Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESPN. Show all posts
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
The Only Thing: Jim Harbaugh's Success All That Matters
Bleacher Report wrote in 2012,
The point at which the world of professional sports diverges from the reality you and I know is how much a team is willing to tolerate if a player can help them win. There are countless examples of players whose bad behavior is overlooked as long as they produce. Once the points start to decline; when the 40 time starts to tick up...that's when bad behavior shifts from "disappointing" to "unacceptable."
So... as long as someone is contributing to your winning ways, you keep him. While he has the talent to help your organization, his personality and approach should not be criticized.
According to popular media and the fans who cannot think for themselves, this is the conclusion when it comes to San Francisco 49er head coach Jim Harbaugh.
But if you are going to say that about Harbaugh... if you want to say winning isn't everything, it's the only thing... then say it for athletes who do dumb, even criminal things.
Yea, an also-ran player who can't get it done on the court or field -- get rid of him, when he runs up against the law or is even just shown to have a bad attitude, isn't that right? However, an athlete who can go into beast mode should be "acceptable," no matter what.
Say it's all about winning instead of being furious at Ray Lewis for ten years after his blood-soaked night. Say that about Michael Vick and his dogs, instead of being angry that the NFL allowed him another chance... or about any number of troubled athletes with elite talent.
Yea, an also-ran player who can't get it done on the court or field -- get rid of him, when he runs up against the law or is even just shown to have a bad attitude, isn't that right? However, an athlete who can go into beast mode should be "acceptable," no matter what.
Say it's all about winning instead of being furious at Ray Lewis for ten years after his blood-soaked night. Say that about Michael Vick and his dogs, instead of being angry that the NFL allowed him another chance... or about any number of troubled athletes with elite talent.
"But Harbaugh hasn't done anything to break a law or be moronic," you might say, "he is just hard to get along with. That's not really a problem."
Then why are Terrell Owens and Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson so despised? Why do NBA fans have such a love-hate relationship with the do-it-my-way Allen Iverson?
"Those guys didn't help their teams win."
Really? Their on-the-field numbers were pretty amazing. Whether you think they were too individualistic in play or personal behavior is simply your opinion.
"Yea, but... they blew up locker rooms, they were not 'team guys', they were distractions."
Really? Their on-the-field numbers were pretty amazing. Whether you think they were too individualistic in play or personal behavior is simply your opinion.
"Yea, but... they blew up locker rooms, they were not 'team guys', they were distractions."
So Harbaugh's Chucky, Junior act isn't a distraction? So the reports that the coach "wears people out" and seems to not care about the defensive half of his team is team-friendly? Why would the Niner organization allow all of these negative stories to leak out about him if there wasn't fire beneath the smoke?
"Coach Harbaugh wins everywhere he goes and wins immediately. The University of San Diego won conference titles under his leadership. Stanford went from being dogs to humiliating Pete Carroll's USC Trojans at USC. And now Harbaugh has brought the Niners to the brink of three consecutive Super Bowls! He was one play away from winning one of them!"
And to do that, he has shown himself to be someone who is divisive and nearly impossible to get along with.
"Come on, man. Use wisdom. All successful men are tortured by the need to dominate. All powerful people are Type A personalities. You deal with that to get what you want."
Okay, but who draws that line of what to accept, and how much?
This is not picking on Jim Harbaugh. If the everyday person's words, actions and attitudes were picked apart the way sports celebrities get dissected, few would escape unscathed. It is meant to poke at us, sports fans who have these weird standards that are just indefensible.
The bottom line is: We are in a culture where anything can be justified if we like the person. Right now, Harbaugh still is liked by most media talking heads and football fanatics. He is a "winner," and until that perception shifts (likely because of the same press that now deifies his coaching success), the answer we will hear is, Keep him and dump anyone in his way.
"Coach Harbaugh wins everywhere he goes and wins immediately. The University of San Diego won conference titles under his leadership. Stanford went from being dogs to humiliating Pete Carroll's USC Trojans at USC. And now Harbaugh has brought the Niners to the brink of three consecutive Super Bowls! He was one play away from winning one of them!"
