As most of you are aware by now, the competition has fallen into controversy as The_Doc has been caught plagiarizing.  Meanwhile, Arabchickencurry turned out to be underage.  To that I have to say is...bravo.  After all, one of my favorite movies is Almost Famous, so I really don't have a problem with 15 year old writers posing to be older than they are in order to gain success.  Though I must warn you - if Patrick Fugit's example proves anything, it's that journalism is a crazy world of drugs and sex, and you probably shouldn't enter it before you're ready.  Or maybe that's just the rock and roll part.  But I digress.

    The real issue is The_Doc's plagiarism.  Now I've read his stuff, and I've always thought it was great analysis.  I actually considered him to be the favorite to win the competition.  But this is just absurd.  I read the original article, and when I heard the allegations I naturally thought they weren't true.  But I looked up the article at AskMen.com, and sure enough, it was word for word the same as what The_Doc originally posted.  I say originally since the article has of course been changed.  Some of the entries are different and they are all reworded, though you can still see the framework of the original article and its idea in there.  I think it would be easy to do quality analysis if I just found existing articles and rewrote them.

    Of course once news of this broke out there's been tons of conspiracy theories.  My favorite has to be that the judges of the competition brought The_Doc in as a ringer to win, as people point to the fact that his article was originally written by Dave Golokhov at AskMen.com,  a site where NGS judge Peter Schrager has contributed articles.  Now that's just entertaining.  Though, apparently Dave Golokhov has a blog under the name VegasDave, and says he has contacted Fox Sports about the issue.

   I've not been one to criticize during this competition.  I've tried to take the high road in almost everything, and there's part of me that regrets this even as I write this.  But I've got to call out to The_Doc...can you please just admit this, or at least come up with a better explanation than "this is bull"?   Or claiming that people hacked into your computer.   Because, honestly, that would be a farfetched explanation enough even without your rewritten article still resembling the old one.   And the judges...you claim to read the blogs everyday, so clearly you've got to have noticed that something is going on here.  I recommend doing something.

     Even as this competition has gotten more ridiculous, I've stuck with it, and seeing as how I said I'd compete alongside the finalists doing their assignments, I figure what the hell, might as well kill two birds with one stone.  So despite already having written four paragraphs, I shall now turn a complete 180 and make this a Top 10 list.   I present...the top ten ridiculous things from this competition:

1) The_Doc caught guilty of plagiarism

I think I may have covered this one already.  He has now denied it on this blog, and that's just sad.  I guess like Pete Rose he figures that even when blatantly caught it's better to stick to your guns, because once you admit it you lose any supporters you have.  A shame.  I really want to believe him too, it's not like he's been a jerk this competition, he even complemented my blog which makes me feel even worse.  If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it.

2) Reaction to Arabchickencurry's age admission

To all the people that say he took a finalist's spot away, chill.  It would be one thing if he made the final 2, but he made the final 16.  I also enjoy the fact that multiple blogs have stated that a particular blogger (it has varied from NorthSideFan to socalsportsfan) has a special right to be upset since they were the likely next choice.  Now that just cracks me up.  I don't think there's one person out there that would've predicted 10 of the finalists correctly if they had to make a list of 16, but now some people are sure who was next in line.  That's just plain funny.  That's not taking anything away from those two, both great blogs on my favorites.  But still, people crack me up.

 3) The Voting process

Let's put aside the fact that we don't know how the votes are counted and instead move to the idea that the voters in the competition are the fellow bloggers and how easy it is to sign up for a blogging account.  I'll openly admit it: I have two accounts here.  Now before people accuse me of being a cheat, I'll explain.  After reading the rules, I realized we were supposed to submit our name, age, address, phone number, etc.  However, I didn't remember doing any of this when I signed up, so I signed up for another account just to see if I was prompted for any of this information, because I don't remember being asked for any of it.  Check it out, it's downwiththeboss (I never did like Steinbrenner, but I don't think that's a secret).   So, I've never used this second account for anything, never written any posts, never commented, never voted...though it occurs to me that I could.  I could easily create tons of accounts and rig the voting.   I have no inclination to, but perhaps a finalist might.   Do any of you?  Do YOU?

4) The way the judges let finalists know they had lost

jdeppa has a legitimate right to be upset considering he was notified like this:

Subject: You got the boot!

Hey Joseph,

Hate to be the bearer of bad news... but we are about to bear some.  You didn't make it into the final round to be the Next Great Sportswriter.  Now, this doesn't mean you aren't a great person... you just aren't a Great Sportswriter.  Just kidding, we appreciate your submissions and wish you lots of sportswriting luck down the road!

- The Next Great Sportswriter Judges

5) Professional writers in the contest

Now don't get me wrong, GerbilSportsNetwork, I love your blog.  Tons of funny stuff, and if this contest were decided by merit, you certainly should've been one of the finalists.  But I think part of the whole point of the competition is that it's for amateurs trying to win a shot.  Would ESPN's Dream Job been as fun if Stuart Scott could also have been a contestant rather than host?  Or American Idol if you were competing against singers that already had record deals?  I think that's one of the reasons people are so upset about this The_Doc thing is that even if he was Dave Golokhov, it would cheapen the contest.

6) FooFoo4You

Self explanatory.

