Sports preview

With The NFL OTAs starting, the Seahawks are looking to win their second Super Bowl in a row.  So far the Seahawks have extended Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman's contracts.  As a result of this they have had to let some players like Brendan Browner and Walter Thurmond walk.  Losing Browner shouldn't hurt because he was suspended most of last season anyways.  They brought in Kevin Williams from the Vikings to add some depth to their defensive line.  They also drafted some defensive backs and promising wide receiver Paul Richardson.  One interspersing topic is Marshawn Lynch threatening to retire if the seahawks don't give him more money.  The team doesn't seem to worried about it as they think he is just trying to gain leverage.  Even if Marshawn were to retire, they have one of the more promising young running backs in Christine Michael.  Michael trains with the same trainer as Adrian Peterson and the trainer said that Michael is easily the more athletic between the two.  With an entire season learning behind Lynch Michael should be ready for more carries this year.  The seahawks have a very bright future and I can not wait for the season to begin.

Sports profile:Kevin Durant

Durant and Lebron embrace each other at half court as time expires in the NBA finals and with it go the Thunders goal to win the championship.  As the Heat celebrate their first championship of the Big Three era Durant is in the tunnel crying as he hugs his mom and brother.  For Durant basketball is more than just a game, it was his ticket out of harsh living conditions.  Durant grew up going from apartment to apartment some nights there was not even enough food for his family so his mom wouldn't eat.  For Durant the NBA is more than a business, he wears 35 to honor his AAU coach who was murdered at age 35.  He is not the kind of player who needs to play in a big city like LA, all he needs is a gym.  In 7 seasons Durant is a 4 time scoring champion, rookie of the year, MVP, and 5 time all star.  Durant made it clear during his NBA speech that he cares about his friends, family, teammates, and fans.  He singled out each of his teammates to let them know that they were the reason why he won the MVP.  As far as his fan interactions go, my brother had the chance to meet him.  After a Celtics Thunder game a few years ago a security guard brought my brother to see Durant, he signed my brothers jersey took pictures with him and talked to him for a few minutes.  Durant easily could have blown him off like I'm sure some NBA players do to their fans but Durant cares.  Durant is a humble player who continues to improve from year to year.  I have mentioned him a few times in my essays because I believe he is one of the few players in the NBA who is in the league for more than the money.  He cares about the game and wants to make a difference.  On top of the way he handles himself off the court, he is one of the best, if not the best scorer the NBA has ever seen and he continues to amaze NBA fans throughout the league with his unbelievable plays.  The way he improves from year to year, he will probably win the championship he has been chasing for his old AAU coach within the next few years.  Athletes like Durant deserve to be recognized for what they do on and off the court.

Prefontaine vs without limits

I think Prefontaine was the better of the two movies because it focused more on his career.  Without Limits focused too much on his personal life and seemed like more of it was made up.  I was more interested in Steve as a runner than him as a person and Prefontaine provided more information on his career.  Although it was interesting to see how Prefontaine handled himself off the track in without limits, some of it could have been made up while Prefontaine stuck to the facts.

Prefontaine questions

1) How is Pre portrayed as a person and as an athlete?

He is portrayed as a great athlete who will not settle for anything less than being the best.  As a person they make him seem like he cares more about himself than he does about his team.

2) Does he appear to be a likable character?

Yes but, he is kind of full of himself

3) What arrogant thing does Pre do to one of his teammates?

He always takes the spotlight away from the shot put thrower

4) What lesson does Pre teach a 9 year old boy?

He teaches them to work hard and have a winning mentality

5) What current controversy with college athletics is introduced in this movie?

The controversy of wether college athletes should be paid

6) What was one of Pre's goals in High School as a runner?
To become the greatest distract runner in history

7) What are the living conditions in the Olympic Village? What do these conditions remind us of?

They are not good and they remind us that athletes in college do not get the treatment they deserve

8) What Olympic scandal took place during the Munich Olympics?

The hostage situation and the USA basketball game

Persuasive article PEDs in sports

One highly debated problem is sports is if performance enhancing drugs should be allowed.  If I were a professional athlete I wouldn't use PEDs but I believe that players should be allowed to use them.  I feel like using PEDs would take away that sense of accomplishment because the drugs are what would be giving athletes the ability to make big plays, not personal skill.  People say that athletes can put themselves at risk by using PEDs but if they look into the health risks involved and decide that they want to use them than they should go for it.  Also each team could hire a team doctor who knows how to manage PEDs and they could monitor the amounts the players are taking.  If players used PEDs than it could make sports more entertaining.  I can understand where people that say PEDs should not be allowed are coming from.  Some say that PEDs could compromise the integrity of sports.  A lot of players from the NFL and MLB have been suspended for PEDs the past few years so clearly they are not going to stop using so why not level the playing field and have someone manage what they are using.  A lot of the players who get suspended come back and keep using the PEDs, this is not safe because they are given a huge physical advantage.  They need to legalize them and have a specialist controlling the amounts taken in order to keep players safe.

