As some of you may (or may not) know…I love to moonlight as a sportswriter. I had loads of success with my blog at FoxSports.com, but I have moved on to a new position, writing for The Columbus Dispatch!!!
I was recently selected by the sports department at the Columbus Dispatch to blog about Ohio State Football. (Could there be a more appropriate job for me?) To read my winning entry, click here.
For the next year I’ll be writing for The Dispatch Online at their BuckeyeXtra site, where I have my own blog called “Sports and the City.” I posted my first article today and I’m pretty proud of where I have come since joining the blogging world several years ago. I’ll be publishing about 2-3 times a week, and I promise it will be about sports and football, but I won’t write exclusively on Ohio State. Please check it out, comment, and enjoy this new chapter of my sports writing career!
No one said getting drafted would be easy. I’m sure Brady Quinn never expected the hardest part of Saturday would be to “sit and look pretty.”
Grace under pressure is easily harder than being tackled by a lineman. When the quarterback releases the ball and takes it to the gut with a crushing blow, any player would gladly take the physical hit versus the emotional smack of public embarrassment. While I’ve never been a Brady Quinn fan, I had to feel sorry for the poor kid as he sat there in uncomfortable silence as other names were called before his.
No one likes to be the last one picked in gym class when they were 10 and no one likes to feel overlooked when they are 20. Quinn’s poise during Saturday’s draft makes him a prime player for the NFL: one who is humble, well-composed, and a perfect role-model. (See Tiki Barber, for example.) Perhaps he’s too clean for the NFL, someone who would make a better suit than a uniform. Regardless, he has enough fire in his spirit to start with the Browns and prove his standing. The Browns won a goldmine in their 22nd pick: they got the QB they wanted who is inspired to prove his critics wrong.
Even if Brady hadn’t gotten picked until a later round, or not picked at all, the kid has more potential in his thumb to make something of himself than most college graduates have in their degrees. He’ll succeed regardless of vocation…but will he be the next Tom Brady? Remember, Brady was No. 199 when he was drafted. The truth is in the rings, not in the numbers.
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In other news: I accepted my offer to attend Columbia University’s School of Journalism as a New Media graduate student.
To satiate any curious bloggers, life in Vegas is going a little too well. I’m not complaining, just terrified of when the other shoe might drop.
‘Mamma Mia!’ does have a closing date…for September 2008, so I still have a job for over a year, but I might be leaving early to attend graduate school. We are nearly sold out every night, so that’s 1,750 butts in 1,750 seats, which is better than even the Broadway company! I’m not saving as much money as I’d like because I have learned to be a very savy Blackjack player…but so far I’m about even.
The coolest part about living in Vegas is reading the trashy magazines and realizing that the same night you visited the Playboy Club at the Palms, some B-list celebrity was also there causing trouble. I’m afraid that I did miss the Pacman Jones incident, but with all the #### action that frequented the NBA All-Star weekend and several of the boxing matches, a disgruntled NFL player hardly turns an eyebrow in this town.
Word to the wise: the Playboy Club is cool, but it will send you to the poor house. The Palms is okay, but the Hard Rock Casino is pretty great, especially if you want to hang out with people where the median age is roughly 28. Body English is a crazy club where you’ll find a smorgasbord of drugs in the bathroom…not that I did any, but I saw numerous bouncers flushing them down the toilet after they confiscated them off patrons. My favorite place to play is the Red Rock Casino, a local joint that is near Red Rock National Park. They have great $10 blackjack tables and the smoking isn’t as bad as it is on the strip. The scene is a little more casual and it’s a 10 minute drive from my apartment
Not that I’m a local, but if you have 48 hours in the city of sin, you have to drive through Red Rock Canyon (it is okay to see the light of day in Vegas), watch the Bellagio water show at night, and have drinks at the Wynn at ‘The Country Club Bar’ (because I know the bartender and the view of the golf course is stunning!) I also recommend showing some self-restraint when you are gambling. Finally, from personal experience, the rooms at theHotel at Mandalay Bay are to die for!
Okay, enough of my insiders guide…grad school has turned in to a hot race! I thought USC was my best bet, but Boston surprised me with a big scholarship and then came back and told me they are flying to Vegas to wine and dine me for a fellowship that would bring my total merit award to $26,000 a year to attend BU. That completely changed my opinion of Boston…until I got my acceptance to Columbia University. Um, HELLO!!! We’re talking ivy league! How cool is that?! It would put me back in New York, back with my fiancé, back in my ‘hood, and back in the city where I really want to work. Finally, I could still sing and dance AND go to school. I’m working out the logistics, but I think that’s where I’ll be by next January.
So that’s where I stand…not too bad for a girl who just turned 26! Cheers.
Why does it suck so much to be a Buckeye? I mean, come on. We made it to both the football and basketball national championship games this year. Granted, we choked in football, and we really didn’t stand a chance in basketball, but why did we have to lose to Florida in both games? It’s never fun being a punching bag. Gawd…I almost feel like the Cubs fans right now. Will the pain ever end?
