Patriots get an Asterisk

With their victory over the Colts this past weekend the Patriots have improved their record to 9-o and taken a step closer to finishing the season undefeated. Coach of the legendary 72 Dolphins, Don Shula suggested that if the Patriots do go undefeated, their accomplishment would be diminished because of the Spygate incident earlier this year. The 1972 Dolphins team is the only one in NFL history to complete the perfect season. The team and Patriots coach Bill Belichick were fined a combined 750,000 dollars for their role in Spygate. The Patriots were also stripped of their first round draft pick this year. Such harsh penalties suggest that what the NFL found during their investigation were very serious violations of league policy. Shula then suggested that the Patriots have an asterisk put next to their name in the record books if they manage to go undefeated. (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3097057) He then compared the Patriots cheating with Barry Bonds getting an asterisk put on his record breaking home run ball for his alleged steroid use and that the same consequence should apply to the Patriots. I agree with Shula, cheating is cheating. Now the Patriots accomplishments, no matter how great, will always be questioned. That shadow of doubt will always haunt this years team, much like Barry Bonds is questioned because his home run total might be inflated because of steroid use. The Patriots cheated and now have to suffer the consequences. They knew what they did was cheating, but they did it anyway. A fitting punishment would be attaching an asterisk to their undefeated season if they do manage to complete the perfect season.

The new Yankees..The Red Sox?

We all know about the curse of the Bambino and we all know about Buckner and Dent. But after waiting 86 years to finally win a World Series Championship in 2004 the Red Sox have become title contenders every year since then. After winning the World Series with their sweep of the Rockies, they have come to represent everything they hate, the Yankees. Once reffered to as the "evil empire" the Yankees dynasty might finally be collapsing with the departure of Joe Torre. However, the Red Sox are right behind them waiting to step up and become the new "evil empire" that so many of us love to hate. With the second highest payroll in baseball the Red Sox have started to take on some of the characteristics traditionally assigned to the Yankees. With such a high payroll it can be implied that the Red Sox are trying to buy the World Series title, which was previously associated with the Yankee dynasties under George Steinbrenner. The fact that they are contenders for the title every year is also a sign that they are taking on the Yankee role more and more. With their second title in four seasons the Red Sox are on the verge of becoming a dynasty. They will most certainly be favorites to win the Fall Classic next year and will be one of the top spenders in the upcoming off-season. Many people who used to root for these lovable losers will grow sick of them winning all the time, much like people grew tired of the ever powerful Yankees when they were on top of the baseball world. With all the spending and winning the Red Sox have become almost the mirror image of their most hated rivals and are quickly becoming the new Yankess.

BCS

Over the last few years there has been a lot of debate over whether or not the NCAA should implement a college football playoff. I think that the NCAA should stop avoiding the issues the BCS presents and create a college football playoff system. Look at what happened to Auburn in 2004. Three teams went undefeated that year; Auburn, USC, and Oklahoma, however Auburn was denied a shot at the national title. They came out third in the BCS polls and played in the Sugar Bowl instead (which they won). The fact they were denied a shot at the National Championship becasue of where they started in the polls is absolutely ridiculous (USC and Oklahoma were #1 and #2). The NCAA needs to create an eight team playoff in which the Champions of the six major conferences are given automatic bids while teams like Boisie State fight for at large bids. The National Championship shouldn't be decided by computers and numbers, it should be decided on the field by the two teams who make it to the final round of the tournament. Teams would play every team in their conference and those with the best records would be declared their Conference champions. Schools would have to abandon their non-conference schedules so that every team in the conference could play. Many people would love to see a college football playoff and the television ratings would be extremely high. Just think of the revenue a college football tournament would generate and how much fun it would be to see the best teams in the country represent their conferences in their quest to the National title.

