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(09/24/14 6:22pm)
After another week of turmoil in the NFL, it’s great to hear more stories like this amidst all the chaos. The NFL has had many notable pairs of brothers: the Mannings, the Barbers and many others. But how many brothers could say they gave up their NFL career to help their brother in need?
That’s what Ravens nose guard, Ma’ake Kemoeatu, did for his brother Chris. Chris Kemoeatu, a former guard for the Steelers, had been suffering from kidney problems since his adolescent years, but his kidney problems finally cut his career short when he needed a transplant at 31 — a year and a half ago.
When his brother had to retire from the league and needed a kidney transplant, Ma’ake immediately stepped up and offered to give his kidney to his brother. Once he found his kidney was a match, he immediately gave his football career up at age 35 to help his brother.
“As soon as my brother’s health was at risk, I wanted to stop everything,” Ma’ake said. “He couldn’t play anymore, and I didn’t want to be in a position where he couldn’t play but I’d keep playing.”
The brothers have been prepping for this transplant for the past 18 months, and the transplant finally took place this past week at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
The surgeon, Dr. Stephen Bartlett, said the surgery went well and that both brothers will have a healthy recovery. Chris said that his brother giving him his kidney was a humbling experience and brought them much closer.
There are a lot of other issues in the league right now, but the story about the Kemoeatus is something special that makes the whole world smile at the sports world.
(09/24/14 6:21pm)
If you tuned in Friday afternoon to watch NFL commissioner Roger Goodell address the media following these nightmare couple of weeks for the NFL, you wasted 45 minutes of your life.
After days of hiding from the media, he spent the entire press conference continuing to dodge the media with his answers to their questions. He had an opportunity to regain some credibility for the league by properly handling these important questions, but once again, Goodell dropped the ball.
Following the release of the second Ray Rice video, Goodell has insisted that the NFL work toward becoming more transparent. He talked about transparency frequently in the press conference, as well, but he was anything but transparent in his answers to the media. This was most evident when he was asked what Ray Rice had told him at their original meeting following the release of the first elevator video.
Goodell said the reason he extended Rice’s suspension from the original two games was because Rice had not been completely upfront with him about his actions in the casino elevator, although Rice claims he told the commissioner exactly what happened when they first met. This was his opportunity to give a little insight into his side of the story, but he hid behind the appeal of the NFL Players’ Association on Rice’s behalf.
Throughout Goodell’s tenure as commissioner, he has consistently made a big deal of personal accountability. When a player claims they didn’t know a banned substance was in his body, Goodell would say that that isn’t an excuse. When Saints coach Sean Payton didn’t know about Bounty Gate going on in his locker room, Goodell famously said “ignorance is not an excuse.”
My question, and the question many other people in the sports world have, is this: Where’s your personal accountability, Mr. Commissioner? Someone in the league office knew something about the tape. Goodell said about a couple dozen times in the press conference that he messed up the Rice situation, but admitting you made a mistake isn’t always good enough, as I’m sure many players penalized by Goodell can attest to.
Other topics that Goodell brought up frequently in this press conference were the NFL establishing new committees to aid in creating conduct policies and the independent investigation of ex-FBI director Robert Muller.
The problem was, he never went into details on either of these topics, or any other topics for that matter. Who will be on these committees and what exactly will they do? What will his role be in the committee selecting process, committee decision making process and in this investigation? He’s making the committees and investigation sound more like a PR stunt rather than a tool to actually make a change in the league.
How can Roger Goodell keep insisting that he has no intention of resigning? Even if he is to stay on as commissioner, how can the league keep running the way it currently is with him as the judge, jury and executioner in everything player conduct related? Where are the checks and balances to ensure the decisions and actions of the league office are in line?
When CNN’s Rachel Nichols asked about his dictator-like control of league discipline and what changes were to be made, he kept saying all options are on the table. We want to hear that there will be wholesale changes, Roger. Right now, the league’s credibility is at an all-time low and that starts with the commissioner, but Goodell’s continued ignorance and egomania are preventing the league from getting its credibility back anytime soon.
(09/18/14 7:41pm)
Roger Goodell said that he has no intention of resigning, despite constant outside pressure. Even though he insists he won’t resign, I think the commissioner needs to go. This past week has been one of the darkest weeks in recent NFL history, and the fallout needs to fall on the commissioner’s shoulders.
Goodell has been considered a tough commissioner during his tenure, cracking down on players and other members of the NFL community for a variety of misdeeds, most notably drug offenses and illegal in-game hits. Events of this past week have demonstrated that Goodell and the league don’t have the same stern stance on domestic violence when it comes to its players.
