I Kid You Not

What is good sportsmanship?

2008-12-04T01:47:00.001-08:00

From the first time a young athlete steps onto the field, skates into the rink, or runs out onto the court, good sportsmanship is expected and enforced. Coaches preach good sportsmanship in practice, referees penalize bad sportsmanship during the game. For the most part, good sportsmanship is the norm, which usually makes it easy to spot bad sportsmanship when it happens.
But there are, of course, the gray areas. And collectively, sports fans love a good debate, which can open the door to all sorts of opinions about what sportsmanship really means.
One example that has come up recently is the idea of running up the score.
This week, the Valley Center Jaguars beat Imperial 64-6 in the first round of the CIF playoffs. Earlier in the season, the Jags beat Mount Carmel 66-14 and defeated Orange Glen 55-7.
On the message boards for some of the online highlights of these games, as well as for other blowouts from the area, the topic of running up the score was presented. Obviously, the fans for the teams on the short end of these scores were not very happy, and wanted to blame the winning team for showing poor sportsmanship.
All the discussion made me wonder what exactly good sportsmanship is.
We can start by breaking down what good sportsmanship is not. To me, the worst thing an athlete can do, athletically speaking, is not play hard. In a team sport, the individual has to take a back seat to the team as a whole in order for success to be achieved. So when an athlete puts his or her ego ahead of the team goal, he or she would be better served on the bench or off the team. Bad sportsmanship begins with this: putting the individual before the team.
From there, the secondary issues tend to become clearer. If a team is running up the score to feed the ego of a coach or one particular player, then I would consider that poor sportsmanship. Those of us who follow the NFL saw how the New England Patriots ran up the score last season, and now, outside of Massachusetts, it’s hard to find very many diehard Patriots fans. It was pretty obvious that the team was running up the score primarily as a way for coach Bill Belichick to lash out at the league for the punishments handed down after the “Spygate” scandal. I still don’t know how Belichick managed to turn a just punishment for blatant cheating into motivation for essentially flipping the bird to the league by breaking every offensive record imaginable. At least they didn’t win the Super Bowl and forever taint the league.
The other ego involved was that of professional cover model... er… quarterback, Tom Brady. He wanted to break the single-season passing touchdown record, set the year before by Peyton Manning, so he was still winging the ball around in the fourth quarter of blowouts. I don’t know if the concept of “what goes around, comes around” is a universal certainty, but when Brady blew out his left knee eight minutes into the 2008 season, let’s just say there weren’t too many tears shed around the league.
The point is, given the circumstances around the lopsided scores, the Patriots’ offensive successes didn’t sit well with fans not associated with New England.
Now, I will say this – professional athletes have no excuses. If you’re being paid to play football, your job is to beat the other team. Poor sportsmanship or not, the teams getting beat 52-7 in the NFL have no room for complaints. If they didn’t want to get beaten that badly, they should have played better, end of story.
Obviously, it’s much different in high school. Many teams come from schools with small student populations, or from areas where other sports draw the premier athletes. Teams go through phases of dominance and struggle, and yet the schedule usually offers more than one mismatch each season.
In the case of Valley Center’s big wins this season, it was unmistakably evident that the Jaguars were not out to embarrass the other teams. The backups got plenty of playing time, and the play-calling became very conservative. The coaches did a good job of keeping the players focused, and didn’t let them celebrate before it was over. They expected the players on the field to execute the plays called, and they did, which led to a high score. Neither team had anything to be ashamed of when it was all said and done.
But when it comes to sportsmanship in general, I think that the players tend to have the best outlook. Specifically, the players on the other side of the supposed poor sportsmanship tend not to be offended because they’re either looking ahead to the next game, or they’re not so wrapped up in one game that they lose all perspective. Sure, they’re disappointed that they lost. But the great athletes always use the pain from a loss as motivation for improvement.
Honestly, I think we’ve become overly sensitive to poor sportsmanship because too many parents have become overly sensitive about the effects of a loss on their children. We discussed this topic back in the spring, and we arrived at the conclusion that many parents have the idea of the “perfect childhood” so deeply ingrained in their thinking that they go overboard trying to protect their child from anything negative. I referenced a 2005 Reader’s Digest article called "The Perfect Childhood: Why It's Bad For Kids" by Judsen Culbreth, in which the author says that “[Parents have] bought into the myth that a child's self-esteem depends on never having even the slightest adversity, upset or setback. But the ‘no more tears’ approach to raising kids is doing more harm than parents and teachers realize.”
Basically, the idea of trying to protect young athletes from poor sportsmanship is worse for them than letting them learn to deal with the ups and downs of life. It makes sense – as adults, we have to deal with less-than-pleasant people and circumstances all the time. It’s part of life. But we live, we learn, and we become stronger by overcoming the adversity.
In the end, I would say that sportsmanship, whether good or bad, is less important than how we respond to the negative circumstances in sports and in life. Like it or not, there will always be poor sports out there, and once in a while, we’re going to run into them. Hopefully, instead of denouncing them and making ourselves look as foolish as some of the people commenting on the aforementioned message boards (apparently a common strategy for expressing one’s opinion involves typing in all capital letters while ignoring the basic rules of spelling and grammar), we can provide a good example of what sports are supposed to be.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on sportsmanship, and I’m sure the community would as well.
Write me an e-mail at sports@valleycenter.com and let me know if you think poor sportsmanship is destroying sports, or if it’s just something we all have to live with. I’ll put the good responses in next week’s edition.
Just don’t say anything that will make Bill Belichick mad. Tom Brady has been through enough already.

Sportsmanship

2008-12-02T00:33:00.001-08:00

What is good sportsmanship?
From the first time a young athlete steps onto the field, skates into the rink, or runs out onto the court, good sportsmanship is expected and enforced. Coaches preach good sportsmanship in practice, referees penalize bad sportsmanship during the game. For the most part, good sportsmanship is the norm, which usually makes it easy to spot bad sportsmanship when it happens.
But there are, of course, the gray areas. And collectively, sports fans love a good debate, which can open the door to all sorts of opinions about what sportsmanship really means.
One example that has come up recently is the idea of running up the score.
This week, the Valley Center Jaguars beat Imperial 64-6 in the first round of the CIF playoffs. Earlier in the season, the Jags beat Mount Carmel 66-14 and defeated Orange Glen 55-7.
On the message boards for some of the online highlights of these games, as well as for other blowouts from the area, the topic of running up the score was presented. Obviously, the fans for the teams on the short end of these scores were not very happy, and wanted to blame the winning team for showing poor sportsmanship.
All the discussion made me wonder what exactly good sportsmanship is.
We can start by breaking down what good sportsmanship is not. To me, the worst thing an athlete can do, athletically speaking, is not play hard. In a team sport, the individual has to take a back seat to the team as a whole in order for success to be achieved. So when an athlete puts his or her ego ahead of the team goal, he or she would be better served on the bench or off the team. Bad sportsmanship begins with this: putting the individual before the team.
From there, the secondary issues tend to become clearer. If a team is running up the score to feed the ego of a coach or one particular player, then I would consider that poor sportsmanship. Those of us who follow the NFL saw how the New England Patriots ran up the score last season, and now, outside of Massachusetts, it’s hard to find very many diehard Patriots fans. It was pretty obvious that the team was running up the score primarily as a way for coach Bill Belichick to lash out at the league for the punishments handed down after the “Spygate” scandal. I still don’t know how Belichick managed to turn a just punishment for blatant cheating into motivation for essentially flipping the bird to the league by breaking every offensive record imaginable. At least they didn’t win the Super Bowl and forever taint the league.
The other ego involved was that of professional cover model... er… quarterback, Tom Brady. He wanted to break the single-season passing touchdown record, set the year before by Peyton Manning, so he was still winging the ball around in the fourth quarter of blowouts. I don’t know if the concept of “what goes around, comes around” is a universal certainty, but when Brady blew out his left knee eight minutes into the 2008 season, let’s just say there weren’t too many tears shed around the league.
The point is, given the circumstances around the lopsided scores, the Patriots’ offensive successes didn’t sit well with fans not associated with New England.
Now, I will say this – professional athletes have no excuses. If you’re being paid to play football, your job is to beat the other team. Poor sportsmanship or not, the teams getting beat 52-7 in the NFL have no room for complaints. If they didn’t want to get beaten that badly, they should have played better, end of story.
Obviously, it’s much different in high school. Many teams come from schools with small student populations, or from areas where other sports draw the premier athletes. Teams go through phases of dominance and struggle, and yet the schedule usually offers more than one mismatch each season.
In the case of Valley Center’s big wins this season, it was unmistakably evident that the Jaguars were not out to embarrass the other teams. The backups got plenty of playing time, and the play-calling became very conservative. The coaches did a good job of keeping the players focused, and didn’t let them celebrate before it was over. They expected the players on the field to execute the plays called, and they did, which led to a high score. Neither team had anything to be ashamed of when it was all said and done.
But when it comes to sportsmanship in general, I think that the players tend to have the best outlook. Specifically, the players on the other side of the supposed poor sportsmanship tend not to be offended because they’re either looking ahead to the next game, or they’re not so wrapped up in one game that they lose all perspective. Sure, they’re disappointed that they lost. But the great athletes always use the pain from a loss as motivation for improvement.
Honestly, I think we’ve become overly sensitive to poor sportsmanship because too many parents have become overly sensitive about the effects of a loss on their children. We discussed this topic back in the spring, and we arrived at the conclusion that many parents have the idea of the “perfect childhood” so deeply ingrained in their thinking that they go overboard trying to protect their child from anything negative. I referenced a 2005 Reader’s Digest article called "The Perfect Childhood: Why It's Bad For Kids" by Judsen Culbreth, in which the author says that “[Parents have] bought into the myth that a child's self-esteem depends on never having even the slightest adversity, upset or setback. But the ‘no more tears’ approach to raising kids is doing more harm than parents and teachers realize.”
Basically, the idea of trying to protect young athletes from poor sportsmanship is worse for them than letting them learn to deal with the ups and downs of life. It makes sense – as adults, we have to deal with less-than-pleasant people and circumstances all the time. It’s part of life. But we live, we learn, and we become stronger by overcoming the adversity.
In the end, I would say that sportsmanship, whether good or bad, is less important than how we respond to the negative circumstances in sports and in life. Like it or not, there will always be poor sports out there, and once in a while, we’re going to run into them. Hopefully, instead of denouncing them and making ourselves look as foolish as some of the people commenting on the aforementioned message boards (apparently a common strategy for expressing one’s opinion involves typing in all capital letters while ignoring the basic rules of spelling and grammar), we can provide a good example of what sports are supposed to be.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on sportsmanship, and I’m sure the community would as well.
Write me an e-mail at sports@valleycenter.com and let me know if you think poor sportsmanship is destroying sports, or if it’s just something we all have to live with. You can also post a comment on the blog page by visiting www.valleycenter.com and clicking on the RR Blogs link. I’ll put the good responses in next week’s edition.
Just don’t say anything that will make Bill Belichick mad. Tom Brady has been through enough already.

Sportsmanship

2008-12-02T00:31:00.000-08:00

Five Reasons Why You Should Play Fantasy Football

2008-08-11T11:58:00.002-07:00

The NFL’s training camps are in full swing, and football fans everywhere can feel the start of the season getting closer.
And an ever-increasing number of fans are anticipating the start of the fantasy football season, which has come to mean nearly as much as the NFL season.
Having played fantasy football for the past seven years, I kind of assumed that pretty much every football fan has at least tried fantasy sports before. But I had a conversation with a friend this week about it, and it turns out that there are still more than a few sports fans out there that haven’t jumped on the fantasy bandwagon just yet.
So to help spread the good word, I’d like to share my five favorite things about playing fantasy football.
1. It helps you learn more about football.
Ever heard of Wes Welker? He’s the New England receiver that caught the most passes in the NFL last season. How about Jesse Chatman? He’s Miami’s third-string running back and filled in nicely when Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams got hurt.
In my fantasy league, both of these guys (and a few others) were like rock stars. People wanted to trade for them, the saved their waiver pick to see if they could get somebody like them; it was crazy, because nobody had heard of these guys before.
Fantasy football gets you beyond the big names and helps you see the value of players who may not ever be on Sportscenter.
2. It gets you into the game.
Sure, it’s easy to watch football when your favorite team is going up against your hated rival. Chargers vs. Raiders, Cowboys vs. Giants, Anybody vs. Patriots; they’re all great games to watch. But when the not-so-exciting contests come along, it can be pretty boring.
Fantasy football comes flying to the rescue because it allows you to watch Arizona vs. Tennessee with a renewed interest. Perhaps you have Larry Fitzgerald and need him to score two touchdowns so your fantasy team can win. Perhaps you have Rob Bironas and need him to hit four field goals. Maybe your fantasy opponent has one of the players on these teams and you need his guy to have an off day. You watch the game differently.
Some people say this is a bad thing – “We should root for our team, not for the individual!” – but I say the NFL is an individual-first league these days, so let’s enjoy what we can. It’s not like you can blow a hundred bucks on a Randy Moss jersey without realizing that he probably won’t be with his current team for more than the next three years. At least if you have him on your fantasy team, you can root for him this season, then start over next year with a new squad.
3. It gets you together with other football fans.
I like the fantasy league I’m in because I see the other owners on a semi-regular basis, and we get to good-naturedly bust each other’s chops about what our teams are doing. Sure, you can do this with the NFL, and as a Miami Dolphins fan from way back, I certainly have had my chops busted.
But with fantasy football, you feel like you have more to do with your team’s success than just rooting for them. If you drafted wisely, you feel a little bit of pride when your team does well. If you start out slowly, you can work the waiver wire and get your team back on track.
Plus, the pre-season draft is always a great time, especially if you get everybody together in person. Last year, we got the ten owners together (a couple phoned in from other places, but that will happen) and went through the picks one by one. We got to make fun of picks, we got to eat tons of food, and we had a great time. Live drafts are usually the key to having a great fantasy football league.
I’m always a fan of things that bring people together, and fantasy football does just that.
4. It’s so easy to play.
In the early days of rotisserie leagues, so I understand, players had to keep track of stats themselves and send (by mail) the results to their league commissioner, who would keep the league standings.
Now, you can sign your team up in about 27 seconds and your stats are all managed automatically. If you want to find out how many times Donald Driver has been targeted in the red zone this season, there’s a category for that. If you want to see how many third-down receptions Steven Jackson has, you can find that out easily enough. It’s all right at your fingertips.
5. If your NFL team is terrible, you can still feel important when your fantasy team does well.
Not to brag or anything, but I am the current champion in my fantasy football league. I have a sweet trophy, and I enjoy telling the story of how I had the last pick in the first round, yet still got my team through to the title.
On the flip side, as I mentioned, I’m a Dolphins fan. They won one game last year. One game! It was ridiculous trying to watch them (thank goodness not many of their games are on out here on the west coast) because they looked like a decent college team going up against the pros.
So every time the other owners in my league would ask if Miami was ever going to get a win, I’d remind them that my fantasy team was dominating and that there was clearly nothing they could do about it.
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So there you go; five good reasons to log in and play fantasy football this season.
Coming in the next few weeks will be my annual Fantasy Football Preview, where I (and maybe a special guest) break down some players to grab and some players to avoid in your draft.
And as always, if you have any stories about playing fantasy sports, I’d love to hear them. E-mail me at sports@valleycenter.com and I’ll share it with our readers.
Just don’t make fun of the Dolphins. They look good in training camp, and they could be a playoff team if everything comes together.
Well, it probably won’t, but at least I’ll have my fantasy team dominating the league again.