Oh yea, I got in to USC and Boston for graduate school in journalism. I got wait-listed for NYU and I'm just waiting on Columbia. If I get in to Columbia, that's where I am going. My heart is pulling for USC but Boston offered me 10K to go to their school. What's a girl to do?
To be completely objective...was it really so surprising that Florida won? Not really. Did I want to see Noah beat his chest in joy? Definitely not!!! Man, I can't stand that kid. At least Greg Oden is the silent type. Of course, he'll be silent in the NBA by next season. I hate to see him go, but what's the point in sticking around? If I was 19 years old and people offered me millions of dollars to play basketball, I doubt I'd turn it down. Then again, I'm just stoked that some school wants to offer me 10K to pay for one semester of graduate school.
One month ago I was lamenting the end of the college football season. I was stressed out with graduate school admissions and worried I’d never find the perfect job that would let me live out all my aspirations as a professional actress or writer. I watched my Chicago Bears implode in the Super Bowl and have patiently watched the college basketball scene alter its shape every weekend.
Just when you least it expect it, life slaps you in the butt and shakes you silly. I had nailed my admissions tests, was trying to find money to pay for school, and accepted the fact that I was not going to see my dream of performing on a major stage. I was resolved that this was how it was going to be…that was until my phone rang on Tuesday morning at 11AM.
“Tracy, are you available to move to join the Las Vegas company of ‘Mamma Mia?’ This isn’t an offer, just checking availability.” I was stunned. I started to sweat and silently freak out. Las Vegas? Mamma Mia? Move? Now? When? How long? Holy sh*$! How was I supposed to go through my day, wondering if my life was about to change?
By 2:00PM I had my offer: a permanent replacement in the Las Vegas production of ‘Mamma Mia’ at Mandalay Bay, a fully-furnished corporate apartment for one year, a car, a killer salary, a 401K, full health insurance and the reality that my oldest dream was about to become a reality! To top it off, I was going to be in Vegas and starting rehearsals during All-Star week!!!
Of course the boyfriend was concerned. ‘How can you leave me? What will I do? It’s Vegas: what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!’ I couldn’t blame him. If my boyfriend told me ‘Hey, I have to move to Vegas for work,’ I’d be skeptical too. After many long conversations, he came to see the positive side of this situation: he’ll have to come to Vegas twice a month to visit his girlfriend! (That isn’t so bad!)
Sure, it’s a great job and the long distance thing will suck, but this is my one-in-a-lifetime chance to realize a dream that I’ve had since I was a little girl. The best part is, as I’ll be working in Mandalay Bay this week in the theater, just a few steps away from the NBA All-Star Jam Session at Mandalay’s Convention Center. You can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll be wandering down that hall a few times a day, hoping to catch a glimpse of the All-Star line-up and plunder some swag.
My dream has come true, I’m moving to Vegas, and I also got engaged last night. Yea, it’s been a big week. I’m nervous as hell, thrilled beyond belief, and scared to death. Who needs an NBA All-Star when I just became the luckiest Broadway Baby with a gorgeous diamond ring to flaunt around the strip? School is still in the cards, but I’ll have to wait for those admissions letters before I can plan the next step. While the All-Star events will seem unbelievable, nothing compares to the week I’ve had or the year I am about to embark on. Life comes at you fast, but I don’t need Nationwide to keep me safe: I’ve got my love, my dream, and my imagination to keep me afloat!
I’m back and will be posting the events from Mandalay all week. Cheers!
Have you seen those commercials on TV for Nationwide Insurance where a woman is being rowed through the street of Venice with her dreamy Fabio-looking gondolier, and the second she opens her eyes and sees the reality of her situation, she looks up and her hot Fabio is really an aging decrepit Guido? The punch line of the commercial says ‘Life comes at you fast.’
The Ohio State Buckeyes finally opened their eyes last night, and what can only be said is that life caught up with them last night and smacked them in the ####.
The irony of the parody is that Nationwide sponsored the Buckeyes all year with billboards around Columbus with that famous slogan, Life Comes At You Fast, as the undefeated Buckeyes pounced on their competition. Each week the Insurance Company would cross off another team on the Buckeye billboard, leading up to the national championship.
Florida ended that hazy dream, playing spoiler, with nothing to lose. They continued the trend set in the previous week by Boise State: the sexy new trend of the underdog.
Underdog has been around much longer than his 1964 debut on the NBC network, but he is proving to be the hottest thing in sports thus far and why wouldn’t he? As an underdog, you can step out on to the field, fearless in your task at hand because no one holds any expectation for you except to attempting to survive. It’s the best-case scenario for a team because if you lose everyone predicted it and if you win everyone is shocked and awed.
The BCS National Championship Game seems to be a breeding ground for underdogs. In the last five years, three underdogs have come out against over-sized opponents and silenced critics and doubting fans with thrilling victories.
This year alone, the BCS games seemed to indicate that teams who entered the game feeling entitled to win wound up walking home with “kick me” signs on their backs.