At this point, most people have seen the video released by TMZ of Ray Rice assaulting his fiancée in the casino elevator. The surfacing of this video resulted in Rice’s release by the Ravens and indefinitely suspended from the NFL. But many questions arose from this case. How did the mighty NFL not get its hands on this video when TMZ was able to? It’s obvious that a video existed because the event occurred in a casino elevator, so why didn’t the NFL do everything in its power to get its hands on this tape? There have also been reports that came out this week that make the league offices look bad. The first report was by the Associated Press, saying that the infamous video was sent to the league offices months ago. There was also a report that Ray Rice told Roger Goodell all the details of the assault months ago in a face-to-face meeting.
Whether he physically saw the tape or not, Goodell is responsible for everything involving the NFL league office. As he told Saints coach Sean Payton when handing down Spygate suspensions, “ignorance is not an excuse.” Now, Goodell is getting a taste of his own medicine. His ignorance should not excuse his decision to only give Ray Rice a two-game suspension for his actions, especially if the above allegations are all true.
Along with the Ray Rice incident, there are a few other domestic violence incidents that have caused people to question the league’s stance on the issue. Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was convicted of assaulting and threatening his ex-girlfriend, but he’s still playing this week while he appeals the conviction. Ray McDonald, a 49ers defensive tackle, also continues to play after he was accused of domestic violence. These incidents make these teams look bad, but also serve as a huge black eye for a league which avoids stepping in and suspending these players.
I understand the league wants to get all of the details before handing out disciplines. However, where there’s smoke, there’s often fire in these cases. The decisions made by the league office show the league is taking a soft stance when it comes to domestic violence when it should be cracking down. The National Organization for Women has come out and demanded Roger Goodell resigns. Many players, like Terrance Knighton and London Fletcher, have been very outspoken on social media about these incidents.
There is no place for these actions in the NFL, and the soft stance and horrible mishandling of these cases is inexcusable, and that falls on the head of the commissioner. I don’t think the NFL owners will fire Goodell until it’s evident that he’s hurting the business, but it’s time for Goodell to protect the NFL shield by resigning.
(09/18/14 7:39pm)
Last week, I wrote about the Cincinnati Bengals signing Devon Still to their practice roster after originally cutting him to help him pay for his daughter’s cancer treatments. This week, there have been continued developments in this story, and it has become one of the best feel-good stories in sports this year.
The Bengals announced that Still would be brought up to the 53rd man active roster, making him eligible for games. Still said he is regaining some of his focus on football after all the support he has received for his daughter. He said that the Bengals have given him so much support that he should do what he can to help the Bengals out in return.
The best part of this story is how the Bengals have started a campaign to donate a portion of Still’s jersey sales to pediatric cancer research.
The Bengals launched the jersey campaign this past Monday, Sept. 10, and they’ve already sold over 5,000 Still jerseys, raising over $400,000 for cancer research.
During the first day of sales, Still’s jersey sold more than any other Bengals’ players’ jersey in a single day. The Bengals also put an area on their team website where people who don’t want to buy a jersey can make donations toward cancer research.
Members of the NFL community are doing what they can to help this campaign. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton offered to buy 100 Still jerseys, which will be given out to kids at Cincinnati hospitals and Boys and Girls Clubs. With all the negative stories in the NFL this week, this story has clearly been a ray of sunshine in the middle of a major storm in the NFL. You don’t have to like the Bengals or football to want to root for Devon Still and his daughter and be touched by this amazing story.
(09/09/14 7:56pm)
This past week, Denver receiver Wes Welker was suspended for the first four games of the NFL season for a violation of the NFL’s drug policy. There has been speculation on what drug Welker was suspended for using. Some sources have said that the drug was amphetamines, MDMA (or “molly”) or non-prescribed Adderall. Welker was adamant that he hasn’t knowingly taken anything on the NFL’s banned substance list and has said he plans on appealing the suspension. I feel this suspension, however, is a blessing in disguise for Welker — he’d be better off just taking it and sitting out the first four games.
Welker was already considered a physical question mark for the Broncos early in the season because of a concussion he suffered in a preseason game against Houston. This concussion was his third in the last 10 months, and Welker’s stated that he wants to get back on the field as soon as possible. This suspension is protecting Welker from himself. At the time of the suspension, Welker had not officially been cleared by team doctors, but it was believed that he might be able to play in the Broncos’ season opener.
I would love to see Welker have a continually successful NFL career. He’s a great player, but the way he plays leaves him extra vulnerable to injuries — especially concussions. He’s a small guy who is constantly going over the middle of defenses to catch passes and getting smacked by linebackers and safeties. I’m not saying he should never play football again, but I think he should look at some ex-players who’ve had their post football careers suffer from injuries they’ve endured during their playing careers.
