What is it about people and society that makes us reflexively think more rules and regulations and laws are an improvement? Hockey has an opportunity to break from the other major sports by NOT legislating more crap rules. The NFL is a shining example of over-legislation. Its ham-handed attempts at 'protecting' the players have piled rule upon rule upon rule to the point of creating confusion and subsequently frustration over what is and isn't dirty. To paraphrase a Supreme Court justice from years ago 'dirty might be hard to define, but we know it when we see it'. So what's the problem with identifying and weeding out dirty players?
The biggest problem with defining what is a dirty play and, to a larger extent a dirty player, is the incredible amount of excuses that come into play after the fact. A player who commits a dirty play, whether an isolated incident or in the case of Alexander Ovechkin on a continued and consistent basis, isn't identified by geography or uniform color. The team he played for last season may not be the team he's on this time around, but the dirty player underneath is the same. Its the excusing of dirty play that needs to stop.
Over and over its said that today's athletes are 'bigger, stronger, faster' than ever before and yet somehow today's athletes have less bodily control than ever before too. How can this be? Maybe it comes down to some misplaced priorities and lack of respect for the game. As the games are played today more emphasis is put into making a crippling hit and maybe, just maybe, get a quick mention on Sportscenter. Good fundamentals and actually helping the team win be damned. Egos have inflated bigger than the sport that made the ego possible in the first place. Today's games are all about 'Look at me'.
Deflating player egos has to start in the commissioners offices. The marketing gurus and toothless disciplinarians in the league hierarchies honestly don't seem to realize that they're killing the golden goose by turning off the fans who only want to see good clean honest games. So, how does hockey turn itself away from the selfish and egotistical type of athlete that has ruined the other Big Four sports and is slowly infecting the NHL? It won't be easy.
Teaching kids how to play solid fundamental hockey while still having fun wouldn't seem to be terribly complicated, but outside forces continually corrupt the process. Whether its overbearing parents with delusions of grandeur or the cesspool of sports coverage known as ESPiN instilling a sense of sportsmanship and fair play is an upstream swim against a tidal wave. Overcoming a generation of 'me first' athletes, thirty years of mind-numbing Bermanites, and a healthy dose of Baylessness is a heavy challenge but if we truly care about the future of hockey its a challenge worth accepting.
Teaching love and respect for the game and a sense of sportsmanship and fair play will correct many of the problems in the NHL-years down the road. Of course, dropping the instigator rule would be a simple and effective short term fix in the meantime.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Giving The NFL a B(C)S Makeover 1/7/09
BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock: You guys had a great season…yea, their undefeated, but right now what are there..six of them are undefeated, so not everybody can play…..and…..uh…
With that thought in mind, and in the truest spirit of competition and fair play that can only come from an upstanding organization like the Bowl Championship Series, the unilateral decision has been made to adapt the BCS philosophy to pro football. Sooooo, bend over and accept that a bunch of guys sitting around an NCAA sanctioned dorm somewhere in North America has decided who will play in the 2010 Super Bowl. Bend over and accept it, just as you have this bogus college football 'championship'. Without further ado or adont, the teams who will compete for the Vince Lombardi trophy this season are................
Baltimore Ravens vs New Orleans Saints
Why? Because the BCS is all-knowing and all-powerful and says so. Don't like those choices? Swallow hard, hang your head and accept it, just like Boise State, TCU, Cincinnati, and all the other teams worthy of playing in a playoff system had to. Money talks, big money talks loudest, and BCS officials have an ear for the sound of briefcases being stuffed full of small unmarked bills.
What a joke.
With that thought in mind, and in the truest spirit of competition and fair play that can only come from an upstanding organization like the Bowl Championship Series, the unilateral decision has been made to adapt the BCS philosophy to pro football. Sooooo, bend over and accept that a bunch of guys sitting around an NCAA sanctioned dorm somewhere in North America has decided who will play in the 2010 Super Bowl. Bend over and accept it, just as you have this bogus college football 'championship'. Without further ado or adont, the teams who will compete for the Vince Lombardi trophy this season are................
Baltimore Ravens vs New Orleans Saints
Why? Because the BCS is all-knowing and all-powerful and says so. Don't like those choices? Swallow hard, hang your head and accept it, just like Boise State, TCU, Cincinnati, and all the other teams worthy of playing in a playoff system had to. Money talks, big money talks loudest, and BCS officials have an ear for the sound of briefcases being stuffed full of small unmarked bills.