A league of their own

There are not as many popular women's sports because they don't tend to be as athletic as men.  People want to see the most physical and athletic people going at it and that's why we tend to watch more men's than women's sports.  Although I support women's sports and think it is good that their are leagues like the WNBA, I do not see them becoming as popular as leagues like the NBA and other men's leagues.

The Oklahoma City Thunder managed to blow a 16 point fourth quarter lead in their 101-99 loss to the Clippers in game 4.  This loss now evens the series at 2-2.  Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 40 points and 7 rebounds but his effort was not enough to pull out the win.  The Clippers win probability with 9:07 left in the fourth quarter was 0.9%.  The Thunder have a very strong roster so you have to wonder why they are struggling in the playoffs.  They barely pulled out the win in the Memphis series and Westbrook's brother went as far as tweeting that OKC needs to fire their coach.  The blame should be put on Scott Brooks.  For as good as he is at developing young players and helping them reach their potential like he has done with many of the players on the Thunder, he is terrible during games.  He does not know how to adjust his game plan when one of his players is struggling.  He also does not know how to adjust to unlikely players from opposing teams who are having a good game.  A good example of this would be when Darren Collison went off in the fourth quarter and it did not look like Brooks tried that hard to stop him.  When a team has such a big lead with so little time left and they blow it, the coach is usually to blame.  Many people believe that if Scott Brooks can not improve than he will be fired.  He has a lot of talented players to work with like Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka now he just needs to learn to make adjustments during games.

1. I think that she should have been suspended for not letting her opponents know she had a sex change but she should be allowed to fight if her opponents agree to it.

2. I'm not sure if they have an advantage or not because the doctor said that she didn't but guys are naturally stronger than girls so she could still have some extra strength.

3.If I had to fight a girl changed into guy I would not feel comfortable because guys are not supposed to hit girls but I feel like if a girl had to fight a guy that changed into a girl it wouldn't be as bad if the girl thought she was strong enough to handle it.

4. In the future athletes should not be allowed to hide their medical history.

Trying to explain what is and what is not a sport is not easy to do.  A sport is defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.  I think that in order for something to be considered a sport there needs to be some form of athleticism involved and it needs to be competitive.  Also it needs to be entertaining to watch. 
One activity that is debated over whether it is a sport or not is cheerleading.  Cheerleading that you would see at a football or basketball game should not be considered a sport, it should just be considered an activity because there is not competition or goal involved, it is just a group of people cheering for a team.  The cheerleading that you see at competitions should be considered a sport.  It requires athleticism and multiple teams compete against each other. 
Another shady activity would be ping pong.  Although it is not really looked at as a sport technically it should be.  It requires some athleticism and there are two people competing against each other to achieve a goal.  It is also in the Olympics which means it is viewed as a sport by many countries even if most Americans only view it as an activity.

The Thunder will beat the Pacers in the NBA finals.  The Thunder will win in six games.  Kevin Durant is having one of if not his best season and I do not see anyone stopping him.  The Thunder have recently signed Caron Butler who is a great bench player.  Also Westbrook is finally healthy and ready to take some of the pressure off of KD.  The Thunder also have a great big man in Ibaka.  Sefoloshia is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league so he should be able to slow down Paul George.  Roy Hibbert is also playing like crap with only 24 rebounds in his past 8 games... Haseem Thabet could do better than that.  I do not see the pacers beating the Thunder in a 7 game series however I can see them beating the heat.  Wade is not healthy enough to play big minutes and be productive throught the entire playoffs and Lebron and Bosh can't do it alone.

Pete Rose Scandal

One of  the biggest scandals in sports was the Pete Rose betting on baseball scandal.  Pete Rose was a phenomenal baseball player and went on to manage the reds after his playing days were over.  Pete Rose placed bets on many teams, including his own while he was a manager.   During the 1987 season Rose was betting between 8,000-16,000 dollars daily.  With all of the evidence against him I think he made himself look worse by denying the fact that he bet on baseball in his press conference. After having such a successful career I doubt he needed to bet on games to make money so the fact that he did doesn't make sense.  Despite the betting issue we should still recognize Pete for what he did on the field.  Pete Rose made a very dumb decision by betting on baseball games and he deserved the life time ban.

Sandusky

If I were in Dottie Sandusky's position I would not have said that the kids just said it for the money.  Even if that is true people are not going to take it seriously coming from her because she is his wife.  I think that she does know that her husband did those things to the kids she doesn't want to admit it, she would rather try to make her husband look better.  Even if some kids only said Sandusky did things to them for the money, the fact that he would even do it to one kid is terrible.  Some athletes and coaches appear to be above the law but their mistakes also get magnified a lot more than other peoples mistakes.  For example if a professional athlete is caught DUI everybody hears about it but if your average person was caught DUI it is not as big of a deal.