Welker should definitely not try to rush back into football at all. When he comes back, he needs to make sure he’s 100 percent healthy. These next four weeks will give him some more time to get healthy but also some time to think about his football and post-football future.
(09/09/14 7:29pm)
All the talk of NFL practice squads this week has been about which team would pick up Michael Sam after he was released from the Rams and cleared waivers. The best NFL practice squad story this week, however, is coming out of Cincinnati.
Two years ago, the Bengals drafted Penn State defensive tackle Devon Still in the second round of the 2012 draft. After a successful Penn State career culminating in the 2011 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award, Still was expected to be an impact defensive player in the NFL. This offseason, however, Still saw himself fighting for a roster spot following a couple of sub-par seasons.
This was a big offseason for Devon Still’s NFL career, but he had something more important on his mind. This past June, Still’s four-year-old daughter, Leah, was diagnosed with stage-four pediatric cancer. Still had to miss a few team activities throughout training camp because of his daughter’s treatments, and it was apparent that his heart and mind just weren’t completely in it during practices and games. As a result, Still admits it came as no surprise that he was cut right before the season.
After being released by the Bengals, Still wasn’t claimed by any other team and was looking for a job. That’s when Cincinnati provided Still with a great gesture. The team offered Still a spot on its practice squad. Being signed to the practice squad, Still would receive a weekly salary of $6,400 along with health insurance to help him pay for his daughter’s cancer treatment. Still will also be able to stay in the NFL during this difficult time without all the strains of traveling with the team. As a result, he can now spend more time with his daughter. Still called this gesture by the Bengals a “blessing in disguise.”
In a league where every dollar and roster spot is precious, stories like this show that teams still have the ability to show tremendous compassion for their players and their families.
(09/02/14 7:48pm)
Despite being one of the final cuts this weekend by the Rams, Michael Sam proved to many people this preseason that he belongs in the National Football League.
Following his senior season at Missouri, where he was the co-defensive player of the year in the SEC, Sam came out as a gay man. His draft stock was a topic of conversation around the league and the media this past spring. NFL front office personnel were worried that his combination of size and athleticism wouldn’t translate to the NFL game, but many were more worried that his sexual orientation would be a distraction throughout the rest of the offseason for their teams. As a result, Sam fell to the seventh round where the Rams took him with the 249th pick, and he became the first openly gay player to be drafted in the NFL.
After being drafted, many around the Rams organization and the entire league voiced their opinions about everything surrounding Sam. Many believed that he would be too much of a distraction and cited the kissing clip with his boyfriend constantly being shown on various news outlets. I think Rams head coach Jeff Fisher, however, did a great service for Michael Sam by telling the media following the introductory press conference that all press conferences from then on would focus on football-related questions. There were rumors that Sam had reached an agreement with the Oprah Winfrey Network to have a documentary series about his attempt at making an NFL team. Following backlash from the rumors, however, the series was put on hold. Then, Michael Sam came out, and he reiterated the fact that his main focus was football and doing what he could to make the team.
That’s when Michael Sam showed what he was made of. In the preseason, he was rotating in with the starters and getting a lot of work with the backup units. In both situations, he was successful. He didn’t look lost against the starters and was able to make plays while playing against the backups. In four games, he had 11 tackles and three sacks, including two sacks of fellow rookie lightning rod Johnny Manziel. Sam’s stats were very impressive, but he also showed in areas that don’t show up on the stat sheet. He demonstrated a high motor which compensated for his physical attributes, about which many NFL analysts were worried. Rams’ coaches said he also looked good on special teams, which is important for non-starters. Along with playing well on the field, Sam was able to gain the respect and support of his teammates and coaches, as exemplified by fellow defensive end Chris Long who tweeted that he was annoyed with how ESPN was covering Sam, implying that they just viewed him as a football player. Fisher also announced after their final preseason game that Sam can definitely play in the league.
Michael Sam brings a lot of things to the table for a football team as a 4-3 defensive end — especially as a situational pass rusher. That team, however, just wasn’t meant to be the St. Louis Rams. The Rams have a lot of holes on their roster, but pass rushing defensive end is not one of them. They have one of the best defensive end duos in the league in Long and Robert Quinn and have plenty of depth on the defensive line. Many teams in the league can use more pass rushing, so Michael Sam should have no problem finding a place on a roster after his performance this preseason. I think he proved to the NFL community that he’s not just the gay football player.
(08/26/14 8:37pm)
Mo’ne Davis definitely made viewers at the Little League World Series rethink the phrase “throwing like a girl.”