What a joke.
Wonderings and Curiosities 12/9/09
Just some more thoughts floating around my mind.
For eight long years....The previous administration.....George Bush did/didn't....George Bush is/isn't....Bush/Cheney....Its now impossible not to hear these words (and what usually follows) without a rolling of the eyes. None of what happened during the Bush years is sound justification for the crap being inflicted on the country and its future.
Why is it that voters who didn't fall in kneejerk fashion for the weak 2008 Republican offering are held to a greater amount of blame than those who voted for the weak 2008 Democrat candidate? What the national leaderships of both major parties and their media lapdogs don't seem to understand is the simplest of principles: Run a strong candidate of character and the voters will come.
In the same vein. why is it a reflex reaction to assume that those of us who live outside of the Beltway or far away from either coast are automatically assumed to be too daft to understand 'politics'? Knowing right from wrong doesn't take any Ivy League education, only common sense.
When did this country switch to looking at everything through a legal prism vs. the traditional right/wrong method? Over the last few months we've seen in full high-def clarity they aren't even close to the same thing-as if it weren't completely obvious before that if we'd have been paying attention in the first place. Turn off the reality TV and start participating in the reality beyond the remote control.
The quickest way to turn the country around? Start with 'number one'. Instead of going into personal attack mode at the first hint of criticism look in the mirror. There is a difference between constructive and destructive criticism. Americans have simply lost the ability to know the difference.
Can anyone identify the exact date when reporters stopped reporting?
If there's really anything to take from Max Baucus showing the world he's just another run-of-the-mill D.C. hack for nominating his girlfriend for a government position, no pun intended, its just how completely incestuous the US Politburo has become.
A new opinion of 'Global warming' in Hurricane Algore's own words: He lied to us. He played on our fears. (Make sure you're screaming them)
Republican pundits and talking heads yap loudly about having a tent big enough for 'diverse opinions'. However, nothing is more of a turnoff than being an independent with views closer to libertarian than republican. Hearing highbrow scorn from folks who don't tend to land anywhere in between when traveling from one coast to the other tells me my vote really isn't valued at all.
Would it now be an easier accounting for women who haven't slept with Tiger Woods to come forward? I've lost count.
Thanks for reading.
For eight long years....The previous administration.....George Bush did/didn't....George Bush is/isn't....Bush/Cheney....Its now impossible not to hear these words (and what usually follows) without a rolling of the eyes. None of what happened during the Bush years is sound justification for the crap being inflicted on the country and its future.
Why is it that voters who didn't fall in kneejerk fashion for the weak 2008 Republican offering are held to a greater amount of blame than those who voted for the weak 2008 Democrat candidate? What the national leaderships of both major parties and their media lapdogs don't seem to understand is the simplest of principles: Run a strong candidate of character and the voters will come.
In the same vein. why is it a reflex reaction to assume that those of us who live outside of the Beltway or far away from either coast are automatically assumed to be too daft to understand 'politics'? Knowing right from wrong doesn't take any Ivy League education, only common sense.
When did this country switch to looking at everything through a legal prism vs. the traditional right/wrong method? Over the last few months we've seen in full high-def clarity they aren't even close to the same thing-as if it weren't completely obvious before that if we'd have been paying attention in the first place. Turn off the reality TV and start participating in the reality beyond the remote control.
The quickest way to turn the country around? Start with 'number one'. Instead of going into personal attack mode at the first hint of criticism look in the mirror. There is a difference between constructive and destructive criticism. Americans have simply lost the ability to know the difference.
Can anyone identify the exact date when reporters stopped reporting?
If there's really anything to take from Max Baucus showing the world he's just another run-of-the-mill D.C. hack for nominating his girlfriend for a government position, no pun intended, its just how completely incestuous the US Politburo has become.
A new opinion of 'Global warming' in Hurricane Algore's own words: He lied to us. He played on our fears. (Make sure you're screaming them)
Republican pundits and talking heads yap loudly about having a tent big enough for 'diverse opinions'. However, nothing is more of a turnoff than being an independent with views closer to libertarian than republican. Hearing highbrow scorn from folks who don't tend to land anywhere in between when traveling from one coast to the other tells me my vote really isn't valued at all.
Would it now be an easier accounting for women who haven't slept with Tiger Woods to come forward? I've lost count.
Thanks for reading.
Untitled 11/23/09
Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder? Sounds like just another lame excuse for not getting out of bed in the morning.
