we:Freshmen

In case you missed it, this past weekend was packed with great NFL match ups.  One wouldn’t necessarily consider the Bills and Titans one of those great match ups.  Tell that to Titans Owner Bud Adams, who was fined $250,000 for flipping off the fans at the stadium on Sunday on several occasions.  Bud Adams is 86 years old and apologized for his actions.  Ralph Wilson, the owner of the Bills and Adams are two of the original owners from the American Football League.  The game was special because it was a dedication to two great owners and even included throwback jerseys to honor the history of the two teams.  The Titans players loved it saying he was just having  a good time out there supporting his team.  The NFL didn’t think so.

Wow.  Three freshmen on the Tennessee Volunteers football team have been charged with attempted armed robbery last week.  These guys are 18 years old and important parts to the Vol’s football squad.  These guys came around to a parked car with their faces covered up at 2 AM, one holding a gun and saying, “Give me everything you got.”   The guys were carrying a pellet gun and were taken away in a get away car.  Seriously, what kind of parents did these kids have growing up.  College scholarship athletes have very few problems as it is, and even if they did, this is one of the dumbest things you can do.  Two of the three have been kicked off the team and the third is waiting until the judicial process goes through.  Wefreshmen don’t necessarily love Lane Kiffin, but we do appreciate the fact that he put his foot down in this situation even with some of his top freshmen players.  I hope these kids realize that their college and possible NFL careers might have been ruined because of some dumb incident.

Five Arkansas Razorbacks players are suspended from the basketball team. Several of them are suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. In August an 18 year old freshmen female accused several of the Arkansas basketball players of raping her at a fraternity party. Players were cleared of any wrongdoing but suspensions were placed on the players anyway. I along with most of society tend to side with the women in these types of situations, especially the way the media portrays the situation and the fact that the players are suspended. That tells me that these guys must have done something wrong, otherwise the coach wouldn’t have suspended them,  right?

With all of that said, what I am about to say is probably going to be seen as pretty controversial and many of you won’t agree with me. I understand that and am willing to take the messages from those who disagree. Sometimes, athletes are in the wrong in situations like these. Rape is always wrong, so if it is true that an athlete or group of athletes raped this woman, then they are wrong. The thing is, I am a college male athlete. I know that most of us are really good guys who enjoy our sport, going to school and college life. We attend parties just like everyone else.  Some would say, “well thats the problem.  you guys shouldn’t be at parties with everyone else if you’re going to get in situations like this.”  I am not even going to respond to those of you who truly feel that way.

Many times at these parties we can be seen as targets by guys and girls, but for right now I will talk about the girls. Women at these college parties normally get free alcohol, like to drink a lot and love the attention of being around or with a college athlete. Wefreshmen are certainly not saying that girls are lying but it seems to us that sometimes, girls lust after high profile people and if something doesn’t work out, they can say whatever they want and the public tends to agree with them. One might say, “well it does happen sometimes.”  The problem with that because so many women have said it when it hasn’t been true, the power of their statements and allegations have dipped in recent times.

Again, let me make this 100000% clear. I am not saying that all girls lie, I am not saying that athletes don’t abuse their power over women and I am definitely not saying that the actions by certain athletes aren’t wrong in many ways. I am simply saying that at times we have to look at the situation from the other persons stance. Young college age women are interested in a lot of the same things that guys are interested in when they go out to parties. They want easy, cheap alcohol, music, and people of the opposite sex to spend time with. It is important that when you read or watch any story that you are able to think about it from both sides. I think athletes are put under such a microscope that every single little thing we do is wrong and the good people involved rarely ever get recognition. I am not saying that we deserve any type of recognition, but we also don’t always deserve the criticism either.

Allen Iverson is one of the greatest scorers and players the game has ever seen.  This is especially true, seeing that he is under six feet which is almost unheard of when it comes to great scorers in NBA history.  Over the last  several years, Iverson has dipped in production and hasn’t really improved the teams he’s played on to a great extent.  He was playing for Denver with Carmelo Anthony one of the top scorers in the league and couldn’t get past the first round.  He gets traded for Chauncey Billups who turns the Nuggets into one of the top teams in the NBA.  Iverson goes to Detroit and doesn’t even really commit himself to that team.  He is injured at the end of the season and unable to participate in the teams first round playoff loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.  This offseason, Iverson was a free agent able to go to any team in the league.  None of the top teams in the league even took a chance on him.  He signed for a low amount of money with the Memphis Grizzlies.  The Grizzlies aren’t exactly the Los Angeles Lakers as we all know.  Allen figured, I’d play here for a season, start, get some good numbers and then the elite teams won’t be able to say no.  Well, so far not so good for the answer.  He has been coming off the bench and recently he has stepped away from the team to attend to  his family.

