The Greatest Pump-Up Speech Ever...

Here we are on the eve of Super Bowl XLIII, pitting the Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Arizona Cardinals. It is impossible to think what is going through these mens' minds as they prepare for the biggest game of their lives. I can only imagine the lack of sleep that these men are going to have tonight, pumped full of adrenaline and ready to tackle anything that moves. Thinking of this got me wondering, what kind of speech is the coach going to give tomorrow to top the adrenaline these guys are already feeling? How much energy is going to be flowing through that locker room tomorrow an hour before kickoff, as the coach stands before his players, talking to them as if they are warriors about to go into battle? Well, this got me looking on Youtube for some of the greatest movie speeches of all-time, and while the "Braveheart" speech is quite good, I thought of one that gives me goosebumps everytime I listen to it. For those that have seen it, Al Pacino's speech in "Any Given Sunday" is the quintessential adrenaline speech to get the blood flowing and it makes you want to run out of the room and tackle someone. As we prepare for the Super Bowl, I am going to present to you the speech that should be played for those men tomorrow, please excuse some of the language.



Now that is a speech...

The Sucker Punch...Almost 5 Years Later

As a rabid sports fan, I have a following in every major sports league with a team I cheer for on a nightly basis. In the National Hockey League, my team of choice is the Colorado Avalanche and it has been for many years. We are approaching the five year anniversary of one of the darkest attacks in the history of the league, in my opinion. After coming across this article, it brought back the memories as I watched it on television, live as it happened. Let me set the situation for you: Forward Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche, just a few weeks earlier, had taken out the star of the Vancouver Canucks at that time, Markus Naslund with a legal hip check. The Canucks had come out prior to the following game with the Avs, March 8, 2004, claiming that the hit was out on Moore and that retaliation would be taken against the forward for his hit on their star. Below is the video of what transpired between Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore and the aftermath that followed.



Now, I watched this live, as it happened on March 8, 2004. Shooting up in my bed, I was outraged, I was furious...for lack of better terms, I was flat out pissed. I thought Bertuzzi should be fined, suspended and thrown in jail...how is that hit any different than what some thug does to an unsuspecting victim in a dark alley? The hit shattered a couple of Moore's vertebrae, leaving him unconscious and temporarily paralyzing him...he has yet to return to hockey after relearning how to walk. Subsequent charges were filed against Bertuzzi, the man who sucker punched Moore and drove his head into the ice. He was charged with assault, just as if it had happened on the street. According to the article, "Bertuzzi was suspended by the NHL and charged with assault causing bodily harm in June 2004 after a four-month investigation. He pleaded guilty, received a conditional discharge and was sentenced to probation and community service. Bertuzzi was reinstated by the NHL after 17 months -- time that also included the 2004-05 lockout."

Now, here is a problem I have with this. Bertuzzi pleaded guilty...guilty...to forcefully breaking another man's neck, costing him his livelihood, his career. Bertuzzi is back on the ice, playing the game he loves and making $2 million a year, while Moore gets to sit in a rehabilitation center, attempting a comeback at a sport he was already playing before having it taken away from him. Bertuzzi has since then claimed the hit came at direct orders of the coach, Mark Crawford, who coincidentally enough, had been a coach for the Avalanche just a couple of years prior. The article shows that Crawford has since then accused Bertuzzi of not following orders and yada yada.

The bottom line is this...Bertuzzi should have been permanently suspended from the NHL with no chance of return, unless Moore ever returned to play for an NHL team. The fact that Bertuzzi committed this act and willingly admitted it by taking the guilty plea and is still playing, making millions of dollars a year and Steve Moore is left to sit, watching this criminal live out his dream. If Bertuzzi was truly guilty of taking away Moore's career, the NHL should have done the same to him. Needless to say, on March 8th, it'll be another day that Steve Moore can look at his calendar and curse the name Todd Bertuzzi...just as I do.

