For Love of the Game

Have you ever stopped and wondered why you like something so much? What is it about the "something" that makes you so passionate about it? I often wonder this about my love for sports. Many people are "sports fans" and enjoy watching games, and possibly even playing some. But not all sports fans have the passion that I am talking about. Crying when your team loses, crying when your team wins, appreciating the fact that hardships come and go, as do winning seasons. Not everyone can say sports effects them this strongly, so what is it about sports that gives the select few of us that "special" feeling?

You know the "special" feeling, maybe you do not get it when watching a basketball game, but you have had the feeling before. It feels like hope, happiness, anxiousness, and excitement all wrapped up into one. If the outcome is good, you feel like you’re on top of the world, if the outcome is bad, your heart breaks with devastation. Either way, the feeling you have comes from within, and cannot be forced or imitated.

This is what sports is like. Watching an exciting game, a championship game, the playoffs, an extra-inning baseball game, or a hockey game come down to a shoot out. All of these are amazing and exciting, and get our adrenaline pumping. We feel like our whole lives come down to the last few moments of the game, as if we were out on the field or court playing the game ourselves.

What gives me that "special feeling" is how easily sports can bring people together. At any given game you will see strangers high-fiving after a great play, friends arguing over their rival teams-then later having a beer, talking about the great time they had, and an entire stadium full of thousands of people coming together as one when a referee makes a bad call or when their home team wins. All of these are reasons why sports give us fans that "special" feeling. One of my favorite things at a game is when all of the fans join together and sing. Many teams have anthems, and true fans know them and sing along. It is such a great feeling knowing that there are thousands of strangers around you that share the love and passion you have for your favorite team.

Another reason why sports gives that "special" feeling is the support that players and coaches have for one another. It is amazing to see how easily sports can bring a group of players together, and how easily it can make each player respect the other, even when the players are as different as night and day. My favorite story is of an autistic high school student in New York that loved basketball. The school's basketball coach allowed Jason to be the team manager, granting him participation in practices, and giving him the chance to sit on the bench with his team during games. However, in the last game of the season he was given the chance to play.



This story sums up every reason I could possibly describe for why sports is such an amazing thing. What is it about sports that gives us fans that "special" feeling? It's the fact that with seemingly little effort it has the ability to turn strangers into best friends, to boost your ego and break your heart, and to bring a tear to your eye.

Will You Be My Valentine?

February 14^th is the one day out of the year when women in relationships are supposed to be guaranteed attention and gifts. It is one day during the year (aside, maybe, from anniversaries) when the boyfriend or husband is supposed to spoil his significant other with flowers and cards and candy, and pretend to be the best, most caring guy in the world. Valentine’s day is the holiday for love.

Gag me, please.

It is ridiculous to have one day during the year where people are supposed to be forced to show their love for one another. Pressure is put on everyone in a relationship to get the perfect gift for their significant other. It’s no longer acceptable to be cliché either; cards, candy, and flowers do not cut it anymore.

Girls want jewelry, and dinner, and a night out on the town for a date. They want sexy underwear, and perfume, and maybe some chocolate-covered strawberries. While expecting all of these things from guys, girls aren’t sure if they are even supposed to get their boyfriends or husbands anything more than a card. And, if they are supposed to get gifts for them, what do guys want for Valentine’s Day that they wouldn’t want any other day of the year?

Is it just me, or shouldn’t everyday be a potential day to show someone you love them? Why do we need a backup day, so that we can justify to ourselves that “even though I haven’t been told I’m loved from my significant other this whole year, there’s always Valentine’s Day.” Why must we show each other we care with gifts that are red, pink, white, and lacey, and cram them all into one day of celebration?

Valentine’s Day is just one more day that our consumer-driven society can market. It’s one more day that makes people in a relationship happy, and makes singles feel even more lonely than they already feel.

