I'm afraid I'll create Skynet…
Sports
Sick of college athletes
Jan 2nd
<rant>
Why the hell are college athletes so dumb these days? Why do SO few of them appreciate the incredible opportunity they’re given? It seems like Tennessee just gets so many damn kids that just came here to drive around, smoke pot, and hold kids up with illegal guns.
We’re actually recruiting people to come here, smoke pot and hold us up? We’re giving them a free education (which they don’t give a shit about) so they can point guns at us?
I try to be as forgiving as I can. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and say that these kids need second chances. Everyone makes mistakes after all. I know I sure have. But sometimes the mistakes that are made just display how apathetic these kids are to the opportunity they’ve being given. They just want to get theirs and get the hell away from campus.
Now lets be fair. There are a lot of good kids in college sports. There are players like Eric Berry, Dane Bradshaw, Myron Rolle, and Tim Tebow. They work hard and appreciate everything they’re given. But it seems like for every one of those there’s 10 Nu’keese Richardsons.
I’m currently ranting because the latest problem is four Tennessee basketball players who were caught speeding with an open container of alcohol, pot, and 2 handguns. It’s about time Mike Hamilton institute a much much stricter policy of conduct.
If a player is caught in possession of ANY illegal firearm they should be gone.
If you are caught with drugs (or test positive for it) once, you can’t play for a year. If it happens a second time, you’re done.
Any sort of serious violent assault should be MINIMUM a year suspension, and most likely done for their career.
Drinking and driving should also be a year suspension
Kids can make mistakes. Miss curfew. Oversleep for a meeting. Have a little too much to drink. Maybe miss some classes or struggle in a class. They shouldn’t happen and should result in discipline, but they’re forgivable.
But this crap of guns and pot and we can do whatever we want is just absurd. If other schools want to have kids like that, go for it, but I would ABSOLUTELY rather lose every game than win with kids with those attitudes.
If I keep going I’m gonna start getting incoherent, so I’m gonna stop. But Mike Hamilton, it’s about time you make a SERIOUS stand before your program goes to shit.
</rant>
Tennessee in black jerseys
Nov 2nd
They’re just jerseys, but it’s impossible to overstate how much this pumped the crowd and the team up (not to mention the fact that it helped Bruce Pearl land a 5 star recruit). Jump to about the 2:50 mark for the money freakout.
People freaking out about the break from tradition need to relax, it was just one game. If you left the game when you saw them, don’t come back. You don’t have to like everything to support the program. No fan would leave because of a jersey.
On Jim Johnson's passing
Jul 28th
In 1999, Andy Reid, just named head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, was looking for a defensive coordinator. Reid, being more of an offensive guru, was looking for someone he could trust to run the defense. He targeted one man to do so: Jim Johnson.
Reid placed his COMPLETE trust in Johnson to coach the Eagles defense, and Johnson never disappointed. For the last 10 years he has walked the Eagles sideline, teaching numbers of Pro Bowlers and commanding the respect of the league with one of it’s most feared defenses. Johnson is now gone; he passed away this evening at the age of 68.
I can barely remember what the Eagles were like before Johnson, but what I can remember isn’t too good. Johnson’s defenses molded the Eagles that I knew and the defense that I absolutely loved. I fell in love with the Eagles as a kid, partly because I loved the uniforms and partly because I was a fan of Randall Cunningham and Cris Carter. But I barely remember that anymore.
The Eagles I fell in love with can be summed up with one simple word: blitzing. Johnson is known as the master of the blitz. Many have used it, but no one could implement it with the mastery that Johnson did. He did so by knowing that the key was having versatile, athletic cornerbacks who could cover one-on-one and blitz well.
A look at those who worked under Johnson will show you how successful he was. He coached Pro Bowl players like Brian Dawkins, Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor, Jeremiah Trotter, Hugh Douglas, Sheldon Brown, Derrick Burgess, and Trent Cole. NFL head coaches Steve Spagnuolo (St. Louis Rams) and John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens) both coached under Jim Johnson.
Johnson may not be well known to many football fans, but his coaching styles and his defenses definitely are. His blitzes were greatly feared by opposing quarterbacks, but not nearly as much as he will be missed by Eagles fans and players, as well as the sport of football in general. And while Jim Johnson may be gone, he will continue to live on in the players he coached and in the defenses that will continue to put into practice the defensive strategies he designed.
ESPN has more local sports sites planned
Jul 20th
ESPN opened an Chicago specific site earlier this year which gives you everything you need to know about sports in the Windy City. SAI is now reporting that ESPN will launch similar sites in LA, New York, and Dallas
The challenge will be competing with local personalities, who have long-term followings in newspapers and on radio and TV. (Though as more papers bust, could be an opportunity for ESPN to hire the most popular as contributors.)
It’s definitely an interesting prospect. Would local sports reporters move to working for a localized version of ESPN. It gives those writers/reporters/producers and opportunity to work for the premier sports news network in the world, and it would also give ESPN a network of talent all across the country to filter into their national network.
(Note: I don’t know how well this would work in Knoxville, as TN fans have a natural distrust of the network due to a perceived (or real) bias against the Vols.)
ESPN Launching More Local Sports Sites: NYC, LA, Dallas next