American Bias At Its Finest..Final Editorial

Roger Clemens. Before the beginning of last year, that name stood for one of the greatest pitchers ever in the history of baseball. He is among the all-time leaders in career wins, strikeouts and earned run average (E.R.A), as well as winning more Cy Young awards for being the top pitcher in baseball than anyone in history with seven. Just a couple of years ago, rumors began circulating about Clemens possibly using performance enhancing drugs to give him the upper advantage when pitching.
Steroids in baseball have become a continuing problem in the sport and multiple books and reports have been published throwing star after star under the bus all to make a quick buck.
Clemens has since faced a hell-storm of questions and accusations, while firmly denying his use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs. The problem is this, Hall of Fame voters have already come out and publicly stated that because of the allegations brought forth against Clemens, that they will never vote him into the Hall of Fame, despite no positive tests and no concrete evidence that can be used to find Roger Clemens guilty.
The public backlash against this man for denying his use has been unbelievable and shocking to the point of what seems to be a steroid witch hunt for anyone even suspected of taking these drugs.
Now, let’s bring American sweetheart and sports darling Lance Armstrong into the picture. Armstrong, for those that don’t remember, is the owner of seven consecutive Tour de France titles, more than any other bicycle rider in the history of the competition. Most everyone knows him for his courageous battle with cancer, overcoming it and the odds to not only race in the most grueling event in cycling, but win it seven times in a row.
What most everyone has forgotten is that during his stretch of titles, Armstrong was accused of taking EPO, a hormone enhancing drug popular with cyclists. Also during that time, Armstrong was connected to a crooked doctor suspected of supplying this EPO and there were also reports that he was throwing away trash bags full of syringes. Even more shocking than that is that Armstrong actually had a urine sample test positive for EPO, but because the sample was more than five years old and the French lab conducting the tests didn’t properly handle it, it became invalid. It still doesn’t take away from the fact that, indeed, Lance Armstrong tested positive for EPO.
But it seems as though Armstrong, being a cancer survivor and world-renowned charity fundraiser, has this halo over his head that allows him to obtain a pass, a “get out of jail free” card. The fact that he has overcome these odds and that he gives back so much to the world is great and should be acknowledged, but it shouldn’t be an excuse for an athlete to get away with steroid accusations. If we as a media are going to label one athlete a social pariah for the allegations against him or her, then it must be one uniform sentencing.
Roger Clemens should make it into the Hall of Fame despite these steroid accusations, simply because nothing has been proven and nothing has been cemented as concrete evidence to use against him. The motto in the country is that you are “innocent until proven guilty”, but no more. If we as a society are going to sentence athletes before anything can be proven, then it must be the same for every athlete. It is time for Americans, public and media, to realize when they don’t know as much as they think they do about a situation. We’re not saying whether Clemens or any other baseball star did or did not take steroids, we simply do not know, but when all is said and done, neither do you.

Mosh Pits...Why Pay To Get The $@!& Beat Out of You?

On Sunday, I braved the winter weather here in Kearney and all across Nebraska and traveled to my hometown of Omaha, where a concert of monumental proportions was about to take place. I was heading home to see Trivium and Slipknot, two of my favorite metal bands. While I am fairly new to the world of live metal concerts, I had always had an idea of what mosh pits were like...at least I thought I did. For the concert, we waited outside for an hour before the show in -10 degree weather in t-shirts and shorts, knowing how hot it was going to be when we got inside. Needless to say, we found a place on the floor and in the middle of all the action. This is where I got my first taste and view of a mosh pit up close and personal.

After viewing the first mosh pit, it came to me that all this was, was a legal to beat the hell out of another person...accompanied by some heavy music in the background. When I turned to watch the mosh pit (completely deterring me from the music) I noticed guys just going at each other throwing clenched fists, basically a bunch of fists attached to some bodies. It became a human Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots competition in the middle of the floor, first one to get their head knocked up loses. Now my question is why? Why would any man subject themselves to these mosh pits? Why would you pay good money to see these bands, only to just run around with your main goal to knock the other person out across from you? I was on the edge of three of these mosh pits throughout the night and even though I was never in a mosh pit, I left with my fair share of injuries, including a bum ankle, a bruised right arm and a sore left shoulder.

That's the only question I have, is why spend 34 bucks so you can go run around with your shirt off and attempt to take out other humans. Can't you do that for less than 34 bucks somewhere else? Just seems like a waste of money during these economic times. I don't get why mosh pits are so popular with some of the carnage I saw last night...I even saw 120 pound girls going at it with full grown men, it was insane. All I'm saying is find something more constructive with your money.

On another note, my heart goes out to the Nickels family. Corey Nickels, 29, died of a heart attack during the last song of the perfomance. He suffered the heart attack during the show, there was an attempt to revive him in the ambulance and he was pronounced dead at the hospital. I know he didn't think that going to that concert would be the last thing he would ever do...it just makes you think.

Bonds and Clemens v. Armstrong...everyone please rise...

