Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bill Simmons, ESPN, MLB, NBA, NFL, Sports, The Sports Guy
I wrote this last month.
I’m not a sports fan. Actually, I haven’t been a sports fan in two years. Not since October 27, 2006, when the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. Maybe I was a sports fan on June 17, 2008, when the Boston Celtics won their first NBA Finals in 22 years, but that was inevitable: that was the first time I was able to see them win a title in my lifetime, and not to mention the fact that it was kind of like vicariously cheering in place of my father, as we used to watch several Celtics games during the last couple of years of his life.
“You aren’t a sports fan?,” you kind of say and ask at the same time. “Then, well, you watch sports and cheer for teams, don’t you?” Yes, I do watch sports and I do in fact cheer for teams, but that doesn’t hold much merit. I consider myself an objective observer, reviewer, and critic when it comes to sports. I take pride and enjoyment in the fact that I can bash athletes and whittle their well-being to a pulp with a matter of a few flicks of a keyboard. It’s freakin’ power. And people hate that I can do it so well. Sports fans hate when I do this, and usually come up with an uneducated retort when they notice I’m bashing one of their favorite teams or athletes.
Fans who try to push their team on you aggravate me. Ohio State Buckeyes, Oakland Raiders, Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics (yes, even the modern day Celtics bandwagoners who didn’t give a flip about the team during the 2006-2007 campaign), New York Yankees, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, etc. It’s all the same. Every one of the fans who push their teams upon others are usually young and ignorant when they are speaking of sports. They are biased, homertistic, bombast sports fans instead of well-informed, understanding, intelligent critics and observers.
I posted this after visiting an MLB forum, reading people’s thoughts on the [Boston] Red Sox/Tampa Bay Rays ALCS. Instead of reading well-informed, objective posts, all I read was a load of “HAHA GO SAWX,” posted by a Red Sox fan. Then a big ol’ “LAWLZ LAWLZ LAWLZ THE BLOW SAWX SUX0RZ,” posted by a Rays bandwagoner who just started liking the Rays in May or June. They went back and forth. A state of pathetic atrocity. Idiots. Why can’t we all get an objective view of sports and stay there?
People need to feel like they belong somehow. Notice that sports fans always say, “WE scored a touchdown, WE are number one in the NFC. . .” like they actually put down the nachos for more than two seconds themselves to waddle out onto a football field and pat an offensive lineman on the ass. I think the mentality goes back to the old territorial caveman thing where, “If you degrade MY clan (team), then you threaten my existence (ego).”
I watch sports because I enjoy the excitement that goes along with it. I love watching talented athletes prove their worth on a field, court, etc. The best reason to say I love sports would have to be the bashing athletes side effect. I don’t know if there’s many things more fun than bashing an athlete or a team for doing something irrefutably stupid, while they’re being paid a horde of millions to play in a respective sport.
Those people who seem to be bashing Bill Simmons around every corner are about as ignorant as anybody can be.
Everyone who rips Bill Simmons would trade places with him 0.3 seconds if given the chance.
What’s happened with Bill is that he was on top for a while, and as with everyone that’s been on top for a while, eventually people get sick of seeing said person on top and begin to rip them. It happens in music, movies, and most of all sports.
Here’s a novel idea: if you no longer like Bill Simmons, stop fucking talking about him! Don’t read him, don’t make blog posts about him, don’t even visit ESPN.com. It’s the same about the people who are still bitter about my departure from SLAM Online. Move on.
You know what you’re getting with Simmons at this point. He has a formula and it works for him. People need to stop acting so surprised at the things he writes about.
A sportswriter is the most hated career title in America. People will read your column and decide that they hate you. You’re either loved or you’re hated. And it’s great. It’s kind of like when Howard Cosell was voted the most loved sportswriter and the most hated sportswriter in the same year.
That’s why I’m a perennial sportswriter. Not a sports fan.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Albert Haynesworth, Bill Belichick, Chris Johnson, Football, Jeff Fisher, LenDale White, National Football League, New England Patriots, NFL, Sports, Tennessee Titans
I’m a die-hard and dedicated St. Louis Rams/Miami Dolphins fan. And let me tell you that the way I use ‘love’ in the headline of this blog isn’t the way you’re thinking. I don’t consider the Tennesee Titans a favorite team of mine; I just love watching ‘em play.
You see Kerry Collins out there, and your instant, face-value thought has to be, “Whoa? What? Is this the same guy whose career had seemingly washed up in Oakland a couple of years ago when Randy Moss was being labeled as the scapegoat of the team?”
Yes, it is the same Kerry Collins. This Collins, however, is only having to do simplistic things. In Oakland he had to dispatch the ball to all quarters of the field. Not to mention he had nothing to work with there, except a dissatisifed Randy Moss. In Tennessee, his job is simple. With a formidable o-line, his goal is to hand the ball off to rookie Chris Johnson and three-year-back LenDale White, and make little mistakes. It’s been a tentative process, but it’s worked out ever since the Titans decided to bench the emotion-rattled Vince Young.