Today's Athletes Are Whiners

2008-08-11T11:58:00.001-07:00

Nobody likes a complainer.
Whether it’s a professional athlete or the second baseman in your company’s slow-pitch softball league, it’s just not fun to be involved with a game when somebody won’t stop whining. Listening to somebody argue with the officials, demand the ball again and again, or even just blame everything on everyone else just drains the fun out of what should be an enjoyable experience. Most of us can only take that for so long before we get sick of it and take action.
Jeremy Shockey found that out this week, when the Super Bowl champion New York Giants traded him to the New Orleans Saints for a pair of draft picks. Shockey is considered one of the best tight ends in the game, but the Giants must not have felt that he was a part of their future after he missed significant time with an injury last season and opted to watch his team win the title from a luxury box instead of on the field.
But I think the front office, and I dare say a majority of the fans, will be glad to see Shockey leave. He has tremendous talent, to be sure, but he also has a way of dragging his team down by hounding the refs for a flag or getting into skirmishes with the other team.
And Shockey certainly isn’t the first talented player to be cut loose because of his attitude; Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, Milton Bradley (not the board game company, the baseball player) and Vince Carter all come immediately to mind, and there are so many others in every team sport.
It makes me wonder why bad attitudes are so prevalent in sports, especially at the professional level.
I think it starts with the individual personality, and I don’t think anyone will disagree with the idea that we’re all different.
But regardless of personality differences, most of us find ways to set aside our own personal motives and agendas in the unifying pursuit of achievement. Athletes tend to be especially good at this, at least most of the time, because it takes a lot of work to win a professional league’s championship.
Which makes it so frustrating to find a talented athlete who refuses to set his own ego aside to help the team reach its goal; at some point along the line, the “me first” athlete had to have succeeded, and this implies that he must have been able to function as a decent teammate. He probably showed up to all the practices, played hard on every play, rooted for his teammates when he was on the sidelines, and listened to what the coach told him to do. He played the game the way it’s meant to be played.
But then there must have come a time when this revelation occurred; like the opening of Pandora’s Box, the idea must have formed in his mind that he was the sole reason for the team’s success, and he must be treated accordingly.
Honestly, I think this moment happens to every single talented athlete. We live in a world that glorifies the hype of the superstar athlete, and it would be pretty great to have your own line of Nike Adidas shoes, wouldn’t it? How cool would it be to have your own Gatorade flavor? How about having EA Sports design a virtual you for their next Xbox 360 game?
But along with each of those moments comes a landmark moment in the life of an athlete – the refining influence of reason, in one form or another. Most often it’s a coach who lets the athlete know that, while he has special talent, the game he loves has no compassion for the ill-prepared. I’m sure Todd Marinovich can take some time off from his job at Wal-Mart to explain how that all works.
Basically, the temptation for the athlete to think he deserves more credit is squashed by the reality that he’s already treated far better than he deserves because he gets to play the game he loves.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Every so often, we get one that slips through the cracks. We end up watching Terrell Owens go from a guy who was so happy to catch a game-winning touchdown that he cried like a baby in his coach’s arms (in the 2002 playoffs for San Francisco against Green Bay) to a guy who whose Web site (www.terrellowens.com) has t-shirts proclaiming him to be the “Original 81” and a rap song, performed by Owens, that brags “…to the haters that said I wouldn’t get my money, I’m laughing in your face; ha ha, that’s funny.” Not only is that missing the point of the game, it’s not even a clever rhyme scheme. He’s unpleasant in more than one arena of entertainment now. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do any more TV guest spots like the one he did for the MyNetworkTV show “Under One Roof.”
Obviously, Owens never got the message that football is bigger than the antics of one reasonably talented wide receiver, no matter if he (as his rap song also boasts) “[is] back on a mission, [he has] a new recipe, so [he’s] back in the kitchen.”
I’m pretty sure Owens, just like every other pro athlete, has had a coach tell him that he’s part of a team and that all the showboating isn’t what the game’s about. But at some point, the guys with the shoe contracts and the rap moguls with the proposed lyrics “I'm back, and I'm better than ever; I’m back, and I’m getting this cheddar; I’m back, this time I’m a Cowboy; I’m back, and I'm got 'em sayin' wow, boy” started getting louder than the voice of reason.
And the sad truth of the matter is that things aren’t going to change; money talks and there will always be another talented young athlete who is willing to listen.
But I do still have hope, because there are still those that fight to keep our sports pure.
So to all you coaches, parents, fans and supporters of youth sports – keep up the great work. What you do for our sports is akin to the work our teachers do for our society. You may not ever receive an award, and you may not get mentioned at the Espy Awards, but you are the only thing keeping us from living in a world where Eli Manning has his own rap song.
Please don’t let Eli Manning have his own rap song.
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If you have a particular coach, parent, fan or supporter you’d like to mention for what they do for our sports, I’d love to give them some much-deserved credit.
Send me an e-mail at sports@valleycenter.com and let me know what this person does to help preserve the purity of our sports, and how they’re impacting young players to avoid the pitfalls of listening to rap moguls.
I’m also curious to hear your horror stories about the athletes who are tearing down our beloved games, so please send in those stories as well. You don’t need to mention any names, especially if it’s that one indoor soccer goalie with the goggles who always finds a way to beat your team head-to-head (not that I have any personal stories to tell), but I’d still enjoy hearing your experiences.
Although, I hear it’s a great idea to put your experiences into a rap song and post it on your personal Web site.

Where Are The Big Names In All-Star Events?

2008-08-11T11:57:00.001-07:00

It’s All-Star time in Major League Baseball!
Come out and watch the stars of the game show their appreciation for the fans by showing up and playing a fun, fan-friendly game.
Or rather, come watch one or two big-name players have to play with second-tier players because the “stars” of the game would rather come and hang out, but can’t risk re-injuring that “strained quad” in an exhibition game.
It all started with the Home Run Derby on Monday, which drew the likes of Alex Rodriguez... nope. David Ortiz... uh-uh. Ken Griffey Jr... not so much. How about... Dan Uggla? Justin Morneau? Evan Longoria? I know that home run totals are down from a few years ago, but since when do 16 home runs at the all-star break earn you a spot in the derby?
It ended up being a pretty decent showing; Josh Hamilton added another chapter to his already remarkable story by hitting a ball off the back wall of Yankee Stadium (a storied accomplishment) and at least three over 500 feet en route to a record-setting 28 home runs in the first round. And then he got upset by Morneau in the final round, which proves… something. I’m not sure what, though.
But the big story, unfortunately, is the ongoing reluctance of sport’s major players to be missing in action for games they’re not being paid to play.
That’s really what it boils down to, as much as we, the fans, try to delude ourselves into thinking otherwise. Professional athletes are in it for the money, plain and simple. It sounds nice when they give interviews about all the charity work they do, or when they take a sick kid on a tour of the dressing room before the game. But when it comes down to it, the primary motivation for the typical professional athlete is money.
So when it comes time to thank the fans for shelling out the ridiculous ticket prices to an elite-level sporting event, the “regretfully decline” responses come pouring back in.
It happens in other sports as well, most notably in the NFL. The fact that the Pro Bowl is after the Super Bowl is partly to blame; it’s hard enough to gear up for 16 regular season games and, for some, the rigors of playoff football. Playing an exhibition game two weeks after the Lombardi Trophy is hoisted just isn’t that exciting.
But to me, the worst is when a professional athlete turns down the chance to play in international competition, especially the Olympics.
It happens a lot in basketball, where one “star” after another politely declines the invitation to represent his country by playing a game, so he can spend more time on his upcoming rap album or finally beating Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360.
I don’t always feel the nostalgia of “the good old days,” probably because they weren’t always so good. For example, I’m really glad we don’t have to ration things like sugar in this country. I’m pretty sure that I would have used up my year’s worth in February.
But in sports, I can feel a little bit of the nostalgic longing for a better version of the game. Back in the day, players played the game like they were supposed to: like it was a game. Every interview I’ve seen or read from an athlete from before or around 1960 has the same theme – “Sure, I was successful, but I’m just lucky I got paid to play a game.”
Sure, we’re witnessing feats never before accomplished in so many various competitions, but we have to wade through the ticket prices, the over-hyping of every new flash in the pan, the constant stream of analysis, the self-promotion, and the showboating just to get to something great.
And that’s the thing: there are great things happening in sports.
We have the Josh Hamilton story; a blue-chip prospect gets hooked on crack, gets clean and comes back to lead the majors in RBIs. We have the Summer Olympics coming up, complete with 41-year-old Dara Torres setting a new world record in the 50-meter freestyle in qualifying. We saw Tiger Woods limp his way through the U.S. Open and still pull out another impossible win.
There are plenty of things wrong with sports, from steroids to Marv Albert’s toupee, and we certainly shouldn’t over-emphasize the negative impact of a professional athlete turning down the chance to play in an all-star event.
And we don’t want to be too sappy and say that “we should just appreciate the players who are doing a good job.” We should appreciate them, but at this point, shouldn’t doing a good job be expected?
Instead, what we should do is demand a better product, just like we do in this country when we buy something that isn’t up to our standards.
One of the advantages the present has on the “good old days” is that we have so many outlets through which to express ourselves. If you have an opinion on anything, you can find somebody else who shares your views and you can find a way to discuss the topic until the cows come home.
So if you love watching sports but don’t like the product you’re getting, say something. Start a blog. Start a vlog. First, do a quick Google search to find out what blogs and vlogs are, like I did, then start them both.
Call in to the talk radio shows. Write in to ESPN, Sports Illustrated, or even The Valley Roadrunner to let people know what you think. When it comes time to vote for the All-Star teams, don’t just punch out the hometown guys, look into it and see who’s actually going to show up and play.
In short, own your fanship.
And maybe next year we’ll see which Major Leaguers truly deserve to be All-Stars.
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As always, please write in and let me know what you think about all this. There are lots of sports fans here in Valley Center, and we love talking about the sports we love.
So whatever sport you follow, write in and tell me what you would do to improve it.
Maybe you’re a basketball fan and you’d move the rim up to 11 feet. Maybe you’re a football fan and you’d get rid of instant replay. Maybe you’re a cricket fan and you’d increase the maximum number of overs to 100 for each day of play in a Test Match.
Whatever it is, we want to hear about it, and so does the rest of the community.
Send me an e-mail to sports@valleycenter.com with your comments, and I’ll put it in next week’s edition.

