is the choice the non-BCS schools have but to play along because they need the buy games to support thier athletic budgets? So here is a compromise, allow the smaller schools to have thier bowl games and allow the BCS schools to have the playoffs. It is not like the smaller schools are even going to considered for the playoff in the first place, so think outside of the box. I see this as a win/win situation where everyone wins.

Memphis's Bowl Game

It looks like the Tigers are going to play another MAC team but instead of Mobile it will be played in the US's favorite tourist destination, Detroit.
That's right the Tigers will play the Akron Zips, on December 26 at 3pm, at Ford Field. So Tiger fans get out your shorts, beach towels, and hand guns because we are going to Detroit, Michigan.

Trite Language

I have had it with these half-wit football announcers and their language. I have to believe that their is either a book or a school that these sports announcers have access to because they all use the same trite language. Where are the modern day Grantland Rices? Why have networks dumbed down sports broadcasts to extent that a flee would feel smarter than the sports announcers? It amazes me that pundits say that US citizens are becoming smarter but our entertainment outputs are absolutely mind numbing. The sad thing is there is a trickle down effect in terms of sports presentation. It flows from the top. National broadcasters to local sports talk radio hosts. There is no end to absolute simple analysis being delivered by simple people. Here are some of the phrases that make wish that music would be played rather than having announcers:
Barn Burner
Duck( meaning a bad pass)
Call Off the Dogs
Get on a Roll
Any type of BCS debate
Frozen Rope
Clicking on All Cylinders
Trickeration/Tickery : There is no such thing as a trick play
Physicality
Big body/Big Boy/Big Fella
Good Hustle
Take It To Them
HeartBreaker
Battle In the Trenches
Quit Giving Up So Many Big Plays
Well Covered
Feel free to participate.

Deangelo Update

This week Deangelo Williams garnered two more awards when he was named CUSA Offensive Player of the Year for the 3rd time and he was named to the AFCA ALL-American Team with Reggie Bush sharing the backfield with him. Deangelo is the 1st player from Memphis to be named to this team. While we know that he isn't going to win the Heisman it is the hope, of all Memphis Fans, that he get invited to New York for the ceremony. While he won't win the Heisman he is in the running for the Doak Walker Award, which he is one of two backs that will win it, Reggie Bush being the other. We will keep our fingers crossed.