As long as we're creating new excuses like Pre-TSD, consider Political Prisoner Inadequacy Syndrome. Trauma will be widespread when average Americans are jailed for failure to purchase health insurance. Will we truly be jailed just for that? Will Amnesty International and the ACLU plead our cases if/when this silliness becomes law? Will Nelson Mandela or the family of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn point at us and laugh?
Not that I distrust the Illinois Connection but who in that state is going to be profiting from the prison for terrorists that's likely going to operate there?
On the same line, its time for the country-clubbing president to have his frequent flyer miles revoked and get his butt back behind that big desk.
Senator Mary Landrieu. A few hundred million dollars. In DC and Louisiana what she did might be called 'politics'. In the real world there's a different 'P' word for it.
As long as we're seemingly in the mood to soak the 'rich', and in the spirit of fairness, how about a tax schedule that more accurately reflects the attitude of the country toward our elected 'leadership' in DC? The 'rich' who make exactly 174,000 dollars a year are taxed at an 85% rate, the 'rich' who make 193,4000 at 90%, and anyone making 223,500 feels the pinch of a 95% rate. Maybe then our esteemed Politburo, uh, sorry, Congress, would start feeling the frustrations that average Americans feel.
As long as we're creating new excuses like Pre-TSD, consider Political Prisoner Inadequacy Syndrome. Trauma will be widespread when average Americans are jailed for failure to purchase health insurance. Will we truly be jailed just for that? Will Amnesty International and the ACLU plead our cases if/when this silliness becomes law? Will Nelson Mandela or the family of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn point at us and laugh?
Not that I distrust the Illinois Connection but who in that state is going to be profiting from the prison for terrorists that's likely going to operate there?
On the same line, its time for the country-clubbing president to have his frequent flyer miles revoked and get his butt back behind that big desk.
Senator Mary Landrieu. A few hundred million dollars. In DC and Louisiana what she did might be called 'politics'. In the real world there's a different 'P' word for it.
As long as we're seemingly in the mood to soak the 'rich', and in the spirit of fairness, how about a tax schedule that more accurately reflects the attitude of the country toward our elected 'leadership' in DC? The 'rich' who make exactly 174,000 dollars a year are taxed at an 85% rate, the 'rich' who make 193,4000 at 90%, and anyone making 223,500 feels the pinch of a 95% rate. Maybe then our esteemed Politburo, uh, sorry, Congress, would start feeling the frustrations that average Americans feel.
Many Blood Sucking Parasites 11/10/09
Decent speech by the President at the memorial service for the Fort Hood victims, but why does doing or saying the right thing always seem to take him longer than it should?
When I hear a Democrat say 'bipartisanship' I hear 'we need a Republican on board to blame when our idea doesn't work'. And yet the Republicans fall for it over and over. Time to replace the elephant with a picture of Charlie Brown holding a football.
Robin Williams once joked about English law enforcement procedure concerning unarmed police faced with a fleeing criminal: Stop, or I'll say stop again. Who knew years later this would be adopted as Obama administration policy toward Iran, and North Korea, and Afghanistan, and terrorism, and you get the idea? The only thing that so far has warranted a stronger Obama stand is the destruction of criticism and dissent.
Anyone see the photo-op cheshire cat grin of Imelda Pelosi being serenaded by fellow Democrats applause Saturday night, after the passing of that unconstitutional health care bill? I can't see that picture without adding the caption 'Look how much money I just spent'.
Can someone please tell Bill Clinton that the real conspiracy is how Al Gore is still somehow living on the government dime.
Where'd all the war protesters go?
Before the moon was bombed shouldn't we have given UN sanctions a chance, or at the least sent Hillary Clinton there to open a dialogue? Maybe even add the moon to the presidential apology tour list for landing there in the first place.
I guess its safe to assume that the wind beneath Bette Midlers' wings isn't Glenn Beck.
The NFL and its esteemed commissioner Roger Goodell carry the scent of hypocrisy concerning the possibility of Rush Limbaugh becoming a part-owner of the St. Louis Rams. Goodell couldn't even hold Larry Johnsons' actual homophobic comments to the same standard as he did the imagined comments attributed to Limbaugh.
What is diversity? Hearing a caller to a national sports radio show saying Limbaugh is blatantly racist because he's from Missouri, and that the midwest is naturally racist because there's 'no diversity' has me concerned. Is diversity a region predominately white but with varying opinions stemming from differing ethnic and religious influences, or is diversity represented by a political party whose members all parrot the exact same words?
