Conclusion to the end of the semester

Whew!!!! This semester has passed by so quickly its hard to believe it will be Christmas next week! I must say it is bittersweet because I really enjoyed my experiences in this class. My expectations for the class when I signed up for it was we were going to learn about the history of sports. I thought alright were going to have to remember a bunch of dates and learn about how sports originated. It was far more than that as I soon found out. Talking about the impact of athletes in their respective sports, classic matches, scandals, variations of sports, sport facilities, and ethical dilemmas. There was so much I did not realize about sports and their impact on society back then. Whether it was Ali, Billie Jean King, Jackie Robinson, or Jack Dempsey to name a few that had impacted the world of sport. Most classes just tell you about their achievements in a particular sport, but I enjoyed how we examined other aspects than just their accomplishments. Discussing why it was important, how it impacted different people and what it meant to the sport was a whole different aspect I soon began to realize as the semester went on.
I loved the fact we had group discussions and that people were not afraid to express their opinion. I think you are the first teacher to actually allow our discussions to basically halt a lecture for a significant time just so you could hear our take on things Dr. Spencer. Our group discussions was a nice alternative to lecture as well as videos to help us remember significant events. I also think the videos actually let us get a feel for how important an event really was.
I think my favorite part about taking this class was that I could finally talk sports with my grandpa and my father. I actually knew some of the people they would talk about during family events and being able to inform them of things they might have forgotten or did not know. There were so many times where I felt in the dark when they would talk about sports back then, but that is no longer a problem.
As far as the blogs go I enjoyed doing them, I just wish I would have took advantage of expressing my opinion even more by doing more posts. I think it is a great alternative for a final project because it allows you to gradually do it over the semester. Whenever a topic related to class was in the news, we could discuss it on our blog or we could elaborate further on class discussion. Getting feedback from other people as well as giving it was a great way to see other peoples point of view.

I would definitely recommend this class to future students and I would like to end by wishing everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS! and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Hope everyone has a great break!

College coaches should have to coach their bowl game before leaving for another job

As many of you know Notre Dame recently hired their new football coach, former Cincinnati Bearcats coach Brian Kelley. Brian Kelley had an impressive year at UC leading his team to a perfect 13-0 season and a spot in the Sugar Bowl against Florida. It is almost a second National title game. This will be the biggest game in the universities entire football history and coach Kelley will not be coaching his players. I was appalled when I found out this news and felt so sorry for the athletes at Cincinnati. To what point has college football become a business where coaches can leave for the bigger money. What happened to tradition or the Joe Pa's of the world? His reason for not coaching the game was his focus is on Notre Dame now and he can not do anything about that. After showing up to the awards banquet in Cincinnati and announcing to his players he would be leaving, twelve of those players got up and left the minute he told them.
The NCAA needs to make a rule where coaches are not to be contacted until the season is finished and cannot take coaching offers until they have played their bowl game if they qualified for one. It is unfair to the student athletes who were recruited by Kelley and worked their butts off for him to get where they are now. For Kelley to go and leave shows what kind of person he really is. What will stop him from taking the next big job? There is something wrong with the rules when a coach is allowed to leave his team for a new coaching opportunity with no penalties but when a player decides to transfer, they have to sit out an entire year.

Jason Mcelwain a true sports hero

I believe that there are still some sports heroes out there in the world of sport sometimes they're just not the athletes we may want them to be. Jason Mcelwain was diagnosed wit autism and was the team manager for Greece Athena High School. He had always practiced in the basketball gym when he was not doing other things for the coach. On the final home game of the year J-Mac "his nickname" was allowed to suit up not knowing if he was going to play or not. During the fourth quarter of the game Greece Athena took a large lead in the game and thats when the crowd began to chant his name. They wanted coach Jim Johnson to put their manager in the game. The crowd finally got what they wanted and Jason was inserted into the game. His first shot attempt was an air ball, but that did not stop him from shooting again. To everyones surprise J-Mac made it and he went on to make six 3 pointers on his way to 20 points in four minutes! The crowd went nuts and stormed the court after the game hold Jason up and chanting his name. After what the kid has had to deal with his whole life he finally got his moment in the spotlight and a performance that will forever change me and a lot of other people. I remember watching the ESPN special on it and it brought tears to my eyes. Hearing his story touched my life the way sports heroes used to do. THe president, Oprah, and Magic Johnson all wanted to see him. As Magic quoted "It touched every emotion in your body, because you cheer for guys like him" (Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUEFA0JYMGo)
It made me believe anything is possible and never doubt something or someones potential. So in the age of no "real" sports heroes here is a perfect example of a sports hero who has changed so many peoples lives with something more than sports success.