So Many Sports To Choose From

2008-08-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it’s hard being a sports fan.
Sure, there are the thrilling games, the transcendent moments, and the larger-than-life performances that bring us together as fans.
But inevitably, these hilltop experiences lead only to the valleys of sports fanship. In these times we search for the next great athlete, the next indomitable underdog, or the next phenom waiting to break out.
My recent mountaintop experience came, as we discussed here over the past few weeks, with the European soccer championship. I fell in love with the spunky spirit of the Turks as they rallied to one impossible comeback win after another; I marveled at the tremendous athleticism of Lukas Podolski, David Villa, Andrei Arshavin, and so many others; I looked forward to the championship match like a kid waiting for Christmas.
And now that it’s over, I’m stuck here in sports limbo. So where do I go to find that next great sports connection?
I’ve got a few ideas, but I still can’t decide which sports experience I’m going to sink myself into next. I’m not talking about the “Big 3” mainstream sports, the NFL, MLB or the NBA; I want to find a so-called “fringe” sport and find out what makes it great. And hopefully, I’ll find the top of the sports mountain in the process.
Let’s take a look at the options, in no particular order:
Soccer
We’ve talked a lot about soccer lately, so we might as well tackle it right up front.
Pros: It’s a classic game. Every country besides the U.S. has a storied history in the sport, and that history carries over into so many facets of the game. Good play requires a set of very specific skills, and the smallest mistake can be the difference between winning and losing. When it’s done right, soccer is really fun to watch. And there’s also Hope Solo.
Cons: It’s not always done right. Watching a soccer match between two lackluster teams is bad enough, but it gets even worse when a good team takes on a bad team. Because it’s incredibly difficult to score, a two-goal lead usually means game over. Plus, there are a lot of weird rules and quasi-rules that can get confusing. And there’s also Franck Ribery.
Conclusion: International soccer is great, but the MLS is another thing. Let’s see what else is out there.
Hockey
Specifically, the NHL, which used to be part of the mainstream but has fallen into the second tier of sports.
Pros: Like soccer, it’s an extremely difficult game to master, and the players who are great are exceedingly fun to watch. Rising stars such as Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Andrei Kostitsyn, and Marc-Andre Fleury give new fans plenty of opportunities to find a team to follow. If nothing else, it’s cool to watch the fights.
Cons: Like soccer, there are a few too many odd rules, although the league has taken steps to clear some of them up. Also like soccer, there are a lot of names that look like a box of Alpha-Bits spilled on the back of a jersey, making it hard for kids in the school yard to have to yell out things like “Oh yeah? Well I’m Maxim Balmochnykh of the Anaheim Ducks!”
Conclusion: Hockey certainly fills the hours in a place where it snows for eight months a year, but when you live in Southern California, it just doesn’t have the same appeal. Maybe if they scratch a few of the bottom-feeders (would anybody miss the Columbus Blue Jackets?) and relocate some teams back to Canada, I’d get more excited.
Tennis
As you read last week, I had a reader write in to suggest that I follow the Wimbledon tournament this year. It turned out to be a great final in both the men’s and women’s bracket, so we’ll see if tennis is making a comeback.
Pros: I don’t know… short skirts? I will grant that it takes a lot of concentration, skill and preparation to compete as a world-class tennis player. The men’s game shows off the power of the sport as well, with serves in excess of 130 miles per hour and impossible winners. And because it’s an individual sport, it’s easier to follow a particular player throughout his or her career.
Cons: Tennis has gone downhill from the exciting sport it used to be even as recently as the 1990s. With improving technology and physical capability, the game has become about power and speed, instead of endurance and precision. Also, there are so many tournaments and championships that the sport seems to lack a true season and off-season. And as exciting as the conclusion is, it’s really tough to watch a four-hour match of two people hitting a ball back and forth over a net, especially when the fans have to sit quietly while it’s happening.
Conclusion: If they updated the scoring system and made some improvements to keep the technology from taking over completely, it could come back. But it’s not completely hopeless.
Motor Sports
You may recall that I already follow NASCAR, and that with something of a passion. But every time I mention this in conversation, someone usually brings up some of the other forms of motor sports out there, such as Motocross or Off-Road Racing.
Pros: Since I already like NASCAR, I’d like to learn more about cars and bikes, mostly because I feel pretty manly talking about gears and carburetors. Racers are a unique breed of athlete, and watching a person wrestle with a 2,000-pound hunk of metal at 200 miles per hour is every bit as thrilling as a perfectly-placed free kick.
Cons: My defense of NASCAR as a sport usually revolves around the fact that we follow sports because we follow the story lines behind them. With some of the lesser-known motor sports, it would be difficult to get to know the drivers and the stories behind them. Plus, it’s not very easy to find these sports on television, and it gets pretty expensive to follow a sport when you have to go to all the live events.
Conclusion: If the fringe motor sports were more prevalent, I’d be more inclined to find out more about them. Of course, all it would take is finding an interest in a new driver or something like that to motivate me to find out more.
Curling
Ha ha… Just kidding.
Golf
I’ve heard lots of arguments that it’s not a sport, but it’s not like it’s bowling or something. Plus, it’s not a bad way to spend the afternoon in Southern California, so we’ll consider it.
Pros: Ask any golfer, from the most experienced pros to the beginners: golf is hard. You can practice ‘til your hands bleed, but you still can’t guarantee what that little white ball is going to do when you whack it with a club. So when the pros somehow manipulate the laws of physics to put the ball where they want it, it’s a little bit exciting. Add the drama of a major tournament and it’s worth watching.
Cons: Because it’s so difficult, golf can be excruciating to watch, especially to those who can identify with the struggles of the game. It’s also a very quiet game, so it’s hard to get too amped up about it. And now that Tiger Woods is out until 2009, it’s going to be a long season.
Conclusion: When Tiger comes back, it will be a fun sport again. In the meantime, we’ll just have to continue wondering what happened to David Duval.
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As you can no doubt tell, I have my preferences among the above options. I’m leaning towards hockey, mostly because I used to follow it and miss the thrill of the game.
But I’d love to hear from you as well.
Write me a note at sports@valleycenter.com to convince me to follow one of these sports, or even to enlighten me on a sport I haven’t mentioned.
As always, I’ll be happy to share your suggestions with the community in next week’s issue.

Why Don't Americans Love Soccer?

2008-08-11T11:54:00.001-07:00

When Fernando Torres out-hustled German defender Philip Lahm and flicked the ball over goal keeper Jens Lehmann, it would have been easy to mistake my Valley Center apartment for a villa in the heart of Spain.
I admitted it last week; I’ve become a soccer fan, thanks in large part to the thrilling action in the European Championships. The tournament featured fantastic goals, stellar goal keeping, upsets galore and heroes in abundance.
But after the thrill of watching Spain win their first international championship in 44 years (and the writing thrill of getting to use “Spain” as a plural noun for the last time in a while), a collective yawn seemed to issue from the general public here in the U.S.
Now, don’t get me wrong; there are soccer fans in this country. This is probably more true here in San Diego County than it is in a lot of other places.
But given the magnitude of the championship game, the Hollywood-script-like unfolding of the tournament itself, and even the charisma of stars like Torres, I can’t imagine a better opportunity for casual fans to become hooked on the sport than Euro 2008.
All of this got me thinking about why professional soccer is so popular internationally, but has never really caught on here in the States.
I think it all begins with how different American culture is from that of the rest of the world.
It’s no secret that we in America enjoy, on average, a fairly affluent lifestyle. That plays a part, I’m sure, especially when it comes to the choice between buying hundreds of dollars worth of hockey gear versus some shin guards and socks, but more of what I’m talking about is the traditions and pastimes of our people.
The United States of America, as an independent nation, are only 228 years old, which is still infancy compared with so many other nations, especially those in Europe. History here is tri-cornered hats and muskets; history in Europe is knights and castles, or even gladiators and chariots.
Part of the independence process, as any teenager will tell you, is finding a set of unique interests. Nobody listens to the music their parents listened to, unless you really enjoy not having any friends.
In the case of a nation asserting its independence, a lot of the traditions of the old regime are cast aside as the citizens seek to create a unique culture. It doesn’t happen overnight, but after a while, people stop drinking tea with crumpets and start downing half-caf lattes with their luxury almond croissants. We have to look cool in front of all the other recently liberated countries, after all.
It carries over into the sports world, as we shift from following the games of our forebears to watching the competitions we see as fresh and challenging. Why watch a bunch of sissies in shorts kick a ball around and flail on the ground at the slightest hint of contact when we could have muscle-bound behemoths strap on a set of pads and wallop each other in the mouth over and over again? For the record, I’m referencing the NFL, not American Gladiators. Although there really isn’t much difference anymore, is there?
Americans are notorious around the globe for being, stereotypically, loud, obnoxious, blood-thirsty buffoons, especially when it comes to sports. I hate to admit it, but look at the image differences between our NASCAR with their IndyCar series; as much as he’d like to try, I don’t think that Dale Earnhardt Jr. has quite the same sophistication of Helio Castroneves.
But in reality, we’re just trying to be innovative. Baseball started out as an updated, more challenging version of cricket. Basketball took the intricacies of soccer and added the challenge of using your hands to score a goal. Hockey took goal-based sports to another level, adding ice, skates, sticks and little slabs of vulcanized rubber, as well as giving a nice little boost to the orthodontic field. The NFL… Well, the NFL just figured that rugby needed a little less chaos. Or, at least, some time between plays to figure out how best to maim the other team’s star player.
And so as the new, challenging sports become more and more popular, the younger generations gravitate towards athletes that personify the attributes they themselves wish they had. No longer are skills like endurance, patience, grace and quick feet in such high demand; today’s American athletes are praised for toughness, improvisation, and the ability to silence the critics at every opportunity.
In short, we like athletes who stick it to the competition, even if we catch ourselves and say that winning isn’t everything and there’s no “I” in team. I admit it; I enjoyed watching Eli Manning beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, even though the Giants had no business winning that game. The Patriots are old school, the old regime, and they got taken down by some hot shot quarterback with a chip on his shoulder. Who doesn’t love that?
One of the negative aspects of this sports independence is that the players seem to have a hard time generating national pride within their respective sports. Soccer players in Europe, and even in South America and other parts of the world, play for their club teams as a job. But when international competition comes around, the players seem to get a little more fire in their bellies. They realize that they’re not just playing for a coach, or for a logo; they’re playing for their country. Michael Ballack may play for Chelsea during the season, but European soccer fans know that he plays for Germany when the important trophies are on the line.
By contrast, it’s hard to find that level of national pride here. Look at the difficulties in selecting a U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team; it always seems like a series of minor injuries keep some of the big names from competing. A European soccer player would probably get attacked by a crazed hooligan if he missed the World Cup because of a strained calf, but if Tracy McGrady’s back is a little stiff, he’d rather not risk any further injury in the off-season.
Because of this national apathy, sports that have a more international appeal tend to go all but unnoticed here in the States. And because they don’t get as much coverage on ESPN (much less the endless debates on Sportscenter, Pardon The Interruption, Around The Horn, Mike & Mike In The Morning, or any of the other innumerable sports talk shows), fans don’t have the ready access to the ins and outs of the game.
For example, if a casual sports fan in America decides that he or she wants to follow the NFL more closely, there are a number of outlets available to learn the intricacies of the game. Want to know how to look off the safety to find the open receiver? Ron Jaworski breaks down offensive strategy every week on Sportscenter. Want to figure out the best blitz package to run against a west-coast offense? Tom Jackson will show you how it’s done on NFL Primetime. Want to find out how Michael Vick is doing in his prison football league? There’s a better-than-average chance that Trey Wingo will have that update on the next episode of NFL Live.
But if a casual fan wants to become a serious soccer fan, it’s a considerably more difficult proposition. I watched at least six international soccer games in the past two weeks, and I can barely explain what necessitates an offside call. I do know that soccer is actually called “football” in Europe, and that the field is actually called the “pitch,” but I don’t know what plays work best on a corner versus what plays work best on a free kick from outside the penalty area. I’m still not even sure why a play for the ball can be called a foul in one instance, then a seemingly identical play can be ignored by the referee. It seems kind of arbitrary.
That’s another thing that is likely keeping Americans from becoming die-hard soccer fans: the weird rules of the game.
For one thing, the clock doesn’t count down to zero from a pre-determined time; it starts at zero and the viewer is expected to know when it’s going to stop, if at all. Then, the clock doesn’t stop when the ball goes out of play, it just keeps going.
At the end of the half (which I managed to figure out is at the 45-minute mark), somebody (I’m still not sure who) decides how much “stoppage time” to add on. It’s usually between one and four minutes, although I don’t know if they’re keeping track or if they just ballpark it. When this stoppage time is over, the referee blows his whistle twice and the players walk off the field. Sometimes he blows the whistle with one minute gone, sometimes with 2:47, sometimes with 3:09. You never really know when it’s coming.
This happens again at the end of the game (the 90-minute mark), and possibly again at the end of both overtime periods (which are apparently 15 minutes each). The crowd doesn’t get to chant “five…four…three…two…one…” or anything like that. They just wait until the ref blows the whistle. It’s kind of anti-climatic.
It also brings up some controversy, as in the Euro 2008 quarterfinal game between Turkey and Croatia. The Croatians had scored late in the second extra period to take a one-goal lead, but Turkish forward Semih Senturk scored with just over a minute gone in stoppage time to tie the game. Croatia’s coach, Slaven Bilic, argued that the game should have been over, since the stoppage time was only to be one minute. According to the clock, one minute had expired before Senturk’s goal went in. But since the game ends on the referee’s whistle, and not on the expiration of time on the clock, the game went to penalty kicks and Turkey advanced to the semifinals.
Americans are generally not in favor of totalitarian rule, especially not in sports, so it’s easy to see how this could be a problem for the average fan. We like the rules to be objective and the outcome to be clear; we don’t like a guy in knee-high socks, shorts, and a shirt with a chest pocket to arbitrarily decide who wins and who goes home.
So given these things, will soccer ever have a true following here in the United States? I think it will.
At some point, the NFL will become the old standard and younger fans will have a hard time relating to it in the same way their parents did. It’s happening with baseball, and it most certainly can happen in football.
But until then, soccer will need to keep proving to American fans that it’s just as exciting and relevant as the “popular” sports that dominate the headlines.
And this year’s European Championship was a great start.
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In the meantime, I’m going to miss the excitement of Euro 2008, and I’m looking to keep this soccer buzz going.
If you’re a soccer fan, drop me a line or two about why you love the sport, and I’ll put it in next week’s issue of The Roadrunner.
Write me at sports@valleycenter.com and tell me what makes soccer fun to play, fun to watch, or even just fun to talk about, and why you’re a fan.
And while you’re at it, see if you can explain that whole offside thing to me again.
I’m still not sure exactly how that works.

