I was reading recently about womens professional football.  As a girl who had to play boy's soccer until high school, I understand the ladies need for some respect.  However, are we ready to have women's football become mainstream?

The amounts of teams and leauges are growing.  It all started with the Womens Professional Footbal League in 1999. At one time there were 80 teams across the country.  This leauge would play college men's teams and older retired players for revenue as well as each other.  In hopes of boosting interest and profits, the National Womens Football Association was created. 

Due to some creative differnces, the International Womens Football Leauge was created in 2001.  This is a non-profit leauge with minimum fees to teams and players.  It started with 13 teams nation wide and today has 31 teams including one team in Canada.

Now we can see that this is popular amongst the players since there seems to be so many leauges and teams.  In the US  there have been over 2000 female athletes to play on mens football teams while in high school.  Others have played recreationally over the years with expertise in other sports.   The atheletes are there, but where are the fans?

The leauges are waiting for a NFL endorsement so that they can get TV time.  That's where the real $$$ is.  This would also endorse the supreme leauge ie. WPFL, NWFA or IWFL.  Do we think this will happen?  I have some friends who have seen some games and they were very impressed.  The hits were hard, the players were awsome and talented.  

Are you ready?  Do you think it will happen?  The WNBA has become popular and profitable. Is it in the near future?

Since I would say that about 85% of the posters are adult males, I figured this would be a perfect topic for consideration. 

Today in America, there is much debate about the ritual of circumcision.  This post is not meant for the 12 year olds to giggle about .  This is seriously a contensious issue and warrants some thought.  Doctors are either for it our against it.  Up until now, the health pros and cons were a wash.  Parents decided on the matter per religous reasons (Muslim/Jewish faiths) or if the father was not cisumcisized. 

Statistaclly the United States ranges for 50% to 90% in some areas, in circumcising their newborns.  It was thought that it would cut down on urinary tract infections and really infections in general.  Fast forard to why there are Medical professionals changing their minds on the medical need for the procedure.

The medical studies have found that there is a significantly less risk of STDs, penile cancer and HIV/AIDS.  The numbers were so significant that they stoped the study early.  This study was conducted in Africa.  Africa statistically has the highest concentration of people suffering form HIV/AIDS and where circumcision is really only done to females. 

A second study was done in New Zealand where test subjects were followed up until the age of 25.  The risk of contracting disease was found to be cut by 50%.

While all Doctors agree that Urinary Tract infections in young boys is really the main problem, all of the other diseases come down to cleanliness, personal hygene and personal choices.  Either way, the only way to not get a STD is by abstanance or using a condom.

Many doctors are jumping the fence to the other side. Where they had no real medical opinion before, they are starting to change thier minds. 

As I lack children and the equipment we are speaking about, I guess when the time comes I will leave it up to my prospective husband.  I am for leaving what god gave us, and not having an unncessary surgical procedure that could cause infection itself.  Or, god forbid, a slip up.... EISH.  We don't cut girls breasts off because they could get cancer later in life.  Life is a crap shoot.  Make good decisions and teach your children well and hope for the best.  Cheers all and I hope you find this informative and not something to giggle at.  It is a serious decision in a person's life, and you are making the decision for someone who has no say.

I was reprimanded for my "drive by" short on the history behind sports.  People have argued about what is a sport and what is not, so I created a very short blog touching on the first sports.  The first sport  that I touched on in that blog was wrestling.....  Now I give you this blog. 

Dating back to the Summero-Akkadian civilization, wrestling sealed itself into the spot of one of the oldest sports to be documented.  To all of you who have not brushed up on your Anthropology, the Summero-Akkadian civilization was in the cradle of life, Mesopatamia.  The most famous tomb of the Sumer area is that of the great King Ur.  It is this era, and close to his reign,  that people documented wrestling as a past time and not a survival tactic.  These cave drawings have been dated to 3,000 BC.  There are similar drawings in Egyptian art that have been dated to 2400 BC.  After this time, the Greeks give us our best accounting of the sport.