From my point of view, ever since Michigan learned they wouldn’t get another shot at the title match, the Rose Bowl was a mere consolation prize. (I’m sure Ohio State would have welcomed facing Michigan if they could have foreseen their fate with Florida.) I’m sure the Wolverines are wishing they hadn’t taken Pasadena so lightly after their walloping by the hands of USC.
Notre Dame, America’s darling, should have bypassed the Bayou and opted for something a little lighter than the jumbo-sized LSU Tigers. I won’t lie, as I sat in the bar last week and watched the Sugar Bowl, I was secretly thrilled that LSU dismantled the Irish, who always feel it’s their destiny to win. Frankly, it looked more like a JV football team taking on a lower tier NFL team.
Then there’s Boise State, the little team that could. Going in, we all thought they didn’t stand a chance, that their season of smoke and mirrors was about to be exposed by the traditional powerhouse of Oklahoma. Sure, they were ahead all game, but we didn’t expect them to win. Of course, their execution of the Fiesta Bowl is an instant classic and is the single greatest athletic feat in the history of Idaho.
As I woke up on Monday morning, all I thought was “I hope today’s game doesn’t end up like the ones from the previous week.” While I’m not a fan of the Irish or the Maize and Blue, it’s never fun watching your team get dismantled.
Now I know the feeling. The feeling of sitting in your chair and watching as your heart is severed from your chest, all vital organs crumple at the loss and the overwhelming sense of dread that there is no hope invades your mind.
That was me last night about half way through the second quarter of the BCS Championship game. There was nothing I could do to help my floundering team. Maybe I should take credit for the loss. I didn’t watch the game at my usual spot; I ended up at a different bar so I could accommodate my large group of friends to help celebrate my “sure-fire win.” I didn’t wear my usual apparel; I wore my championship jersey, purchased just for the occasion. Finally, I left my secret weapon at home: my lucky Buckeye.
All fans are superstitious and I’m sure scads of Buckeye faithful are waking up today, nursing a raging hangover (because what else are you going to do when your Heisman winning quarterback looks like a third-string relief player in the big game?). Across the country, fans of all the losing teams are thinking ‘how can this be?’
The answer is simple: you weren’t wearing the uniform of the underdog and you got bit.
* Many of you have wondered why I haven't been so vocal about the accomplishment of the Buckeyes and their bid to the BCS Championship. Although I have been very proud of the team, I have been busy writing a final paper for a sports writing class about my trip to the OSU-Michigan game. While it may seem outdated and over-due, here is my final piece about that amazing day.
I would like to congratulate the University of Michigan football team on an excellent season, but as Urban Meyer has famously said "they got their shot." Sour grapes and all, with the current BCS system, we will never see a year without controversy. While I do believe the Wolverines to be the second best team in the country, it only seemed fair for Florida to get their chance to prove if they belong in that second slot or not. By January 9, 2007 - we'll all know who has the goods to back up their team. GO BUCKS!
As the black BMW ripped through the stale Pennsylvania landscape at 90 mph, I desperately pointed my cell phone towards the car window, hoping to find a signal. I needed to confirm the news I heard at a Pocono rest stop: was famed Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, merely ill or was it worse? Anxious to confirm the report, I tried calling anyone near a computer who could update me on the man’s status. It was early afternoon on November 17th, the day before the biggest game of the year. With historic proportions on the line, it was inconceivable to commence the weekend with the death of an iconic archrival.
By the time the car pulled up to the beverage depot in New Castle, Pennsylvania at 4PM, Bo Schembechler was pronounced dead. With the state line just miles away, the sun setting, and the clock ticking closer towards kickoff, it seemed inappropriate but necessary to crack open a case of Coors Light and inaugurate the colossal weekend with a beer. The death of the Michigan legend indicated that the 103rd meeting between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines would be anything but ordinary.
This wasn’t a road trip, it was a pilgrimage; a trip made by four devoted fans-mere acquaintances when they departed earlier that morning. Desperate to witness the mêlée in person, we made the 540 mile journey from New York City to Columbus, Ohio. The ten hour expedition was punctuated by a brief stop at gas station to load up on beer and a detour to the Akron-Canton airport to pick up a late inbound passenger who couldn’t play hooky from work that morning. To any person it was ludicrous, a 48 hour road trip to witness a football game, but to us it was the only way to witness THE Game.
For devoted fans of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, there are no limitations to THE Game. What started out as a friendly match in 1897 has turned in to a turf war that many fans of college football have called “the greatest rivalry of all time.” The match-up historically crowns champions. In recent years, the game has spawned spoilers to bowl bids, ended the careers of coaches, and produced some of the biggest talent in the NFL.
In 2006, a first occurred in the history of THE Game. Both teams entered the final regular season game undefeated and ranked No. 1 and 2 in the Bowl Championship Series. The winner of this game would not only be the out-right Big Ten Champion; they would earn an automatic bid to play for the national championship.
By 6PM the OSU athletic department had issued 1100 media credentials, the state of Michigan had sent 600 law enforcement agents to provide extra protection for UM fans and we were 125 miles north of Columbus. Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter were dining at popular restaurant on campus, and our car couldn’t get there fast enough to be apart of it.