When Davis started playing for the Philadelphia Taney Dragons in the LLWS preliminary games, everyone was fascinated to see how this girl would play. There have been girls who’ve played in the tournament before, but it was clear right away that she was no ordinary girl.
She was one of her team’s best hitters and fielders and an unquestioned leader, but her pitching was what made her a star. She pitched a shutout in the preliminary game to get her team into the LLWS and backed up that performance with another shutout in her first LLWS start against Nashville.
After the shutout, star athletes like Mike Trout and Kevin Durant, were tweeting about how impressed they were with Davis’s performance.
Despite her team just being eliminated from the LLWS, Davis became the coolest kid in America and one of the most popular athletes in sports for a few weeks. The world of sports couldn’t get enough of this incredible 13-year-old girl. She was constantly being interviewed by ESPN, and she became the first LLWS player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. The next game she pitched against Las Vegas broke LLWS ratings records for ESPN.
Although her performances were amazing, one of the things that stood out about Davis was how she handled herself during the immense media coverage. She handled the interviews and the cameras better than most celebrities do. She did her best to remain humble and always tried to heap praise on her teammates.
Even though Davis’s run is now over, she became a role model for many young girls around the country and will forever be one of the biggest names of the Little League World Series.
(08/26/14 8:02pm)
Over the last month, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has become the biggest trend in the United States. For those who don’t know what it is, the viral activity is a social media challenge where a person has to either dump a bucket of ice water on themselves or donate $100 to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research.
But where did this fad start? The roots of this sensation are linked to ex-Boston College baseball captain Pete Frates.
A few years after graduating from Boston College, Frates was diagnosed with ALS. Frates and a couple of friends came up with the Ice Bucket Challenge in honor of him. The Challenge really took off after Frates challenged some prestigious Boston athletes, and they in turn accepted.
Starting with the New England Patriots and some prominent Boston Bruins and Boston Red Sox players, this challenge has spread to athletes of all sports, famous celebrities, President Barack Obama and everyday people around the country. Tens of thousands of Americans are currently diagnosed with this disease, and it is considered one of the most devastating diseases one can be diagnosed with, most famously taking the life of Yankees great Lou Gehrig. However, prior to this challenge, many Americans didn’t know much about this disease. Now, I’m sure everyone has at least run a quick Google search on the disease.
Since the beginning of this challenge in late July, the ALS Association has received over $79 million in donations as opposed to under $2 million by this time the previous year.
Since being diagnosed with ALS, Frates has gotten married and has a child on the way. He is now almost fully paralyzed and can no longer talk, but he has started something that will help the lives of people with ALS for years and years to come.
(04/29/14 7:12pm)
“Put yourself in Meb’s shoes” were the last words said in Skechers’s new commercial for their Go Run Ride 3 sneakers. However, this past week, the entire city of Boston and everyone in the United States were running with Meb Keflezighi as he became the first American citizen to win the Boston Marathon since 1983, according to the Associated Press.
Keflezighi was born in the small African nation of Eritrea but moved to the United States by way of Italy when his family was Eritrean refugees. Keflezighi became a naturalized US citizen the year he graduated from UCLA in 1994.
This achievement is quite significant by itself as no American had won the nation’s arguably most famous marathon in over 30 years. However, the fact that this feat was achieved this year is extra significant and had the whole country feeling an immense amount of American pride. Last year, the Boston Marathon was the sight of a terrorist attack where three people were killed and hundreds were injured. In the following weeks and months, the Boston sports teams and the city of Boston were starting a Boston-strong movement which the whole country stood behind.
The Boston Marathon is a huge sporting event every year. However, watching the highlights of the race, you could just feel the energy and emotion in the air from not only the racers, but from the spectators. There were people crying. There were USA chants.
Keflezighi is the definition of a great American story. He wasn’t born in the United States, but he became an American and the country embraced him as one. This past Monday was the climax of Meb’s great American story. It was a great moment in American sports history which transcended sports and left the whole country bleeding red, white and blue.
(04/29/14 6:33pm)
This Monday, April 28, is a potentially revolutionary day in the history of sports and sports business. We always hear when teams sign players. They’re making an investment in the player, but soon the world may be able to make an investment in a player. Vernon Davis, tight end for the San Francisco 49ers, is set to be the first player to have an Initial Public Offering (IPO). This means that shares of stock in this athlete will be traded on the secondary financial markets.