In 708 BC the Greeks intoduced wrestling into the Olympic games.  This is shortly after the Olympic games were created.  There are very detailed accounts of how this sport was to be carried out and performed.  This was much more rough and physical than the wrestling of today.  Historians call this style Greco-Roman wrestling.  The Romans also practiced this sport in the now famous Coloseum for entertainment.  Pitting the best against the best for all to see.  Today there are  as many as 100 different styles of wrestling.  Judo is one of the more recognized off shoot of the original Greco-Roman style.  Today Judo is an entry by itself into the modern day Olympics.

I will not get into depth about Professional wrestling, as this is an animal of a different sort.

So here you are, another short but more detail oriented look at the sport of wrestling.  I will hit on something else next week.  I am at work ya know!!  LOL.

kjk77

Amongst the bloggers on this site, there is a ton of discussion on what truly constitutes a sport.  If it isn't manly then some just don't think it's so.  Archaeologists and Anthropologists can trace the origin of sports to almost 300,000 years ago.  The evidence is in cave drawings in France, Australia etc.  These drawings  place archery and wrestling as perhaps the first documented sports used for recreation and not survival.

Then we have "ball sports." These are the manly sports that most of the population consider sports.  The Mayans created courts for ball related sports that are still being used today.  Our own American Natives created the first versions of Laccross and due to the whole Duke scandal, more Americans are aware of the sport.

Ancient Egyptians gave us swimming and fishing for recreation/sporting purposes and the first sporting dogs.  Sorry all of you who complain about the airtime given to AKC, Eukanuba Tournament etc.  The Egyptians gave us the Greyhound and look at them now!

There is the Chinese culture that has given the world so much.  Thanks for the pasta and fireworks!  However,  there are ancient pieces of artwork that give China the nod for the sport of gymnastics.

Who can forget the Olympics.  Here is where wrestling, archery and horeseracing really got going.  The Greeks also gave us the Marathon.  The ironic part is that the first Marathon runner ended up dying because of his historic run.  Number 1,000 why I will never run more than 3 miles.

Then we have our aristocratic bretheren that perfected Boxing rules in London in the 1700's and yes... wait....  Horseracing.  This sport got it's official nod when Queen Ann built the first official racecourse in England.  The aristocrats in England also gave us tennis and the aristocrats in France gave us field hockey.

Here we are now in the 20th century still watching sports, playing sports and arguing about sports.  As American's we can say we contributed to the sporting era's with basketball and football.  I am still in awe at what humans are capeable of with independant thought.  Wheather you like horeseracing or dog shows, or laugh at the men in gymnastics you've got to feel the awe of the history behind them and revel at how far we have come.   No one will ever agree what constitutes a "real" sport, what is truly important is that we particpate in them, enjoy them and keep them going for generations to come. 

Please forgive the spelling!

When I think of sports movies,  the best hands down in my mind is Rudy.  Could there be anything more characteristic of an American concept.  If you want it bad enough, and you try hard enough, you can accomplish anything.  Even if this wasn't based loosely on a true story,  it would be a great film.  Hell, how can you forget the most poiniant speech of the movie:  "Your 5' nothin', a 100 and nothin' without a speck of athletic ability...."  even I thought I could play for Notre Dame.  Wouldn't want to these days... ha. 

It is not isolated to Rudy either.  Sports movies make you feel like you can accomplish anything.  Even if it's just for the hour afterwards, it gets the brain going.  There are highs and lows and always a proper ending.  Here is my list of favorite sports movies of all time, that help to inspire one to do better and try harder.  Feel free to add your own personal favorites.

1. Rudy

2. Hoosiers

3. Hidalgo (horse racing is an old sport people)

4. Blue Chips

5. Neccesary Roughness

6. Youngblood (UMM Rob Lowe)

7. All the Right Moves

8. Cannonball Run (NASCAR started this way, it counts)

9. The Greatest Game Ever Played

10.  Major League

There are a thousand more that are near and dear to my heart but this all I can come up with on only one cup of coffee, and after a truly terrible golf game.