I guess diversity means Democrat.
Why is it whenever a member of the US Politburo, sorry, Congress, cites a statistic or percentage it sounds like they've made it up that very second?
If anything written here led you to believe I'm Republican, not hardly. I left back in 1990. Watching The Dede and Newt Funtime Road Show further cemented my feeling that Republicans are low-cal Democrats. Flipping the bird to the voters they're supposed to be courting by running candidates like John McCain, and then trying to justify it with a bend-over-and-accept-it attitude is a great way to ru(i)n a political party. Do I support third parties? No, but I understand the anger and frustration that comes from being ignored by the party leaders who've been holed up in DC for so long that they've lost the ability to relate to, and for that matter even talk to, ordinary people.
If either party spent even half as much time protecting the greater interests of the country as they do playing politics they'd never lose another election.
When I hear a Democrat say 'bipartisanship' I hear 'we need a Republican on board to blame when our idea doesn't work'. And yet the Republicans fall for it over and over. Time to replace the elephant with a picture of Charlie Brown holding a football.
Robin Williams once joked about English law enforcement procedure concerning unarmed police faced with a fleeing criminal: Stop, or I'll say stop again. Who knew years later this would be adopted as Obama administration policy toward Iran, and North Korea, and Afghanistan, and terrorism, and you get the idea? The only thing that so far has warranted a stronger Obama stand is the destruction of criticism and dissent.
Anyone see the photo-op cheshire cat grin of Imelda Pelosi being serenaded by fellow Democrats applause Saturday night, after the passing of that unconstitutional health care bill? I can't see that picture without adding the caption 'Look how much money I just spent'.
Can someone please tell Bill Clinton that the real conspiracy is how Al Gore is still somehow living on the government dime.
Where'd all the war protesters go?
Before the moon was bombed shouldn't we have given UN sanctions a chance, or at the least sent Hillary Clinton there to open a dialogue? Maybe even add the moon to the presidential apology tour list for landing there in the first place.
I guess its safe to assume that the wind beneath Bette Midlers' wings isn't Glenn Beck.
The NFL and its esteemed commissioner Roger Goodell carry the scent of hypocrisy concerning the possibility of Rush Limbaugh becoming a part-owner of the St. Louis Rams. Goodell couldn't even hold Larry Johnsons' actual homophobic comments to the same standard as he did the imagined comments attributed to Limbaugh.
What is diversity? Hearing a caller to a national sports radio show saying Limbaugh is blatantly racist because he's from Missouri, and that the midwest is naturally racist because there's 'no diversity' has me concerned. Is diversity a region predominately white but with varying opinions stemming from differing ethnic and religious influences, or is diversity represented by a political party whose members all parrot the exact same words?
I guess diversity means Democrat.
Why is it whenever a member of the US Politburo, sorry, Congress, cites a statistic or percentage it sounds like they've made it up that very second?
If anything written here led you to believe I'm Republican, not hardly. I left back in 1990. Watching The Dede and Newt Funtime Road Show further cemented my feeling that Republicans are low-cal Democrats. Flipping the bird to the voters they're supposed to be courting by running candidates like John McCain, and then trying to justify it with a bend-over-and-accept-it attitude is a great way to ru(i)n a political party. Do I support third parties? No, but I understand the anger and frustration that comes from being ignored by the party leaders who've been holed up in DC for so long that they've lost the ability to relate to, and for that matter even talk to, ordinary people.
If either party spent even half as much time protecting the greater interests of the country as they do playing politics they'd never lose another election.
Sliding Scale Part II:Twilight Time 9/13/09
What is with the uproar about the sex of South African trackster Castor Semenya? I don't want to go all Captain Obvious on everyone but its so simple: Semen ya=male, Semen nah=female. She's a man Baby, yeah. There hasn't been an easier case of gender identification to solve since the 1976 Olympics and the strange story of East German pole vaulter Inga Titzenbusch.
David Robinson definitely, John Stockton a logical choice, but Michael Jordan a Hall of Fame? Seriously? Why don't we just open it up to every modest talent who barely made his high school team. Only dyed-in-the-wool Kool-Aid drinkers believe Jordan was the reason Chicago won a few NBA championships. True students of the game know the real reason the Bulls were so dominant was the stellar efforts of Scott Williams and Bill Wennington. Congrats to all of the honorees.
The toothless sharks running major league baseball ruled that Alex Rodriguez won't be punished for lying about his juicing up. Is anyone really surprised? Its much easier for Commissioner Bud and his stooges to do the right thing when doing the right thing involves a 20-inning-a-year middle reliever for the Orioles.