Joe Torre

New York Yankees manager Joe Torre's job is still in jeopardy after the Yankees were defeated by the Indians 3 games to 1 in the AL divisional series. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner publicly said that he probably wouldn't bring Torre back if the Yankees failed to make the AL Championship Series. I find this ridiculous, Torre has earned the right to leave on his own terms. He doesn't deserve to be fired or let go after his contract expires. In my opinion the Yankees shouldn't be thinking about letting him go, they should leave it up to him and if he wants to leave, then he can on his own terms. The Yankees have made the playoffs every year Torre has been their manager and have won the division 10 out of the 12 years Torre has been manager. The Yankees have won four World Series titles under Torre. Which includes the strech in which the Yankees won four out of five World Series from 1996-2000. Overall they reached the World Series six times, which includes the period from 1996-2003 when they appeared in six out of eight World Series. Those numbers are unbelieavable and I feel they warrant a contract extension for Torre and whatever his demands are. Torre has become one of the staples of the Yankee franchise along with Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera and many see him as the heart and soul of the franchise. Although I dislike the Yankees a lot, I do believe that Joe Torre is one of the greatest managers of all time and deserves to be treated with a lot more respect by the Yankees.

Marion Jones

In the past week, former U.S. sprinter Marion Jones has admitted to using steroids between 2000 and 2001. Since the BALCO investigation in 2003 Jones has been accused of steroid use. Since this admission Jones has given back her five medals that she won at the 2000 Olympics in Syndney. Olympic Officials have also decide to completly remove her name from the record books. Jones finally came clean after years of denying use of performance inhancing drugs. Although this whole situation has been bad for U.S. track and field and the whole sport itself, I do believe some good can come from this. Everyone knows of Jones's links to BALCO and all the other high profile atheletes that have been linked to it as well. Maybe this confession will inspire other atheletes to come forward about their use of steroids as well. This admission of guilt can go a long way toward cleaning up the world of sports and removing some of the stains that have been left on many sport's images. Atheletes who have long denied steroid use might finally see the light and recognize what they did was wrong. Maybe suspected users like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds will see what everyone else does and admit their own steroid use. If this event has the desired effect, we can finally find out who is illegitimate and who the real record holders are. However, most juicers probably will not admit their steroid use and probably never will. But if one person comes clean after this happening, just a little good will have come from a very bad situation.

Steroid Shipments

Over the past year several players have been reported to have received shipments of steroids or HGH in some point in their career. Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., and Jay Gibbons are some of the more high profile players to be named. While all maintain their innocence, the MLB has yet to punish any of them. I for one believe that receiving shipments of steroids for any other reason than a known injury is like a positive test. All three of these players have been caught red-handed but not one has fessed up and all proclaim their innocence. I feel the MLB needs to take this matter more seriously and punish those who have recieved steroids or HGH in the past or present regardless of whether or not they have tested positive in a drug test. If the shipment was required for an injury recognized by the MLB then no action should be taken. Though random drug testing was implemented by the MLB it can only be used to detect certain kinds of steroids. Until the MLB starts blood testing, we won't no who is legit and who is cheating. By punishing those associated with using steroids and HGH the MLB may scare those using and those potential users clean. These men all knew they where cheating and doing wrong when they recieved shipments and are now denying they used to save their careers. The MLB has had a dark shadow cast over it by the steroid era and I feel they need to do more to clean their image and return baseball to it's squeaky clean image.

Intramural Flag Football

My team (Death Row) had its first intramural flag football game this past Sunday. Before the game was started our team found out that the league does everything it can to keep your thirty dollar entry fee. Our team was already ineligible to get our money back because we were three minutes late for the coaches meeting. The team we were playing against found out the hard way about the unknown rules enforced by the officials. The rule that everyone has to bring their student I.D. to the game to be able to play is reasonable but a little extreme. I can see where the school is coming from with that one, which makes sure that all players are students at Ohio. But realistically, is anyone going to bring in ringers to play in their intramural flag football games? The most ridiculos rule that was enforced was the no pockets rule. You are not allowed to wear shorts that have pockets and if you do you cannot play. The explanation for this rule is that it is an injury risk. Injury risk? Come on! How does playing flag football with shorts that have pockets risk injury? The combination of these two rules that both teams were ignorant of resulted in the forfeit of the other team. (We live closer to the fields and were back before 4:30)The 4:30 forfeit time was ridiculos because the games before us weren't even finished by 4:30 but the other team showed up at 4:35 so they had to forfeit. As a result they can no longer recieve their thirty dollars back because they forfeited. It is now clear how the intramural offices make all their money, by enforcing seemingly pointless unknown rules to prey on freshmen who haven't played before and don't know the rules. We ended up scrimaging but where disappointed we didn't get to play a game with actual meaning to it but at least we got the win.