I got a good look at Chris Johnson in the pre-season when the Rams ventured to Nashville to play the Titans, as Johnson romped the Rams for over 100 yards combined, 77 of those 100 yards being rushing. Johnson is an elusive speedster out of East Carolina University.
A lot of people are touting the Titans as overrated, but with all due respect to the 2007 New England Patriots, I enjoy watching the 2008 Titans a hell of a lot more when there are no perennial qualms leaning over the team’s head. Must be because I’ve always been a fan of Jeff Fisher’s classy attitude and stalwart coaching. He should be a model for all coaches in the league (Patriots fans, Doug Baker alike, are all gritting their teeth at that statement as it indirectly shuns Bill Belichick).
I’m not even going to depict the Titans defense. Their success is obvious. Albert Haynesworth, known notoriously for his head stomp a couple of years ago, has aligned himself as one of the best if not the best defensive tackle in the league.
Many props to the thus-far undefeated Tennessee Titans.
One thing I wonder: if they had had some overly moderate success the past couple of years, would they have garnered any kind of negative attention this year as the 2007 Patriots received?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2009, High School, Public Speaking, School, School Life, Senior Year, Seniors, Speaking, Speeches, Teens
I depart from high school in May/June ‘09.
After ‘carefully’ observing every senior throughout the school, my English teacher finds it suffice that I write a speech and orate it when graduation rolls around.
While it’s a huge honor, who’s a guy like me to sum up four years of high school in which he did not enjoy altogether, not to mention muse on memories that are of pissing people off?
High school wasn’t incredibly bad. The problems are self evident. I got tired of listening to the same people run their mouths every day of the week. It’s going to be the same thing in the workforce, I know, but I’m prepared. However, let me continue this quick, incoherent rant of mine.
Anyway, like I was saying, high school itself wasn’t incredibly bad. I had a few ‘real’ friends who didn’t go out of their way to wear pseudo shirts from Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, American Eagle, and all of that other android-magnet junk. Some of them dropped out and received their GEDs. Now in my senior year, the only ones left from the ‘real’ friends field are in other classes or spending more-so of their time in vocational.
It’s not that I’m scared to deliver a speech in what could be the most important in my life (when I become a full-time, full-paid sportswriter, it will be a norm); it’s just that I have no clue how I’m going to be able to sum up these four years since 2005. It’s tough when you haven’t exactly gotten along with everybody you have made eye contact with inside this prison that is labeled as ’school.’
I never molded into any of the stereotypical groups here. Not a prep, because I’m not obsessed with myself (well, not too much — wink, wink) nor do I make sure I’m wearing sexy clothes every day (I have more things to burn my time with). Not a nerd, because, well, how many broad-shouldered, muscular 6′3-6′4 198 lb. sports-watching/occasionally playing nerds do you witness on an average; not to mention I’m not obsessed with science nor do I read things like “the history of the dandelion.” Not an emo, because I don’t cut myself nor waste my time cussing the world and blaming everything on everybody else instead of taking responsibility for my own actions. Not a skater, because — to me — skateboards are quite boring and the whole ’skater’ stereotype is more lame than trying to tell people that you want to be the next Howard Stern.
If you wanted to label me as anything, I guess you would have had the most success with labeling me as a jock, though that’s not functional either.
So forget all of that.
I take a great amount of fun in irritating people and poking fun at them. Not to make them mad. Wait, I was lying — I DO in fact do it to make them mad. But the only people I intend to make mad are those that have their noses stuck so far in the air that, if it rained, they would drown. Not to mention people who have no sense of humor kill me. I get called an ‘asshole’ a lot, but it’s amusing.
Still, after everything I’ve written above, my English teacher — who chooses who delivers a speech for each respective graduation every year — believes I’m the best to do it. It’s an honor to do so, as I said, but it’s going to be a tentative process seeing as my incompetent ability to sum up these four years of high school is as elucidative as anything Don Imus has attempted to say on radio shows the past two years.
People tell me that I’m charismatic and have a confident aura to me in my own regard, that it helps perpetuate my voice and add to what I say.
Maybe I haven’t paid attention to that when I talk.
We’ll see when I pontificate on the four years (2005-2009).
You have to look at the situation here.
Does television really rot someone’s mind? Or is it some huge facade that media outlets have made up to run news sources about to get everybody to read or look into it.
I’m not sure. Really, though, you tell me.
Television has gone a long, long way to becoming the most popular brand of entertainment — besides video games — there is. It’s been that way since the the 1950s, when black and white screens rocked the world. Before that it was radios. After radios, it was television.
I’m not talking about anything you watch; I’m talking about shows that draw you in and keep you watching all day long.
I don’t watch a lot of television. I’ll tune into some sports games I find to be marquee or I’ll occasionally check out what’s on Comedy Central. Other than that, what’s on my television screen is usually a movie from one of my several DVDs that I own.
The question here is: does TV really rot people’s minds?
You have to have facts and statistics here to really determine, but I don’t have either; yet I still want to go inside the situation here and attempt to figure out the correlation between disfunctional braincells and television.