This week James Madison tops the true, settle-it-on-the-field college football top 25 poll. Last years' runner-up Montana comes in at #5 and defending national champion Richmond is 6th. Why oh why isn't anyone in higher education concerned about the classroom time lost by the fine young men playing for these schools while they're away from campus for postseason games?
Oh yah, last years paper champion Florida can be considered a distant 26th.
Larry Gelbart passed away Friday. The name is likely not familiar, but think early MASH when the show was truly funny-before the preachy crap started with the cast changes. His style and humor were and are still an inspiration. RIP Mr. Gelbart. Condolences to family and friends.
A lot has been on my mind the last few days. Good, bad, right, wrong, thoughts all over the place. Its funny and yet sad when you see something that is very important to you personally while everyone else treats the same thing as trivial. Something from conversations a long while back returned to my mind-"No one cares unless its theirs". It doesn't quite fit the situation, and yet it does.
As I sit here watching the keyboard stare back at me I realize its time to step back and give up my seat at the table. Times change, people change, and life takes on a different look. Down the road when something in the sports world trips my cord I'll fire up the laptop again but until that time the world outside calls.
Thank you Harry and Beezer for allowing me the chance to (try to) fill your shoes now and again, to Kevin and Kyle for the opportunity to contribute, to the new friends like Fan I'd not known at the old stomping grounds, and to the old friends who've always found my ramblings worthy of their time. It is all greatly appreciated.
Thank you for stopping. Hit the lights on the way out.
David Robinson definitely, John Stockton a logical choice, but Michael Jordan a Hall of Fame? Seriously? Why don't we just open it up to every modest talent who barely made his high school team. Only dyed-in-the-wool Kool-Aid drinkers believe Jordan was the reason Chicago won a few NBA championships. True students of the game know the real reason the Bulls were so dominant was the stellar efforts of Scott Williams and Bill Wennington. Congrats to all of the honorees.
The toothless sharks running major league baseball ruled that Alex Rodriguez won't be punished for lying about his juicing up. Is anyone really surprised? Its much easier for Commissioner Bud and his stooges to do the right thing when doing the right thing involves a 20-inning-a-year middle reliever for the Orioles.
This week James Madison tops the true, settle-it-on-the-field college football top 25 poll. Last years' runner-up Montana comes in at #5 and defending national champion Richmond is 6th. Why oh why isn't anyone in higher education concerned about the classroom time lost by the fine young men playing for these schools while they're away from campus for postseason games?
Oh yah, last years paper champion Florida can be considered a distant 26th.
Larry Gelbart passed away Friday. The name is likely not familiar, but think early MASH when the show was truly funny-before the preachy crap started with the cast changes. His style and humor were and are still an inspiration. RIP Mr. Gelbart. Condolences to family and friends.
A lot has been on my mind the last few days. Good, bad, right, wrong, thoughts all over the place. Its funny and yet sad when you see something that is very important to you personally while everyone else treats the same thing as trivial. Something from conversations a long while back returned to my mind-"No one cares unless its theirs". It doesn't quite fit the situation, and yet it does.
As I sit here watching the keyboard stare back at me I realize its time to step back and give up my seat at the table. Times change, people change, and life takes on a different look. Down the road when something in the sports world trips my cord I'll fire up the laptop again but until that time the world outside calls.
Thank you Harry and Beezer for allowing me the chance to (try to) fill your shoes now and again, to Kevin and Kyle for the opportunity to contribute, to the new friends like Fan I'd not known at the old stomping grounds, and to the old friends who've always found my ramblings worthy of their time. It is all greatly appreciated.
Thank you for stopping. Hit the lights on the way out.
The Sliding Scale of Right and Wrong 9/12/09
Oh, I don't know. My guess is I can ignore it a very long time.---Bob Ford, Philadelphia Daily News
As I sit here staring out the window watching the clouds breaking up after a day of rain, my thoughts wander. What is news and who decides what is and isn't important enough information for the public to be made aware? Does the electronic and print media use a sliding scale of right and wrong to make that call? Or in the case of the Philadelphia Daily News is it a dipstick?
What is important to us? Should what happens in California or Maine or Georgia make any difference to me out here in the sticks? Yes, it should. Folks around the country should be looking cross-eyed at those of us in this state for inflicting Tom Daschle on the world and keeping him living on the public dime for nearly thirty years. Even a heartfelt apology doesn't seem adequate to convey the shame. I am sorry though. I voted for him, I fell for it, once. I learned early. I'm still sorry.