NASCAR a Sport?

Although it is loved by thousands and thousands of people many people such as myself do not consider nascar a sport. I know it takes a lot of skill to drive four hundred laps when it hits triple digits on the thermostat and I'm not trying to take that away. However, the fact that it doesn't require any major physical action to compete makes me think whether or not it should be classified as a sport. I would classify it as entertainment because it takes a lot of skill, but not very much athletic ability. I know many people would probably be offended by this assumption but I don't think driving a racecar requires much athletic ability. Other sports are decided by how atheletes perform and NASCAR is decided by how a car performs. When you take the deciding factors out of the atheletes hands and into the hands of a judge or a car you lose the sporting spirit. Sports such as football, basketball, and baseball, all require skill, atheletic ability, and the outcomes are decided by the players. I understand that NASCAR is growing in popularity and people love it but I just can't call it a sport. I don't think the U.S. will come to a point where the fourth major "sport" is NASCAR because I think many other people have the same opinion as I do. However its popularity is rising in the U.S. and I guess I'm going to have to deal with the fact that it will be called a "sport" by majority of sports fans. Many people love NASCAR and obviously I'm not one of them so please forgive me if I've offended you and your love of NASCAR.

NBA Thugs

For a long time now the NBA has been labeled as a "Thug" league and many people stick their noses up at because of this label. However, I believe that this label should be applied to the NFL. Although the NBA does have its fair share of thugs (Ron Artest, Steven Jackson) the NFL has had more players arrested in the last 2 years than the NBA. The reason the NFL doen't have the "Thug" label is because it is the more popular league and makes a lot more money, but if you think about the NFL has to have more thugs because there are lot more players and football is a violent sport. You have to be the biggest, meanest, and toughest dude out there or the game will chew you up and spit you out. Some players have seem to have that kind of mentality in the real world too and that has lead to a lot of arrests over the past couple of years. I'm not saying all NFL players are thugs because most of them are probably really good guys but there are some who definitley deserve the thug label. Football is a great sport but you have to be a bad dude when you are playing the game and some guys obviously don't know how to turn it off when they are finished playing and this gets guys into trouble with the law. So the next time your thinking of calling the NBA a "Thug" League stop and think if you are labeling the right league.

NFL Player Suspensions

As you've all probably heard NFL players are getting into more trouble with the law than ever before. Players like Adam "Pacman" Jones, Chris Henry, Odell Thurman, and Michael Vick are the headliners in this new trend. All of these players have either been arrested in the past year or have serious allegations and charges pending against them. I applaud commissioner Goodell for the actions he has taken in disciplining these players who have broken the law. However some are against such strict penalties like seasonlong suspensions and eight and ten game suspensions. Although they may seem harsh at first but I believe they are fair enough take Rams defensive Leonard Little in 1998 he decided to drive drunk and was responsible for a crash that killed a women and recieved only an eight game suspension. Let me state again that he was responsible for killing someone! Nowawadays the NFL suspends players for four games for violating the leagues substance abuse policies and suspended Pacman Jones for an entire season for being arrested five times since joining the Titans in 2005. As you can see the NFL has really cracked down on players who get into legal troubles. If Leonard Little would have gotten would have done what he did recently he would have be suspended minimum of one season. Although the penalties may be a lot stiffer I think they need to be so that players might think before breaking the law. Overall I think the change had to be made and the league can only benefit from it.

Writing Experience

My opinion on writing isn't very good, because I'm not very good at it. I need to work on the flow of my papers and refrain from using the same words over and over again.