LeBron or KD for MVP?

There are many great players in the NBA this season.  At the beginning of the season Paul George was on fire and his team, the Pacers had a great record.  Many people thought he was going to win MVP but then LeBron James and Kevin Durant stepped up.  Kevin Durant put together the best stretch of basketball I have ever seen while Russell Westbrook was injured.  He put up 35.0 points 7.5 rebounds, and 6.3 assists while shooting 52.7 percent from the field.  He looked like the clear MVP during that stretch but then he cooled down and LeBron heated up.  He just had his career high for points with 61 but it was against the Bobcats.  They are one of the leagues worst teams so the 61 point performance was not that impressive.  When it comes down to it the MVP race goes back in forth between players throughout the season (over the past few seasons LeBron and KD) and it is hard to say who will win until the end of the season.  Being a life long SuperSonic/ Thunder fan I would like to see Durant win it this year and I think he will.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24467054/handicapping-the-mvp-race-between-lebron-james-and-kevin-durant

The Norton Boys Basketball Teams both had great seasons.  Unfortunately we were not TVL champs for the third year in a row but it was still a great season.  The varsity team went 10-10 to make the playoffs for the seventh straight year.  The captains of the team were James Loring and Paul Schleicher.  The JV team had a very successful season going 13-5.  Hopefully next season the team can build off of this year and go farther in the tournament.

The varsity team started off slow going 4-6 in the first half but finished the second half of the season 6-4.  Going into the last three games Norton needed to win two of them.  They lost the first of three games to Medway who was the easier of the three games.  Norton followed it up by beating Randolph, a really good division 2 team and then they beat the 19-0 Ashland to ruin their undefeated season.  Although Norton lost their first tournament game, their last two regular season games were basically playoff games.  The tournament game against Westport was close throughout the game.  Norton was winning late in the game and it looked like they were going to pull off the upset but Westport toke the lead in the last minute and won.  Bret Murphy had a great game with 19 points.  James Loring also had a good game.  Paul Schleicher fouled out early in the fourth quarter.  If he was able to stay in the game Norton might have pulled out the win.  Westport went on to beat Rockland in their next game. 

It looks like the team will be successful next year.  There is a lot of talent coming up from the JV team and Jason Oneil and Bret Murphy both got a lot of minutes on varsity as juniors this year and made the most of them.  Keenan Coffey, Andrew Veglas, and Paul Caramanica swung but they did not get in many varsity games.  Jason did a great job taking over as the starting point guard when Levi hurt his ankle at the beginning of the season and provided solid minutes off the bench once Levi returned.  Bret started all season and was one of the leagues best three point shooters and he had six in the playoff game.  The teams has a lot of talented players to build off of next year as the team looks to make the playoffs for the 8th straight year.

The seniors were all happy to make the playoff their last year despite losing a close game in the first round.  The players all put in a lot of hard work and effort at practice everyday as they were able to achieve their goal of making the playoffs for the 7th straight year.  I enjoyed being a part of the team and it will not be the same without all of the seniors next year.

The Mens USA Hockey Team Comes up Short

                                     The Men's USA Hockey Team Comes up Short

The Men's USA Hockey team did not win any metals during the 2014 Olympics after winning bronze in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.  The team went 3-2 over the course of the Olympics.  They beat Russia on February 15th, Slovakia 5-1 on February 16th and Czech Republic 5-2 on February 19th.  They lost to Canada 1-0 in the semifinals on February 21st and they then lost to Finland in the Bronze Final 5-0 on February 22nd. 
The USA roster had many talented players.  Their goalies were Jimmy Howard, Ryan Miller and Jonathan Quick.  Their Defenseman were John Carlson, Justin Faulk, Cam Fowler, Paul Martin, Ryan McDonagh, Brooks Orpik, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Ryan Suter.  Their forwards were David Backes, Dustin Brown, Ryan Callahan, Patrick Cane, Ryan Kesler, Phil Kessel, T.J. Oshie, Max Pacioretty, Zach Parise, Joe Pavelski, Paul Stastny, Derek Stepan, Blake Wheeler, and James van Riemsdyk. 
The USA hockey team was a disappointment this year as they did not win any metals and finished with a 3-2 record.  The team was very inconsistent and was expected to be better than they were.

Michael Sam

I think Michael Sam will be accepted in the NFL.  At times it might be awkward in the locker room.  It doesn’t matter if he is straight or not if he can help a team win he will be accepted.  I also don’t think this will hurt his draft stock.