Davis’s stock is being traded through the Fantex Brokerage Services. He’s the second big-time athlete to sign with this firm after Houston Texans running back Arian Foster signed with the firm for $10 million in exchange for 20 percent of his future earnings in the fall. Foster, however, never had an IPO, and his securities are being sold in a different manner. The firm signed a contract with Davis for $4 million in exchange for 10 percent of his future on-and off-the-field earnings. There are 421,000 shares of Davis’s stock currently being sold at $10 apiece through Fantex. However, like all publicly traded stocks, this has to officially be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and then individual states have to approve people buying these shares through this service.
If this Vernon Davis IPO becomes relatively successful and athlete stock trading becomes a trend, this can completely change the way people look at sports and financial investing. The possibilities in this market are endless. Will there be financial firms specifically dedicated to evaluating the value of players like any other firm? Since Davis was given $4 million for 10 percent of his future earnings. That’s a $40 million dollar valuation. Is he being over-valued or undervalued? How would you value a player like Lebron James, who made about $18 million last year on the court and about $42 million in endorsements? How many more years is he going to play at a high level? Will he still get endorsements and royalties after he retires like Michael Jordan? The known commodities aren’t going to keep this market exciting.
Investing is such an interesting practice because of the uncertainties. Two potential new “stocks” that haven’t earned a cent as a professional athlete are the last two Heisman trophy winners. Johnny Manziel is entering this year’s NFL draft, and Jameis Winston is expected to be drafted in one of the upcoming drafts. They both have the potential to be NFL stars, get huge endorsements, and make major money. But what if they don’t? What if Jameis Winston has to get Tommy John surgery because he pitches for the Florida State baseball team as well? What if Johnny Manziel can’t stay healthy in the league due to his small stature and often reckless running? How should that level of uncertainty be valued? What about Derrick Rose, a superstar who’s been injured for the better part of the last two seasons? He might come back and be great and make a lot more money, but you have to consider his glass knees as a pretty high risk at this point. As a finance major and lover of everything sports, the potential of this trend has me incredibly excited.
(04/22/14 4:00pm)
New NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently said that one of his top priorities is to raise the NBA age requirement from 19 to 20 in an attempt to eliminate the “one-and-dones” from the college game. It appears that NBA owners and the NCAA would be heavily in favor of this: NBA owners would save money because they will be able to draft players more ready for the NBA, while the NCAA would get another year of some of the top players in the nation. This rule would seem to help everyone — aside from the players.
But it is completely unfair to the players, especially the ones who are clearly ready to go to the pros. I understand for every superstar one-and-done like Kevin Durant, there is a Daniel Orton, who never does anything significant in the league, but it’s the GM’s job to evaluate talent better. If GMs are so worried about these one-and-done players, they don’t have to draft them — yet they still keep going at the top of the draft. The way that teams are drafting now also benefits players coming out early since players are being drafted based on potential. A lot of players like James Michael McAdoo hurt their draft stock tremendously by returning to school.
People will make the argument that the NFL requires players to be out of high school for three years before they enter the draft. Football and basketball are completely different, though. Basketball is a contact sport. Football is a collision sport. There are legitimate safety reasons behind making football players stay in college as long as they do before entering the NFL Draft and playing football against full-grown adult men. Kevin Durant is going to be league MVP this season and he’s not a big, strong bull, but he can more than adequately handle himself in the world’s top league.
A lot of top players have plans of getting to the NBA as soon as possible even when they’re still in high school. They are looking forward to that big NBA payday, but in the NBA, the second contract is the most important, and these big-time young players want to get to that big second contract as quickly as possible. I think players should be allowed to go to the NBA right from high school, but there are some benefits to players going to college for one year. They’ll get a little bit more notoriety while seeing how their skills compare to some better competition before going to the league. The NBA and NCAA are doing an injustice to these players by trying to keep them in college as long as possible where they don’t make any money.
Obviously, education is very important, but it’s not that important to everyone, and I don’t think the NCAA always prepares these players with “real educations” anyway. If they keep forcing players to stay in college longer, college basketball is going to lose more and more talented players to the international game or the NBA D-League, where they can at least get some form of paycheck. If a person can fight for our country at 18, why should they have to wait until 20 to play in the NBA?
(04/15/14 4:00pm)
March Madness is one of the most exciting times of the sports year. Upsets like Mercer over Duke, Cinderellas like Dayton, and emerging stars like Frank Kaminsky are often the on-court highlights from March Madness, but it is often off-court stories that really leave a lasting impression on the sports world. This year was no different, as March Madness introduced us to the beautiful relationship between Michigan State star Adreian Payne and eight-year-old Lacey Holsworth, also known as “Princess Lacey.”