Nothing in this world (quite possibly nothing) has me more infuriated and upset with sports than the whole steroids fiasco between baseball, its players and Congress. Appearing on his first television interview, key source for the Mitchell Report (the document which led to over 50 baseball players being accused of steroids) Kirk Radomski stated that he believes his friend Brian McNamee over the accused Roger Clemens. A small excerpt from the interview and column, written by ESPN's Mike Fish, says:

""I don't believe him [Clemens] at all," Radomski said. "I believe my friend."
That's his story and he's sticking to it. That's what Radomski, an admitted steroids dealer, presumably told a federal grand jury considering perjury charges against Clemens in Washington last week. That's definitely the theme in "Bases Loaded" (Hudson Street Press), a book scheduled for release next week chronicling his decade of dealing performance-enhancing drugs to baseball players...Radomski said that he educated McNamee about growth hormone. He also said he was the source of the performance enhancers McNamee used with his baseball clients. Radomski said he shipped HGH directly to Clemens' house in Houston when McNamee went out to train him."

Well, well...isn't that amazing, Radomski comes forward for his first major television interview about the scandals a little more than a week before the scheduled release of his book. Can you say motive to lie? Anyways, if you watch the entire interview, Radomski states that he knows Clemens took the steroids because he sent the drugs directly to Clemens' house in care of McNamee and that McNamee had questioned how to properly inject the drugs. Radomski states this without a shipping receipt to prove the drugs were shipped to Clemens' house and secondly, just because the trainer had a tutorial on Steroids 101 from Radomski, doesn't mean that Clemens was the one he was injecting with the Human Growth Hormone (HGH). This whole situation of accusing Clemens of doing this without any proof is plain ascenine to me. Read my earlier blog about the situation about being guilty until proven innocent.

Throwing another baseball player in the mix is former San Francisco Giant superstar Barry Bonds. Bonds has been at the forefront of this steroid witchhunt, leading to all of the talk about other players using steroids. Bonds' link to Victor Conte, a salesman at a company called BALCO who sold steroids and HGH-type products. has been the catalyst as to why reporters and the public are burning Bonds at the cross. Bonds has admitted to using a cream substance containing a steroid without any knowledge of the substance. But let's keep this in mind, Bonds has NEVER tested positive during any one of his random drug tests. There has yet to be a clear connection between Bonds and BALCO in order to find him guilty of perjury and/or taking steroids. Clemens and Bonds are in the same boat, in that each have been the most dominant players at their position, possibly ever, in the major leagues. What each of them face as well, is that they are looking at a public backlash from these accusations, costing them shots at the Hall of Fame, even though Clemens is top 3 in strikeouts in his career and possibly the most dominant pitcher ever and Bonds has hit the most home runs in the history of the MLB. All because of an accusation that has yet to hold any water in any federal court. Each player has been sacrificed at the feet of the MLB for the sake of drug testing, so that the MLB can say, "look we cleaned up our act by taking away everything from our top players ever, who put butts in the seats and turned around a business that had a strike in 1994. We won't let anything slide."

Now as an American citizen, I have been able to sit back and watch Lance Armstrong win seven consecutive Tour de France's, making me proud to be an American at that time. I was sitting their watching a man battle back from cancer to win the most grueling bikerace ever...seven times in a row. But hold on just a second, wasn't Armstrong accused of taking HGH and steroids? Wasn't his doctor during the races linked to steroids? Wasn't he discovered taking out a bag of trash, several miles away, filled with used syringes? Yes, he was. While researching, I came across this article, which brings to light the difference between the public raping of Bonds' and Clemens' integrity and the sainthood that was granted for Armstrong. In another excerpt, the author, Selena Roberts, writes that:

"As the world's most famous cancer survivor and a significant fund-raiser, Armstrong has cultivated a halo effect. This has deflected the negative fallout from tell-all books, the links to a crooked doctor, the dogged pursuit by antidoping czar Dick Pound and the suit he filed against a company for making BARKSTRONG pet collars, which are sold by animal charities.
Clemens, who has mostly overcome pulled groins, has no such protective aura. Yet he tried to splash on a coating of goodwill last week as he told Congress about his generosity, his charitable works and his love of everything but kittens. (Note to Roger: Add kittens.) He presented his p.r. case with the same gusto he used to attack his accuser, Brian McNamee, whom he sued for defamation last month."