I Loved Euro 2008

2008-08-11T11:53:00.002-07:00

It’s not often that sports are compared to a bloody invasion in the 1600s.
But when they are, you can bet that something big is happening. And when it comes to sports anywhere outside of the United States, you can also bet that it probably involves soccer.
That’s right, I’ve been watching the UEFA European Championship, and it’s been so amazing.
When it began on June 7 with 16 teams, it didn’t look like it was going to be all that great. England didn’t qualify, so we wouldn’t get to see Beckham. Sure, Portugal has the next big thing in Cristiano Ronaldo, but it’s hard to get too excited about a tournament with one quasi-famous face.
Then the tournament started, and despite my intentions of remaining a casual observer, I got hooked.
When Polish-born striker Lukas Podolski scored a beautiful left-footer for Germany against his native team, I wondered how inappropriate it would be to keep thinking about the last time that Germany ran through Poland on its way to world domination.
And when Turkey came from behind to beat Switzerland, I couldn’t believe that Arda Turan was able to find that much open space to score the game-winner. Then when the Dutch dismantled France with a three-goal victory, I silently wondered if I could get away with wearing all orange in any situation in life as well as the Netherlands do.
Things just kept getting better: the Turks came from behind (again!) and beat the Czech Republic; the Italians blanked the French, with a little help from an amazing save by goal keeper Gianluigi Buffon on a penalty kick; and the surprising Russians outran the favored Swedes to advance to the quarterfinals.
Needless to say, by this point in the tournament, I had my DVR set to record anything that even resembled the word “soccer” on the program guide. I may have ended up with a few programs about socks, Socrates, sorcery and futbol de liga Mexicana, but it was totally worth it.
Then, of course, came the quarterfinal round, where it shifted from group play into “win-or-go-home” mode. And if you know anything about how Europeans love soccer, you know how disappointing it is to the players to be eliminated. I was ready for the real deal, and I have not been disappointed so far.
First came the Germany—Portugal match, and despite the best flopping I’ve seen in a while, Cristiano Ronaldo could not get his Portuguese mates into the semis.
By far, though, the best match I’ve seen in any kind of soccer, was the Turkey—Croatia quarterfinal game. Even before the match began, it was drawing comparisons to the last time the Turks invaded what is now Croatia, and that was back in the 1600s.
The Turks had just turned in two come-from-behind wins, which is all but impossible to accomplish at this level of play. They had their starting goal keeper, Volkan Demirel, suspended for two matches after he picked up a red card in the team’s win over the Czech Republic. Backup goalie Rüştü Reçber, a 35-year-old keeper with 117 international games under his belt, was suddenly thrust into the limelight.
And he responded. All game long, the Croatians found ways to break through the Turkish defense, and Rüştü kept finding ways to turn them aside.
The game was scoreless through all 90 minutes of regulation, and the teams headed into the 30 minutes of extra time to decide a winner.
With just under a minute remaining in the extra time, Rüştü made a huge mistake; he left the net in pursuit of a wide pass, and before he could recover, the Croatians had scored. The game continued, but there was virtually no hope of Turkey pulling off yet another comeback, especially not with only two minutes of stoppage time added on.
But sure enough, with time running down, Rüştü took a free kick from his own end and sailed it down to his strikers at the edge of the Croatian penalty area. After an airborne battle for the ball and a crazy bounce, attacker Semih Senturk found the only open lane in the Croatian defense and somehow put the ball in the back of the net as time expired. No Hollywood script could have written anything so unlikely, yet here were the Turks, forcing the game into penalty kicks only a minute after they were doomed to elimination.
With momentum firmly on the Turkish side, the Croatians missed two of their first three kicks, and in fitting fashion, Rüştü made a diving save on the deciding kick to win the game for Turkey.
And after all that, Turkey’s reward is to face a seemingly-unbeatable German squad, while the other semifinal features a Russian team coming off a big win over the Netherlands (despite the retina-scorching orange uniforms) taking on Spain, a team with a reputation for finding a way to blow it in a big game.
I personally can’t wait, mostly because I just enjoy quality competition, and you can’t find any better than this.
There are, of course, a few things that enhance the experience, such as play-by-play announcers Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth, who have such endearing accents that they could be broadcasting a crocheting circle and I’d still be enthralled.
Quick side note: I still can’t decide if I like it or not, but the Brits refer to a team in the plural (as in, “Germany are really playing well today,”) even though we in America refer to a team as a singular entity (as in, “Valley Center is really playing well today.”) Ah, who am I kidding? Everything is so much cooler in a British accent.
I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
Hopefully things end up a little better than that invasion in the 1600s.
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Next week, we’ll discuss more soccer, specifically why it’s so popular in other countries. I have a few theories on that, and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned.
In the meantime, if you have any thoughts about soccer, the Euro 2008 tournament, or anything at all, don’t hesitate to drop me a line at sports@valleycenter.com anytime.

SoCal Sports Fans Are Weird

2008-08-11T11:53:00.001-07:00

I love living in Southern California.
It’s probably not much of a surprise, but compared to the east coast, SoCal is pretty much the ideal place to live in America.
With one exception: sports.
In my two-plus years in California, I’ve noticed a few things about how things work here. It rains like six days a year, driving up the grade is apparently the same thing as medieval-style torture, and sports… Well, sports are something of anomaly here.
Here’s what I mean.
Southern California is the ideal place to play sports of all kinds (well, maybe not ice hockey, but there are even ways around that). The weather is perfect almost all year, the prevalence of places to play is very high, and it’s so easy to get what you need for whatever sport tickles your fancy.
So in many ways, sports are doing very well here.
But there is still an interesting cultural phenomenon that seems to prevent sports from becoming as deep-rooted in the lives of Southern Californians as they are in other parts of the country.
Part of this is that cities have been established on the east coast of the U.S. for much longer than they have out here. Sports fans in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and even Chicago live in a culture of permanence; a culture of deep connection with the history of their city. This is more and more true the further east you go, and even that’s only scratching the surface of the typical sports fan in Europe. But that’s a topic for another time.
Consider that the Chicago Cubs were formed in 1869, or that the New York Yankees were formed in 1899. The Boston Red Sox were formed in 1901. The Toronto Maple Leafs were formed in 1917. The Chicago Bears were formed in 1920. The Boston Celtics began playing in 1946.
Each of these teams, and those around them, has a history that transcends modern fandom. Think of all that’s happened since 1869; fans of the original Cubs would have just returned from the Civil War. Most fans going to see the Yankees play the Red Sox would have ridden horses, and not just for nostalgia’s sake. The first game between the Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens could have featured news reels of the unrest in Europe before the outbreak of The Great War (or, as we now know it, World War I).
The deep roots of history surrounding these teams have been passed down through the generations, to the point where so many fans today have watched games with their grandparents, and heard them tell stories about the greats who paved the way for today’s stars.
Basically, this connection to a team is so interwoven with a person’s identity that the two become inseparable. This is a good thing in the sense that you rarely see an empty seat at Fenway Park or at Wrigley Field. This can, of course, be a bad thing when fans lose grip on reality. But that’s a topic for another time.
Here in Southern California, I have seen evidence that there are sports fans. Many a Charger flag has been flown from the roof of a passing car, and it’s certainly no strange sight to see a handful of Padres hats on the heads of passers-by.
But when I go to Petco Park, I see some other evidence that points to a more “ho-hum” attitude from those who seem to be so passionate about their beloved Padres. Fans trickle in little by little until the fourth or fifth inning (or even later). They spend most of the game chatting, eating, drinking, or berating fans of other teams while the game goes on behind them, unwatched. They only make noise when the scoreboard tells them to, and then only for as long as the scoreboard says.
My personal theory begins with the things we’ve discussed about history and all that, but it really comes down to the life we live here in California.
Honestly, I think we’re not more dedicated as sports fans because we have so many good things here.
The Padres fans wandering into the stadium in the fourth inning probably came from something else that’s equally as enjoyable. I mean, who’s going to show up to a baseball game at 7 p.m. when the sun sets on the beach at 8:45? Along with the great weather, we have so many things to do here, which means that it’s so easy and fun to do more than just sit and watch a game. That’s very different than life on the east coast.
Thankfully, from what I’ve seen thus far, this doesn’t hinder the local sports fans from getting out to the games. In fact, I’d say that the Jaguars fans are a whole lot more involved with the local teams than the Padres fans out there. But then again, most Padres fans aren’t the parents of the players.
Still, I miss the intricate level of involvement that sports has in the life of the average east coast fan.
And I’m seeing signs that there are more and more fans in SoCal who follow sports with more than just the occasional Sportscenter episode.
Hopefully that continues.
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If you have anything about sports that you want to share with the other sports fans in the area, drop me a line at sports@valleycenter.com. I always look forward to hearing what fans around here have to say about the sports they love.

Why Sports Are Important

2008-02-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

**I found this recap of my thoughts on sports after the fires that swept through Southern California in October of last year. Hopefully it still rings true today...**

Given what's happened in our town, in our county, and even throughout our state this week, I'm sure we've all heard, and many of us have said, the phrase, "It reminds us of what's really important."
For starters, I agree wholeheartedly. I have never been through anything remotely like the wildfires, the mandatory evacuations, and the smoky aftermath of this week. I grew up in Western New York, where the most we had to worry about was a lot of snow, and not to downplay the power of a lake-effect blizzard, but there's just something deeply, inherently frightening about fire. It moves quickly, it moves erratically, and it consumes everything in its path. And this week, it was on our doorsteps.
That's why it was such a shock to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday to the smell of smoke, the wind howling outside my front door, and a county sheriff careening up the driveway to alert us that we needed to evacuate immediately. I admit it, I almost lost it. I stood outside for a good 30 seconds, just looking around and trying to process the movie-like scene in front of me. Thank goodness for my neighbors, who had been through this before, and assured me that everything would be alright. They calmly explained that we weren't in any imminent danger, but that I still needed to get some things together to be ready to leave.
In the five minutes I had to put together what I considered to be my irreplaceable belongings, I had to make some hurried decisions. Do I take my guitar? Obviously, yes. Do I take my Christmas tree, which is still up from last year? Obviously, no, since I got it at Target for like $15. Do I take my movie collection, my suits (which belonged to my dad), or my book collection? Those were not so obvious.
In the end, I loaded up what I thought was important: a few changes of clothing, my bedding, some extra towels and blankets, my guitar, my Bible, a painting done for me by a dear friend, my portfolio of articles I wrote for the newspaper back in New York, and my athletic equipment.
At that point, I realized something that I have since thought about further, and continue to find interesting -- that is, the fact that I saw fit to include sports equipment in the company of things I considered important enough to save from the oncoming fire.
Now, I don't consider myself anything but an amateur when it comes to athletics; I certainly enjoy playing sports and look for any excuse to do so. But what I have is all replaceable, from my soccer cleats, to my old baseball glove, to the football I just bought a few weeks ago to replace the one I left back in New York. None of that really matters in the grand scheme of things, right?
Well, maybe it does. I'm sure we all heard the pros and cons of the Chargers playing at home against the Texans on Sunday -- some said it was just what the people here needed, others said it was insensitive to presume that a football game was important enough to go on, even in the face of debilitating tragedy.
Yet it was played, and played quite well from a San Diegan's perspective. The message sent by the Chargers and the NFL was that yes, San Diego County (and all of California) has been through a terrible nightmare of a week, but in the end, if we can all come together for something as "insignificant" as a football game, we can certainly come together to help our neighbors and friends get through the process of rebuilding their lives.
Of course, sporting events in and of themselves are not to be taken as life and death situations; one team wins, another loses, we all are entertained and then we move on. But if Simon and Garfunkel are correct that each of us is an island, then sports provide an easily-accessible bridge to connect even the most isolated person. There have been so many times in my relatively young life when I've struggled to carry on polite conversation with a stranger -- until we realize that we're both sports fans, and then it's not too long before other people begin to wonder if we've known each other since grade school.
And sports become so much more important for those of us who have experienced what it means to be a part of a team. It's common to hear about the special bond players develop with their teammates, especially in the formative years between elementary school and college. Once you've been a part of a true team, you know that it's infinitely more than that -- those other guys (and/or girls) are like another family.
Possibly the most important role of sports, however, is that they give us a sense of normalcy that is impossible to replace. It happened for Virginia Tech after the campus was decimated by an armed attacker, it happened in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in New York City six years ago, it happened in San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1989. Tragedy is a reality in our world, and though there is a time to pause and reflect, there is also a need to pick up what's left and keep going. Sports have played a pivotal role in the healing of our nation and our world, and I doubt that anything else could have done such a marvelous job.
So when the CIF canceled sports events and practices last week, I'm sure our student-athletes missed their teammates and the competition they love. And now that the danger has all but passed, I'm sure they are ready to get back to playing.
When they do, I hope you're there to see it.
Because no matter who you're rooting for, it's going to remind us all of what's really important.

A Super Bowl For The Ages

2008-02-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light
And somewhere men are laughing, as they pat each other's backs;
But there is no joy in Boston - mighty Brady has been sacked.