7) NGS judqes' blog

A little prank is pulled where a blog post leads people to believe there are 4 more finalists.  Many people were taken in, not realizing the blog was off by a letter.  I caught it right away.  I'm sure you're all very proud of me.

8) Sore losers

I'm not going to criticize the judges for their selections, because I'm sure it was a difficult process.  Sure, I would've made some different decisions, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.  But it's still disappointing to see how many bloggers complained about the finalists choices and then just up and quit.  No, I'm not going to name names.

9) The "Most Popular Blogs" section

Wouldn't it be nice if you could rate a blog post 1 to 10 and a combination of high score and number of votes factored into being on the most popular list rather than just the number of comments?  And if it's going to be comments, can't we at least make it number of comments from unique users?  Cause how many times have you seen a post reach the Most Popular list when it's just been an ongoing dialog between two people?  Or worse, when someone does something like...

sportsdudeguy: I

sportsdudeguy: love

sportsdudeguy: this

sportsdudeguy: blog 

sportsdudeguy: you

sportsdudeguy: rock

sportsdudeguy: man 

...and then it gets on the list.  Heck, you can get on this list if you comment enough times just yourself.  I'm not complaining that people do that, it's understandable that in this community with hundreds of bloggers you need to do what you need to do in order to just get some attention, but the situation certainly could be improved if the system was tweaked a bit.

10) Posts of ridiculous lengths

 I'm talking about both long and short here.  If you're going to write a post that's one sentence, don't even bother.  You're not saying anything interesting and you're just taking up a spot on the recently updated blogs that could go to someone who actually posted something interesting.  At the same time, who wants to read 10,000 word theses?  Of course, I'm being a bit hypocritical, as I realize this post has passed 1400 words....oh well.  I don't like being a hypocrite, so, I'll refrain from complaining about people that post to multiple categories when your blog has nothing to do with those sports.  Though, it would be nice to have an "other" category, since I have no idea where to put this one.

Anyway, that's my list, though I'm sure I missed a ton of things, so as always, feel free to comment with your own suggestions.  To the judges, I'd just like to say that I don't think you've run a bad competition, problems are inevitable and really I just mean to make suggestions on how to this for the future.  Though if you think I've crossed the line, let me know.  That way I can switch to a new account when I enter NGS 2....

1) Has boxing become utterly irrelevant?  Boxers used to be cultural icons and household names, like Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.  Now the world's old great champions are respectively reduced to Parkinson's Disease and the selling of mufflers and grills.  I'm not sure which is worse.  Perhaps boxing's last gasp as being truly part of our culture died with Evander Holyfield's right ear, bitten off my crazy ex-champ Mike Tyson, who thankfully has finally retired.  Who is the heavyweight champion of the world now?  Can you name him?  Nicolay Valuev, who recently won the WBA title, is a 7 foot tall Russian.  Wait, is this the plot of Rocky 6? Will Rocky Balboa show up to tame the Beast from the East once more?  Speaking of Rocky 6...am I the only that thinks this has gone on for far too long?  Of course not, I don't even need to ask that question.  Everyone knew it had gone on far too long by Rocky 5, if not sooner.   Sylvester Stallone is going to be 60 years old by the time the film is released.  60!  Who is he going to fight, his grandkids? Is he going have a mouthpiece or dentures? I'm sorry, but watching this film is of no interest to me.  I would rather have seen a fight between the late Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, finally settling once and for all who is the best blind black musician.

2) The new rules in hockey have made the game much more bearable to watch, but I am coming out against them.   Mainly because they have ruined my New Jersey Devil's ability to play their famous defense, the trap.  Sure people criticized the trap for being boring, but it brought home championships, so I was okay with that.  Now I'm wondering when are the Devils going to sell their souls to themselves to get a good hockey team.

3) Reaction to the Four Point Line concept for basketball was sufficient that I've decided to rip myself off and transplant it to another sport: football.  My thought is about the two point conversion.  What if you could elect to have the ball moved back, to say the 10 yard line, and go for 3?  Or perhaps chuck a hail mary from the 40 yard line and go for 5?  Obviously you'd never choose to do that unless you needed to tie the game, but just having the option might make comebacks more exciting.  All too often in the fourth quarter the game is all but over once it becomes the dreaded two possession lead, with futile onside kicks being the only way to come back.  Just a thought.

4) I honestly thought I was hallucinating the first time I saw Nike's new "The LeBrons" ad campaign.  No joke.

5) I have to give props to Wikipedia.  The other day I found myself suddenly and inexplicably wondering about Kordell Stewart.  I thought back to The Catch back in 1994, when Stewart's 64 yard Hail Mary landed in the arms of Michael Westbrook to give Colorado a dramatic 27-26 victory over Michigan.  I thought back to his memorable days as Slash, when he played running back, receiver and quarterback in his open years in the NFL.  I thought of his struggles upon becoming a full time quarterback.  I even remembered him leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers for one ill fated season as starting quarterback of the Chicago Bears.  But after that...nothing.  I didn't remember what happened to him, if he retired, if he was in the CFl or if he was benchwarming somewhere in the NFL - and I needed to know.  Thank you Wikipedia, which let me know he's currently the 1000th string QB for the Baltimore Ravens, where he has yet to throw a pass this season.

(photo courtesy of the film 'Rocky', the first and only good one)