Note the term "halo effect" when I talk about Armstrong. Armstrong came back from cancer to take control of an event unlike anyone in the history of the Tour de France. When reports from France first came in about Armstrong's link to doping, there was a national outcry in favor of Armstrong. Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's back up here folks. Clemens, who had been a MLB darling for a decade, fell under the Mitchell Report bus and he thrown there by Brian McNamee. Clemens and Bonds were both accused of illegally enhancing their performance in their sport by taking HGH. Sure, signs can point to it, people can say what they want, but I used to think it was all about hard, physical evidence that can be proven. Lance Armstrong was embraced as an American hero after accusations were cast against him, leaving me to wonder why? Just because he battled back from cancer means his reputation and integrity should stay in tact while Bonds and Clemens are left to take every bullet from every angle? That's not right and most of you know it. In another article written by Millard Baker, it shows how the syringes and gauz turned in by McNamee (Clemens' trainer) had been kept by the trainer for seven years. SEVEN. He poses the question, what motives would the trainer have, if Clemens did take steroids, in keeping those materials for that long? At the end of the article, Baker states that this case could be similar to the Lance Armstrong urine sample case, that shows a positive EPO test could not be used against Armstrong because they had not properly followed procedures in testing the samples, which were five years old.

Needless to say, this whole situation has me in an outrage and something needs to be done. People are so quick to accuse and sentence innocent people before anything can be proven. Don't get me wrong, I am all for a cleaner game of baseball and drug testing, even though some of the Hall of Fame greats used their own form of performance-enhancers, whether it would be spit on the ball to give it more curve or tar on the brim on the hat that could be rubbed on the ball for different effects. Hall of Famers have publicly come out and admitted doing it, but not a soul has made a claim to have them removed because their numbers were tainted, much like the players of today. Journalists claim this country is a forgiving nation and that if Clemens and Bonds would come clean, the U.S. would eventually forgive them. Well this country is also a judging nation, sticking their nose in business that they have no idea about. How is it two great baseball players can have their reputation assassinated while a cyclist accused of practically the same thing can earn his wings before he even makes it to heaven?

There is no justice anymore in this country and people want to be on every body's side. Individuals can't cope with being wrong, so when a majority of people jump on one side of an issue, the rest of these low-life hethons jump on that side as well without knowing any of the facts. And that is the problem we have here concerning two of the greatest players in the history of the MLB. The MLB went through a strike shortened season in 1994 and was in jeopardy of losing the game. But stars like Bonds and Clemens, pitched and batted the MLB back into the national spotlight and this is what they get in terms of defense from Bud Selig (MLB Commissioner). Let me say this American public, please, please keep your mouth shut until you hear definitive evidence and clear cut test results that can place steroids in these guys' bodies. If this is the way it is going to continue, so many more great players are going to fall into the pit, whether they did it or not. Whether it is guys trying to increase sales on their books (Canseco and Radomski) or trainers looking to make a name for themselves (McNamee), it will continue to snowball into an annual witchhunt. So please, take off the halo from Armstrong's head. While I commend everything he has done, how do I know he has done it clean? Just like how do I know Bonds and Clemens have done everything clean? That's just it...I don't, and neither do you.

Get Consistent NFL

This past weekend in the Steelers-Ravens AFC Championship game, Ryan Clark (safety for the Steelers) laid out a hit on Baltimore running back Willis McGahee that sent him to the hospital with head and neck injuries. The blow was a helmet-to-helmet hit after McGahee made the catch in the fourth quarter. The hit jarred McGahee's head backwards, snapping his neck violently. Here is the hit below:



Well while watching ESPN this afternoon, I noticed on the bottom line where they list the stats and news of the day, that Clark was not going to be fined for the hit on McGahee. Now in a statement issued by a league spokesman, they said that, "[McGahee] had completed the catch and was a runner. Helmet-to-helmet contact is legal in that situation as it is for any ball carrier (running back, quarterback, or receiver). Helmet-to-helmet contact is prohibited against defenseless players (defined as a receiver in the process of making a catch or a quarterback in the act of passing)." I confirmed it by reading this article.

This all makes perfect sense to me, except for the question of, when the hell did ANY helmet-to-helmet contact become legal? Now, I played my fair share of contact football during high school and I played defensive tackle. We were taught that the proper way to tackle was to lower your shoulder and drive your head across their body, driving your shoulder through them, not lowering your head and leading forward with it. In the video, it is difficult to see whether he makes shoulder or helmet contact first, but the fourth replay or so gives a definitive view that the helmet contact happens first, snapping McGahee's head back. Now, I want to compare this to a hit on Arizona Cardinal's Anquan Boldin earlier in the year against the New York Jets, video below.



Now, this helmet-to-helmet hit falls under the defenseless player rule and probably should have resulted in a fine, which it did. The safety, Eric Smith, was fined $50,000 and the hit broke Boldin's jaw and several face bones. But take a closer look at the video. As Boldin goes up for the catch, he is contacted in the back by the corner back on the left, pushing his entire body downward towards Smith, who then contacts him helmet-to-helmet. Nowhere during the discussion of this hit was it viewed as incidental and it still has me mad 3 months later.

