Archive for December, 2009

The Indianapolis Colts Owe Us a Refund

By | December 30, 2009 | Football, Unsportmanlike Conduct | 7 Comments

Yes, it’s taken me THREE DAYS to pull myself together enough to form a coherent thought after the BLASPHEMY that took place on Sunday’s Colt’s Game.

Now I’m not some nutball zealot who doesn’t understand that there is a time and a place to pull a starter. Favre was getting beat up on a couple of weeks ago. He got pulled. He wasn’t happy. But his coach saw something that Favre’s ego wasn’t dialing in – he was vulnerable. And wasn’t being effective. Rather than risk your QB and continue to be ineffective that was really probably a good time to pull him over to the sidelines if for nothing else than a philosophical discussion about WHY starters get pulled.

This isn’t that situation. The Colts had the LEAD when Manning was pulled, along with other starters – and now for Colts President to come out and say it was NEVER their plan to have a 16-0 season, it was to win the AFC South….well it’s got some of us thinking.

Most of us are going WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

Oh – so it was your plan to LOSE? That’s sort of what you are saying there Bill. You’re calling this loss “inconsequential” but you are looking at it with the wrong eyes.

Sports might be business but in fact the rules of SPORTSMANSHIP are in play during each game, in varying degrees obviously. And what is an important rule?

WE PLAY TO WIN THE GAME.

Do you know what it is called when you just let the game go? It’s called CHEATING! Ask the Black Sox. Bill Polian is saying that winning that game wasn’t important – which means that he’s basically letting us all know that they weren’t interested in winning.

Hey – scrubs who haven’t touched a football all year- get on the field! You’re in!

The city of Indianapolis is RIGHTEOUSLY offended to the point that Beurt SerVaas (former councilman and the GUY WHO ARRANGED THE MOVING TRUCKS TO BRING THE COLTS TO INDY) says that the Colts Organization owes fans a REFUND.

Do you know why it matters, Bill Polian and anyone else who is listening? It matters because we loved and supported you WHEN YOU SUCKED. Through Jeff George and Jim Harbaugh – through the years when a winning season wasn’t even a glimmer we loved you. We held on and we gave you our loyalty and our faith that SOMEDAY there would be a team to be proud of.

And you broke that trust Sunday by saying a win didn’t matter.

YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME.

YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME.

Yeah, you do owe Indy fans a refund for that bullshit move. My husband went and watched the game in a bar. You may send me a check for the beer he drank.

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[play to win the game rap DJ Steveporter via Inside the NFL]

Six Troubling Trends in Women’s Sports

By | December 29, 2009 | Women's Sports | 6 Comments

I just read the greatest post on troubling trends in women’s sports. I know that what I just wrote  sounds oxymoronic, but it is true. There is an article on Fair Game News that is entitled “Six troubled trends in women’s sports (and what we can do) and it really struck home with me.

The post is so great that I would love to just copy and paste it here but I am pretty sure that is illegal and I am 100% positive that it is unethical, but I still want to go over all six points.

1) Ignoring the athletic development of girls. Okay parents, this is on us. How many of us sign our sons up for flag football and our daughters up for ballet? Yeah. Me too. But I always ask my daughter if she wants to play the sport to and if she says yes she is in. I recently convinced my daughter to take Tae Kwon Do with her brother. I know it isn’t ice hockey but it will make her stronger.

This is an easy fix. We just need to think of our daughter’s as potential athletes and not just dancers. (Not that dance can’t be athletic, you know what I mean.)

2) The financial devaluation of women in sport. This one just makes me mad.The average salary in the NBA is $ 4,900,000 the average salary for a player in the WNBA is $ 55,000.

It isn’t just basketball either. Golf, professional soccer and even tennis (although that has been getting better) all have skewed pay rates depending on gender.

How can we make this one better. Again, easy: Support women’s sports. Go see a WNBA or WPS game. Go to see the women’s team play at your local college or high school. Money in, money out.

3) Single Sex Sports – especially in grade school. Well let’s just not let this happen. You can’t tell me that a seven year old girl can’t play soccer, or hockey or baseball, or golf as well as a seven year old boy. I have boy/girl twins and nobody can convince me that my daughter isn’t as fast or strong as my son, so why should we be brainwashing children that they need to be separate? We shouldn’t.

4) “Lady”-name-the-mascot. I hate this. It has always seemed so pandering. Like the original post says:

What’s wrong: Until we’re ready to put the label “gentlemen” before college mascots (say the Tennessee Gentlemen Volunteers, the Gentlemen Blue Devils?) modifying only the women’s team nicknames creates, enforces, and publicizes a second class status. What to do: Call both teams by the same mascot name and bet most fans will know the difference.

Let’s give fans the benefit of the doubt. They should be able to figure out if the team is comprised of men, women, or both based on context clues.

5) The pink-if-fication of sport equipment and wear – for females.

This is one of my pet peeves. Why would you wear this:

When you could be wearing this?

Look! The second one is in the team’s colors and everything.