For so many fans, Super Bowl XLII was another re-creation of Ernest Thayer's famous poem about the mighty Casey. And much like the Mudville faithful, those fans sit today in silence, wondering what in the world just happened.
"Eli Manning?" I'm sure they're saying to themselves. "Tom Coughlin? David Bleeping Tyree?!?"
But in the midst of the confusion, forming itself out of thin air, the thought must be sinking in:
We were this close to perfection.
For nearly six months, football fans could hardly leaf through the sports section (let alone finish an episode of Sportscenter) without an almost-constant reminder of what perfection is. We'd all heard that perfection is "the highest degree of proficiency, skill, or excellence," because another sportswriter took the time to visit dictionary.com and make a simple comparison.
We all saw the pre-game montage of the various New England Patriots explaining what a perfect season entails. I'm sure all the Pats fans had all but handed the Lombardi trophy to their favorite celebrity playboy-slash-quarterback before Jordin Sparks had even lip-synched the National Anthem.
But here we stand, hurtling through space on a big blue marble where the truth of the matter is this:
The New England Patriots just lost the Super Bowl.
For the record, I couldn't be happier. I despise the Patriots and all they stand for. I'm sure I'm not alone in my loathing of Bill Beli-cheat's inhuman, robotic glare; or of Tom Brady's "I'm-better-looking-than-you-so-I-father-children-with-supermodels-just-because-I-can" air of self-importance; or of Wes Welker's creepy 1980's mustache. It looked like he had an anemic caterpillar glued to his upper lip, for crying out loud.
But here's what makes this game, this epic failure, so timeless:
The Patriots blew it.
They straight up blew their shot to add their name to the list of immortal teams in sports. They had the chance to do the impossible, or at least the very improbable, and they ended up as just another footnote in history.
From now until the end of the world, when people remember the 2007 New England Patriots, they will not be discussing perfection. They will not be waxing poetic about Tom Brady's pocket presence, nor of Mike Vrabel's pass-rushing prowess, nor of Matt Light's textbook blocking technique.
One word will forever haunt the New England Patriots of 2007:
Cheaters.
We don't need to re-hash the details of the Tape-Pot Dome Scandal (I'm sick of the overuse of Spygate, so until we come up with a better name for the videotaping scandal, I'll use whatever political references I remember from ninth-grade history class. Feel free to send in your suggestions anytime.) There's a new story going around about how the Patriots even taped a practice that the Rams went through the day before Super Bowl XXVIL... uh... QRS... TU... Whatever 36 is in Roman numerals.
Anyway, whatever evidence comes out from this point on, it has already been established that the Patriots cheated. They broke the rules of the game to gain a competitive advantage over their opponents. They decided that it's better to have a tainted win than an honest loss, and that will never, ever be removed from their legacy.
And that, in the end, is why are so many of us, as in the Thayer poem, laughing and listening to the band play.
Because there's nothing we like better than seeing some slimy shyster get his comeuppance. Think back to the plot of every action movie you've ever seen. Some nasty little egomaniacal headcase thinks that his way is the only way, and he (or she) is so bent on attaining some goal that nothing is off-limits.
And how do they all end? With the hero, a hard-working, imperfect-but-still-trying-to-do-the-right-thing guy (or gal) finding some way to bring down the bad guy.
And you know what? We all keep going to see this movie. And we all keep hoping that the good guy will find a way to beat the bad guy, against all odds. And when he does, we all feel good inside. Again.
That is why, all across this favored land, the sun is shining just a little brighter today. That is why I got up this morning with a little bit of a spring in my step. That is why those poor souls in Boston won't find a sympathetic ear from anyone but their compatriots.
The Mighty Patriots -- the once-undefeated, record-setting, nearly-perfect, running-up-the-score-in-the-fourth-quarter, posing-on-the-cover-of-GQ, counting-their-chickens-before-they-hatched Patriots -- have struck out.

My Wish List For Sports In 2008

2008-02-16T15:30:00.001-08:00

2007 was a great year. There were so many heartwarming moments of triumph, so many gut-wrenching moments of defeat, and so many laugh-out-loud moments of craziness in the world of sports that won't soon be forgotten.
But now it's 2008, and like so many "Rocktober" t-shirts, 2007 has been tossed on the proverbial burn pile in favor of the anticipation of another unforgettable year in sports.
What will 2008 bring? I can't claim to know what will happen, but I can offer a brief list of what I would like to see happen in sports in the upcoming year.
1. A use of video replay in all major sports.
This should be an easy one to get, as it seems to be on the verge of happening anyway, but there is a surprising backlash against the process.
I can understand why, though; the NFL has bogged down the replay process to a Bledsoe-ian running speed.
Once the questionable play happens, the team's video guys look at it, then they tell the coach to throw the flag, then the referee discusses it with the coach for a while, then the ref looks at the play, then the ref looks at the play again, then the ref steps back from the video booth to talk about the play with the video officials, then the ref looks at the play again, then the ref scoots back out onto the field to discuss it with the coaches for a while, then the ref announces his decision, then the game is finally allowed to resume. Whew. And all in slightly less time than the typical cricket match.
This may be the first and only time you'll hear me say this, but here's an area where I agree with the process used in college football. The NCAA simply puts an official (actually, three officials) in a video replay booth up in the press box area of the stadium, and allows them to make a call without having to go through the coach's challenge process. If a questionable call is made, the replay officials look at the video to see if a change is needed. If it is, they alert the on-field referee of the correct call; if not, the game simply continues uninterrupted. The coaches do have the ability to challenge a play if the replay officials do not initiate the process, but the on-field referee does not have to run over to a little hood-covered booth or anything; the replay officials in the press box still make the call.
It's simple, it's effective, and it doesn't bog the game down. Before we get to 2009, I'd like to see this kind of replay officiating implemented in the NFL, MLB, the NHL (which already has some kind of replay, but it could use some tinkering) and the NBA (also featuring an existing system that is a little short of perfect).
2. More ejections.
And not just in baseball, where it's extremely amusing to watch a manager get tossed, then continue his tirade until he is all but forceably removed from the field.
What I'm getting at is the increasing regularity with which we see highly- (overly-?) paid athletes ignore the rules of the game, only to be confronted with a minor penalty at best.
In the area of properly punishing offenders, the NHL is the current front-runner of the major sports. Already this season we've seen players who have purposely tried to injure an opponent immediately removed from the game, and from a sizeable portion of his team's following games. Take last March's Chris Simon incident, in which the New York Islanders' forward bashed in the face of Ryan Hollweg of the New York Rangers. Simon received a match penalty and was kicked out of the game, then was handed a then-record 25-game suspension that has stretched into this season. Jesse Boulerice of the always-thuggish Philadelphia Flyers was also suspended for 25 games after cross-checking Vancouver's Ryan Kesler in the face in October.
The swift, drastic action taken by the NHL in this regard is appropriate because of the nature of hockey as a sport -- any time you have large men with sticks traveling at high rates of speed across a sheet of ice, somebody's going to get hurt -- but it's also noteworthy because we don't see players ejected from other sports very often, MLB notwithstanding.
In the NFL, Warren Sapp of the Oakland Raiders was ejected from the Dec. 23 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars after receiving three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in one play, which has to be some kind of record. Before that, it's hard to recall the last ejection in the NFL, let alone find it online (thanks for nothing, Google). I think it might be the 1999 game in which Cleveland Browns lineman Orlando Brown was inadvertantly hit in the eye with a penalty flag (which is pretty funny, actually) and went crazy, shoving referee Jeff Triplette before getting ejected and eventually suspended from the league.
But these two incidents are isolated against the seemingly ever-present backdrop of inappropriate in-game behavior that goes all but unnoticed. I have actually heard (and would love to see a YouTube clip of) an NFL referee picking up a flag, noting that it was "just some pushing and shoving." There are a few YouTube clips of referees actually calling penalties for, and this is a direct quote, "giving him the business." I hope this does not become an officially recognized way to call penalties.
Whatever it's called, there are far too many extra-curricular activities happening in any given NFL game, whether they be celebratory or confrontational in nature. If Terrell Owens should be fined for the simple, relatively benign act of dumping popcorn on his face after a touchdown, why should players (and coaches!) be able to verbally abuse officials game in and game out without any sort of punishment?
In 2006, Tyler Brayton of the Raiders (there seems to be a pattern here, yes?) was penalized and eventually fined for kneeing Jerramy Stevens of the Seattle Seahawks in the groin on Monday Night Football. Stevens was also fined, but neither player was ejected during the actual game.
My point here is that the old adage of "hit 'em where it hurts" comes into play, and that "where it hurts" is not where it used to be. For the average person, a fine of $15,000 would be pretty devastating; or at least, it would make him or her think twice about repeating the action for which the fine was enforced. But for an NFL player, even those in the lower echelon of talent like Brayton and Stevens, $15,000 is not that big of a deal. The average NFL salary is again over $1 million per season, which means that the average game check in the NFL is $62,500 (one million divided by 16, the number of games each team plays per season). In reality, $15,000 is what the average player gets paid for less than a quarter of play, which really doesn't dent the old bank account very much by the end of the year.
So hitting them where it hurts has to be where it really will hurt, and that's in the time they're allowed on the field. If you kick a player out of the game for acting like a jerk, chances are other players in the league will see that acting like a jerk will get you kicked out of the game. And most players, given the high levels of competitiveness needed to be a professional athlete, would rather cut off an appendage (see: Ronnie Lott) than miss any playing time.
3. Another all-time classic sports movie.
There have been a few in the not-too-distant past -- Remember The Titans, for example -- but gone are the days of Willie Mays Hayes prowling centerfield for the Cleveland Indians (with Bob Uecker in tow!) and Johnny Moxon coming off the bench to lead the West Cannan Coyotes to the inevitable championship triumph (yes, I just referenced Varsity Blues in conjunction with classic sports movies).
There have been some close calls, like 2006's Invincible, the true story of a Philadelphia bartender who earns a spot on the Eagles' roster in the mid-70's. We Are Marshall was also a worthwhile cinematic experience, but both films came up a little short. If I had to put a finger on it, I'd say they were a little bit too real, actually. If you haven't seen the movies -- SPOILER ALERT -- skip down to the next paragraph. At the end of Invincible, we find out that Vince Papale didn't even win the Super Bowl with the Eagles, and at the end of We Are Marshall, we find out that the team only wins one game that season. The Miami Dolphins won only one game this year -- granted, they didn't have a tragic plane crash kill all but three players, but the season was enough of a trainwreck as it was -- and we'll not likely see a movie about them in the near future.
All I'm looking for is a good, old-fashioned, good-guys-win, bad-guys-lose, overcoming-insurmountable-obstacles, triumph-in-the-face-of-adversity, don't-mess-with-me-because-I-like-writing-sentences-with-hyphens-instead-of-spaces kind of sports movie.
And it had better include some kind of 80's music training montage, or I'll walk right out of the theater.
Well there you have it, the top three things I'd like to see happen in sports this year.
How about you? What would you like to see from the sports world in 2008? A BCS playoff system, perhaps? More steroid testing? Some kind of inter-sports all-star competitions in the vein of the Battle Of The Network Stars?
I would love to hear your list, and I'd love to share it with our faithful readers, so send me your thoughts.
Drop me an e-mail at sports@valleycenter.com, or send me some snail-mail to PO Box 1529, Valley Center CA 92082, and I'll put it in next week's edition. Include your name and phone number, just in case it's a really good idea and I want to hear more about it.
In the meantime, start thinking about some things you'd like to see the sports world do away with in 2008, so we can discuss that next week.

Another Championship For The Jags

2008-02-16T15:28:00.000-08:00

The Valley Center Jaguars are the CIF champions, and there's only one reason why:
They did it the right way.
Last week in this space we discussed what it means to be a champion, and concluded that a key ingredient is performing with excellence under the greatest pressure.
But we may have missed out on something even more important; something that goes beyond just football, or even sports in general -- we failed to see that it's not just what you do, but how you do it.
For the greatest of champions to be truly loved by the fans, character is indescribably important. Sincerety and graciousness in winning or losing are to be very highly regarded, and when these qualities are absent, it takes away from the accomplishments on the field instead of adding to them.
Take, for example, the New England Patriots in the NFL. Their head coach is widely considered to be the premier mind in football, their quarterback is on a record-obliterating pace, their once-controversial wide receiver is quietly (for once!) having the season of his life, and they have a defense that could probably hold a rampaging army of killer cyborgs to at least a field goal.
But people hate them. Hate them. Well, people outside the New England area, anyway. Why is that? Why aren't the Patriots commonly loved and admired like the Dallas Cowboys of the 1970s, or the 49ers of the 1980s? Why do most fans cringe every time we have to see another Brady-to-Moss heave that ends up as a touchdown?
It's because of the way they're winning. They seem to have convinced themselves that they are the victimes of the early-season "Cameragate" scandal, and they somehow manage to take even the smallest slights as an affront to their collective, personal well-being. Basically, they think everybody's out to get them, and that somehow they don't deserve it.
For the record, I think they cheated, they admitted they cheated, and they were punished for cheating. It pretty much seems like the situation has been resolved, right? But it has somehow gotten worse as the season goes on.
The Patriots have won 16 straight games now, but they play in probably the least competitive division in football (the AFC East, home of the 0-16 Miami Dolphins). Their division is also playing the NFC East this season, presenting some challenges (the Dallas Cowboys), but also serving up another cupcake opponent (the Washington Redskins, who lost by a score of 642-0, if I remember correctly).
The Pats aren't just content to win, they want to rub their opponents' faces in it, and they want to pad their own stats in the meantime.
Which goes against the great Patriots teams of the past seven years, who were known for their subtle gameplans, their ability to use just enough of the playbook to win, and who seemed genuinely happy to be successful. I wonder, if we were to show Tom Brady the film of how he celebrated after beating the Rams after the 2001 season, if he even recognizes himself. He's gone from a happy kid playing a game to a morally-questionable sourpuss who chews out his teammates for missing a route when the team is holding a 30-point lead in the fourth quarter.
And that brings us back to the Valley Center Jaguars, because they are the polar opposite of the New England Patriots.
Head coach Rob Gilster may not have a ripped-up hoodie or every sportscaster in the nation calling him a genius, but when he took over the playcalling duties at the beginning of the season, he knew what he was doing. Time and time again, when the Jaguars needed a big play in a tight spot, coach Gilster found a way to get the ball into the hands of his playmakers and the team responded.
And so did the rest of the coaching staff, from defensive coordinator Randy Cowell all the way through the kids charting the offensive plays on the sidelines. Sure, the players missed assignments, or lined up out of position, and the coaches called them on it. But they didn't stop coaching, and once again, the team responded.
The moment that most indicates the heart of this Jaguars team came after the win at USD, after the celebration, after the crowd started filing out to head home. As the players headed up the ramp to get on the bus, senior linebacker/tight end Burt Lund, who won the sportsmanship award at the game, ran up to quarterback Tyler Bernard and put his arm around his shoulders.
"Hey Tyler, thanks for getting us here," Lund said. "And sorry I dropped that fourth down catch."
Bernard looked up and laughed. "Shut up," he fired back with a grin.
That little exchange showed that the team was glad to be there, even though it's becoming something of a habit to be in the CIF final. But it also showed that these players, though grateful for success, weren't satisfied with anything less than their best effort.
And in the end, it showed that no matter what, they were in it together -- not for the hype, not for the prestige, not for the glory -- but for each other.
These Jaguars are truly champions.