Lacey had a fatal nerve-cell cancer called Neuroblastoma, which caused her to be hospitalized constantly in order to get treatment and chemotherapy. During one of her stints in the hospital, fate united her with Payne, and they had an immediate connection. Payne would constantly visit Lacey in the hospital and invited her to a few home games. Their bond grew stronger and stronger, and Payne even called Lacey his “little sister.” He even carried her around the court after Michigan State’s senior night and brought her to cut down the nets with him after Michigan State won the Big Ten Tournament this year.
Lacey was a small celebrity to Michigan State fans and in Big Ten country, but the whole country was introduced to this beautiful little girl during Michigan State’s run in the NCAA Tournament. She was at all of Michigan State’s games during their run in the East Regional and accompanied Payne to the NCAA Dunk Contest, where her smile and resilience through such hard times really made the country fall in love with her. Payne always reiterated how hard he was playing for Lacey, and you could see through his passion and emotion that he was determined to make his little sister proud.
Then, tragedy struck. This past week, the sports world was stunned to hear that Lacey Holsworth had died in her home. This was extremely devastating, not only because she was so young, but because Lacey seemed so strong and happy as she cheered on Payne just days before in the Dunk Contest. I know I struggled to hold back tears as I was reading and hearing about this story and as I wrote this article. Following Lacey’s death, Payne tweeted: “It was time for my lil princess to go home & feel no more pain, now she’s happy & she’s my angel watching over me.” It’s obvious that Lacey changed Payne’s life just as much as he changed hers. Support from all over the sports world came pouring in through social media and various media outlets as well.
This story showed the bond between two strangers from two completely different backgrounds whose paths crossed and taught the country the power of friendship and love. This unlikely bond touched everyone who followed or watched the tournament this year. Even though Lacey is gone, I expect her to live on with Payne as he moves on to the NBA and continues to spread her spirit throughout the country. Prior to the tournament, we all knew what a great player Adreian Payne was, but now everyone knows what a great person he is too. I think it’s safe to say that if more athletes and people in general were like Payne, the world would be a better place.
(04/08/14 5:00am)
This past week, Golf Digest put Paulina Gretzky on the cover of its Golf Fit issue. This cover caused a barrage of controversy for a variety of reasons. The photo on the cover could be described as risqué, but by no means was the picture of explicit nature. The reason Gretzky being the cover is causing such uproar is because she’s not a golfer. She’s the model girlfriend of golfer Dustin Johnson and daughter of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.
We all know that “sex sells” in the media and Golf Digest has every right to do what it did in our capitalist society to sell magazines. That said, it’s doing a disservice to the sport of women’s golf and the LPGA.Paulina Gretzky is a very attractive woman, and it’s fair to say she is indeed a golf celebrity because of her golfer boyfriend and famous father.
However, there are some very attractive female golfers on the LPGA tour such as Anna Rawson and Kathleen Ekey, who I’m sure wouldn’t mind getting a little extra recognition on top of their golf game.
Many female golfers on the tour are upset with the decision by the magazine because it shows a lack of respect for the women’s game. This is not the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. This is an edition of Golf Digest called Golf Fit. This should be golf’s version of ESPN the body issue, an issue used to celebrate the bodies of golfers — male or female — who achieve their fitness from golfing or training for golf and ways for them to give advice to prospective golfers.
Golf Digest responded to its critics in a statement claiming that she is a golf celebrity with an interesting story to tell and she could possibly attract more people into the sport of golf. This response comes off as extremely shady. Like I said, the magazine is entitled to do as it please in choice of cover models, but it’s insulting everyone’s intelligence by trying to sugarcoat this issue. Golf Digest chose an attractive woman with a link to golf who can sell magazines. That’s it. I wonder if anyone who bought this magazine actually got any golf-related fitness tips from this.
(04/01/14 5:00am)
This past week, we witnessed a monumental moment in the history of college athletics: the Northwestern Football Team won their case in the Chicago District of the National Labor Relations Board and were ruled to be employees of the university. This can be the first step in college athletes being paid and being deemed employees.
The debate over whether college athletes from revenue-generating sports — Division I football and basketball — are employees and deserve to be paid has been one of the biggest hot-button issues in college sports for years. The NCAA is a multi-billion dollar business every year and almost everyone that helps generate that revenue gets a piece of that multi-billion dollar pie. Mark Emmert, the President of the NCAA, made about $1.7 million last year. The universities with big-time football and basketball programs generate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of revenue a year.
The only people who aren’t getting any of that pie are the players, the life blood of the NCAA. Without the quality players, the NCAA and all that money could not survive. Some claim that these college athletes are fairly compensated because they get a college scholarship and the opportunity to get a quality education.