Tickets for THE Game had been on sale since early October, selling as high as $5,000 a piece on eBay. The driver of our car had scored a dandy deal, purchasing a pair for $950. Although my parents had season tickets, I didn’t expect to sit in the Horseshoe and watch the game in their seats. I had tried to buy tickets, but there was no way I could afford it. This game was a ticket-scalper’s dream; even students were making out like bandits, selling their seats for a quarter’s worth of tuition. If I couldn’t afford to go to the game, I was going to witness the atmosphere.
It was inevitable that campus would hold more fans than the stadium could seat. By 8AM on game day, parking lots as far as two miles from the stadium were filled to capacity. The 3,560 vacant parking spaces on west campus had been transformed into a nomadic camp of football fanatics in deluxe camper-trailers who had made the same pilgrimage. Their multi-million dollar vehicles would put a rock star’s tour bus to shame.
Wealthy fans had BBQ smoke-houses custom built and hitched to the back of their Gulf Stream motor homes, making the most obsessed grill-master turn green with envy. Satellite dishes dotted the horizon over the parking lot and 60” flat screen TVs were hoisted on the sides of RV’s. While most of the vehicles displayed various forms of Ohio State pride, the ride that took the prize for most imaginative was an old yellow school bus with a vintage VW bus welded on top. The entire masterpiece had been painted scarlet and grey and the ingenious vehicle barked the Buckeye Fight Song from its horn.
Walking through the endless RV lots, the smell of charcoal and lighter fluid filled the air. (It’s never too early to start grilling bratwurst.) Middle-aged men standing in scarlet and grey fatigues with Buckeye helmets on their heads, holding cans of Bud Light, were a frequent sight at 8:30AM.
For the college crowd, the day’s events started at 5AM when Panini’s, a popular campus bar, had opened for “Kegs n’ Eggs.” For a $10 cover you could get all the eggs you could eat and dollar pre-dawn drafts. These people weren’t fans…they were cult followers. Their devotion to their team and to the traditions of football Saturday was that of a religious ritual.
At a central Ohio church earlier that week, the minister started of the service saying "Good Morning. First of all, let's say a prayer to God, that he not empower Michigan as they travel into Ohio this Saturday. Although I know that God will not empower them as he will not empower EVIL over GOOD. God Bless The Buckeyes.”
While weddings and funerals had been re-scheduled around this game, the extremes these fans take for the rivalry went beyond the pulpit. Earlier that week, an OSU fan from Dayton spray-painted his Michigan-born neighbor’s yard with a giant red “Go Bucks!” across the front lawn. Another fan ate Ohio State cereal every morning and wore OSU inspired clothing to work all week, refusing to remove his No. 7 jersey. One fan even went out of his way to have his Michigan neighbor’s car towed.
Malicious jokes and superstitious behavior aside, the measures taken to witness the game infiltrated all facets of life. High school football tournament games were rescheduled to conclude prior to the OSU-UM kickoff. Even the Ohio Board of Elections postponed the counting of provisional ballots for a hotly contested House of Representatives race until AFTER the game.
Everyone wanted to see this match-up. Like me, many had driven all night and were prepared to pay any price to get a seat. As I walked towards the Stadium, I passed a six year old boy who was dressed up like a football player and had a cardboard sign hanging around his neck that read “I want to go to my first OSU-UM game, can you spare a ticket?” Like a poor Gypsy child, he scampered through the crowd, eliciting pitiful looks from grownups who wouldn’t think of giving up their seat.
Perhaps the most poignant story was that o####entleman who gave up his ticket to the game in lieu of a plane ride to Denver, Colorado. There he planned to sit bedside with a close friend who was facing his final days of terminal cancer. The bedridden buddy’s final request was to watch the Ohio State-Michigan game with his best friend.
By 3:30PM 105,708 fans had crowded in to Ohio Stadium. Twice as many people covered the campus and 21.8 million viewers tuned in on the television. There was no where else in the world I wanted to be at that moment than on the campus of Ohio State…and there was no way I would let any road block or natural disaster stand in my way. As a child born and raised on Ohio State football, I had watched this game since birth and never in my 25 years of football attendance have I ever witnessed something as big as the 2006 OSU-Michigan game. I’m not sure the stadium will ever be as loud, will refrain from sitting down, or see its field flooded with over 100,000 ecstatic fans again.
The car ride from New York to Columbus was well worth the white knuckles I endured as our car overtook oncoming traffic like a NASCAR contender that Friday, but I opted for a $100 return ticket on AirTran. If I had been the gambling type, I should have put a $100 bet on the game, or played the lottery immediately following the victory. For the few who chose the final score of the game as their “Pick 4” numbers that night, 4-2-3-9 turned out to be the winning combination and the Ohio Lottery paid out $2.2 million for that fortuitous combination.
For THE Game, there is nothing too impossible to imagine, but like any miracle you can only believe it if you witness it in person. While I may never get to see Mecca, my own pilgrimage to THE Game will forever be a highlight of my religious devotion for Ohio State football.