What It Means To Be A Champion

2008-02-16T15:26:00.001-08:00

What does it mean to be a champion?
I've been thinking about that lately, especially with the excitement surrounding the Valley Center Jaguars and their quest for a third CIF title in four years.
For the record, since I'm the hometown sports writer, I don't have a problem admitting that I root for the Jags. We in the media are supposed to "be objective" and "not pick sides" and all of that, but when you're on the sidelines with the team every week, it's hard not to get caught up in the emotion of the game. I was really thrilled to see them beat La Jolla after the heartbreaker they had down there earlier this season, and I can't wait for the championship game.
But even if (excuse me... when) the Jaguars take the title, what will make them champions? Will it simply be that they were the best team in Division IV this year? In this specific case, yes... that's pretty much it.
Still though, there must be something more to being a true champion. As Freddie Mercury so poetically postulated, a champion seems to be someone who, A) keeps on fighting to the end, and B) has no time for losing. Evidently by following this simple formula, Queen was able to achieve some sort of world championship. Which seems pretty impressive.
But in the discussion of sports heroes and their legendary battles, Lance Armstrong immediately comes to mind. When you face something as scary and oppressive as cancer, then not only live to tell the tale but go on to dominate a sport at its highest level of competition, there's something special there. And no, I'm not referring to any sort of performance enhancements, but the mere fact that I have to make mention of such a thing here means that there are more issues to examine.
So another name that comes up is Muhammed Ali, perhaps the greatest boxer of all time. He broke down racial, social, religious, and even comfort barriers (Howard Cosell sure didn't look at ease in most of those interviews) and somehow still had time to win title bout after title bout. He certainly set an example, although if one really wanted to teach young athletes how to win graciously and humbly, without calling attention to oneself, there may be other examples better served for such lessons.
Hank Aaron certainly enters the discussion, having established the all-time home run record that stood for nearly 40 years and playing the game of baseball like a true gentleman no matter the circumstances.
And what about Jim Brown, who is widely considered the greatest football player ever, despite an early retirement that left fans wondering what limitless heights he could have achieved?
As more and more examples come up, like Jim Thorpe, Willie Mays, Wilt Chamberlain, Bobby Orr, Reggie Jackson, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Jerry Rice, one common bond links the greats and separates them from the mediocre -- true champions are at their best in the biggest moments.
Think about Ali beating Joe Frazier, or Jordan's shot over Craig Ehlo in the finals, or even Jesse Owens sticking it to the Nazis in the 1936 Olympics. When the stakes are the highest, the great ones shine the brightest.
So as the Jaguars get ready to take on Mission Bay on Saturday, amidst all the game film, strategy and endless repetition of the game plan, I know the coaches will all be instilling one final bit of encouragement:
Champions are made in games like this.
Good luck, Jags!

Cheating In Sports

2008-02-16T15:24:00.000-08:00

By now I'm sure we've all heard about Bill Belichick and the admitted cheating done by the Patriots in filming the Jets' defensive coaches during their week one matchup.
Of course, those of you who are Chargers fans saw firsthand what the Patriots are capable of with or without the aid of extra film. I'll give you a moment to collect yourselves; I know it's a painful memory.
Welcome back.
I bring this all up because it occurs to me that we need to discuss the prevalence of cheating in sports, both professional and amateur, and what, if anything, is being done about it.
First, we need to ask if cheating is something that happens a lot, rarely, or not at all. I don't think I'm alone in assuming that there has to be some kind of illegitimate advantage being sought throughout professional sports, but how much does it really happen?
The place where it seems to happen the most is in NASCAR, where the old motto of "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'" still has some hold on the way things are done. Consider that both Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, who are currently tied for the points lead after the first race in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, had their crew chiefs suspended for a month this season after illegal modifications were found on their cars.
Some kind of shady business is almost always going on, whether it's as sly as Kevin Harvick's team rigging up his fuel tank before qualifying, or as blatant as Sterling Marlin climbing out of his car under a red flag to pull a fender away from his front tire. Cheating in NASCAR goes by a lot of different names, but that just means that it's a pretty big (and accepted) part of the sport at this point.
It's obviously a lot harder to tell if and when cheating is happening in other sports, mostly because there isn't any kind of post-game inspection of athletes, equipment and film. Although, given the current NFL scandal, perhaps something like that isn't too far off.
But I'd say it still happens, like when we saw some kind of "substance" on Kenny Rogers' pitching hand during last year's World Series, or when Sammy Sosa's "practice" bat littered Wrigley Field with cork after it split open, or when John LeClair gets sent back to the bench to change hockey sticks because the curve on his blade doesn't meet specifications (again).
These little nuances of the game make most fans wonder, "If they're catching these guys, how many others are getting away with it?"
Obviously we can't answer that accurately, but if I'm going with my gut feeling, I'd have to say there's probably a whole lot more going on than we as fans realize. I can't imagine every athlete who gets paid to excel in such a highly competitive arena will also have the moral fortitude to turn down an advantage that may or may not be noticed.
So if we assume that cheating is happening, and that it's happening in more instances than what is being caught, what can we assume is being done to protect the integrity of these games?
I suppose we should first ask what a game's integrity entails, because some could argue that these aspects help shape the sports we know and love, and are therefore just as important as any other tradition. If push came to shove, I suppose I'd probably have to agree with this thought, mostly because the vast majority of illegitimate competitive advantages are minimal at best, and unless your name is Gaylord Perry, they usually come back to haunt the players involved.
But we must always consider the effect these things have on amateur and youth sports.
It goes without saying that the message we all want to send young players is that cheating is bad. But we also have to send a message about why cheating is bad, and specifically why cheating is still bad even if you don't get caught.
I don't think we want to get bogged down by too much social commentary, so I'll just say that it's still very important -- perhaps even more so these days -- to instill a sense of integrity and pride in our youngsters. The idea that a job well done isn't as important as a job correctly (and properly) done carries over into so much of life, and since sports do so much in teaching kids life lessons, it seems important to maintain this attitude in friendly athletic competition.
In the end, the problem with filming your opponents' coaches, or using a corked bat, or qualifying on a nearly-empty tank of fuel isn't that it's morally reprehensible, or that it's going to turn kids into lousy stinking cheaters.
The problem is that it makes it that much harder for caring, hard-working coaches and parents to remind young athletes that competition isn't just about beating the other guys.
It should be about making yourself better in more ways than just the statistics.

Football = Great

2008-02-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

I love football.
I know, I know, we've discussed the NFL at length over the past few weeks. And I'm unbelievably excited about the amazing action we saw this weekend.
But the best game I saw wasn't on national television, nor will it be discussed at length on ESPN anytime soon.
To me, the best game of the week happened in La Jolla when our own Valley Center Jaguars took on the Vikings on Friday night.
I'm sure you've seen that we (yes, I'm allowed to root for the Jags -- I'm the hometown sports writer) just missed completing a great comeback in the fourth quarter and ended up losing by a field goal. But the outcome isn't what made the game such a treat to watch.
I love seeing really good competition, and this game had a lot. At first, the Jags looked -- well, I have to be honest -- pretty much out of it. They were slow getting off the ball on the snap, they looked confused in their assignments, and seemed to be easily disheartened, especially when the first pass of the game got picked off.
But I also got to see first-hand one of the aspects of sports that is invaluable in our society -- heart. The coaches talked to the players at halftime, and the players responded with a new attitude that translated into better play in the second half.
The little things started to happen the way they should, like a great block by a receiver to allow the running back to pick up a few more yards. The sideline started to pick up the enthusiasm levels, and the Valley Center crowd followed suit. Even the coaches themselves were getting more and more excited, like when offensive line coach Kelly Stewart screamed, "We're going for it! We're going for it!" on a key fourth-down conversion attempt (that the Jags converted, by the way).
Sure, the game came down to a few inches, and I know Tyler Bernard feels like he let one slip away. But he especially elevated his level of play in the second half, and on the sideline, I could sense how his calm confidence affected his offensive teammates. During the Jaguars' final drive, everybody but Bernard was jumping and yelling, but the junior quarterback huddled the team up and called the next play to keep the clock from running down any further.
This Jaguars team is going to win a lot of games, and they're going to put up some impressive numbers along the way.
But what I'm most excited about is getting to see how this team comes together when it matters, how they learn to lean on each other when all the chips are down, and how they bounce back from a tough loss after giving all they had.
And it may not be a Sportscenter highlight reel, but it's going to be something worth watching.

Here We Go: The 2007 NFL Season Kicks Off

2008-02-16T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's the final hours before the start of the 2007 regular season of the National Football League, and I'm having a hard time even thinking about anything else.
Thursday night's matchup between the Saints and the Colts is probably one of the best ways to start the season -- from a business standpoint, anyway. We all know what Peyton Manning can do with a football in 3.5 unhurried seconds, and all the weapons on the Saints offense are ready to prove that they weren't just a one-hit wonder last season. Combine those two tidbits with the fact that neither team has much to speak of on the defensive side of the ball, and we may have a scoring outburst that can rival an out-of-control Madden game between those two college guys everybody knows who play Madden so much they haven't been to class in about a year and a half.
Needless to say, I'm pretty pumped up. But that's just the beginning of several outstanding matchups over the weekend.
Obviously we should all be aware that the Chargers are hosting the NFC champion Chicago Bears to open the season, and it promises to be a great game. LaDainian Tomlinson is always fun to watch, but in light of his recent Nike commercial (which shows him absolutely shredding the Chicago defense on his way to another touchdown), I'm sure there's no need for any extra motivation on either side of the ball.
The thing I'm most curious to see, though, is whether or not Rex Grossman has learned anything from last season. I know, the Bears won 13 games and made it to the Super Bowl with Rexy taking the snaps. But if you're at all like me (and since you've read this far, there must be something there), then you must have been pleading for him to just stop giving the ball away. I mean, he had to have known that he had one of the league's best defensive units of all time, right? Why was it so hard for him to understand the concept of keeping his mistakes to a minimum so as to allow his team's strength to control the tide of the game?
Week one will show us what, if anything, the Chicago coaches have drilled into Grossman's head. Because if he wants to make it out of San Diego with anything more than just his uniform and a series of nasty grass stains, he's going to have to play a whole lot better than he did for the majority of last season.
Another game to watch will be the Atlanta/Minnesota game, if only to see the entire city of Atlanta collectively wonder why Michael Vick was their starting quarterback for the past six years. I know I'm not alone in this, but I just get the feeling that the Falcons are going to be a better team without the erratic Vick. He has such amazing athleticism, yes, but for that matter, so does Carl Lewis, and I don't know if I'd want him as my quarterback. Vick has been fun to watch, but when your team is set up to run the ball, hit short, accurate passes and play tough defense, a flashy quarterback who'd rather scramble 18 yards behind the line of scrimmage and heave up a jump ball into coverage is the last thing you want. Granted, Joey Harrington isn't exactly going to be the savior of the franchise (take it from a Dolphins fan). But in the end, he's going to be just what the Falcons need.
I'll just touch on one more matchup I'm looking forward to seeing, and that's the Baltimore/Cincinatti contest on Monday night. Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer is now two seasons removed from a torn knee ligament, and the Cincy offense looks ready to explode again.
But standing in the way is an always-tough Ravens defense that has been the hallmark of the team ever since the escape -- er, move -- from Cleveland. On a quick side note, I just have to point something out -- Baltimore safety Ed Reed is probably the pro football player I'd least like to meet in a dark alley. I know there are bigger, stronger guys out there, but something about Reed just looks... unstable. Hopefully he doesn't decapitate any wide recievers this season, anyway. If nothing else, though, it enhances the aura around the Ravens that you just don't want to mess with that defense.
We will have to keep an eye on Chad Johnson, though. If Ocho Cinco finds his way into the end zone, he promises to deliver a celebration that will be front-page worthy. He's even said that he's set aside money for all the fines he expects to rack up with his antics, so be prepared.
Whichever team you follow, week one has plenty of solid matchups that shouldn't disappoint. So grab the chips and salsa, kick that recliner back into "I'm not moving until Tuesday morning" mode and settle in for a great week.
-- -- --
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the first week of the season, even if it's after the fact.
So send me an email to sports@valleycenter.com or comment on the blog page by going to www.valleycenter.com and clicking on the "RR Blogs" link.
Just try not to send anything on Sunday, or even Monday evening.
I think I've got other plans.

