Showing posts with label college football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college football. Show all posts
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Article of the Day - Washington Post on Tebow Ad Controversy
This article gives some rare, lucid commentary on this "controversy," but suffice it to say, this is a macro level example of a micro level problem. People can't get over themselves. No one likes to admit that he or she is wrong. The point, in this context, is that people are so neurotic about being right that they can't process any viewpoint other than their own. I'm right, so everyone else must be wrong.
This controversy isn't about pro-life vs. pro-choice. Roe v. Wade was a groundbreaking piece of legislation that exists and is probably not going away any time soon. Whether you like it or not, that is the fact of the matter. It exists regardless of your beliefs.
So does the first amendment.
I'm as sick of the media fawning over Tim Tebow as anyone else. It's actually made me dislike an otherwise perfectly likable individual who has given his life and his passion to living his faith while competing at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics. My issue here is not with Tebow. It's with the media sycophants constantly kissing his ass and giving him a pass that other players didn't get. It's sickening, but now that they've put him on that pedestal, why is it a problem that he uses that to stand up for what he believes in? Isn't that what this country is all about?
People are trying to shut his ad down before it's even aired. Why? Because you don't like him? Because you can't relate to him? Because he's Mr. Perfect, and he makes you hate yourself a little? Maybe all of the above to an extent, but I think the real issue is that people can't climb out of their own little egocentric viewpoints long enough to realize that the truth only comes from multiple perspectives.
It's called freedom of speech, and it's one of the things that makes this country great. Tim Tebow can say whatever the hell he wants, and the fact that women's rights groups want to shut him down on the grounds of his statements being intolerant is nothing short of hypocritical.
Oh, by the way, it's also illegal.
Per the decision in another landmark supreme court case, Near v. Minnesota, prior restraint is unconstitutional. This commercial hasn't run, therefore tabling it before it does, is a no-no. Bitch and moan all you want, women's groups, but you have no legal basis to do so. You don't like it? Fork out some cash and air your own ad. It's the American way.
This is one post on which I would be very interested to see some comments. I know it's not as much fun as fortune cookies or one of my many bitterness-fueled rants.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
This controversy isn't about pro-life vs. pro-choice. Roe v. Wade was a groundbreaking piece of legislation that exists and is probably not going away any time soon. Whether you like it or not, that is the fact of the matter. It exists regardless of your beliefs.
So does the first amendment.
I'm as sick of the media fawning over Tim Tebow as anyone else. It's actually made me dislike an otherwise perfectly likable individual who has given his life and his passion to living his faith while competing at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics. My issue here is not with Tebow. It's with the media sycophants constantly kissing his ass and giving him a pass that other players didn't get. It's sickening, but now that they've put him on that pedestal, why is it a problem that he uses that to stand up for what he believes in? Isn't that what this country is all about?
People are trying to shut his ad down before it's even aired. Why? Because you don't like him? Because you can't relate to him? Because he's Mr. Perfect, and he makes you hate yourself a little? Maybe all of the above to an extent, but I think the real issue is that people can't climb out of their own little egocentric viewpoints long enough to realize that the truth only comes from multiple perspectives.
It's called freedom of speech, and it's one of the things that makes this country great. Tim Tebow can say whatever the hell he wants, and the fact that women's rights groups want to shut him down on the grounds of his statements being intolerant is nothing short of hypocritical.
Oh, by the way, it's also illegal.
Per the decision in another landmark supreme court case, Near v. Minnesota, prior restraint is unconstitutional. This commercial hasn't run, therefore tabling it before it does, is a no-no. Bitch and moan all you want, women's groups, but you have no legal basis to do so. You don't like it? Fork out some cash and air your own ad. It's the American way.
This is one post on which I would be very interested to see some comments. I know it's not as much fun as fortune cookies or one of my many bitterness-fueled rants.
Tebow's Super Bowl ad isn't intolerant; its critics are
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
I'll spit this out quick, before the armies of feminism try to gag me and strap electrodes to my forehead: Tim Tebow is one of the better things to happen to young women in some time. I realize this stance won't endear me to the "Dwindling Organizations of Ladies in Lockstep," otherwise known as DOLL, but I'll try to pick up the shards of my shattered feminist credentials and go on. (more)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Laaaaaaaane Kiffin
Laaaaaane f--kin' Kiffin (link NSFW) is the new football coach at USC. You may have heard this news break in the last 48 hours, provided you follow sports and/or don't live under a rock. While this has been met with some mild criticism in certain regions of the south...and...the rest of the country, including southern California. Here's what we know.