The Patriots were dumb for drafting Aaron Hernandez.  Every team in the league knew that he was a bad kid which is why his draft stock fell so much so I do no know why they would take the risk.  Also if coaches didn't cover up all of his failed drug tests and other off field issues.  He probably didn't care what he did because he knew his coaches would cover it up for him, but if they did not cover his mistakes up he might have learned from them and turned his life around.  You can try and blame part of it on his rough home life with his father dying while Aaron was 12 and his mother being in a relationship with a drug dealer but other NFL players come rom much worse and end up having great careers.  Professional sports teams need to stop covering up their athletes mistakes because it helps the team short term but the more they cover up the more the athlete will try getting away with and eventually they will ruin their careers.

I was very happy to see my prediction of the Seahawks beating the Broncos come true with their 43-8 victory.  Peyton Manning may have set the record for completions in a Super Bowl with 34 on 49 attempts but he only averaged 5.7 yards per completion with only 280 yards and three turnovers.  He also only had one touchdown and a terrible QBR of 24.4.  Russell Wilson played much better than Manning he had 206 yards on 18-25 with two touchdowns and no turnovers.  He had a QBR of 88.1 and averaged 8.2 yards per completion.  Seattle's defense was incredible they held Peyton Manning, Wes Welker, Julius Thomas, Eric Decker, Demaryius Thomas, and Knowshon Moreno to only 8 points.  The top 3 highlights from this game were probably Malcome Smith's interception that he returned for a touchdown, Percy Harvin's kick return for a touchdown, and Jermaine Kearse's touchdown catch.  Marshawn Lynch only had 39 yards but he didn't really need to have a big game.  Percy Harvin had a great game in his first full game as a seahawks he only had 5 receiving yards but Seattle was up by so much they didn't need to pass it to him and he had two nice runs for 45 yards.  I was not a big fan of the halftime show I only wanted to watch the game.  The Best commercial was probably the Budweiser one with the horse and the dog and I cant remember the worst one their were a few bad commercials.  This is the first of many Super Bowl victories the Seahawks will have during the Russell Wilson era.

The Seattle Seahawks will beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII 24-17 although I may be a little bias because I have been a Seahawks fan my entire life because my dad used to be their athletic trainer.  This game should be very exciting to watch with Denver's number one ranked offense going up against Seattle's number one ranked defense.  This is only Seattle's second Super Bowl appearance, last time they were in the Super Bowl the lost to the Steelers and I personally think it was due to poor officiating.  As Mike Holmgren, their coach at the time said he had his team prepared to beat the Steelers but he didn't know he had to prepare them to beat the refs also.  While Seattle is looking for their first Super Bowl Peyton Manning is trying to become the first quarter back in NFL history to win a Super Bowl on two different teams.  While all of the attention is being given to Peyton Manning people are forgetting that Wilson is only in his second season and is already extremely successful.  At the end of the game the number one highlight will be seeing Peyton Manning walking off the field crying while Richard Sherman and they Seahawks celebrate their first of many Super Bowl victories.

I do not see the Broncos offense doing anything against Seattle's number one ranked defense.  The Broncos rely heavily on their passing game but they are going up against the best corner back in the league in Richard Sherman and two of the best safeties, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor.  Another underrated part of the Seahawks Defense is Walter Thurmond who has done an excellent job filling in for the suspended Brendan Browner.  They also have a nasty pass rush with Cliff Avril, Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner, Michael Bennett, and many others that I will enjoy seeing destroy Peyton Manning on Sunday.  I see Manning throwing for around 200 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.  Knowshon Moreno will run for 60 yards with no touchdowns while Monte Ball will have 30 yards and one touchdown.  Offensively Seattle has struggled recently but I think getting Percy Harvin back will be the spark they need.  As good as Golden Tate and Doug Baldwin are they are not star receivers like Percy Harvin is when he is healthy so I would not be surprised if Wilson looked his way a lot on Sunday.  Because of the injuries to Rice and Harvin Wilson has only thrown for 318 yards and one touchdown this postseason but he will bounce back Sunday.  Marshawn Lynch has been a bright spot in their struggling offense rushing for 249 yards on 50 carries with three touch downs in their two playoff games.  I think Marshawn will run for 130 yards and one touchdown while Wilson throws for 230 yards no interceptions and a pair of touchdowns.  Peyton Manning will come up short again as he losses to the Seahawks.

They can't all be as smart as Richard Sherman

I found CNN's article about the lack of knowledge at the collegiate level very intriguing.  Obviously a lot of college athletes are not as smart as the students who got into the schools based off of their academic achievements but I did not know that a lot of them could barley read.  Although some college athletes are not very intelligent a lot are for example All-Pro corner back Richard Sherman graduated second in his class in high school and went on to complete four years at Stanford.  I personally think that athletes should have to read at a normal level to be allowed into colleges.  It is unfair to the people who have the grades to get into the school that are getting turned away from the school because people that cannot read are taking up all the spots.