Artest tells the world he used to drink at halftime

Recently Ron Artest has been on what the NBA considered good behavior. He had not gotten in any fights on or off the court and he had been helping out a lot in the community. He had called the guy up that he punched in Detroit and apologized to him. He also has been giving out free tickets to the Lakers games on his Twitter page. Then just when we started forgetting about Artest and his brawl in Detroit, he tells the media he used to drink during halftimes of NBA games. He said he would go down to the liquor store and grab a bottle of Henessey and drink it down. He later went on to say that it was a long long time ago but why even bring it up if no one even knew about the situation? Everyone was just starting to see him as a changed man and now he comes out and say this. I guess my only response is that we finally know the reason for all the outbursts and technicals. It was the effects of the alcohol that made him act the way he did. I just do not understand how a player can get away with doing something like this. Your telling me that not one single teammate or coach seen him sucking back on a bottle of liquor? Its just crazy to think that no one knew. As of now David Stern has not made any comments about it, but I think something should be done about this. Artest could have seriously hurt someone while playing intoxicated or buzzed. It made him more aggressive and careless while playing. If I was a player and i knew someone on the team was half drunk, I would be worried they might end up doing something stupid on the court. I don't blame Artest as much as I blame the organizations he was with while he drank. I thought this news answered a lot of questions of why Artest acted the way he did during games in his early years in the NBA. Hopefully he has stopped doing this like he said he has and we can all just move on from his comments.

Response to Ethical issue presentation one and done college basketball rule

Our fellow classmates did a presentation on the issues facing the NBA's rule that a kid has to be 19 or have one year of college experience in order to enter the NBA draft. They had both sides of the issue covered very well with positives and negatives. I am kind am both sides of the argument on this particular topic. I can make so many reasons why it is a good thing, but then i have just as many for why it is bad. To start of on why I think it is a good idea is it allows players to develop more as a player and a person. At age 18 there are only a handful of kids that might be able to handle all the fame and fortune coming their way on draft day i.e. Lebron James. All that money leads to bad decisions because it is tempting to let loose from the social norms. A player feels powerful and has a sense of invincibility about them. Reality is when it comes to the law there is no safe haven. I think players learn a lot about discipline in the college game from coaches which will help them once they are in the NBA.
I like the fact that even though most of the players are one and done players, it has opened up a more even playing field and better teams. Some of these one and done players go to smaller schools where they can dominate and bring a team to the NCAA tournament. That looks really good when NBA teams are looking at who they want to draft. If that particular player happens to make it to the tournament and win the National Championship then he has nothing more to play for other than winning multiple ones, so you cant blame them for leaving after one year if they have accomplished the goal they intended to reach.
The bad side of this is that players are starting to head overseas to play for one year instead of playing in college. Brandon Jennings is the first to do it and with the success he is having right now in the NBA, we could see more following suit. I think this issue has to be monitored closely because it could hurt the college game if more and more players decide to head overseas to play. I would say this is one of the more important issues in my mind of why the rule needs to be changed. So to wrap up I would like to say that it is a good idea to have players play one year of college hoops but we should monitor the movement of high school players to make sure the overseas play will not get out of hand.

Lebron James will stay in Cleveland

It seems like every time in class we bring up Lebron James it leads to a heated discussion. Our most recent one was what Lebron will do after his contract is up. I am here to ensure all you Cleveland fans that he will indeed stay after his contract are up. Here are a few reasons to get started.
1. He has yet to win a championship in Cleveland which is what he said he will do before he decides to leave.
2. With the advancement in marketing schemes and the internet a player can be in any city and still make millions of dollars if they at the start caliber of a Lebron James.
3.Deep down I think Lebron is a homebody.
4. The Knicks are a few years away from contending and the Cavs are in contention for the title now and in the future.