And to do that, he has shown himself to be someone who is divisive and nearly impossible to get along with.
"Come on, man. Use wisdom. All successful men are tortured by the need to dominate. All powerful people are Type A personalities. You deal with that to get what you want."
Okay, but who draws that line of what to accept, and how much?
The bottom line is: We are in a culture where anything can be justified if we like the person. Right now, Harbaugh still is liked by most media talking heads and football fanatics. He is a "winner," and until that perception shifts (likely because of the same press that now deifies his coaching success), the answer we will hear is, Keep him and dump anyone in his way.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
LeBron James is Heating Up
The position of LeBron James's head, with both the halo and flames framing him, is no accident. Ever consider that his white headband has the same effect?
These images are from an ESPN3 story about LeBron's "Q" rating, or his likeability to the general public.
That team name, "Heat", always was a little too convenient. I mean, a flaming basketball. Yea. Let's play some 21 in Hell. Make-it-take-it.
"Heat" is only a little better than the name it beat out in a contest: The Miami Vice. Imagine those headlines:
Vice On A Winning Streak.
Vice Win it All.
"The Vice" would have eventually been reconsidered and changed. Maybe. At one time, people got vocally righteous about removing the old Washington, D.C. franchise name: The Bullets. And what did they change it to? THE WIZARDS! So we are okay with warlocks? Yes, we are. That's old news.
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
(Deuteronomy 18:10-12, KJV)
These images are from an ESPN3 story about LeBron's "Q" rating, or his likeability to the general public.
That team name, "Heat", always was a little too convenient. I mean, a flaming basketball. Yea. Let's play some 21 in Hell. Make-it-take-it.
"Heat" is only a little better than the name it beat out in a contest: The Miami Vice. Imagine those headlines:
Vice On A Winning Streak.
Vice Win it All.
"The Vice" would have eventually been reconsidered and changed. Maybe. At one time, people got vocally righteous about removing the old Washington, D.C. franchise name: The Bullets. And what did they change it to? THE WIZARDS! So we are okay with warlocks? Yes, we are. That's old news.
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
(Deuteronomy 18:10-12, KJV)
There is a small movement to change the Wizards name, back to the Bullets. That may well be for the best. We now watch so many murders, and listen to such depraved music, that "Bullets" won't offend people anymore. Especially when the team plays in the White House's shadow.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Freelance Writer Life: Year One
The online freelance writer seems to have peaked a few years ago, around the time President Obama was just getting comfortable in his first term. Jobs got scarce. I finally decided to augment my income with online writing assignments in May of 2011. Apparently the bubble had just burst. I charged in anyway.
One year later, the dozen or so sites I registered to write with has shrunk to several main pillars: Suite101, Associated Content (Yahoo!), and Examiner . And then, there is this very blog.
What have I learned?
That it takes a LOT of articles to make this worth your time, if you're in it for the money.
If you want to get your name out there, or just love to write, you will love the nature of freelance writing. You can be as casual or focused as you want. Serious freelancers who want to make a real living should find clients who offer contracts. But if you have no writing portfolio, one of the sites mentioned above can help build some credibility.
Most viewed/read articles:
On Waffle's Shaddai, the "quarterback Sam Bradford v. entertainer Seth MacFarlane" doppelganger post has pulled a lot of people. Probably lots of Family Guy fans. "Is Kobe a Vampire?" was the top attention-getter for a while, but Sam & Seth passed it in spring on 2012.
Associated Content must have temporarily spotlit my "best actor-athlete of the modern era" article. It leads second place, about underrated films, by a 5-to-1 margin.
On Suite, a news item about Eurobasket 2011 spawned several high-ranking articles. A story about Macedonia's upset over host Lithuania actually beat ESPN's comparable stories, in the days after the game. Suite has reset the entire site and erased all of the social network approvals, but Facebook and Twitter really pushed that article... As for long-term articles, an article about the children of the rich and famous continues to draw readers months after publication.