I know the NFL must crack down on helmet-to-helmet hits to prevent major injury, but when they decide to not fine a player for a hit that has much the same effect as another that did get fined, leaves me upset and scratching my head. Commissioner Roger Goodell has set his stance as a hardball commissioner, but this one leaves me baffled. Whether or not the hit can deemed "dirty", it still falls under the realms of helmet-to-helmet. I know football is a contact sport and I love big hits, but when you set a precedent by fining or suspending a player in some form and then let it slide for another, it seems unfair and/or playing favorites. Let the debate begin if Clark's hit warranted a fine, but according to me, his hit left me wanting more in the form of a fine coming from the league office.

Guily Until Proven Innocent?

The title of this statement has been the way I have felt regarding the way athletes are treated in this country. My prime example came after reading this blog, written by one of my favorite ESPN analyzers, Buster Olney. The whole situation with steroids in sports has left me with mixed feelings and will more than likely result in a longer rant in the future. The problem I have with the whole Roger Clemens situation is that many are saying that when he comes up on the ballot for the Hall of Fame in a few years, that he will never get voted in because of his suspicion in using steroids and HGH. Now, while his former trainer and one other man have come forward, saying they have sold and injected steroids for Clemens, nobody has yet to PROVE any of this. There have been no positive tests, the syringes that McNamee (his former trainer) provided have yet to be tested positive with Clemens DNA and any of the stories fabricated against Clemens have yet to be proven true. Now, there is a problem I have when people begin to sentence you before you have been proven guilty. Since growing up, I have been taught that in this country, you are innocent until proven guilty, which is no longer the case. Clemens has never tested positive, much like Barry Bonds, but both are being placed in the public jailhouse because people "suspect" they did it. Listen people, don't pass judgement until something clear cut has been presented. Clemens had perhaps the most dominating career of any pitcher in the history of baseball, a sure lock for Cooperstown. But because the voters and pundits everywhere assume he did it, Clemens has to fight for his innocence, despite never being found guilty. Like I said, i have major problems with this and it will come up again in future blogs...soon to come, comparing the witchhunt for Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds to the sainthood for Lance Armstrong, accused of doing the same thing, with much different results and acceptance from the American public.

Anymore, you are guilty until proven innocent and there is nothing anyone can say to make me believe elsewise.

Just When We Thought We Were Safe...

I know our assignment only had us do one article, but I plan on finding one article per day because let's face it, it's Kearney on a Saturday night and I don't feel like getting MIP'ed. Anyways, while looking at the website for the Omaha World Herald, the paper from my hometown, I came across this article about a nationwide recall of peanut butter products. Now I am a man who enjoys his food, with enjoy being an understatement. I always trusted the meals I was digesting to be safe and the one area in life I could be faithful in. Each day I read about e-coli this and salmonella that. Why is it that we can't go a decade, at the least, without recalling foods that make up a part of my daily diet? I feel really bad that the salmonella in the peanut butter has caused the death of 6 people, but what a way to go. One minute you're enjoying a PB & J sandwich and the next minute you're six feet under. There are fears that I have that I can overcome, such as heights and flying, but please, oh please don't add food to that list. Just make sure before you open up that next box of Peanut Butter Crunch or Ritz crackers, that you properly check your food. Lord knows we don't want our last meal to be a peanut butter cookie, that might have been mediocre at best...

Field of Dreams = Beer Pong Table?

Coming to college, I was introduced very quickly to the party scene, however, I did not and still do not drink. So while at parties, one must find a way to pass the time and I discovered the game of beer pong. While scowering my favorite site, ESPN.com, I came across this article authored by columnist Rick Reilly, another of my favorites. Needless to say, I was astonished that this simple college game, where champions are made one cup at a time, is starting to become what poker became just a few years ago. How many of you knew there was a World Series of Beer Pong? Not just that, how many knew that the champion of this winner-take-all tourney would capture a grand prize of $50,000? Now, I'm all for new sports to cover as we head into this new generation, but perhaps we're stretching a bit too far with the inception of beer pong. Maybe I'm just in the wrong profession, where some middle-aged guy who can sink ping pong balls into tiny plastic cups can make more than I will in a year coming out of college. Also, it's possible the movie "Dodgeball" wasn't too far off when they created ESPN 8: The Ocho for all that is obscure sports. I guess dreams can come true...one tiny, white ball at a time.

Hello World

Hey all, I have just set up this blog to give you a further, in-depth look at my thoughts, my opinions and quite possibly some humor, as I see fit. For more information about what means the most to me, check out my fraternity's website or my spot for all that is sports.