I don’t think Valentine’s Day should be recognized the way it is today. For the lovers in relationships, show your love everyday, and do something extra special on your anniversary. This way singles won’t have to have their loneliness rubbed in their faces every time February comes around.

Leave Britney Alone Right NOW!

It is amazing the stuff people will post online. Blogs about nonsense, naked pictures of themselves, “one-night stand wanted” ads on Craigslist, and everything else you could possibly think of. Whenever I find these kinds of posts and webpages online, I think to myself, there are way too many people in this world with way too much time on their hands.

People feel the need to post anything and everything that pops into their mind. Whether they decide to voice their opinion about politics and religion, or about the latest celebrity gossip and what they did on Saturday night. People: we don’t care! It is one thing when someone goes online to rant about how horrible Barack Obama is, if the person is competent and makes a legitimate point, even if it is a point I disagree with. However, it is a different situation entirely when people with too much time on their hands and nothing intelligent to say go online to rant about issues they shouldn’t be talking about.

And now, with the new craze that is YouTube, people not only have the ability to voice their opinion online, but are also able to film themselves and put it online for the world to see. It seems the new “cool” thing to do is have a vblog (video blog) where instead of writing about nonsense, they film themselves talking nonsense and then post it online.

YouTube.com is a site with millions of videos posted by users. There is no way to filter videos that are inappropriate for public viewing, unless someone sees the video and reports it. People can go onto YouTube and search for videos by categories such as “most recent” and “most viewed”, and can search by subjects such as “cats” or “hot girls”. Users that are members of YouTube can also rate the video and post comments about it—much like the comment option on blogs.

With all the freedom that is given, the use of YouTube is out of control. People post all kinds of videos, things they did that are stupid (think “funniest home video” stupid) and things they believe are serious. Excerpts from television shows and movies are posted, as well as music videos and governmental debates. All of these videos are okay to post, they allow an easier way for internet users to find clips of video that interest them. Not only is it convenient to be able to go back and see part of a show you missed, or a politician’s answer to a question that you did not get to see; but some of the “comical” videos that are posted are hilarious and extremely entertaining.

What I find hard to understand is why people with nothing intelligent to say create videos of themselves and post them on YouTube. Are they that starving for attention? Do they really need everyone in the world to know how sad they feel for Britney Spears because she was going through a custody battle for her kids?

I understand that we have the choice to watch the videos and aren’t being forced to pay attention to such ridiculous videos as the one above, but why would someone want to show off to the world how incompetent they are? While this new age of vblogs can be very helpful and quite entertaining at times, I just wish there was a way to filter out the ridiculous videos of people complaining about their date or giving reasons why they think you should break up with your significant other.

Seriously people, do society a favor, and get a life.

Mike Sando: A Fan Favorite in the NFL World

There are lots of football fans in the world, most of them will watch a game on Sunday, and probably Monday night as well; some will watch as many games as they can on Sunday, will definitely watch the Monday night game, and will read updates online or in a newspaper for games they missed; the elite not only watch every game that is on T.V., but will also read about their team—or the entire NFL—in a newspaper or online every day. These elite fans depend on insider information to tell them what happens off the field, what is happening on the field, and what they should expect for the next game.

And, if you are a Seattle Seahawks fanatic, then Mike Sando is your guy. Sando has an impeccable reputation for his columns and blog about the Seahawks. Fans all over the world followed Sando’s blog daily to find out as much as they could about the Seahawks.

Mike Sando grew up in Northern California until he attended Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. Sando graduated in 1992 with a B.A. in political studies. After graduation, he got a job writing online for the Spokes-man Review in Spokane. While writing for the Review he covered Washington State University football and basketball. In 1998, he was hired on at the News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington where he worked for nine years covering the Seattle Seahawks. Not only did Mike Sando write for the News Tribune, but he also had a Seahawks Insider blog that he began in 2005. His blog was voted the best newspaper-related sports blog in the nation for the past two years. His monthly readership for the blog is between 250,000 and 500,000 worldwide.