I like pink as much as the next girly girl. I am wearing a pink shirt as I type this, but my Buccaneers jersey is garnet and pewter and my UCF jersey is black and gold. If you are going to support the team wearing the team colors is a great way to show them you are a fan. Wearing a pink jersey is a good way to show them you are there to look cute.

And if you are a Red Wings fan and you look terrible in red there are away jerseys too. The white one with red writing is just as good.

Seriously ladies, unless you are supporting breast cancer awareness, please just buy a jersey in the team colors. They make them in women’s cuts now so that they fit better.

6) Hot Pants for playing.  And this goes for skimpy uniforms too. I’m looking at you beach volleyball. And tennis.

Again, I will defer to the author of the original post:

What’s wrong: Uniforms that are more about sex appeal than athletic zeal (and free movement) mark women’s sports as entertainment of the wrong sort. What to do: No one says you have to wear granny rags to work out or play, but respect yourself as an athlete. Who wants to slide into third wearing hot pants (and whose idea are shorts in softball anyhow?)?

Right. Looking nice is fine, but what you wear to play should make sense with the sport and be comfortable. I know that a lot of these athletes have killer bodies but they can wear some nice athletic wear to the match and a little spandex dress to a club that night. If I had a body like Anna Kournikova I would be tempted to wear a bikini to the grocery store, but I wouldn’t actually do it because it is inappropriate for the venue. The same should apply to sports. Then maybe women’s sports would get a little bit more respect.

_______

Originally written for and cross posted on BlogHer.com

Meyer pulls a Favre

By | December 27, 2009 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

Urban Meyer has now said that he will only take a leave of absence from his head coaching position with the Florida Gators.

Yesterday, he announced that he would resign his position.

I have a feeling it’s going to be a long week. Stay tuned, as Meyer will be holding a press conference later today when the team arrives in New Orleans.

Should we be taking bets as to whether he stays, or goes, or something else?

Michael Vick a Profile In Courage, Eagles Say

By | December 26, 2009 | Football | 6 Comments

The Philadelphia Eagles unanimously nominated quarterback Michael Vick as their team’s 2009 recipient of the NFL’s Ed Block Courage Award. The Eagles said in a statement:

Each year, the Ed Block Courage Award honors those National Football League players who exemplify commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage. They are selected in a vote by their teammates for team effort as well as individual performance.

This is a weighty honor, especially considering that Vick has only played in 12 games with the Eagles so far since joining the team this season following his release from jail for his role in running a dog-fighting ring on his Virginia property.

Michael_Vick_Eagles

Much has been said and written about Vick and his return to the NFL, even more than a few words on this Web site. He has served his time and returned to his previous employer for a million-dollar-plus salary, which is a lot more than most convicted felons can say – particularly just a few months out of jail.

What I’m struggling with is the concept of courage and Vick’s own willingness to bang the drum of how deserving he is.

“I’ve overcome a lot, more than probably one single individual can handle or bear,” Vick said. “You ask certain people to walk through my shoes, they probably couldn’t do. Probably 95 percent of the people in this world because nobody had to endure what I’ve been through, situations I’ve been put in, situations I put myself in and decisions I have made, whether they have been good or bad.

“Probably 95 percent of the people in this world because nobody had to endure what I’ve been through…”

Hold on. Cut. Um, people go through stuff, Michael. People all over the world deal with terrible things every day that they totally didn’t inflict upon themselves, hear? They might not have to go to JAIL, no. They might not have to face losing bajillions of dollars they were never going to make in the first place. They might not have PETA on their asses, right. But they deal with things. You might even know some of them.

He went on to say that he needed to continue proving himself, yes, so I think he maybe 30 percent gets it, maybe, I’m not at all proficient in math, but I still don’t get this award, and I do not in any way, shape or form understand the Philadelphia Eagles although I know some pretty hard core fans who still nonetheless do not like to speak of Vick at all. Seriously. Super quiet, quieter than Redskins people.

Really? I don’t have to actively rail against Michael Vick, no. But I am equally opposed to supporting him, or anyone who was ever responsible for such a thing. There are so many people out there to support who never found it necessary to engage in such horrific activities. I can leave him to his devices and let him do what he does, as he’s been allowed to do by the NFL, but I still have to wonder about him and courage existing in the same sentence just yet, much less standing on a stage receiving an award for it.

I just don’t think that walking back on the field is necessarily courageous, when it’s his job and he was lucky to get one. I’ve heard him talking a lot but the test of time hasn’t shown the extent of his capabilities or his rehabilitation.

I also have to wonder what other examples of courage exist on the Eagles roster, if Vick’s was sufficient to beat them all.

Vick will be honored along with players from each of the other NFL teams at a March banquet in Baltimore.

Photo credit: Nflfootball2.blogspot.com

Meyer to step down as Florida head coach

By | December 26, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

On Saturday, Urban Meyer announced that he will step down as the head coach of the University of Florida Gators, after discussing the matter with his family.

Meyer had been admitted to the hospital after the SEC title game with chest pains, and has been diagnosed with a heart valve muscle defect.

Meyer will retire after coaching the Gators in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2010. In the 5 years since he took over the Florida program he has accumulated a 95-18 record with 2 National Titles, and 3 National Coach of the Year Awards.

source-ESPN.com

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