Consider the Following: Sports

From 2010 to 2011, Alex Smith gained one receiver, Braylon Edwards . The 49ers backfield gained rookie Kendall Hunter , and the defense acquired rookie linebacker Aldon Smith . There have been some other changes to the 49er roster, but can these fairly insignificant pickups really account for a 9-1 record in week 10, after going 6-10 last year and missing the playoffs in the lowly NFC West? The real change, although it is hard to prove, is coach Jim Harbaugh . Initially, I will note, that other than play calling and technique, I find very little sympathy for people who argue that coaches really make a significant difference in the NFL. And I know that I'll get shit for saying that, but let it go for the time being. After all, one can hardly call Harbaugh a revolutionary college coach, after he basically one the lottery with Andrew Luck and Toby Gerhart leading the Cardinal offense. So for now, imagine Jim Harbaugh has not really accomplished anything. So what makes him such a

 I am a faithful fan of the California Golden Bears . I watch Bears football through thick (and it has been very thick as of late), and thin. But when they lose, and subsequently lose bowl game hopes, it begins to become tough to care about any college football. Whereas an Alabama Crimson Tide fan can constantly be involved in their teams season and games, I am forced to continuously hope that Stanford will lose, simply out of spite. And as I have watched my fanhood wither this season, so has my interest in college football games other than #1 v. #2 matchups... Until last night. At around 3:30 (on the west coast), I texted an acquaintance of mine: " Wisconsin Michigan St ? ur house?" At this point I will concede that this was a high-profile game, and being a sports fan, it does make sense that I would be interested in this game, but it was my subconscious Badger disposition that struck me as odd as the game unfolded. I found myself hoping that Russell Wilson would make

So, despite the lockout and many other off-season ordeals, the largest change in the NFL seems to be that crazy kick return rule. The average dim-witted NFL analysts was shocked to learn that despite the ball being placed 5 yards up from last years 35-yard line, there were 8 kick return touchdowns in week 1. Of course, in any week, 8 kick return touchdowns is significant, but those extra five yards, I chose to argue, make no difference. So let's start by looking at a couple of examples: So I know these are both Percy Harvin , who is an amazing kick returner, but let's look at one other similarity between these two plays: Harvin beats the last defender with his incredible speed with about 30 yards to go before the end zone. Thus, would it have really mattered if the ball was 10, 20, even 30 yards closer to the offense. I say no. I for one, understand the idea of a shorter kickoff. The many blindside hits and concussions caused by kickoffs are dangerous to the sport, and

Yes, I realize it has been almost two months since I have posted on this blog. Yes, I realize plenty of important things have gone on in the world of sports that I could have chosen to write about in this time; but, as professional basketball and football both chose to take breaks this summer, I simply followed in their footsteps. And as the NFL starts today, with many people having already forgotten about the recent lockout, I hope my hiatus can be as easily forgotten. Thus, let's take a moment to talk about this first NFL Sunday. In incredibly American fashion, the NFL begins it's season today, the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The vast majority of games have already been started,and it's odd to see which teams have already made statements. My absolute favorite outcome of a game today is the Ravens 35-7 romping of the Steelers. Although I was unable to see the game, I know that anytime these two teams play, a defensive battle ensues. Yet, somehow, today, the Steelers ju

I have never really felt like a 'breaking news' reporter, so I think it's ok that I'm a couple of days late reporting that the lockout is over. And frankly I am extremely happy that I no longer have to hear people asking me what I think about the lockout. Over the 130 or so days of the lockout I literally learned nothing about the inner workings of the dealings, because, honestly, I'm not a damn lawyer. And when I would tell people I didn't understand the process, they would tell me it's all about money.........no shit?! I felt like a fucking six year old, of course I know it's about money, I mean I just don't understand the $2 million off the top, or whatever gibberish ESPN kept feeding me. But now that it's over, one things is clear to me: someone fucked up. Not only have I heard more talks about the salary cap than ever before (yeah, I'm kinda mad that the Raiders are the most over cap of any team), and players are being shipped everywhe