So lets evaluate reason number 1: Lebron has stated that he wants to win a championship for the city of Cleveland because they deserve it. If he were to leave Cleveland without a Championship ring it would be a blemish on his career. It would be considered one of the failures and as I can tell Lebron does not like to fail.

Number 2 : Notice the 8 story tall billboard of Lebron James hanging in Cleveland? There is one similar to that promoting his shoes in the middle of time square. Lebron does not need to be in New York to get more money. He is a global icon already and the internet has allowed for small market teams to cash in on their superstars. With a city full of star athletes already Lebron will be just another one and will not get the praise he gets in Cleveland especially if things go south.

Number 3: Lebron is a homebody plain and simple. He loves being home around all his friends and family he grew up with. He enjoys the fact they can come watch him play anytime because it is just a quick drive up 71 from Akron to Cleveland. Lebron enjoys going back to his high school and watching basketball games. He is more loyal to his teammates as well and with the friendships he has created with the organization and its players will be noted when it come to a decision on where to go.

Number 4: Lebron has been in the league for over 6 years now and its about time for him to start winning. There is no need for him to step back a few years with another team. To go to a team with a star player like D-Wade would only be like a blemish because people would say well if Lebron did not have Wade then he would not have all those rings.

So lets relax for now, enjoy the season the Cavs are having this year and lets keep an optimistic approach to Lebron's decision come contract time.

Reaction to Donaghy's interview with ESPN/60 minutes

Back in the news again is referee Tim Donaghy who was accused of changing the outcomes of basketball games by changing the way he refereed. My initial reaction was really no surprise that this could happen in the NBA. There have always been allegations that certain playoff series were fixed because the NBA wanted big market teams that would draw huge television ratings. Donaghy told ESPN that certain player like Chauncy Billups and Rasheed Wallace were not liked by NBA officials and therefore would have certain rules for players they didn't like. If that meant calling more fouls or putting them on a short leash so be it. What really worried me is when Donaghy said that he was not the only one who was doing this. He did not mention many names, but he said some very respected referees were apart of this. I pretty much believed what he had to say at the moment because it didn't make any sense that only one NBA official would be involved in the scam. Then I talked to my father a little bit about the issue and he brought up a pretty good point. How do we really know if he is telling the truth or not? I mean he could be trying to stir things back up again with the NBA and he initially lied about the allegations brought on him. Still it does make you wonder whether sports have lost all their integrity as far as officials not being influence by outside gambling. The NBA did make a statement following the interview going saying that they still believed it was an isolated incident and no further investigation would take place. David Stern is probably one of the best Presidents of any sports league and I think he has taken care of the issues, so this will never happen again.

Baseball Should Have a Salary Cap Period!

I used to be one of the biggest baseball fans around when I was little and even all the way up to my senior year of high school. My ultimate goal while growing up was to be a professional baseball player and to be apart of the MLB. Now my opinion has dramatically changed because of what baseball has become. Right now i could probably tell you who is going to be in the playoffs next year and which teams will win the respective wild card for each league. Teams like Boston, New York, and the Dodgers who have ridiculous salaries just make me sick. Last year the 3 top free agents signed with the New York Yankees and as a result they won the World Series. In any other sport i.e. Basketball, thats like saying Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Kobe Bryant will all sign with the Lakers next year. Wow what a team that would be, but because of a salary cap that will not happen unless the player would willing to take a pay cut or the owner would want to pay a huge luxury tax. So when the Yankees did win the World Series this year, was anyone really surprised? I know I wasn't. What has baseball done to even out the playing field for the low market teams? Well they make the high market teams pay a tax of some kind to the lower market teams to help them out. Most of the money goes to paying for other expenses and not for new free agents. The Yankees are exempt from this tax because they built their new stadium and they have a deal with the MLB. It makes me sick when teams like the Cleveland Indians have to trade their Cy young winner back to back years because they cannot afford to pay them the huge contract dollars they want. Plus they have to do by the all star break which means half of the season is still left and they are getting rid of all their good veteran talent. Then the Indians go and trade a player like Victor Martinez who loved playing in Cleveland because they were trying to shed salary. I am just fed up with baseball and will probably not pay much attention to it anymore until they figure out how to even the playing field.