Iverson was in one of the best drafts the league has ever seen.  He was drafted in the same class as Kobe, Nash, and Ray Allen just to name a few.  Iverson sees how much success all of those guys are having and doesn’t see himself as any worse than those guys.  Wefreshmen are pretty big Iverson fans.  We love his attitude and the way he plays.  There is a time, however when everyone’s skills deteriorate and it is on the player to recognize that and adjust.  We aren’t saying necessarily that he needs to retire, but he needs to examine where he is in his career and what he can realistically do at this point.

Summer of 2010, Lebron James, Free Agency, New York City. We have been contemplating over the last several years over this topic. New York City is and has been the biggest and most major market in America and one of the top in the world if not the top. “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Many analysts and such have been trying to convince everone that Lebron needs to either go to New York or he will never be the star that he really wants to be. (Lebron has said that he wants to become a billionaire). New York, one would think would be the place to do this. In the history of sports and entertainment in this country, the biggest normally have performed in the Big Apple.

One could say that, but in basketball, especially, the biggest stars haven’t necessarily come from the city that never sleeps. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, all played in cities outside of NY and are arguably the biggest stars the sport has ever seen. One could argue that New York basketball hasn’t had a ultra megastar since the 1970s Knicks Teams with Frazier and Reed. Many people believe that Lebron is a world star, with a world stage, no matter where he is playing ball. The argument that he needs to be in New York or Los Angeles might have been relevant back in the days before internet and digital cable. But today, if I wanted to, from Waterford, Ireland, or Newcastle, South Africa, or Chicago, Illinois, I can watch every NBA game of every player that I want to watch. The argument that he would get MORE endorsement opportunities is also interesting because, I am pretty sure he has about every single one that he wants at this point and if he wanted more, I’m sure he would ask for and get it.

With all of this said, it is a very tempting thing to talk about. The fact that Lebron could go to a team like the Nets, hypothetically and play under the ownership of mega mogul Jay-Z and Russian billionaire, Mikhail Prokhorov is so tempting. Lebron would instantly be the biggest sports star in Russia, still appeal to the young hip hop generation, start a team with other young players and in a new arena in Brooklyn. Many of us would be able to at least understand most of the reasoning for a move like this one.

BUT, isn’t the main goal of any competitor, winning. Lebron could mess up a pretty good situation that he has in Cleveland. They make the playoffs and go deep in the playoffs every year. He always has a chance to win a championship and the team has shown a conscious effort to improve and put players around him that will help him be successful. With that said, look at some of the guys around him. First lets look at the good, “younger,” players. Mo Williams, Delonte West, J.J. Hickson, Daniel Gibson, Jemario Moon, and even Anthony Parker. Thats decent, but then you look at some of the “other” guys. An old Shaq, old Big Z, and Anderson Varejao who would be a solid big man. When you look at the history of the league. When teams have dynasties, even small ones, there are two major players in that effort. Whether it was back in the 60s and 70s and 80s with the Celtics and Lakers teams of great players, or Bulls with Jordan and Scottie, Lakers with Kobe and Shaq, Spurs with Duncan and Robinson or Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. It is extremely difficult, almost impossible for a string of rings to be won, with one great player and a bunch of supporting cast type of guys. Lebron needs to figure out a way for him to get teamed up with another great player. I don’t know if that is something he can do in Cleveland. I think he has to either go to New York, which would be more attractive to getting a Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh or someone of that skill set. If he wants to stay loyal to the state of Ohio, who has been there for him while he has grown up then that is on him. I just know that Lebron wants to win a ring and doing that with his current roster projected over the next five to ten years seems highly unlikely, when you look at teams like the Magic, Celtics, and Lakers who have a number of great talents on their teams, while Lebron is battling with one great player and 11 others.

Ok we are about half way through this college football season. There are still some undefeated teams and many one loss teams. The BCS rankings have now been out for two weeks so you know that is the thing every analyst and fan is talking about. Last week and this week Florida looked “vulnerable,” USC as well, Alabama and many of the other top programs. Some of the expectations for some of these top teams is so ridiculous sometimes. Winning by thirty and forty points every week is difficult for any program no matter how talented they are. The most important thing for all these teams through these tough parts of the season is to win. Winning ugly and pretty doesn’t necessarily matter. As the Oakland Raiders organization “tries” to make famous, “Just Win Baby.” Sometimes you learn things from tough ugly wins that you wouldn’t necessarily learn if you continued to blow out the teams that you are facing all season. There are a lot of factors that go into teams being good at the end of the season and they don’t necessarily have to do with winning looking good. We still have about five games to go for each of these teams and I guarantee you the teams like USC, Florida, and Alabama, winning any way you can is the most important thing.