Examiner has been a time-eater, as I am covering a local minor league baseball team. Too much competition from news outlets with more access. This was a gig I didn't think through very well. I could just quit and lose the few dollars I have queued in their till. Or try to switch over to video game reviewer, which is not dependent on other people's time. We shall see. Probably one of my most popular articles there was a short history of the Salem Red Sox franchise. The editors there liked it, anyway.
Have I made any money?
Not really. Let's check the numbers:
About fifty-five weeks.
Maybe fifty articles/posts across all platforms.
Total from pennies-per-view and other assorted ways to get paid: $15. (Doesn't include interested surfers who checked out Alexandr or the fiction. Still nothing to write home about.)
Not bad for the first year, considering I didn't take the freelance commitment as anything more than a tool for brand exposure. Name recognition was the original goal and it proceeds....
One year later, the dozen or so sites I registered to write with has shrunk to several main pillars: Suite101, Associated Content (Yahoo!), and Examiner . And then, there is this very blog.
What have I learned?
That it takes a LOT of articles to make this worth your time, if you're in it for the money.
If you want to get your name out there, or just love to write, you will love the nature of freelance writing. You can be as casual or focused as you want. Serious freelancers who want to make a real living should find clients who offer contracts. But if you have no writing portfolio, one of the sites mentioned above can help build some credibility.
Most viewed/read articles:
On Waffle's Shaddai, the "quarterback Sam Bradford v. entertainer Seth MacFarlane" doppelganger post has pulled a lot of people. Probably lots of Family Guy fans. "Is Kobe a Vampire?" was the top attention-getter for a while, but Sam & Seth passed it in spring on 2012.
Associated Content must have temporarily spotlit my "best actor-athlete of the modern era" article. It leads second place, about underrated films, by a 5-to-1 margin.
On Suite, a news item about Eurobasket 2011 spawned several high-ranking articles. A story about Macedonia's upset over host Lithuania actually beat ESPN's comparable stories, in the days after the game. Suite has reset the entire site and erased all of the social network approvals, but Facebook and Twitter really pushed that article... As for long-term articles, an article about the children of the rich and famous continues to draw readers months after publication.
Examiner has been a time-eater, as I am covering a local minor league baseball team. Too much competition from news outlets with more access. This was a gig I didn't think through very well. I could just quit and lose the few dollars I have queued in their till. Or try to switch over to video game reviewer, which is not dependent on other people's time. We shall see. Probably one of my most popular articles there was a short history of the Salem Red Sox franchise. The editors there liked it, anyway.
Have I made any money?
Not really. Let's check the numbers:
About fifty-five weeks.
Maybe fifty articles/posts across all platforms.
Total from pennies-per-view and other assorted ways to get paid: $15. (Doesn't include interested surfers who checked out Alexandr or the fiction. Still nothing to write home about.)
Not bad for the first year, considering I didn't take the freelance commitment as anything more than a tool for brand exposure. Name recognition was the original goal and it proceeds....
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Super Bowl 2012: Predictions and Notes
New England 27, New York 23.
From the moment these teams were set, everyone jumped on the Giants bandwagon. There were all of these gasps over New York's three-point underdog status. Top to bottom, the Giants have more talent, I kept hearing.
But the Patriots have Tom Brady.
Belichick is an all-time coach, and maybe it seems the Pats have an advantage there, too. Except Tom Coughlin, who like Philly's Andy Reid is about to lose his gig every single season, is a very good coach as well. Call it a push in that area.
I predicted that, after almost 14 days of "Giants are great" talk, the betting trends and general backlash would have people flip-flopping. ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd, who was absolutely aghast when the SB lines debuted, had changed his tune just before the weekend. Being contrarian can be sweet. It's true.
Brady has had this expression of contained fury since the last weeks of the regular season. Reminds me of Kobe's face during the Laker-Magic Final of '09. As in, I will not lose. Eli Manning's been "hotter" recently, but this is a one-shot situation. Brady comes through in those situations. He will again tonight.
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post-game:
Giants win, 21-17. I thought New York's defense was a bit overrated. They shut me up.
Brady wasn't as in the zone as I expected, but he played well enough. It is Eli Manning who was inspired and, in a commentator's opinion, "brilliant".
And now, we turn to his brother...
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