He brings in a legit staff with his dad and Orgeron. There was talk that he was trying to bring in Norm Chow to be his offensive coordinator, and from the start, I thought that was about as likely as me leaving the David James Agency to go become the sports information director at Crespi. Tomorrow.
To USC: Yes, there are NCAA secondary violations on his record from Tennessee. Yes, there are questions about his experience. We may even lose a handful of games next year. I know...God forbid. But will everyone please just calm down? We're turning this thing into the Salem Witch Trials all over again. Wait and see what happens before you go into a panic. If you're a real fan, you support your program. If you don't like the hire, fine. That's fair, but you're not in charge. Your choices are to either accept it, or abandon ship. If you're even considering abandoning ship, do it. We don't want you anyway, if that's the case.
To Tennessee: There is only one group of characters in this whole soap opera for whom I feel bad. The Tennessee football players. They got thrown under the bus. Plain and simple. But the fans who are rioting on the street and the athletic department that had jettisoned Phillip Fulmer the year before have no reason to expect loyalty. This is division I athletics. This is how things work. Never again will we see another Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno...at least not at that high profile of a program.
I said it to Trojan fans when the news first broke. Stop acting like a psycho ex-girlfriend. Colin Cowherd used a similar analogy on his show this morning: Tennessee is bent because Lane Kiffin dumped them before they could dump him. The end. That's it.
Don't feed me, a former D1 athlete, some line about loyalty in NCAA athletics. It, like the rest of the world, bows to the almighty dollar. And the almighty dollar comes from wins and marketability. That's what it's about. You want loyalty? Get a dog. Truth.
He brings in a legit staff with his dad and Orgeron. There was talk that he was trying to bring in Norm Chow to be his offensive coordinator, and from the start, I thought that was about as likely as me leaving the David James Agency to go become the sports information director at Crespi. Tomorrow.
To USC: Yes, there are NCAA secondary violations on his record from Tennessee. Yes, there are questions about his experience. We may even lose a handful of games next year. I know...God forbid. But will everyone please just calm down? We're turning this thing into the Salem Witch Trials all over again. Wait and see what happens before you go into a panic. If you're a real fan, you support your program. If you don't like the hire, fine. That's fair, but you're not in charge. Your choices are to either accept it, or abandon ship. If you're even considering abandoning ship, do it. We don't want you anyway, if that's the case.
To Tennessee: There is only one group of characters in this whole soap opera for whom I feel bad. The Tennessee football players. They got thrown under the bus. Plain and simple. But the fans who are rioting on the street and the athletic department that had jettisoned Phillip Fulmer the year before have no reason to expect loyalty. This is division I athletics. This is how things work. Never again will we see another Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno...at least not at that high profile of a program.
I said it to Trojan fans when the news first broke. Stop acting like a psycho ex-girlfriend. Colin Cowherd used a similar analogy on his show this morning: Tennessee is bent because Lane Kiffin dumped them before they could dump him. The end. That's it.
Don't feed me, a former D1 athlete, some line about loyalty in NCAA athletics. It, like the rest of the world, bows to the almighty dollar. And the almighty dollar comes from wins and marketability. That's what it's about. You want loyalty? Get a dog. Truth.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Article of the Day - SJ Going Home
Stafon Johnson to Head Home
By: Jonathan LloydUpdated 8:13 AM PDT, Wed, Oct 14, 2009
Two weeks after a heavily loaded barbell fell on his throat, USC tailback Stafon Johnson plans to leave the hospital
Doctors called Johnson's progress remarkable, considering his throat and larynx were almost completely crushed by the bar. He was expected to go home Wednesday.
In a Twitter post Tuesday, Johnson said, "CANT SWALLOW YET SOO DIDNT GET THE PLEASURE OF EAT THAT GREAT FOOD LOL."
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
More Stafon Coverage
The hard work he did ended up being what saved his life. Wow.
The USC running back was able to survive a weightlifting accident because the muscles around his neck helped him keep open a breathing passage, Dr. Gudata Hinika, trauma director at California Hospital Medical Center, said at a news conference today.
"Had that been any one of us, meaning me, I would not have survived," Hinika said. "His neck was so solid and so muscular, that actually helped maintain his airway."
Johnson was injured Monday during a weightlifting session. He was performing a "bench press" lift when the bar apparently slipped from his hand and landed on his throat. Initially spitting blood from his nose and mouth, he was rushed by ambulance to the hospital, where he underwent more then seven hours of surgery.