Many famous philosophers have hypothesized that, as advertised, ESPN is truly The Worldwide Leader in Sports. And who am I, or anyone with no knowledge of the world of sports broadcasting, to say otherwise. From Monday Night Football, to prime-time games, to a newly-acquired Wimbledon contract, ESPN has certainly created a near monopoly on sports broadcasting. The two cable channels, as well as the online ESPN3.com, and the oft forgotten ESPNU (channel 788 for all you Comcast aficionados), are often the subject of my mid-afternoon gaze. It seems that ESPN has created what I have always wanted, a guaranteed source of sports commentary amidst the regular drudgery of flipping through cable television. Yet it is this easy dependence that is a blessing and a curse of the TV world. In the first of many in a series of posts with the title Addiction , I will examine the television version of heroin, otherwise known as Sportscenter. To many, Sportscenter is either an unknown term, or

So, I tend to call this period of the sports year "downtime". The only sport in full swing is baseball (no I didn't mean for there to be any irony there). And when baseball is midway through the season, there are no real stories to cover. It can be even further affirmed that this is true when the vast majority of stories on ESPN are concerned with tennis and women's soccer... Yeah, who knew the women's World Cup was this week, it's so exciting. Anyway, the whole point I am trying to make, is that whereas I usually am able to take this time to marvel over blockbuster trades in both professional basketball and football, the masterminds behind the NFL and NBA (Goodell and Stern), are doing everything in their power to make sure that doesn't happen. I yearn for the days of Lebron James ' The Decision , and talk of Brett Favre 's third comeback. But instead, my summer has been haunted by talks of Collective Bargaining Agreements. And seeing as I am n

After finally winning his first NBA title, Dirk Nowitzki is finally a true international icon, and I am positive Mien Fuhrer would be happy. For the first time in 60 years the United States has a German man to fear, and I think we kind of welcome his presence. As much as the average NBA fan hates Mark Cuban and his Dallas juggernaut, the same fans are glad that the Miami Heatles didn't win their first championship just yet. Thus, I wonder why they even played these Finals, as no potential victor was favored by anyone. It is in times like these that I wish one of the Bay Area teams was good at sports, because no one would get mad if they won, ever. So to all of you sports fans out there that aren't from Dallas or Green Bay you'll have to wait another year, and in this time I invite you to scream out in hatred towards any of the oppressive sports Gods you worship, for not granting you a shinny metal cup.

So this version of this post is solely about the phenomena as it relates to teams. And this post will be no where near as long, I promise that. The main reason is that everyone out there is probably aware of the most regular cases among teams, but I really just want to vent about my first-hand experience this past year. So, of course, all of you know that everyone seems to worship the championship teams in professional sports. Most regularly, these include the Lakers and Yankees, because, well yea, they tend to win. But still, how many people can really say that they are fans of those teams because they grew up in the area. I know it's less than the number of people that just love Kobe Bryant or Derek Jeter across the country. Thus, the vast number of championships they each account for must account for this disparity. But, as I said, it would seem that this is common knowledge that this is the case. I'm here to tell you about the current MLB champions, the San Francisco Gi

I have begun to notice as of late, that media outlets such as ESPN, or any newspaper, have a habit of renewing their passion for a player after he does something spectacular. And I say renew because they pretend like they always new he was great. As well, there are cases of people actually having always been good, and in that case, dick-riding is acceptable. However, I refuse to even open my ears when I begin to hear "This is a guy that has been overlooked during his career, but I always saw his true potential", or some bullshit along those lines. After all, what really gives anyone beside Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay, who actually spend their entire lives analyzing NFL Draft prospects, the ability to judge anyone? But my hatred for ESPN analysts whose credentials include a six-year career with eight teams will have to be saved for another day. For now, we examine the phenomena of players that tend to suddenly rise to power. Very regularly, this trend occurs in college spo