There comes a time when we all must say goodbye to the familiar, and step into a new light, a new position, a new life. After nine years of covering the Seattle Seahawks, Mike Sando did just that when he was hired at ESPN.com. July 1, 2007 he said goodbye to his old job at the Tribune, and stepped into the unknown.

Sando was a fan favorite at the Tribune and had many readers following him. He was also very personable on his blog and welcomed readers to send him comments. On his last day at the Tribune, he wrote a farewell note to his readers on his blog where he said goodbye to his fans, but reminded them that in the internet world, there are no “goodbyes”—his fans would be able to follow his columns at ESPN.com. Sando’s farewell blog received 278 comments from fans saying goodbye and good luck.

Sando’s specialty is still professional football, however now he is writing on all of the NFL, not just the Seahawks. He posts a column two to three times a week about issues going on in the NFL. Every Sunday he writes a column with a list of his top 10 observations from that week of games. His writing style helps readers to better understand his analysis of games, players, and teams, without going over their head and confusing them. His “regular guy” reputation has helped him maintain success and readership at ESPN.com and will help keep him a fan favorite for years to come.

You can read Mike Sando's columns for ESPN.com at http://sports.espn.go.com/keyword/search?searchString=mike_sando&filter=null&page=espn

Living In Your Own Little Fantasy World

A new wave has taken over the world of sports…and it isn’t even ‘real’. Online fantasy sports leagues have become extremely popular among sports fans. These leagues give fans the opportunity to make their dreams of coaching a professional team come true. If you pick the right players and play them at the right time, you could walk away with bragging rights…and a whole lot of money.

There are fantasy leagues for all different sports: hockey, football, baseball, and basketball are a few. They also have leagues for college sports as well. The way it works is you join a league with your friends, or complete strangers, whichever you choose, and you get a “draft day”. On draft day all players in the league choose professional players to play for their team. Everyone is allowed a certain number of players, and a certain number of positions must be filled. For example, in some fantasy football leagues you are allowed two quarterbacks and three wide receivers, so you might draft Bret Favre and Peyton Manning for your quarterbacks, and Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, and Chad Johnson for your wide receivers. The point of the draft is to get the best players you can for your team.

On game day, which is the day the players on your team play (Sunday, Monday Night Football, etc.), a running total is kept for how well all of your players are doing. If Bret Favre throws three touchdowns you get a certain number of points, and if he throws an interception your team has points taken away. All players on your team are given points based on their individual performance. In football, passing yards, rushing yards, touchdowns, field goals, etc. all give your team a certain amount of points. At the end of the week, when all professional games are finished, your points are are added up and you are given a total score. Your goal is to get more points than all the other players in your league.

Several “big name” companies are now setting up fantasy leagues for people to join. You can have leagues on ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports, and most professional leagues and associations offer fantasy as well; NFL.com, NBA.com, and MLB.com are a few that offer free fantasy leagues. To join some leagues you have to pay money in order to play. However, in those leagues the incentive, unlike the free leagues, is if you win the most games or have the most points when the season is over, you get prize money…just for having the best fantasy team. In some leagues you can win hundreds of dollars!

Fantasy leagues have become so popular that some journalists have devoted all of their writing to analyzing players in the fantasy world. Most sports websites, now, have sections for fantasy, where journalists break down the upcoming week and suggest which players you should play, and which you should bench. ESPN’s Sportscenter now has its own analysts cover fantasy and give updates on which players are performing great, and which are playing poorly. There are also several books that give out tips for playing fantasy, and books that tell the story of the famous leagues around the country.

This new craze has changed sports in today’s world. Fans not only care about their team doing well and making it to the playoffs, but are also rooting for players on their rival teams. Where a deep hate for a rivalry used to reside, fans now hope players on the rival team do well in order to help out their fantasy team. Fantasy continues to grow and become more popular every year. It makes you wonder if one day people will stop caring about the Super Bowl because none of their fantasy players are in it.