The fact is a crook is a crook is a crook regardless of geography. As the line between the sports world and the 'real' world blurs it becomes even more evident. How many of us grow irate at the thought of Congress lecturing sports figures about such things as morality and ethics when the Gang of 535 is at least as corrupt as those players and coaches who're being browbeaten? And yet as the voices of dissent grow louder we're still fed a daily dose of slop from the media. Honestly, I don't care whether the First Lady looks good in a pair of shorts. I really really don't. Expose dirty dealings and illegal activity-sports world and real world!
If a prominent athlete is spending quite a bit of quality time with a character carrying a shady past and even shadier future for God's sake tell us. By the same standard if a good guy is in fact a good guy tell us that too. Hey Reporter Guy, how about trusting us to be smart enough to make decisions for ourselves? The current landscape is littered with bankrupt media outlets that thought it better to decide for us what we were supposed to think. Look how well that worked out.
I want to know that our games at least have the illusion of squeaky clean (yes, I'm an idealist). I want the sports figures I hold in higher regard to be worthy of being held in higher regard. I'm not going to lie and say I never patterned how I played after certain players, or conducted myself off the field by how I saw my favorites carry themselves. There, I admitted it: I considered some of them 'role models'.
When I was a kid the people reporting on sports were at least moderately successful at unbiased reportage. Those who call themselves 'reporters' nowadays are just faking it. "All the news that's fit to print" has deteriorated to "Only the stuff we feel like printing". How sad.
My generation is by now jaded and lost. This generation deserves the same chance we had to have 'heroes'. I'm not naive enough to believe the world was, is, or ever will be perfect. Without honest, unbiased, unfiltered information sources all this generation can look forward to is 'Oh, I don't know. My guess is I can ignore it for a very long time'. This generation deserves better.
Thanks for reading.
As I sit here staring out the window watching the clouds breaking up after a day of rain, my thoughts wander. What is news and who decides what is and isn't important enough information for the public to be made aware? Does the electronic and print media use a sliding scale of right and wrong to make that call? Or in the case of the Philadelphia Daily News is it a dipstick?
What is important to us? Should what happens in California or Maine or Georgia make any difference to me out here in the sticks? Yes, it should. Folks around the country should be looking cross-eyed at those of us in this state for inflicting Tom Daschle on the world and keeping him living on the public dime for nearly thirty years. Even a heartfelt apology doesn't seem adequate to convey the shame. I am sorry though. I voted for him, I fell for it, once. I learned early. I'm still sorry.
The fact is a crook is a crook is a crook regardless of geography. As the line between the sports world and the 'real' world blurs it becomes even more evident. How many of us grow irate at the thought of Congress lecturing sports figures about such things as morality and ethics when the Gang of 535 is at least as corrupt as those players and coaches who're being browbeaten? And yet as the voices of dissent grow louder we're still fed a daily dose of slop from the media. Honestly, I don't care whether the First Lady looks good in a pair of shorts. I really really don't. Expose dirty dealings and illegal activity-sports world and real world!
If a prominent athlete is spending quite a bit of quality time with a character carrying a shady past and even shadier future for God's sake tell us. By the same standard if a good guy is in fact a good guy tell us that too. Hey Reporter Guy, how about trusting us to be smart enough to make decisions for ourselves? The current landscape is littered with bankrupt media outlets that thought it better to decide for us what we were supposed to think. Look how well that worked out.
I want to know that our games at least have the illusion of squeaky clean (yes, I'm an idealist). I want the sports figures I hold in higher regard to be worthy of being held in higher regard. I'm not going to lie and say I never patterned how I played after certain players, or conducted myself off the field by how I saw my favorites carry themselves. There, I admitted it: I considered some of them 'role models'.
When I was a kid the people reporting on sports were at least moderately successful at unbiased reportage. Those who call themselves 'reporters' nowadays are just faking it. "All the news that's fit to print" has deteriorated to "Only the stuff we feel like printing". How sad.
My generation is by now jaded and lost. This generation deserves the same chance we had to have 'heroes'. I'm not naive enough to believe the world was, is, or ever will be perfect. Without honest, unbiased, unfiltered information sources all this generation can look forward to is 'Oh, I don't know. My guess is I can ignore it for a very long time'. This generation deserves better.
Thanks for reading.
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