Full article here.
Stafon Johnson's fitness saved his life, doctor says
Stafon Johnson's fitness saved his life.The USC running back was able to survive a weightlifting accident because the muscles around his neck helped him keep open a breathing passage, Dr. Gudata Hinika, trauma director at California Hospital Medical Center, said at a news conference today.
"Had that been any one of us, meaning me, I would not have survived," Hinika said. "His neck was so solid and so muscular, that actually helped maintain his airway."
Johnson was injured Monday during a weightlifting session. He was performing a "bench press" lift when the bar apparently slipped from his hand and landed on his throat. Initially spitting blood from his nose and mouth, he was rushed by ambulance to the hospital, where he underwent more then seven hours of surgery.
Full article here.
Article of the Day - SJ to Make Full Recovery
USC football: Tailback Stafon Johnson's prognosis for full recovery is good
September 29, 2009 | 6:37 am
Johnson, a senior, was injured while performing a bench-press exercise in USC's weight room below Heritage Hall. The school said an assistant strength and conditioning coach was acting as a spotter for Johnson, but the bar accidentally fell on Johnson's throat.
Full article here.Far and away the best birthday present I could have gotten!
Monday, September 28, 2009
You Never Know...
Once upon a time, I was an athlete. I played baseball in college at USC and in the summers in Duluth, Minn. While it made sense to me that fans in Duluth (where I actually saw the field) would ask for autographs and high fives and such, I never understood why anyone cared about someone who lived in the virtual anonymity that I did at SC.
Until this happened to one of my favorite players today. Then it made sense.
Fans identify with athletes for different reasons--not always associated directly with on-field performance. Stafon Johnson happens to be an outstanding running back, and I would argue the best of the bunch at SC. I am, however, nowhere near impartial. He's my favorite player, but his on-field performance is only a small part of that story.
When I was in school at SC being the anonymous student-athlete that I was, I spent Friday nights during the fall covering high school football for the Los Angeles Daily News. As a matter of convenience, whenever one of the teams from the DN's coverage area (the valley) would play Dorsey High School, I would take that game since it was right down the street. My junior year at SC, I watched Sylmar get shredded on the ground by a running back tandem that included a polite, otherwise unassuming sophomore running back--Stafon Johnson.
When I was trolling the sidelines before games when teams are warming up and doing their thing, I would talk to players when I was able to do so without being a distraction. Some were rude. This one wasn't. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was a sophomore on the varsity club. Maybe it was because I was a reporter, and he thought I would give him some good coverage in the paper.
I don't believe either of those for a second.
I believe Stafon Johnson is a good kid.
It's been well-documented that he had some struggles at SC when he wasn't getting many touches as a freshman, and he was discouraged. Who wouldn't be? He went from being the man in high school to being a face in the crowd (and seemingly on the fringes even at that). Oh yeah, the opening day starter that year was a kid from the same Sylmar team he had run wild on in the game I covered in 2003--C.J. Gable. That's tough on a kid trying to transition into life in college and living in the fishbowl that is the USC athletics department.
He didn't pull a Whitney Lewis and fade into obscurity or quit (or whatever the hell happened to Whitney Lewis).
He didn't pull an Emmanuel Moody and transfer.
He worked harder, and he kept at it until he became one of the go-to guys. What a cruel irony it is that he sustains a horrible and life-threatening injury from a freak accident doing exactly what it was he did to achieve his goal of being a top back at USC--working.
I had extremely limited interaction with Stafon Johnson on the field at Dorsey High School in 2003, but he earned himself a fan for life. I realize now that this brief interaction with that anonymous beat reporter on that anonymous fall day was why. I guess even from anonymity can come an enormous impact.
There are a number of elements in this story that hit close to home with me. Obviously there is the USC student-athlete connection, but the story outlined above is one that no one really knows. I am praying that Stafon Johnson is able to fight on and battle through adversity. After all, it's nothing he hasn't done before.
Until this happened to one of my favorite players today. Then it made sense.
Fans identify with athletes for different reasons--not always associated directly with on-field performance. Stafon Johnson happens to be an outstanding running back, and I would argue the best of the bunch at SC. I am, however, nowhere near impartial. He's my favorite player, but his on-field performance is only a small part of that story.