For the past couple of weeks, the world of sports has basically been following it's biological calendar. The NBA playoffs are in their conference finals, along with the NHL, and the MLB season is going strong. Now is the time to solely attempt to bring everyone up to speed. For the most part, the MLB season is going as planned. The Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox sit atop the AL East, as always. And teams like the Phillies and Cardinals are following suit, as usual. BUT WAIT! WHAT'S THIS?!?!?! The Cleveland Indians have the best record in baseball? The apocalypse must be upon us. But, not really. Most teams have barely played 40 games, and teams can have good years. So for now, the jumbled MLB will just have to remain that, and as always, things will end up the same in the end, with the East claiming the title. Sorry, no repeat Giants fans. Anyway, the NHL is also having playoffs, so yeah, you can do your own research there............ And finally, the NBA. The Heat, who may h

With the Lakers game four loss last night, they have erased all chances of a three-peat, and for the first time ever, coach Phil Jackson has been denied of such a feat. Jackson has three career three-peats, a triple-triple as they call it (not really, I just made that up). And now, all signs point towards Jackson's retiring, pending a Brett Favre-esque search for glory. But more amazing than the sudden resignation of the great coach, is the way the "team of the decade" entered, and exited this series. From game one, last series, it was clear the Lakers weren't the Lakers. Gasol had under 10 pts. in each of the first two games, and Kobe just wasn't Kobe. And nothing changed in the past week. Kobe was quoted as saying "I'm not clutch", and the literal big three (Gasol, Odom, Bynum), were clearly not at peak performance. And their lack-luster performances resulted in the rejection of the latter two 'bigs', late in last night's blowout. I

Whenever I ramble to my peers about NFL prospect Cam Newton , whether it be his scrutinized college career, or his remarkable climb to the top, the most common response I receive is "Why don't you just suck his.....(ya know)". Anyway, after I wittily respond with "present it", I come back from the world of soccer , and try to re-evaluate the current Heisman Trophy Winner. Yet, no matter which way I look at it, what Mr. Newton has accomplished over the past year is remarkable. And I believe there are 32 NFL GM's who have thought exactly the same thing. The only difference is that if I think Newton is good, the worst it can do is hurt my fantasy team, whereas it could cost a team millions of dollars to invest in the Auburn Quarterback. And the same situation exists across the board for this years crop of Quarterback prospects, and for all draftees for that matter. But I'll leave the cross-examination of corners and offensive linemen to the owners, and fo

With most playoff series entering their fifth game today and tomorrow, the opportunity for a first round sweep has come and gone for all teams except the Celtics and the Thunder (who have yet to play their fourth game). And although there was only one first round sweep last season, many other aspects of this years playoffs have been extremely exciting. It is often said that great players make big plays in big games. And that is exactly what is happening this postseason.......for the most part. Specifically, the Bulls' Derrick Rose , and the Magic' Dwight Howard have done what was expected of them. Although Dwight's Magic are down 3-1 against the Hawks, a team I have mentioned before for their rare season this year, Howard has continuously held his team in the game, despite a suspension to Jason Richardson, and having to overcome the Hawks' all-around height. As well, Rose has lead the Bulls to a 3-1 lead over the sub-.500 Pacers (hardly an accomplishment), and wi

I truly believe that hockey is a ridiculous sport. I've mentioned it before, and try to keep the cross-the-border fad off of this blog. However, from a ideological standpoint, the NHL, has some things right. For example: Unlike any other sport, NHL teams are reseeded after each round of the playoffs, guarantying that the best regular season teams have the easiest path. And this is totally justified. Why should an 8-seed, who pulls off an upset in the first round, get to play the lowest other remaining seed in the next round. It turns out, however, that this doesn't end up changing anything, because the teams are still hockey teams, and that will never change. Regardless, the Canadians and their moose were successful in this innovation, as well as one other. The second thing hockey got right was their scoring system. Even if a team loses in overtime, it still gains a point towards their conference rank. And although I have yet to find out what those points are worth (jelly bean