In 2006 $51 million can buy you 51,515,151 Wendy’s junior bacon cheeseburgers or it can buy the Boston Red Sox one conversation with a Japanese pitching sensation. Considering the 2006 payroll for the Red Sox totaled $120,099,824, Red Sox management must be dead serious if they are willing to spend the equivalent of 42% of their payroll to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka of Japan’s Seibu Lions club.
The 26 year old pitcher from Tokyo makes a meager $3 million a year in Japan. Should his negotiations with the Red Sox succeed, he could earn as much as $10 million a year for Boston. (That’s roughly 1.16 billion yen.)
So if $51 million can buy you the opportunity to talk to the kid who throws a gyroball (think of a wicked screwball), could help beat your archenemies and win a title, what else could $51 million buy?
For starters, $51 million can buy 34,000,000 school lunches. With the average school lunch costing $1.50, the Red Sox could feed the 57,900 Boston public school children 587 times.
Of course, the Red Sox need savvy businessmen on their payroll to help finance their lofty goals, therefore the need of college graduates is in high demand. If the Red Sox wanted the top of the class, they could provide full tuition ($43,655) to 1,168 undergraduate students at Harvard University for the 2006-2007 academic year.
To commute around Boston on the subway, the cost of a ride is $1.25. Therefore, the Red Sox organization could treat the city to 40,800,000 free subway rides. With an average of 639,400 riders each day, the Red Sox could afford to pay for 63 days of free rides. Of course, if you want to drive around the city in the lap of luxury, the Red Sox could buy 1,712 brand new BMW 325i series for their most devoted fans.
If Matsuzaka decided to move to Boston, the average rent on a two-bedroom apartment is $1,900. If the Red Sox decided to spend $51 million on housing, they could rent 2,236 two-bedroom apartments for one year; providing housing for 4,472 people.
While $51 million can buy a lot, it can also cost you a lot too; just ask Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. The famed band cancelled a concert in Atlantic City four hours before show time on October 27, 2006. Rosalie Druyan of Brooklyn, New York was so angry that she sued the band for $51 million accusing fraud and “acting in bad faith because of the cancellation.” Ms. Druyan claims that the cancelled concert cost her and thousands of fans money on non-refundable hotel bookings.
While the Rolling Stone case is still pending, another $51 million dollar law suit is in the appeal stages for the drug company Merek & Co., makers of the prescription painkiller Vioxx. Initially, a jury awarded retired FBI agent Gerald Barnett $51 million in his case that Vioxx caused his heart attack in 2002. In recent months, a US District Court judge in New Orleans ruled that the award was “grossly excessive” and ordered a new trial to determine a more appropriate award for Mr. Barnett.
So $51 million is “grossly excessive” for a heart attack and completely rational for a baseball negotiation?! I guess $51 million can buy you just about anything, but it can’t cure cancer or provide world peace. If those two items are too much to ask for, the Red Sox are willing to spend their $51 million on the chance to win another World Series in the next century. For most Red Sox fans, that’s money well spent.
Every November, high school senior soccer players across the country anxiously look forward to signing their national letters of intent- announcing their plans to play soccer at the collegiate level. For as long as these teenagers can remember, soccer has been their life. Their homes are decorated top-to-bottom with trophies, ribbons, and championship memorabilia from the various pee-wee leagues, youth select teams and varsity squads that called these kids “MVP’s.” For these players, soccer has been their livelihood and their passion since they were born. Their dream of playing for a major college team is one step closer to their ultimate goal: becoming a professional soccer player.
WRONG.
Nicholas Palmer, captain of the New York University soccer team, isn’t planning on a life in the pros; in fact he’s hoping to work for the New York Yankees organization once he graduates from college. So how is it that a kid who has spent three-quarters of his life dedicated to soccer intends to spend the rest of his adult life with a baseball team? While many see a job with the Yankees on par with any other “dream job,” Palmer is merely accepting a general fact that plagues most collegiate athletes: going pro after college is an unrealistic goal for the majority of the student-athletes who participate in NCAA sports.
Less than one percent of the 149,000 Division I athletes turn pro following their college career. It comes as no surprise that a bright and talented student like Nick has decided to forgo the tumultuous challenge of turning pro in a sport that is hardly considered popular among American spectators. With soccer being a more “European” sport, perhaps Nick’s goal of working as a public relations associate for a baseball team isn’t so far fetched: as an all-American kid, shouldn’t Nick work in America’s sport?
Actually, Nick credits his family and his New York upbringing for his love of Yankee baseball. Born and raised in Ithaca, New York, Nick’s fondest memory as a child was watching Yankee games with his dad. His love of sports was evident from a young age. Nick was always the athletic type, playing soccer and baseball from childhood until high school.
“I played baseball through high school, but I was not as passionate about as a player. I saw more potential as a soccer player.”
Being 5’11” and 185 lbs., Nick knew he’d never be a star basketball player or a crushing linebacker for the football team. Even though he loved baseball, he was destined to be a soccer player simply because he fit the mold: perfectly toned and sculpted muscles, ripped calves, and a sun-kissed face with weather-bleached hair. While his Irish heritage takes responsibility for his freckled face, the slouchy pants and his overpronated walk are dead giveaways of his soccer passion.