I’m saying that scholarship is not enough. There are students who receive free or cheaper educations who don’t make a dime for their universities. This includes students on academic scholarships, music scholarships and athletic scholarships from sports that aren’t revenue generators.
Another aspect of the lives of these athletes is their lack of opportunities to have any extra cash inflow. Division I college basketball and football players both spend about 40 hours a week on average just on athletic-related activities — it’s a full-time job. These athletes don’t have time for a part-time job like normal college students. There are also rules restricting how much money student athletes can make at their part-time jobs.
It also must be pointed out the demographic discrepancies between these athletes and normal college students: A large percentage of college basketball and football players are minorities and a lot of them come from poorer families. Many of these athletes often don’t have the luxury of their parents being able to send them a little extra money here or there because their families are so financially limited.
Some of the top-notch athletes in these sports have a market value in the hundreds of thousands to even millions. I’m not saying these athletes should make anywhere near that kind of money in college, but they deserve a little extra in terms of a stipend to help with miscellaneous expenses. There’s no reason these athletes — who help generate so much money — cannot afford to go out and get a burger or go see a movie with their friends.
It’s foolish to think these athletes are simply amateur student athletes. The NCAA is being extremely hypocritical by emphasizing them as students first even though some of their largest revenue generators like March Madness or the College Football Bowl season can have players missing such significant chunks of semesters. They also allow student athletes to major in easier topics that will not help the overwhelming majority of them who do not become professional athletes to get a job or become useful members of society after they graduate.
These athletes are obviously employees. As of now, groups trying to advocate for these players’ rights like Northwestern are not even asking for pay. They just want to be considered employees and be allowed to unionize and collectively bargain for better rights and benefits. The scholarships of these athletes are not guaranteed for all four years. They are evaluated on a year-to-year basis. If a player suffers an injury that prevents them from playing, they could lose their scholarship. They also have no post-college protection if they face problems after their playing career due to issues from their years at the school. At the very least, these athletes should be able to bargain for better rights and benefits but this probably will and should lead to them getting paid.
(03/25/14 5:00am)
Nothing in sports compares to March Madness, which consists of the top 68 teams in men’s college basketball competing in a single elimination tournament for one thing: the chip. It’s one of my favorite sporting events of the year, and it’s almost perfect — almost. My one big problem with the NCAA Tournament is the “first round,” the play-in games.
In 2001, the tournament expanded from 64 to 65 teams and it expanded to 68 games in 2011. This means there are four play-in games before the real games start — or what the NCAA calls the “second round” — in an attempt to add legitimacy to these bogus play-in games.
The NCAA tournament would actually be perfect if it was 64 teams instead of 68. No one cares about these play-in games except for the people associated with the eight teams playing. It is pretty unfortunate some of these games couldn’t be “real” tournament games because some have been pretty solid games that had the potential to be on par with the exciting games in the “real” first round, but they won’t get much attention. The sole purpose of the NCAA continuing to expand the tournament is to get more “Big Dogs” (major conference teams) into the Big Dance. Who cares if the Big Ten gets an eighth bid or the Big 12 gets a seventh bid, but more major conference teams in the tournament means more money because these teams usually have larger followings and endowments associated with them.
Two play-in games have the bottom four “at-large teams” (usually No. 11 or No. 12 seeds) squaring off and the second two have the bottom four automatic qualifiers (No. 16 seeds) facing each other. My problem is not as much with the “at-large” play-in games because it basically means there is less debate about the “bubble,” even though I’m still not a fan of them.
My problem is more so with the bottom four automatic qualifiers having to play in a play-in game. If you are an automatic qualifier, it means you have won your conference tournament and deserve a chance to play in the real NCAA Tournament. These No. 16 seeds are usually small schools that a majority of the country has never heard of. The NCAA is a chance they’ve earned to gain more notoriety (and money) for their school. Two of these teams will never get that chance, because they’re not playing in a game that the nation cares about or is watching.
Even though a No. 16 seed has never beaten a No. 1 seed in the tournament, it is destined to happen one day. Each of these teams has already earned its right to play for that chance at history. They shouldn’t need to play in another silly game. However, win or lose, these No. 16 seeds have the chance to gain a lot of new fans because No. 1 seeds are usually big name schools like Arizona or Florida with big time players so there will be a lot of eyes on their games.
March Madness would be the perfect tournament with only 64 teams. No one cares about the play-in games. Most of the major online bracket challenges don’t even require you to pick the winners of those games. The major sports networks don’t start really covering and talking about the tournament until after the play-in games. The expansion of the NCAA Tournament is just another mindless money grab by the NCAA. I don’t think it’s possible for the sports world to not be excited about March Madness, but I also think that the sports world will never get excited for the play-in games.