Enjoying High School Sports

2008-02-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

Ah, high school -- the good old days.
For some of us, it was longer ago than it was for others, but nonetheless, the memories are just as sweet.
Well, maybe not all the memories. I'm usually the first one to point out that the teen years are an awkward phase of learning not only about yourself, but about interacting with others.
That's why I love high school sports so much.
It wasn't too many years ago that I was a high school baseball player, trying my best not to embarrass myself and my teammates while still thinking about how to hit a curveball. For the sake of time, I'll just say that neither endeavor went exceptionally well, and we'll move on.
But the experience wasn't so bad, now that I look back on it. Being a shy person by nature, I tended to stick to my small group of friends at school, and never really got to hang out with the "cool" kids. I think this led me to read more books, which in turn helped shape me into a coherent writer, and allowing me to land a pretty sweet job. More on that in a second, though.
While on the baseball team, I found that it was a whole lot easier to put my worries about my little eccentricities aside and focus on just having fun and playing a great game. My teammates weren't always the most supportive, but we were still a team, and we had a lot of fun times. For example, the time when we played a baseball game in a driving snowstorm... in April. Yes, that's what life is like in Western New York.
The biggest thing I learned from sports while I was growing up is that if you want to succeed at anything, you can't just show up and expect success to be handed to you.
I've always had a natural ability to play sports, and got better and better because my older brothers insisted we play for two or three hours longer than I had the patience for. But as I moved up through the various levels of competition, I found out quickly that natural ability would only get me so far; I'd have to practice more in order to play better.
Obviously, I'm not a professional athlete, so I can't say that it worked out the way I had hoped at the time. But in retrospect, the idea of getting out what you put in was so important because it has so much to do with what we call "real life."
A big part of why I love my job is that I get to see kids learning lessons like these on a regular basis. Plus, I get to watch some pretty competitive sporting events.
I'm looking forward to the fall sports season at Valley Center High School; I enjoyed watching the teams last year and I know the teams are ready to get the action started.
But I'll also look forward to watching the student athletes overcome adversity, like when Jeremy Cline got absolutely blown up by a linebacker on the football field and had to miss some games with a concussion, but came back to bat leadoff and provide a spark on the mound for the baseball team in the spring.
I also like seeing when the teams come together to play a tough game against a superior opponent, like when the varsity girls softball team was on the wrong end of a perfect game against Mission Hills, but came right back out the next game and played just as hard as they had all season.
And then there's the emotion of the players, like when Ray Crosslin broke down in tears after the football team lost to Santana in the first round of last year's playoffs. Crosslin was primarily a special teams player, but whether he was on the sidelines cheering on his teammates or sprinting down the field to take on the opponent's kick returner, his intensity never wavered.
I know I'll see all of this and more this season, and I hope you get a chance to be there as well.
It's going to be memorable.
-- -- --
If you have a favorite memory from last year's high school (or any other local) sports, I'd love to hear about it and share it with the community.
Send it my way by e-mail at sports@valleycenter.com or by going to our home page at www.valleycenter.com and clicking on the "RR Blogs" link to leave a comment. You're also more than welcome to send in a letter or drop off a note at our office on Valley Center Road as well.
Either way, we'll see you at the game.

Calm In Valley Center: 8:30 p.m.

2007-10-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

Tuesday evening here in Valley Center came on with a welcome calm, as the winds that were causing so much trouble for firefighters were steadily reduced to nothing. Around 4 p.m., there was something of a light breeze, and by 5 p.m., there was a dead calm for nearly two hours. Other than the smoke to the north, it looked like a regular autumn day here in Southern California.
Since then, the only reports we've heard have been good; the flames that had been advancing towards North Lake Wohlford Road were reportedly held up by the firefighters. As darkness fell, a glance in the direction of the middle school showed no signs of that ominous orange glow we saw last night and this morning, although it's still hard to tell what exactly is happening over those hills.
It also seems like a lot of people stayed put, despite the mandatory evacuations, as one by one house lights on the surrounding hills blinked on. Every few minutes, a car could be heard nearby on Vesper, or more distantly on Valley Center Road, heading east in both cases. There was a helicopter over to the southeast at one point, and some sirens heading away from the North Lake Wohlford area back towards Cole Grade, but the overall feeling is one of calm.
To be on the safe side, I will be heading to Escondido for the night, as will my neighbors. We all feel quite confident that the danger is minimal to none, but at this point, there's no need to take any chances.
We've heard that the evacuation orders won't be lifted until sometime Wednesday afternoon, but there hasn't been any official word at this point, so the best thing to do is keep checking in with local news broadcasts.
Of course, anything can happen at this point, but given what we expected and what we've actually seen here over the course of the last two days, Valley Center has been extremely fortunate to have escaped with very little damage. The evacuations were quick and effective, and even though information has been scarce and sometimes unclear, it looks as though things here are much better than what people have heard in other areas.
So now we wait to hear more good news, and we think of our surrounding communities and the ongoing battles there. Count your blessings, Valley Center, and let's do what we can to help others around us as we try to get through this as best we can.

Dan Kidder
Sports/Valley Life Editor
Valley Roadrunner

Still In Valley Center: 3:00 p.m.

2007-10-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Things in Valley Center continue to be calm, at least here on Vesper Road, but with the help of some neighbors we've been able to piece together what we consider pretty reliable information about the surrounding parts of town.
Around 10 a.m., Robert Palle reported that in a short drive around Vesper, Mac Tan and Fruitvale, he saw firefighting crews in action, but hadn't seen any flames in the area.
As of 12:30 p.m., a resident just to the south of Valley Center High School reported seeing the haze of smoke we all see to the north, but hadn't seen any flames of any kind. The east side of Cole Grade Road appeared to be fine; no flames there, but still plenty of smoke. At that point, we had heard again that the grade coming into Valley Center was closed, but outgoing traffic was getting through just fine.
According to San Diego news broadcasts around this time, the La Jolla fire (now called the Poomacho Fire) had worked its way towards Palomar Mountain, and may be converging with the Witch Creek Fire from Ramona, somewhere east of Valley Center. The report also said that the Valley Center evacuations would most likely be in effect for at least 24 hours.
Also around this time, we heard that residents in the Saddle Creek area were without power.
At 1 p.m., Kevin Bennett reported from the area between Cool Valley Road and Yellow Brick Road that the smoke was heavy, with some patches of sky visible, but no flames could be seen. He also mentioned that conversations with friends and relatives outside the area weren't sure how much danger was imminently present in the various parts of the community. He mentioned that some of his neighbors were still in their homes at that point.
"There's still some people here and there," he said. "But it doesn't look as threatening as the reports say."
Also around 1 p.m., radio reports indicated that there hadn't been any flames sighted in the Old Castle/Cold Creek area.
Roland Horakh, reporting from near Valley Center Middle School, mentioned a radio broadcast in which Bill Horn indicated that the La Jolla fire was mostly to the north of the 76, but that a portion of the Witch Creek fire had worked its way up the hills to the south of North Lake Wohlford Drive. At that point, firefighters had been able to keep the fire to the east of Lake Wohlford, so Horakh reported seeing lots of smoke, but nothing else.
At 1:30, a radio report indicated that the evacuation center at Valley Center High School was in need of bottled water and non-perishible food items.
Shortly thereafter, at approximately 2:30 p.m., Matt Tyler reported that he had just left Valley Center High School, and that they had found food in the school to prepare for the evacuees, and also that EOC had brought sack lunches to be given out. He also said that once some residents began to leave for the night, heading north to Temecula or other places, most evacuees left the high school to either return home or head for a safe destination.
As for things here on Vesper Road, the smoke is still present to the north, and since the winds have died down to almost nothing, a lot of the smoke seems to be settling down into the valley east of here. Hopefully this means that the fires will be even a little more easily contained, and that things will continue to get better.
For now, the general feeling is cautious optimism, although there are no guarantees. After the unnerving conditions surrounding the evacuation this morning, this afternoon has unfolded better than most had hoped. We still have power, we still have water, we still have the luxury of a functioning internet connection. Things could be so much worse, and from what we've seen this weekend all throughout the county, things are much worse in so many places.
And so with a great portion of the county still engulfed in flames, there is still a long way to go. Keep praying out there, and we hope to have some good news for you later on.

Dan Kidder
Sports/Valley Life Editor
Valley Roadrunner

Reporting From Valley Center: Tuesday, 10-23, 12:30 p.m.

2007-10-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend's battle with the wildfires throughout the county hit home in a big way this morning, as most of Valley Center was put under mandatory evacuation orders, some as early as 4 a.m.
I woke up at about 5:30 to the smell of smoke, the howling of the wind and the commotion of my neighbors packing up their cars for the possible flight from the area. It looked like a scene from a movie when I walked out my front door; the wind was whipping through the trees, the smoke created a haze that created a cocoon-like effect, the rising sun gave off an orange glow that I'm sure many confused for an oncoming blaze, and at that moment, a county sheriff came up the driveway with lights flashing to announce the evacuation.
After quickly getting my own things together, I got together with my neighbor and his wife (both Valley Center residents for more than 20 years) and we decided to wait and see what was coming before we added to the chaos on the roads out of town.
I have to add that my neighbor was a firefighter in New York City for a number of years, and also served as a volunteer firefighter here in Valley Center before we had our own department. He has also seen his share of wildfires, and given our unique position (on Vesper Road near the CDF station), we have a clear vantage point of any oncoming danger.
At that point, we decided to just be ready, so we made some coffee, had some sausage and eggs, and kept an eye on the eastern skyline.
Gradually, the winds seemed to slow, and as the sun rose, we could see that it didn't appear as dire as we originally thought. We could see smoke to the north, and there was a bit of a haze to the east, but the smell of smoke wasn't as bad as it had been last night.
So we spent the morning making sure we had what we needed in case we felt that we should leave, then clearing the brush and leaves from around the house to disperse any potential fuel for a wayward spark or ember that may find its way here.
Since then, we have kept current with the San Diego news broadcasts, made a number of phone calls to concerned family and friends, and gotten updates from other residents in Valley Center to see what's happening in our town.
I'm going right now to talk with some neighbors to see what they've heard, and I'll continue to check back in every few hours until things clear up or I need to leave.
Wherever you are, I hope you're safe, and please keep Valley Center in your prayers as we hope to hear more good news.

Dan Kidder
Sports/Valley Life Editor
Valley Roadrunner

Rick Ankiel, Michael Vick, and Little League Baseball

2007-08-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

It's been another fantastic week of sports, but with all that's going on, it's hard to just talk about one particular thing.
So we'll take a few moments to touch on some of what's happening around the world of sports, and hopefully that will lead to hearing some thoughts from you, the sports fans of the community.
Off we go.
-- -- --
In light of the ever-worsening negative stories we hear in sports, let's start this week's chat off on a good note: the story of Rick Ankiel.
If you haven't heard about the pitcher-turned-outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, it's one of those stories that makes Tom Rinaldi really excited about doing another piece for Sportscenter that involves a lot of muted lighting, piano music and phrases like "and just when things couldn't get any worse..."
Overemotional reporting aside, watching Ankiel's success since returning to the big leagues has been pretty amazing. He started his career as a promising pitcher with the Cardinals, but for some reason that maybe only Chuck Knoblauch can understand, he lost all sense of ball control and got shipped down to the minors.
Somewhere along the way, Ankiel figured out that he's a pretty decent hitter, so he became an outfielder, worked his way back up to AAA ball (where he led the league in home runs) and eventually got called back up to St. Louis.
Since his call-up a few weeks ago, he's batting over .300 and has five home runs, leading manager Tony LaRussa to give him plenty of playing time in left field. Oh, and as for his ball control -- after misjudging a fly ball against the Cubs on Monday, he recovered to throw out a runner trying to advance to third base with a spot-on toss.
I sincerely hope we hear more good things about Rick Ankiel.
-- -- --
And now, we have to touch on the ongoing atrocity that is the Michael Vick saga.
Obviously, the dog fighting aspect of the charges are pretty horrific, and there doesn't seem to be any need for ESPN to go into details anymore about what Vick may or may not have done to those animals.
The thing that's most disconcerting from the sports angle is that Vick was gambling, and apparently pretty heavily. It's never a good thing to find out that a professional athlete is into gambling -- especially now that the NBA referee scandal has hit the fan, it's on our collective mind -- because it has to be extremely tempting (and lucrative) to bet on the sport in which you compete.
Basically, if Vick was so desperate to gamble that he wagered on which dog would win a fight, it's not too crazy to think that he may have plunked down some cash on an NFL game. I don't know if we'll ever know for sure, but the question will always be there, even if we forget about the dogs.
One quick note on the Falcons: they're going to be a whole lot better off without Michael Vick. Maybe not this season, and especially not right away, but in the long run, they'll be glad they had an excuse to cut loose a 30-year-old quarterback with only one playoff win.
-- -- --
Finally, I'd like to wrap things up this week with a mixed reaction to the Little League World Series.
Don't get me wrong; I love that there's an outlet for kids to play a great game against other kids. The competition itself is a good experience when it's handled properly, and it looks as though it is.
I guess I'd just like to see more of a return to kids being kids. I remember growing up playing organized sports, but at most it was a once-a-week practice with a game on Saturday, and that was it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't a lot of leagues practice every day (especially once the kids are older than 11)?
Maybe it's the shift in society from neighborhoods to gated communities, or maybe it's a parental mindset that asserts that down time for a child is wasted time. I don't know.
But whatever it is, I really hope that kids out there have the time and the means to get away from mandatory practices and go play a game of wiffle ball (with a taped-up ball and bat) with whoever lives within biking distance.
I think I might even go see if the neighbors want to play this weekend.
-- -- --
Now of course this is just a small sampling of the many topics in the sports world these days, but I'm only one man and there's only so much room on this particular page.
But I'll tell you what: if you have a sports issue burning away at you and you want to share your thoughts with -- well, whoever will listen -- then drop me a line or eight at sports@valleycenter.com or by visiting www.valleycenter.com and clicking on the "RR Blogs" link to comment. I'm always happy to share your thoughts with the community, so keep those comments coming.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to have to consider giving up on sports writing, go back to the journalism minor leagues, and try to make a comeback as a TV weatherman.
I know who I can talk to for inspiration, anyway.