Like so many other players across the country, Nick was a star athlete in high school. He had traveled around the country playing in select teams and even spent a summer in England at soccer camps. By the time signing day came around, he had been recruited by several colleges around the New York state area. The temptation to remain close to home and play at Cornell University was easily dismissed when the lure of a bustling metropolis called, even if it was a Division III team.
While New York University may be a leading research institution, it is hardly a hot bed for athletics. Nick saw a golden opportunity: the chance to get a prestigious education, live in New York City, and continue to play soccer. He knew that professional soccer would never be a realistic goal, but he could continue to live out his life as a player while getting one step closer to his other childhood passion: the New York Yankees. As a journalism-history major at NYU, Nick hopes to parle his job at the Sports Information Department at NYU into a similar position for the Yankee organization. His goal is not out of the realm of possibilities with his NYU connections and close proximity to Yankee Stadium.
While Nick has solid plans for his life after the NCAA, the remaining ninety-five percent of student-athletes who will never transition to the pros has prompted Adrian McBride to start the company Life After Sports. Since 1988, the company has helped thousands of student-athletes shift gears and find appropriate jobs in the workplace, providing career counseling, and helping students maintain long-term contact with former athletes. Many companies seek out student-athletes because of their reputation as individuals with strong drive, determination, resourcefulness and leadership skills. Working directly with universities and companies, Life After Sports helps to make the reward at the end of the season more about the long term goals rather than the unattainable dreams or sorrow that comes with closing a door on a student’s collegiate career. For the few who turn pro, a dream has been realized; for the thousands who transition, a different pot of gold awaits.
I am currently in a writing class at NYU and I am writing a feature story about what people will do to watch "The Game." If you are planning on being apart of the Ohio State-Michigan(in any way), I'd love to know about it. For example, are you taking extreme measures to get to the game? Did you sell your ticket for loads of cash? Do you have any rituals for game day? If you can't be in Columbus, how are you planning on watching the game? If you don't give a load of #### about college football, your mistake! Thanks for your help, any stories or comments are appreciated!
Note: I must apologize to my loyal readers who think I have fallen off the map. I've been bogged down with work and have had little time to put in my two-cents to FoxSports. I am currently enrolled in a sports writing class, so this posting is my first assignment. I know it's a little outdated, but I hope you enjoy! -Belle
While the final seconds ticked off the clock in Giants Stadium on Sunday, all you could hear was the collective exhale from the crowd. As the 14-10 victory over the Houstan Texans was set in the record books, perhaps it was the team who was most relieved the game was over.
The New York Giants may be 6-2, but the performance against the Houston Texans (2-6) hardly earned style points or affirmations from the crowd. With a massive match-up against the 7-1 Chicago Bears next week, Giants fans were hoping to see a game that would reassure a victory over the Bears, not a game that proved any team can win on any given Sunday.
Nobody understands that sentiment better than Chicago. The previously undefeated Bears lost at home to an underwhelming Miami Dolphins team in a game that many expected to be a Chicago blow-out. Instead it was a Chicago bust, setting up a huge match against the Giants to battle for the number one place in the National Football Conference.
With injuries plaguing the Giants and several key athletes unable to play, the team relied on the veteran performance of the league’s leading rusher, Tiki Barber, who had 15 carries for 115 yards. The Giants took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, thanks to a 16 yard run in which Barber scampered up the left sideline to the endzone. With Barber, it’s always business as usual. Immediately after his touchdown, he returned to the bench and donned his Giants cap, no smile, no accolades, just a calm look on his face that said “I did my job, now you do yours.”
Giants quarterback Eli Manning did his job, completing 17 of 28 passes for 179 yards. He had several needle-threading passes to tight-end Jeremy Shockey, including a 25 yard pass near the Houston goal line in the second quarter. That play should have resulted in a touchdown, but thanks to a crushing hit by Houston’s Glenn Earl, the tackle forced the ball loose from Shockey’s hand and the play was ruled incomplete.
The Glenn Earl hit was illustrative that when a team is struggling the little dog continues to fight, and that’s what Houston did for four quarters. Earl wasn’t the only Texan to deliver bruising blows. First round draft pick Mario Williams managed a sack on Manning in the second quarter and continued his torment of the quarterback for the remainder of the game. With Houston up 10-7 over the hometown team at the start of the fourth quarter, the sleep-walking game quickly turned in to a dog fight.
The Giants inability to stop third-down conversions helped keep the Texans within striking distance of the upset victory. Thanks to an offensive surge by the Giants that resulted in a 3 yard touchdown pass from Manning to Shockey, the Giants assumed the 14-10 lead with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation. The stagnant Giant defense was jarred awake by the nippy Houston offense, but managed to silence the little dog when Giants linebacker, Gerris Wilkinson, forced a fumble that ended the Texans final march to the endzone.
While the little dog may be laughing back to Texas, it was the bigger dog that won the battle and will continue to Chicago. The Giants might have overlooked the Texans, but there is no looking past the Bears.