(03/18/14 5:00am)
The NBA is entering the Adam Silver era, after David Stern was the commissioner for the past 30 years. In comes new commissioner Silver to build on the work done by the Stern administration.
One of the most controversial topics right now in the league is the topic of tanking, or losing on purpose to try and get a better pick in the upcoming draft. In the NBA, it’s great to be a winning team, but it isn’t that easy to build a contender. One method is the way the Miami Heat won the championship: adding a couple big-time free agents — Lebron James and Chris Bosh coming to help star Dwyane Wade in 2010 — and building the team around them. This method is not practical for every team, though, especially teams in smaller markets that can’t attract stars as easily.
Another way to build a contender is to stockpile assets — first-round picks, promising young players — and trading those assets for a superstar. The Houston Rockets combined these strategies when they traded young assets for star guard James Harden before last season and signing star center Dwight Howard in free agency.
The only other way to build a contender in the NBA is through the draft. Technically, gems can be found anywhere in the draft. Most of the stars are drafted with high first-round picks, though, and the way to get high first-round picks in the NBA is to be bad. This is how the Oklahoma City Thunder was built. As the Seattle Supersonics, the team drafted Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden in consecutive drafts, all in the top five.
In the NBA draft, the way the draft order is determined is all the teams that don’t make the playoffs are put into a lottery. The teams with the worst record have the most lottery balls and the highest chance at the No. 1 overall pick with each ensuing team having less and less lottery balls. This system rewards losing in an attempt to try to have more parody in the league. Therefore, the worst place in the league to be is in the middle, the seventh or eighth seed in a conference, or right outside the playoffs, a basketball purgatory of sorts. Year by year, teams on the cusp of the playoffs will fight for a berth, but teams who have no chance at the playoffs are essentially in a race to the bottom. This is where tanking comes in. Are the bad teams trying too hard to be bad?
Tanking is a more pertinent topic in years when there are more and better potential “prizes” in the upcoming draft. This year, it is such a big topic because this upcoming draft class is considered to be the best since 2003, with promising prospects like Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid. It’s obvious teams are tanking: The 76ers have lost their last 20 games and the team they put on the court every night just doesn’t look like it can compete. They’re the most obvious example, but a lot of the other bad teams in the league appear to be tanking as well.
With all this said, I don’t think tanking is an issue in the NBA. Even if they aren’t playing that well, the players on the tanking team are still playing hard. These players are playing for contracts and pride. Do you think 76ers forward Thaddeus Young, who has been a solid player in the league for a few years, is just going to stop running on the court and not look to score? Do you think Jazz forward Gordon Hayward, another solid player, is just going to suddenly start taking bad shots and dribbling the ball off his foot?
No player wants to play badly, even if they know their team is tanking, and coaches don’t tank either. If your team performs too poorly, you can get fired and you may struggle to get another coaching job on par with your current one. Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens knows the team he has lacks some talent, but he’s not going to coach to lose. He’s still going to run offensive and defensive sets. He’s still going to emphasize good ball movement, good effort and smart play from his team.
Tanking pertains more to the front office and the organization as a whole. General Managers of a tanking team may look to trade decent players they don’t see as part of their future to open up more playing time for young players (while at the same time worsening their current year roster). Philadelphia GM Sam Hinkie traded his starting center Spencer Hawes to the Cavaliers midseason because he wasn’t going to be a part of the team’s future, and he could help the team win. Team owners and presidents may talk their coaches into giving younger players more playing time over veteran players who might be better for the current year’s team. They may encourage their talented players with injuries to sit out as long as possible.
Even though tanking might be rewarded in the NBA, it isn’t an exact science. It isn’t like the NFL where the worst team gets the best pick. The worst team only has a 25 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick. The team with the worst record has only won the draft lottery and the No. 1 pick four times in the history of the draft lottery, which has been around for almost 30 years. There also aren’t players coming into the draft that are considered can’t-miss star prospects every year that are worth tanking for.
One of the biggest issues some analysts have with tanking is that it hurts the fans. The paying customers that drive the league are being punished by these organizations when their tanking teams aren’t competitive. This may be the belief by some fans, but I think a lot of fans, especially the bigger fans, can see the big picture. Fan bases for bad teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz have started campaigns like “Winless for Wiggins” and “Sorry for Jabari.” They see that the organization realizes that they aren’t currently talented enough to compete for a title and getting a star prospect or two in the draft can help them compete in future years.
The NBA wants fans of teams of struggling teams to have hope that their teams can be successful in the future and they want the league to have as much parody as possible. All of these factors make me believe that tanking is not as big a problem as some people make it out to be.