Your mind is usually active when you’re watching TV (albeit not as much as when you’re reading), but it’s a passive process. You’re sitting there and your eyes are glued to whatever is going on on the screen.
When you’re watching sports, you gain more of a perspective (determined by who’s playing, though). When you’re watching CNN, you get your news and your information on what’s going on around the world. But if you’re watching cartoons or MTV, then get the hell off the two channels.
The fact that I directly formed a rapport between cartoons and MTV is a pretty harsh thing for me to do, but it stands true. Cartoons can be watched by anyone, but if you spend an entire day watching cartoons, your mind may start to deterioriate. As for MTV, it’s no longer completely music. You have pop culture turned into fashion statements on there, and it’s a pretty bogus television station.
Maybe I’m naive and ignorant, or perhaps this is just a biased and wistful observation anyway. Nonetheless, I don’t think TV rots people’s minds — I think it’s what people watch on TV that does.
Agree or disagree? Sound off via comments.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Basketball, Comedy, Humor, National Basketball Association, NBA, Phoenix Suns, Pictures, San Antonio Spurs, Satire, Shaquille O'Neal, Sports, Spurs, Steve Nash, Suns, Tim Duncan
Tim Duncan hitting a three against the Suns that sent Phoenix into their yearly ‘We hate San Antonio’ mode.
*To view the picture in its entirety, right click it and click “view image.” That is if you have Firefox. If you have Internet Explorer, then screw you! Download Firefox then view the picture.)
Tim Duncan nails a 3 against the Phoenix Suns in game one in the first round of the 2008 Western Conference playoffs
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: band, colorguard, festivals, marching, marching season, parades
As we near the end of marching band season (1 WEEK YAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAY!), I guess I should put what I’ve learned from it all.
1- Band people will never respect the colorguard.
2- I don’t like the sophomores.
3- I REALLY don’t like Daniel Pennington (band volunteer).
4- “Festivals” are not very festive.
5- Parades are no longer fun.
6- Especially when you have to march behind the Clermont Equestrian Association.
7- 29 out of the 32 girls on Colorguard get on my nerves.
8- The band director is crazy.
9- No matter how hard we practice (we’re up to 20 hours a week), there is ALWAYS a band that works harder than us.
10- When you sign up for band/guard, you automatically sign your life and energy over to the band director.
Anyways, I’m off to Naples, Florida. A 4/12 hour drive. I’ll be back around 2 or 3 AM. Next week, though, it’s from 5 AM to 2 AM the next day. If it wasn’t near the end of marching season, I would probably kill myself.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Love, Life, quitters, winners, miss, most amazing guy in the world
Quitting is just too easy.
There are two types of people in this world: quitters, and the ones who stick it out.
Those who give up on everything in life never get anything out of it. They may be saving themselves from pain, but in the end, they don’t get anything.
Those who stick it out are the ones who reap the rewards. They get all the glory, they’re the ones who succeed in life. Granted, it took a LOT of hard work, and they suffered a LOT of heartbreak to get where they are, but they earned it.
I mean, look at me and Troy. I got grounded because my parents found out I’d been talking to someone I met online, and we aren’t going to be able to talk regularly for about a month or two. It would be easy for us to say, “Hey, I’m getting bored of waiting, I think I’ll just move on.” But no, we love each other too much. Right now, I’m doing everything in my power just to hear his voice. If I gave up RIGHT NOW, I may be able to save myself from the ups and downs that every relationship has, but I would miss out on having the most AMAZING GUY IN THE WORLD be a (huge!) part of my life.
So, bottom line, don’t give up. On anything. Ever.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blogging, Life, Rambling, Ranting, Writing
Every day I’m bombarded with ramblings by people who won’t shut the hell up about anything and everything, meaning they complain, and it’s all a bunch of redundant drivel all the while, y’know?
I’m tired of people bitching about things and I’m tired of bitching about people who bitch about things. I say:
GIVE ME SOMETHING NEW!
What the fuck is up with everyone? Can’t you just deal with life? Is it hard to get over the fact that you’re too lazy and it’s your fault for not eating less M&M’s instead of exercising? For the love of Larry Bird! I lost my uncle when I was 10, grandmother when I was 11, father when I was 12, friend when I was 15, another friend at the same age, and one of my best friends when I was 16. All the while being young. I’m 17 now. I’ve delt with it.
One day I’m going to get married to the love of my life, the beautiful Rebekka, have kids, make hordes of money, and live a great life with her no matter what, even if it doesn’t start out that way at the beginning.
And guess what? If that fucks up, then I’m going to eventually get over it, and transcend my life better than I could before. It’s just I’m that kind of guy who thrives when a challenge is placed upon a perch in his life.
Boo-hoo, my cat was run over when I backed out of the driveway in my over-sized SUV. Waaah, I made a 95 for an A instead of at least a 99. RARW, I dislike the American government because I helped elect the same guy twice.
You hear the above become tasteless jargon all the time, and it makes me want to leap off a bridge (NOTE: I wouldn’t though).
This rant is virtually dead. I have no more to say.