You know you’ve watched too much football when the bartender asks “why are you leaving? It’s only 7PM and you didn’t come in until 3!” The fact that I am a known regular at three different bars here in the city in less than 6 weeks is a little scary. Here is a girl who used to spend her days running twelve miles around Central Park every weekend. Now she spends six hours consuming beer every Saturday. Luckily, my hardcore Pilates classes have helped to combat the beer gut…but I can’t say my bank account is as happy about my football obsession.
Let’s face it, if you can’t go to the game, you have to make the most out of it and bring the game to you. Bar-hopping football Saturdays can take a toll on you in many ways. First off, you quickly discover that going the pitcher route is far more economical than the bottles or drafts. The problem is, Bud Lights quickly starts to taste like water, and goes down as quickly when you’re screaming your lungs out with the other 200 crazed fans.
Secondly, when Joe Schmo orders hot wings on your right and Bill Smith orders nachos on your left, a nibble here and a nibble there inevitably turns in to you ordering chicken tenders and waffle fries (two foods that you haven’t eaten since grade school.) Not only did I used to be the queen of exercise, I was also the war general of healthy eating. Now it just doesn’t seem possible to sit in a bar and NOT eat fried food.
Finally, nothing is worse than vacating your prime barstool at the conclusion of the 3:30 game and getting a text message from friends 30 minutes later saying “Holy ####?! You’re missing the biggest upset in football history!!!” Of course I promised myself that I wouldn’t be caught dead in a bar for longer than 4 hours, but recently it seems like Saturdays involve 8-12 hours of football madness.
Lately I have taken a foreigner under my wing and have done my best to introduce this non-native to the pleasure of American football. Being from “the land down under,” he appreciates sports like cricket and people like the Crocodile Hunter, but I am proud to say that I have quickly taught him the delight and honor that is NCAA football. I’m no sure what I’m more proud of, having passed on the traditions of beer pong to this Aussie, or the pleasure of watching him sing “Hang On Sloopy” and do all the arm movements that a veteran Ohio State alum would only know. Regardless, I feel that I have contributed my part to society and humanity by passing on the great tradition of college football to other cultures of the world. He really seems to enjoy it, but the real test will come on October 28th when I take this boy out of the Land of Oz and to the land of Ohio for his first-encounter with 105,000 rowdy fans. (I’ll let you know how it goes and if he is still speaking to me by the end of the game.)
Yea, it’s a closed case: I am an obsessed football fan who is slowly making her mark in life by sharing her passion with others. Perhaps it could be a new peace-keeping movement. Hey, Angelina Jolie is saving the world one African baby at a time, maybe if I keep taking one non-American at a time to a football game, they’d come to understand why our country is run by a man from Texas.
10) How did I manage to go 12/13 on my pro football picks this last week and 8/17 on my college picks? I am normally 90% correct on my college games and 90% wrong on my pro picks. My how the tables can turn!
9) Michigan State University is hurting…and they are hurting bad. Nothing is more dangerous than a wounded team. While John L. Smith’s world might be in a freefall, all that could change if he defeated the No. 1 team this weekend with Ohio State coming up to East Lansing. Is that too hard to imagine? It’s been done to Woody’s No. 1 OSU team in 1974 and John Cooper’s No. 1 OSU team in 1998.
8) Joe Torre is out. Joe Torre is in. Joe Torre is in a tough place. The guy has won 4 World Series titles in 11 years but his most recent assignment looked like it might be forced retirement. Is the problem really Joe? I think not…I think the problem is the mentality that just because you can afford the best players in the league doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed or entitled to anything.
7) Choking. The Yankees choked. Auburn choked. I choked on a huge audition this past Monday that was money in the bank. Why is it when we think we have all the ducks in a row, somehow they manage to slip between our fingers?
6) The Maize and Blue should be number two!
5) WARNING: The new film, School for Scoundrels, is horrible! I know it is Billy Bob Thornton and John Heder (that cool dude from Napoleon Dynamite) but the movie is horrible and a waste of 2 hours of your Saturday night. Why the Weinstein brothers decided to produce that movie is beyond me. They should go back to their Miramax roots and bet on the arty projects.
4) How funny would it be if the latest Big 12 tour-de-force, Baylor, beat Texas by 1 point?! Isn’t it ironic, don’t ya think?
3) Graduate school applications are looming over my head. I’m not sure what I feel guiltier about, neglecting my blog or neglecting my essays for school.
2) You heard it here first: in the next three years, Northwestern will be a big dog in the Big Ten. Pat Fitzgerald has the ability to continue the work that Randy Walker left behind. They might not have been able to turn water in to wine this season, but as Tyrell Sutton said, they’ve hit rock bottom and the only way to go is up.
1) It would be awesome on November 18 if Ohio State and Michigan met in the ‘Shoe as No. 1 versus No. 2, but what does it really matter? Whoever looses still looses, regardless of rank and that would screw any hope for the BCS Championship.
I have two tickets to that game, and while I could sell them on eBay for $1000 a ticket, there is no way I’d sell out to a rich yuppie who wouldn’t value the tradition of the greatest college rivalry in football.