College Football Playoff

I know this is a huge topic of debate between any college football fan. Whether or not College football should incorporate a playoff system to determine the National Championship. I for one am in favor of this movement towards a playoff system. Over the last 5 years the debate has become an even more heated and teams from smaller conferences are getting better. You look at the top ten teams this year as of right now they go as follow:
1.Florida 6.Boise State
2.Alabama 7.Georgia Tech
3.Texas 8.LSU
4.TCU 9.Pittsburgh
5.Cincinnati 10.Ohio State

I agree with these ranking for the most part but what is not shown is their records. The top 6 have records of 10-0 and if they win their remaining games they will stay the same, that is with the exception of the SEC championship game which will make either Alabama or Florida with a loss assuming they take care of business on Saturday.Then we have 5 teams who will remain undefeated, and only two will have a shot at the title. Now the unwritten rule seems to be if you go undefeated in the regular season, you go to the title game. This will not be the case if it happens this year with those 5 respected teams.
I look at the past few National title games especially the ones in which the Buckeyes were in. They had no business being in the title game when they played LSU. This is coming from a die hard Buckeye fan too. The only reason we were in that game is because we won our last few games and some of the more deserving teams had a slip up at the end of the season. All the coaches seem to preach finishing the end of the season on a high note because if you lose early, you can always make your way back up to the top. Then when Oklahoma got beat by Boise State in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl who maybe should have deserved a shot at the National title game. The problem is there is too much money invested in the BCS Bowl games and when schools are receiving in excess of 8 million dollars for making it to the big game, I can see why they are content on the system.
Here is my idea of a playoff system. Take the top 8 teams in the BCS and set them up in a bracket playing on a neutral field and play out the bracket till you get to the big game. There will be a week between each game just like the regular season to give teams time to prepare. That will eliminate the 4-5 week period before the big game to watch more football. The teams will remain fresh and in shape instead of looking rusty when starting the game.

Players lives being intruded by the media

Nick and Shaun had their ethical issues presentation the other day asking the question of whether or not the media should be allowed to intrude the personal lives of athletes. I think the media should be restricted to as how far they can go when trying to get a story or take the next big time picture of a celebrity doing something wrong. It gets to the point where an athlete can’t even sit down in a restaurant and enjoy time with their families because once they walk in or out pictures are being taken. The problem is the average Joe wants to see celebrities or athletes fall from the ranks of high society because we paint this picture of them as being a role model and when they do not live up to it society loves coming down on them. We need to realize that even though they are athletes and people do look up to them, they are people as well and people make mistakes. I have made plenty of mistakes in my life that I have learned from but the only people who know about it are the ones around me. For an athlete, if they make a mistake the whole country knows about it. Sometimes I think it gets to the point where some athletes are not themselves because their PR representative or organization does not want them getting into to trouble or saying the wrong thing. Money is usually lost in some way when something comes up with an athlete.

Then you have things happening like athletes houses getting broken into because the media does some story about how big their house is and what is in it. Incidents like Sean Taylor getting killed while getting robbed might not have happened. The problem is I do not think this problem with the media intruding lives of athletes can be stopped. The reason being is with everyone having a cell phone with a camera on it everyone becomes part of the media. You look at Matt Leinhart’s pictures with the beer bong and Michael Phelps smoking bong, those pictures were taken by people like you and me who probably got a nice sum of money from the media so they could publish the story. If anything athletes will have to be even more cautious of their actions outside of their home because you never know who might be out there trying to ruin the athletes life by taking a picture of something an average person may have done but because they are athletes it is worth money and money always talks.

Brett Favre's return to Lambeu Field

This weekend in sports was a big one especially in both college and NFL football. We saw USC get handled against Oregon who shook up the BSC standings even more. Iowa remains undefeated after scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter to beat Indiana and keep their title hopes alive. We saw Chris Johnson and Maurice Jones Drew combine for 4 TD's and all 4 were 50 plus yards in the NFL. Ted Ginn Jr. returned two kickoffs for touchdowns as well, but the the most anticipated game had to be Brett Favre's return to Green Bay. This game was emotional for both sides because it is a huge rivalry in their division and after 16 years in Green Bay, Favre was returning as the enemy. Lets just say he was not welcomed with open arms when he came out onto the field. He was booed for the whole opening drive of the Vikings. Although the fans did boo him I could not help but notice number 4 Packer jerseys still in the crowd showing support for their former quarterback. I understand they need to boo the opposition, but at some times it seemed like those 16 years Favre was there meant nothing to the fans. He won them a Super Bowl there and never missed a game while he was a Packer. The fans need to realize that the NFL is a business as well as a sport and sometimes businesses have to make a decision for the future and they went with Rodgers. Favre was not ready to call it quits and from the looks of it he still has another Super Bowl run left in him with the team he has now. As the game clocked struck zero Favre had finished the game with 4 TD's and no interceptions in a another win against his former team. To add a little historical value to this post, Favre is the only player to play in all 32 NFL stadiums over his career.