When I was in school at SC being the anonymous student-athlete that I was, I spent Friday nights during the fall covering high school football for the Los Angeles Daily News. As a matter of convenience, whenever one of the teams from the DN's coverage area (the valley) would play Dorsey High School, I would take that game since it was right down the street. My junior year at SC, I watched Sylmar get shredded on the ground by a running back tandem that included a polite, otherwise unassuming sophomore running back--Stafon Johnson.
When I was trolling the sidelines before games when teams are warming up and doing their thing, I would talk to players when I was able to do so without being a distraction. Some were rude. This one wasn't. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was a sophomore on the varsity club. Maybe it was because I was a reporter, and he thought I would give him some good coverage in the paper.
I don't believe either of those for a second.
I believe Stafon Johnson is a good kid.
It's been well-documented that he had some struggles at SC when he wasn't getting many touches as a freshman, and he was discouraged. Who wouldn't be? He went from being the man in high school to being a face in the crowd (and seemingly on the fringes even at that). Oh yeah, the opening day starter that year was a kid from the same Sylmar team he had run wild on in the game I covered in 2003--C.J. Gable. That's tough on a kid trying to transition into life in college and living in the fishbowl that is the USC athletics department.
He didn't pull a Whitney Lewis and fade into obscurity or quit (or whatever the hell happened to Whitney Lewis).
He didn't pull an Emmanuel Moody and transfer.
He worked harder, and he kept at it until he became one of the go-to guys. What a cruel irony it is that he sustains a horrible and life-threatening injury from a freak accident doing exactly what it was he did to achieve his goal of being a top back at USC--working.
I had extremely limited interaction with Stafon Johnson on the field at Dorsey High School in 2003, but he earned himself a fan for life. I realize now that this brief interaction with that anonymous beat reporter on that anonymous fall day was why. I guess even from anonymity can come an enormous impact.
There are a number of elements in this story that hit close to home with me. Obviously there is the USC student-athlete connection, but the story outlined above is one that no one really knows. I am praying that Stafon Johnson is able to fight on and battle through adversity. After all, it's nothing he hasn't done before.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Article of the Day - AP Poll (Week One)
NEW YORK (AP) -- BYU jumped 11 spots to No. 9 and Alabama received two first-place votes Tuesday in the first regular-season AP Top 25.
The Cougars pulled the biggest upset of the opening weekend of the college football season, beating Oklahoma 14-13 on Saturday. Sooners Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford was knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury late in the first half. Oklahoma dropped 10 spots from No. 3 to No. 13.
Florida was still an overwhelming No. 1, receiving 56 of 60 first-place votes. Texas held steady at No. 2, with two first-place votes.
USC will be No. 3 when it visits No. 8 Ohio State on Saturday in one of the biggest nonconference games of the season. The Trojans moved up a spot this week and the Buckeyes fell two after withstanding a strong test from Navy and winning 31-27.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Video of the Day - Happy Football Season!
If this doesn't fire you up, you're either a bruin/irish supporter, you hate football or you are dead. Fight on, y'all!
Addendum: If you listen carefully during "Tusk" you can hear the student section version of the words that includes the "U-C-L-A SUCKS" call. I love it!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Things that are Overrated
This also promises to be a series. Today's topic: the NFL. Yes, yesterday was a "pedestrian" day of college football. I realized today, though, that even in the shadow of that soft NCAA effort, the NFL is still nowhere near as much fun as college football. Zero movement in the BCS standings for the top nine teams...kind of like the yards accumulated by NFL offenses. Booooooooriiiiiiiing. ZZZZZZzzzzzzz...wake me up when it's Saturday again.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
College Football Saturday
On a Saturday which features what has been described by pretty much everyone as a fairly pedestrian slate of college football games, Oregon State and Cal are doing pretty much nothing to debunk the national perception that no one in the Pac plays defense. South Carolina is doing nothing to refute that this college football season is nothing more than a coronation of Florida, and Michigan has (once again) proven that they are the worst Michigan team in the school's history. Ho hum.
ADDENDUM: USC offense looking shitty. Again. When are people going to figure out that Mark Sanchez is not that good? Bigger problem: defense is joining them in looking shitty.
SUNDAY ADDENDUM: At least special teams sacked up and kept us in it until the offense could get it together.
ADDENDUM: USC offense looking shitty. Again. When are people going to figure out that Mark Sanchez is not that good? Bigger problem: defense is joining them in looking shitty.
SUNDAY ADDENDUM: At least special teams sacked up and kept us in it until the offense could get it together.
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