So, after paying my respects to an extremely talented VCU team in last weeks post, they failed to continue their cinderella run, in favor of Butler. And this week, I will apologize again, this time to the only other team playing tonight, the Connecticut Huskies. Earlier in the season, I marveled critically over Connecticut's inhuman jump in national rankings, from unranked to 7. This was just after their phenomenal win in the Maui Invitational, and the subsequent national exposure of Kemba Walker . Fastforward to now, and Walker has exceeded expectations, averaging well over 20 points per game and leading Connecticut to a 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. And other than freshman sensation Jeremy Lamb , the Huskies are very thin, yet that hasn't stopped them from winning a miraculous 12 tournament games this year. And tonight, the Huskies hope to close the season on the best possible note, with a National Championship. They'll face a foe familiar to the championship in Butl

Ok, so I completely take back everything I said last week about tournament snubs. Virginia Tech completely did not deserve to be in the tournament, as they lost this past week in the NIT . Colorado on the other hand is doing fairly well, cruising through the first few rounds en route to the "final four" (because it's the NIT). Meanwhile, Virginia Commonwealth University , the team who most likely was chosen over Virginia Tech, is in the real Final Four, after beating teams from each of the power conferences by impressive margins. Needless to say, I'm sure the NCAA is pretty happy that they have a team from their new "First Four" in the Final Four. I get the sense that people have stopped questioning why the Rams made the tournament in the first place. And yeah, I know this isn't really a story for this week, but fucking deal with it, go watch some basketball.

Yes, It's March Madness time. Yet, as with many sports today, the old yearly festival has surpassed its time period. The final is now in April, actually, and the first round doesn't start until the second week in March. Hardly living up to its' namesake. Nonetheless, March Madness goes on, although with much heavier criticism than ever before. With the expansion to a 68-team field, the chances for bubble teams to make the tourney seemed higher, yet there were more snubs this year than in recent history. First there are the Bufs. Yea, Buffaloes aren't stagnant all the time, they play good basketball on occasion. It seemed this year as if Colorado might finally produce a quality sports team, with wins over Kansas State and Texas. With many thanks to star sophomore guard Alec Burks , who delivered 20 pts. per game, things were looking up in Boulder......until yesterday. Ok fine, maybe the Bufs did have 13 losses, including losses to San Francisco and Baylor, but with 2

Yup, I'm delivering today. Mindblowingly accurate historical revelation. Because most of you are sports fans, I'll keep this simple. Ok, so for those of you that don't know, Russia wasn't always called Russia. Yes, I know crazy, but countries can switch names. So the Soviet Union is the more politically correct term for the Russia of old, the one the United States hated. And in terms of leaders, before the current era of 'chev's, the U.S.S.R. was run by Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. And basically they ran the country into the ground and there was war and death and poverty, and yeah whatever, who really cares. And at this point, you may be wondering, am I going to talk about Russian Hockey or Bandy, as they call it? The answer is fuck no, there's no hockey on this blog. The answer to what I am going to talk about relates to a popular policy during the Soviet era. The possibly senile minds of Lenin and Stalin had a habit of declaring 5-year economic pl

The latter half of February is always an important portion of the NBA season, usually because of the trade deadline. Yes, the All-Star game tends to occur around this time as well, but as I have mentioned before , no one really likes All-Star games, in any sport. The NBA, however, has the unique ability to break this trend, due to its array of other competitions. In the All-Star game itself, either the East or West won, with an overall score of about 300, I think (as you can see, who cares). But the real excitement occurred earlier in the weekend, with the likes of the dunk contest and the three-point challenge. There are other competitions, such as the shooting challenge, but there's a WNBA player involved in that segment, so................ once again, who cares. The Slam Dunk competition, however, did impress, although the outcome was certainly expected. "Rookie" standout Blake Griffin (I say "rookie" because he was drafted a year earlier) wowed the crowd

I want to start this post with a disclaimer: If you are a feminist, disregard this post, and come back next time. So now that all the feminists are gone, we can begin. Most people at least have a vague idea of what title nine is. But for those of you who don't, it's basically an attempt to eliminate sexism. However, today, we really only see examples of this law in place in high school and college sports. In an effort to create gender equality, schools must provide as much funding for women's sports as men's sports. So right there, there is the first puzzling example of title IX. Besides the phenomenon which was the Connecticut women's basketball team, and people like Danica Patrick , who doesn't even really play a sport, women's sports are meaningless. Yet schools are expected the spend as much money on these so called "sports" as men's sports. Subsequently, teams like women's gymnastics, and swimming, receive unrealistically large fun