Indian Logos and Team Name

Today I would like to discuss a controversial topic that has been put on the back burner lately in society and that is sports teams that use Indian tribes and symbols as their logo or team name. We discussed this last week in class and it brought up quite a few arguments for and against. Now I'm not here to say whether I am for or against it, but I do see both sides. If anything I am undecided on the matter. First to have a team name such as the Washington Redskins can be offensive, especially to the Native American population. Some Indians refer to the term redskin as the equivalent to using the "N" word. Personally i believe if that is the case, I think something should be done about the team name. I know the common argument is that the team does not want to lose money over it, but there were plenty of colleges team such Miami, OH who changed their names to the Redhawks and they did not see a decrease in revenue. Last week on Around the Horn Bill Palaschke won face time and during it he spoke of a hearing coming up against the Redskins. There was a group fighting for them to change their names. I thought it was kinda cool because we had just talked about the subject in class and here it was in the news the next day.

There are other teams out there like the Cleveland Indians who are under fire to change their name as well. I don't see what is so offensive in using the work Indian in a sports name. I do not think it is derogatory in anyway. The only thing that looks bad is the chief wahoo pictured on most of their merchandise. All these teams are under scrutiny to change their team names when that has created a lot of tradition and history in the ball club and its fans. If the Cleveland Indians were to change their name, Does that mean all the history before they changed their name is gone? or is converted into the new name? I think a good example is the Indians recently changed their stadium name from Jacobs field to Progressive field. In my mind, since i grew up watching the Indians in the 90's, it will forever be the Jake to me and other Tribe fans i have talked to. It almost feels like your taking a part of the history away. It would have been different, had they built a new stadium and named it Progressive field.

To conclude, I don't really see a clear cut solution anytime soon. Both sides have great arguments of why they do or do not think the team should change their name. It will eventually come down to the legal process and the leagues themselves to take action. Until that happens it is going to be a debate.

Introduction

Hey everyone! My name is Marcus Hoke and I am a Sport Marketing student here at Bowling Green State University. I am currently a senior/junior because I switched majors before my sophomore year from business to sport management. I chose to go the sports management route because I enjoy watching and being apart of sports. So far this has been an exciting major and I am ready to find more opportunities to get experience in my specified field.

I would say football and basketball are my favorite sports to watch. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why they are my two favorite sports to watch. I would say its because I played both in high school, but my school didn't have football so I really dont know what its like to play football unless you count playing out the yard with some friends lol. Football is just football, its hard hitting and constant action that gets a persons adrenaline going. I love the atmosphere the fans bring into the stadium with their tradition and pride. Basketball is my favorite sport to play, but I also love watching it as well. I would have to say the whole team concept of the sport draws me into it. There are so many elements that come into play with basketball and alot of them require you to trust your teammates.

As far as what specific moment in sports history that I would like to have seen. I would have to When da Bears won the Super Bowl, ha ha Saturday Night Live moment. Anyway back to the real question, it would have to when the Dream Team was assembled and they won the gold medal. The combination of all the greatest NBA players at the time period playing together for one cause is amazing. Jordan, Magic, Shaq, Robinson, and that is only a few of the great players on that team. It takes a lot to find the right combo of star players to play together, I mean look at the past olympic teams after the dream teams. Sure they had some great players, but some players were unable to accept the fact they were playing for something bigger than themselves and as a result lost. It was not until the Re-Deam Team as the captains Lebron, Kobe, Wade, and Melo put it, to win another gold medal because they all came together for one goal.

I look forward to being in this class and have already enjoyed discussions with everyone in and out of class. I plan on learning more as a continue to get used to the whole blogging thing.

Until next time as they say in BG Roll Along!