Fantasy Football Sleepers & Snoozers

2007-08-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

The end of summer is quickly approaching, and with the changing colors of the leaves (trust me, it happens in other parts of the country) comes the annual insanity known as Fantasy Football.
Let's get the most obvious point out first — if you have the first pick and you don't take LaDainian Tomlinson, you should never, ever consider playing fantasy sports again. Ever.
But beyond that, the fantasy draft is a tangled web of possibility, expectation, analysis and enough head games to plunge even the most die-hard fanatic into an abyss of doubt and confusion.
So how do we get through those late-round selections in one piece? Easy — just sit back, take a few deep breaths, wipe the chicken wing grease off your fingers and pick up this handy Guide To Fantasy Sleepers & Snoozers.
Here, we'll look at five players who you should target and five players you should avoid. I base my opinions on more than a decade of NFL fanship, a consistent streak of top-three finishes in fantasy football for the past four years and the fact that winning a fantasy league is just as much about luck as it is about skill, so if I'm wrong, what can I do about it?
Here we go — five "sleepers" you should try to land in the early rounds, followed by five "snoozers" you should encourage your league's other owners to grab while you snicker behind their backs.
— — —
Sleepers:
1. Ronnie Brown: RB, Miami Dolphins.
Brown has the perfect combination of size and skill, leading to a few pundits to label him a "poor man's LaDainian Tomlinson." With former Chargers Offensive Coordinator Cam Cameron at the helm in Miami, Brown's hard-nosed running style should mesh nicely with his versatility in the passing game to create a fantasy outbreak. If he's on the board at number five, he's a tempting choice for you to build your team around.
2. Travis Henry: RB, Denver Broncos
He's had 1,000-plus yard rushing seasons before, and we all know how the Broncos can make any running back an all-pro. But it's Henry's toughness around the goal line that will separate him from the decent backs available late in the first round. With second-year quarterback Jay Cutler still working out the bugs, look for Mike Shanahan to give Henry plenty of opportunity to rack up yards and touchdowns.
3. Deuce McAllister: RB, New Orleans Saints
Go out on the street and ask the first ten people you see to name the Saints' running back. I'd say there's about a .0000006 percent chance that you get an answer other than "Reggie Bush." But what all the hype doesn't tell you is that McAllister is still in his prime (he will turn 28 late this season), he's finally gone through an entire season without getting injured (he's fresh!) and he's a horse around the goal line. Reggie may have those highlight-reel flips into the endzone to show off, but odds are that McAllister will at least double Bush's touchdown totals by the end of the season. Admire Bush's athleticism, but take advantage of McAllister's propensity to score.
4. Brandon Jacobs: RB, New York Giants
Some people aren't so big on Jacobs, and it's easy to see why — he's huge (6'4", 264), he's got speed (he ran a 4.5 in the 40-yard dash out of college) and he scores loads of touchdowns. Yeah, stay away from that guy. Seriously, he scored nine touchdowns last year as Tiki Barber's backup, so now (with only a decaying Reuben Droughns as competition) people suddenly don't think he's ready to go? You know what, let them think that while we grab him as a solid number two back and ride him to the championship.
5. Jerious Norwood: RB, Atlanta Falcons
I'm going to let you in on a little secret — the Atlanta Falcons offense will be better without Michael Vick. They were the league's leading rushing team last season with Vick, so with Joey Harrington under center while Vick's legal troubles keep him away, do you think they're going to pass more? The downside is that Warrick Dunn is still hanging around, but Norwood averaged more than six yards per carry in his rookie season, and Dunn isn't young enough to keep that up all season. Norwood as a number two fantasy back isn't a bad deal at all.
Snoozers:
1. Drew Brees: QB, New Orleans Saints
I know he's the toast of The Big Easy, but after such an unbelieveable season last year, there's really nowhere to go but down for Brees. He lost a veteran wideout in Joe Horn, his defense is finding ways to get hurt in the offseason (yes, you did see a headline about a Saints linebacker getting hurt while at a water park this summer), and with a tougher schedule, teams know they're coming. Even the emotions of resurrecting the team from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina are starting to wear off (if they're not gone completely). Don't get me wrong, he'll still be decent, but if you sit back and watch him get snatched up in the late first or early second round, you'll be more than happy you settled for another of the many decent quarterbacks in the fifth or sixth round.
2. Steve Smith: WR, Carolina Panthers
Despite his Hobbit-ean stature, Smith has been racking up impressive totals over the past five seasons. But this year, with a shaky quarterback (who's a little nervous now that he's got competition) and a deteriorating defense, Smith's opportunities aren't going to come easily. Like Brees, he should put up decent numbers — just not second-round worthy numbers.
3. Ahman Green: RB, Houston Texans
Wow, where to begin? His age, his team's inability to block anybody, his age again, or his age? I think you get the point — he's no spring chicken. But otherwise, he's going to have to fight for every inch this season on legs that have gone through yet another off-season surgery. Plus, he has to deal with other backs who are trying to prove themselves (Ron Dayne and Samkon Gado). Oh, and he's got a first-year starter at quarterback, a defense full of guys you couldn't pick out of a lineup and a team that has expectations like "it would be great to beat at least one of our division opponents again this season!" Picking Green this year should automatically come with a bottle of Tums.
4. Tony Gonzalez: TE, Kansas City Chiefs
Always one of the top tight ends, Gonzo has long been one of the most gifted athletes in the NFL. But that will only get you so far, and with a first-year starter at quarterback behind a sketchy offensive line, combined with a defense that probably remembers listening to FDR give his "fireside chats" on the radio, gives you a scenario that doesn't look so good anymore. Factor in his age and the fact that there are absolutely no other receiving weapons on the team, and you've got a career-low season waiting to happen.
5. Donovan McNabb: QB, Philadelphia Eagles
He's really fun to watch when he's healthy and he's got talent around him. So basically, this season will not be fun to watch. He hasn't played a full season in more than two years, and the Philly ownership seems to be going out of its way to deny him a surrounding cast of talented receivers. Only the pass-happy offense of Andy Reid keeps McNabb's totals high, but you have to wonder if all that throwing has been wearing him down. If he's still on the board in round seven or eight, he might be worth a shot. But if somebody else grabs him in the fourth round, enjoy a good chuckle when McNabb ends up on the bench by week three.
— — —
As a special treat, I’ve invited back David Baker to add his thoughts on some potential sleepers and busts going into the fantasy football season.
You may remember Mr. Baker from our now-infamous “MLB vs. NASCAR” debate that spanned three weeks and started a number of good conversations with you, the sports fans of the community.
Here are his thoughts on who will exceed expectations and who will disappoint.
Sleepers
1. Jon Kitna: QB, Detroit Lions
With some of the best receivers in the game, and an unjust reputation for being mediocre, look for Kitna to surprise some people with pretty decent numbers.
2. Matt Leinart: QB, Arizona Cardinals
Leinart has great young talent in the WR positions, and should develop a more refined passing game. He could have a breakout year.
3. Cedric Benson: RB, Chicago Bears
With no serious threats to take many of his touches away, Benson looks to capitalize on an awful passing game, but a team that still has plenty of time on offense due to a turnover hungry defense.
4. Jerious Norwood: RB, Atlanta Falcons
Though he still may be the second back on the depth chart, Norwood is poised to take most goal line carries. He’s a strong runner that is ready to take over for an aging Dunn.
5. Drew Bennett: WR, St. Louis Rams
Infused into a high-powered offense, Bennett will quickly prove that he should be the number two receiver behind Holt, and reap the benefits of an amazing passing attack.
6. Zach Miller: TE, Oakland Raiders
Look for Oakland to dump a lot of passes, due to a quarterback who is past his good years, and an offensive line that will never see good years.
Busts
1. Jeff Garcia: QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Garcia is all out of magic, and ready to end his career somewhere sunny.
2. Daunte Culpepper: QB, Oakland Raiders
Though I like the addition of Zach Miller, Culpepper is on a team that refuses to add talented weapons in their prime.
3. Julius Jones: RB, Dallas Cowboys
His touches will become fewer and further between, as Marion Barber continues to grow into a well-rounded back. Even if he rushes for a decent amount of downs, Barber will continue to get all goal line touches, hurting Jones’s numbers.
4. Fred Taylor: RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
Though Taylor put up over 1100 yards rushing last year, those numbers will diminish with the continued development of Jones-Drew, and Taylor’s advancing years.
5. Mike Furrey: WR, Detroit Lions
He had one great year… and that’s what we’ll say 10 years from now. With Calvin Johnson, coupled with fate in general, Mike Furrey will drop out of our collective consciousness quickly.
6. Derek Mason: WR, Baltimore Ravens
A solid receiver for many years in Tennessee, Mason is past his prime, and he and McNair will combine for a whopping 700 yards.
— — —
Well there you have it — another opinion in the swirling seas of fantasy football advice for you to navigate yourself through on your quest for the championship.
If nothing else, you can just use it as another head game to play with your fellow owners before the draft starts... ("Hey, this guy said to draft Jerious Norwood... Is he even in the league? Doesn't that name sound made up? I just don't know... )
And since there's time before most fantasy drafts, I'd love to hear your thoughts on some potential sleepers and snoozers for this season.
Drop me an e-mail at sports@valleycenter.com or a comment on the blog page by going to www.valleycenter.com and clicking on the "RR Blogs" link.
Here’s another potential sleeper — Dan Fouts. I don't know why, but something tells me he's going to have an outstanding year.
You heard it here first.

Five Feelings About The NFL Season

2007-08-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

If you enjoy watching the NFL as much as I do -- and you probably should apologize to your loved ones in advance this year if you do -- then I have no doubt you've seen and read enough about the upcoming season to get excited on a level that could make your doctor a little worried.
So in the interest of perhaps bringing something new and enlightening to the fodder of NFL information out there, I'd like to share with you a few feelings I have about how this season will unfold.
Now, I'm no prognosticator, and I certainly won't be rivaling the Swami on ESPN anytime soon, but from what I've seen over the years, and especially the past few years, I just have a feeling that things will unfold a little...like this...
1. Even though the Cardinals look like they've improved, they will still disappoint.
Let's face it; at this point, the Cardinals have cemented themselves firmly into the role of losers. I know, I know; Matt Leinart. Edgerrin James. Some rookie offensive lineman. Blah blah blah. Did you watch the Monday night game against the Bears last year? Did you see how quickly the faces of the Arizona players turned from "we've got this locked up!" to "oh no, not again!"?
It's going to take more than a Heisman Trophy winner and a couple of decent-looking rookies to turn this team around. They'll be alright, especially if Larry Fitzgerald stays healthy, but don't get your hopes up too high.
2. The Patriots' wide receiver spending spree may help Tom Brady, but they are still going to need Laurence Maroney to stay healthy to get back to their playoff dominance.
Nothing puts butts in the seats like a beautiful, 80-yard bomb to a streaking wide receiver who calmly settles underneath the flying pigskin, cradles it to his chest like a newborn, then casually pulls away from the pursuing defenders for a touchdown. The 1999 Rams made a living off of that style of offense (and were dubbed "The Greatest Show On Turf"), but they also faded away pretty quickly, especially once teams caught on to their strategy.
The Patriots are going to benefit from Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker (especially Welker), but we have to remember two things: they play in Massachusetts and they have a really good defense. They're going to win games by running the ball, making short, safe pass completions and scaring the living daylights out of opposing offenses with their confusing packages.
3. Ronnie Brown will become an elite running back, even if his offense hasn't improved that much.
He's been described as a poor man's LaDanian Tomlinson, but I really feel like the designation isn't any higher simply because he's been playing behind a Dolphins line that couldn't block my little sister effectively. But RB showed some signs last year of how impressive he can be, even against good defenses (like the Bears, for example). He's big enough to carry tacklers, but nimble enough to make a safety miss in the open field. Plus, he's shown that he's got good hands and an increasing knowledge of the blocking schemes for the passing attack. All told, by the end of the year, I would be surprised if he isn't in the top five in the league and making a push for the top three.
4. Carson Palmer will become the new Peyton Manning.
He's been electric when he's healthy, and he's even been impressive when he's not 100 percent. Now that he has put that devastating knee injury a full season behind him, Palmer will prove that he can go toe-to-toe (and even brain-to-brain) with Peyton. The Bengals have a suspect (at best) defense, a running back who has the same acceleration rate as a steam engine and a bunch of slender, speedy receivers. The only difference is that the Colts play in a dome, but even in the snows of Ohio, Palmer will sling the ball around enough to put up numbers that will rival those of the reigning Super Bowl MVP.
5. No, the Chargers will not win the Super Bowl.
I know, last year was an amazing year for the Bolts. Tomlinson is making a stronger and stronger case for Best Running Back Ever. Rivers is developing a knack for winning, especially when he throws the ball anywhere near Antonio Gates. The outside linebackers are like twin bolts of lightning. The offensive line is the best in football. Even the secondary is starting to mature (finally).
But Norv Turner, for all his successes as an offensive coordinator, doesn't have the same impact as a head coach. His scheme is still in place, but unless he's motivating the players to get better each and every play, it won't matter what's being called through the quarterback's headset. For all his faults, at least Marty Schottenheimer knew how to get the most out of his players. Teams under Turner have traditionally underachieved, putting him back into the coordinator role again and again.
Unless he's taken some classes with Tony Robbins, I just don't see the Chargers improving on their 13-win season and another early exit in the playoffs.
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Well there you go; these are (some of) my bold predictions for the upcoming season.
You may agree, you may disagree; but either way, I'm sure you have a few of your own.
So send them in to me at sports@valleycenter.com, or check out our blog page at www.valleycenter.com and click on the "RR Blogs" link to comment.
And look for our special Fantasy Football Preview next week, which will help you locate the sleepers and snoozers before you draft your team.