Tag Archives: sports

General Posts

Thursday Morning Ramblings

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In professional football, there is a small group of ultra-elite players who transcend even the Hall of Fame.  Players like Johnny Unitas, Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor, Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice, and Walter Payton changed how the game is played by their talents and work ethics.  The legends of these players have passed from generation to generation, and their names have outlived their playing days because of the brilliance of their performances on the field, usually against championship level competition.

The most difficult position in all of professional sports is NFL quarterback.  The speed and violence of the game combined with the inherent demands of the position make the job an amalgam of leadership, toughness, fearlessness, decision-making, and athleticism, more so than any other position in any other sport.  The great quarterbacks who have played the game at the highest level are all legends.  Fran Tarkenton, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady are some of the best of the best, and each one exemplifies what makes a great quarterback, and we could debate until the end of time who is the absolute best of them all.

However, if you look at the numbers, one quarterback, and only one, holds every single career record that matters.  For 20 seasons, Brett Favre played the position as well as anyone ever has.  Yes, those of us who follow the game grew weary over the last three or four seasons with the retirement/contract game he played, and yes, he might have sent some inappropriate pictures to a reporter, but on the field, he was a general, a surgeon, a gambler, a rock, and a little boy all rolled into one.  I’ve not enjoyed watching a quarterback play more than I enjoyed watching Favre, even when he was playing against my Steelers.  In fact, one of my favorite Favre moments came in the 95 season when Greg Lloyd came untouched on a blitz and absolutely crushed him.  Favre had to be helped from the field, went to the sidelines for one play, threw up from the pain, came back in the game, and then threw a touchdown pass.  That’s tough, the kind of toughness he displayed for 20 seasons, even at the end.

The game will not be as fun without him.  His sense of humor and love of the game made it a pleasure to watch him compete, and his willingness to put it all on the line every single play is why he was so great.  Yes, he threw more interceptions than anyone in history, but he also threw more touchdowns and won more games.  In the end, that’s what it’s all about.  Thank you, Brett Favre, for all of the great, breathtaking moments you gave us.  Thank you for playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.  You will be the standard against all others will be measured for many decades to come.

 

General Posts

Friday Morning Ramblings

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Maybe it’s the English major/instructor in me that still clings to archaic beliefs about language and syntax and organization and coherence, but I swear, a lot of the writing I see on “professional” journalism websites is barely legible.  I’m not talking about Bob’s Big World of Nascar dot com, either.  I’m talking about commercial sites owned by major news outlets.  Sports sites seem to be the worst, but they are not the only.  It’s truly disturbing to me.

I recognize that in this country journalism needs to be written on a fourth or fifth grade level to appeal to a mass audience, but I’m not sure much of what’s out there even reaches a fourth grade level  Here’s an example:

Given how James announced his, ahem, decision, I suppose he had it coming. But let’s be honest: if any Miami professional athlete deserves some heckling, it’s Chad Henne. Or, if you’re a Browns fan, you should be buying that guy dinner after he gifted the Browns a victory last Sunday.

In unrelated news, Erik Spoelstra is now a Browns fan*.

* Fabrication … but wholly believable

This is professional journalism?  It reads more like a drunken text message sent from one frat boy to another.  Does he really get paid money for this crap?  I feel like my efforts to teach English have been wasted since the major sources for news and journalism produce such poorly written articles.  How can my lowly efforts to keep the language alive and somewhat thoughtful compete with such incompetence?

That’s only one example.  I’ve encountered dozens more just like it, and it makes me wonder if it’s just a sign of the times, this ADD culture we’ve created.  Or is it a symptom of something larger and more sinister, like the decline of the republic?  While our education and health systems swirl around the drain, while our politicians engage in endless rounds of deliberation over who should get tax breaks, and while our energy consumption threatens the very existence of our planet, a major news outlet is paying good money for a guy to sit in a sports bar and type that crap on his Droid.  Little thought, little deliberation, vague references to another sports “writer” and a different sporting event, this is what constitutes “journalism” at the end of 2010.  This is exactly why so many of us in education feel as if we have wasted our lives.

Honestly, I can’t wait to get the farm rolling so that I can walk away from the system and never look back.  I’ll write my silly books and maintain my silly blog, and that will be all I do to sustain the language.

General Posts, Ramblings of Thanks

Sunday Afternoon Ramblings – Thankful #14

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I’m thankful to be a Steelers fan.  For those of us of my generation who cheer for the Black and Gold, there’s more to it than just the quality of football on the field.  Yes, we have more Super Bowl victories than anyone else.  Yes, we’ve appeared in Super Bowls in four consecutive decades.  Yes, we’ve sent a plethora of players to the Hall of Fame.  But there’s more to being a diehard Steelers fan than just winning.

The Chief, Art Rooney, was the epitome of what a successful person should be: humble, down-to-earth, kind, generous, and loyal.  He was, in the words of Terry Bradshaw, “A good king.”  When Dan Rooney took over the helm, he has continued his father’s legacy of embodying decency while maintaining success.  Dan Rooney is the man who pushed for racial equality in the league where 70% of the players are African-American but nearly all of the head coaches and literally all of the owners are white.  He then followed through on his scruples by hiring a young, unproven African-American in Mike Tomlin, who in turn rewarded the Rooneys by winning the team’s sixth Super Bowl.

The haters will chime in with jeers about Ben Roethlisberger’s off the field indiscretions and how that has tarnished the Steelers’ image.  My only response is that while Big Ben has behaved stupidly and immaturely in his life, he has not been charged with any crimes.  A more telling illustration of what the organization stands for comes from the mid-90’s.  Bam Morris was a rising star at running back and a perfect fit for Coach Cowher’s smash-mouth style.  During the off-season, he was caught with an absurd amount of marijuana in his trunk, obviously for resale, and the team immediately released him, declaring that there was no room on the team for that kind of character.  Around the same time, Michael Irvin was arrested in a hotel room with cocaine and hookers.  Cowboys owner Jerry Jones scrambled to do damage control with the media and made every effort to sweep the incident under the rug.

In 1988, my junior year in high school, the Steelers went 5-11, the team’s worst record in my lifetime.  Every day, I wore my Steelers hat proudly.  I was still grateful to be a Steeler even though the team was not winning right then, and in my experience, most Steelers fans feel the same way.  Many fans of other teams (locally the Titans come to mind) are fair-weather fans, proud to wear their gear when the team is good but quick to don another team’s jersey when the record slides.  The difference is because the Steelers embody more than just performance–it’s about a mindset of how to conduct yourself in good times and bad.  It’s about being proud of being blue-collar.  It’s about digging in deep when things get tough.  That’s what the Steelers mean to me, and I’m thankful to call myself a Steelers fan.