Bonus: The Heisman Trophy is awarded to the greatest player in college football for that year. While Troy Smith has been a front-runner all season, Garrett Wolfe is the true candidate who has run all over his competition. Unfortunately, is it possible to give the Heisman Trophy to a player who has no impact on the national title picture? Some would argue that the trophy should go to a player who contributes to his team winning a major title. While I might agree with that opinion, is it appropriate to overlook a true player who has succeeded to the greatest of his ability in his conference that might be of lack-luster value? I mean, he did gain 200+ offensive yards against the number one team in the country…on his first game of the season.
I love the way marketing think-tanks comes up with catchy titles like “Separation Saturday.” Ironically, while the alliteration gives such a title its cohesiveness, the idea of one whole violently tearing in to two separate parts is really what characterized Saturday’s college football action. It wasn’t two teams breaking up; it was one team being severed from the dream of the BCS championship.
Perhaps a new title should be added to the roster of football Saturdays, that being “Out With the Old, In With the New.” The dominate teams of yesterday (Florida State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and, Miami) have their swan song on repeat. Even teams like Tennessee, who look poised to have a comeback season, misfired in a deadly way yesterday. A few of those classics like USC and Ohio State still remain dominate in their quest for the national championship, but a few newbies have emerged on the radar to really shake up the national picture.
To further prove how misguided the entire BCS championship is, teams like TCU, Louisville, and even Rutgers are starting to show that the little man can triumph among the larger programs that barely keep their heads above water. Louisville manhandled Miami (see, I can make up catchy alliterations too, ESPN) and with Rutgers, Louisville and West Virginia rolling to 3-0 starts in the Big East, that comedic conference isn’t looking like such a joke.
To be fair, I visited the land of the Scarlet Knights in New Brunswick, New Jersey on Saturday to see if Rutgers was the real deal. While they do have one great running back in Ray Rice, it was only thanks to the drunken mistakes of Frank Solich’s Ohio University football team that made the 24-7 score possible. The entire second half of the football game was scoreless, and if it wasn’t for the four forced turnovers and blocked punt, this game would have been a sleeper.
Honestly, on Thursday night I turned off the West Virginia game after the first quarter and went to see Invincible. Steve Slaton’s 195 yards was enough for me to know I didn’t need to worry about Maryland staging a comeback. (Besides, it was a little more entertaining watching Mark Walberg run up and down the field on the big screen.) Is anyone else as terrified as me that Slaton is only a sophomore? Hopefully he won’t fall victim to the Adrian Peterson disease and be a minor blip on the radar screen for the rest of his career.
I felt like a proud mother watching her kid’s first piano recital when I caught the Louisville-Miami score, 31-7. (Thank god I listened to my gut when I picked Louisville to win that game!) But then that gushing parent glow quickly drained from my face when news that QB Brian Brohm dislocated his right thumb and will be out for the next four to six weeks. I suppose the good news is that Louisville still managed to maintain Miami for the last quarter, but what does this mean for the big picture? It means Hunter Cantwell, backup QB, will have to continue playing like a beast and prove that Louisville has the depth in their roster to play for the big game. Next week the Cardinals will be flying in to Kansas State, who is also 3-0 and Manhattan, Kansas is no prairie town. If the Cards can get the “W” on the road…be prepared to TiVo the Big East season for October and November.
I like seeing the little guy win, but I was more than happy to see fellow Big East member Cincinnati stumble against Ohio State. Yea, OSU is my team, and I’m biased, but I would have been one cranky mother-mucker if OSU fell against a mediocre team one week after defeating Texas and one week before taking on Penn State.
Speaking of Penn State, after getting spanked by Notre Dame one week and then watching the Irish get punched in the stomach by Michigan, what does it all mean? Is Michigan finally back from their 7-5 2005 season or is Penn State really not good? The Big Ten is finicky like that, and when they open up their season next week with Penn State at Ohio State, Notre Dame at Michigan State, and Wisconsin at Michigan, I guess we’ll all see what the Big Ten is made of.
Big Ten? Big East? It’s all a bunch of BIG QUESTION MARKS!
Honestly…I’ve never been prouder to be a Buckeye. It was one thing to witness the 1997 Rose Bowl and be in the end-zone that David Boston caught the game winning catch from Joe Germaine to beat Jake “the Snake” Plummer and steal the title from Arizona State. It was another thing to watch Craig Krenzel and the 2002 team take the National Title from the University of Miami. I never thought I could stand more proud than I did in the sports book of the Mandalay Bay Resort as I watched OSU demolish Notre Dame…until tonight!
As I sit on my living room couch, absolutely inebriated from all the pitchers of beer that I indulged in from 7PM until 1AM, I have never been more proud to be a Buckeye than I am at this moment. Perhaps it was the utter domination I feel from embarrassing a team on their home turf 24-7. Or perhaps it was the inner glee of knowing that 80,000 people in Texas Memorial Stadium were speechless, including one exboyfriend who threw last year's Texas victory in my face as I sadly exited the 'Shoe.