So, just being realistic, over half the country watched the Super Bowl , so there is no need to do any sort of recap. Thus, I will take this time to talk about the extracurricular aspects of the game yesterday. Ok yeah, the Packers won the Super Bowl. Congratulations. But honestly, the Steelers prized defense did little to nothing to stop Aaron Rodgers . He more or less picked apart Defensive Player of the Year Troy Polamalu's defense en route to the win. Thus, Ben Roethlisberger was left with the next-to heroic task of overcoming an extremely large defecit. Needless to say, his running efforts, as well as his beautifully crafted 2-pt conversion were all the Steelers could really manage. So now, let's get started with the commercials, most people's favorite aspect of the game. Well, in all honesty, they sucked. The usually-humorous Bud Light commercials looked like amateur productions, and the few highlights included Eminem and a little kid dressed like Darth Vader. Th

The Pro Bowl is probably the least interesting game of the entire season, unless of course there were a Panthers-Bills matchup this year. In addition to it being a meaningless game with no benefits, other than the Cadillac SUV granted to the game's MVP, this year's game was unsurmountably less exciting than any other previous year. The NFC's slaughtering of the AFC, tells nothing of how the season went this year, because no one really tried. On every play from scrimage, the defensive line performed the same motion, slowly getting out of their stance and jogging towards the general direction of the quarterback. In addition, the extra rules for the game, made passes of under ten yards almost undefended, as press coverage was against the rules. No blizting and the outlaw of bunch formations (three WR's on one side), as well added to the dull atmosphere in Honolulu. Not to mention that no one in Hawaii cares about football. I truly think that the Pro Bowl should be play

I know that it has been over a day since the two Championship games in the NFL, but there is stil a large need to recap them. Whereas the previous two weekends of NFL playoff matchups have featured a few exciting games, and the other games being boring blowouts, this weekend finally broke the 2010 mold. My dad frequently says that Championship Weekend usually has a better game than the Super Bowl, but this weekend, that was certainly not true.   Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers showed why they are the most underrated quarterbacks in the league, once again, and their respective defenses methodically picked apart depressing Bears and Jets offenses. Needless to say, although both games were decided with 7 points or less, neither was as close as that. The Packers, despite being underdogs in terms of seeding, lived up to the hype that made them favorites over the two-seed Bears. On the other side, the Steelers finally quieted the loud Jets and their pompous coach Rex Ryan, giving Bi

As I mentioned earlier this week, in a post about the Lakers' thrashing of the Cavaliers, TV has finally aired a show ridiculing sports analysis, the Onion Sportsdome. For those of you who still have not seen it, you can view some of the clips here . One of my personal favorites from the pilot episode was a clip entitled "Who Would You Kill?" In the segment, 'analysts' took turns explaining which pro-athletes they would kill and how. Although it was very humorous, I am not 'evil' enough to attempt to recreate it. Instead, I hope to offer my own segment, an optomistic flip of the Onion's clip, self-entitled "Who Would You Save?". In my hopefully weekly post of this sort, I will offer up a player accross sports, who I believe should deserve either more credit, or a change of scenery. Tonight, we will start off with "rookie" sensation Blake Griffin ("rookie" because he spent his first season on the injured reserve list

Once again, another weekend of playoff football has come and passed, and once again there were highlights and lowlights. The AFC featured two exciting matchups, and more than enough pre-game hype in one of the games, for the whole year. On the other hand, although there was an upset in the NFC neither game was ever close, so let's start there. Yesterday afternoon, the Falcons matched up with the Packers, in a game that was expected to stay close. However, what unfolded on the field was far from expected. The six seed Packers, and their highly touted offense and defense, were large underdogs, as the one seed Falcons, playing at home, hoped to receive an easy entrance to the Conference Championships. Yet a strong outing by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers defense, resulted in a 48-21 rout of the 13-3 Falcons, in Atlanta. So, one game into the games this weekend an upset had already been recorded, but would the Seahawks be able to continue their 'cinderella story' and win aga