The start of the merger: Joe Namath

When I think of the first really flashy professional football player it came way before 'Neon' Deion or Michael Irvin or Terrell Owens. The player who set the bar for all players following him was Joe Namath. What may have started him on this path was when he was selected by the New York Jets of the AFL for an incredible $420,000. It could have been the Lincoln Continental he received with his contract also. Namath's nickname was "Broadway Joe" and it made sense. He was very flashy with his fur coats and many women. His fame became more after he guaranteed and delivered a victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. But it wasn't any of this that Namath should be most famous for. It should be that he may be responsible for the Super Bowl all together.

When Namath signed his huge contract in 1965 with the New York Jets of the AFL it may have sparked the beginning of the merger of the AFL and NFL. That year Namath was drafted by the older and more powerful NFL team the St. Louis Cardinals. Namath refused to join the older and bigger league and signed with the New York Jets in the AFL. Three years later the NFL started to notice the large rookie contracts players were signing in both leagues. They were afraid to get in a cost and bidding war so they invited the AFL to merge with them. Joe Namath may be bigger than his stats, his guarantee, and his Super Bowl win. His biggest accomplishment, and possibly biggest sports feat ever, is being the catalyst for the AFL/NFL merger and eventually the Super Bowl.

Women's sports being overshadowed

It seems that women's sports are overlooked ad accomplishments by women's teams sometimes go unrecognized whereas there male counterparts are much more glorified in their success than they are. The example I want to look at is this year's Connecticut Lady Huskies and their more than impressive 39-0 championship season. However, the women's national championship game that pitted the Huskies against the Louisville Cardinal couldn't even be seen on national television. They put it on ESPN, which is actually a step up when most of the tournament coverage was seen only on ESPN2. 

I would find this as an insult as anybody who follows UConn or women's college basketball. For a team to go 39-o, which is the best record any collegiate team has ever accomplished, and get very little recognition for it is absurd. Say the same school, UConn, and their men's basketball team went 39-0, you wouldn't stop hearing about it and they would be mentioned as one of the greatest teams of all time. By the way, the Lady Huskies beat every opponent they faced by 10 or more points all season. These accomplishments should not go overlooked. 

The college football coach

Being a former college football player, be it at a small school, I think there has been a shift in coaching styles throughout the years. In the beginning there was Knute Rockne. Rockne was the first coach to instill the idea in his players as a coach and a mentor as well as a friend. The coaches job was not only to teach them and coach them to win games but to guide them into becoming a man. However, as college football got to be more of a spectacle and such a great importance was put on winning there seemed to be a shift. Coaches were more focused on pushing their players to their limits and doing whatever it took to win. Great examples of coaches like this were the famed "Bear" Bryant and Woody Hayes. Though these coaches have gone down in history as some of the greatest of all time, they weren't really know for their charismatic and lovable personalities. These coaches were known to really push their players and a lot of time be hated by their players because of the extent to which they were being exerted. 

Nowadays it feels as if there has been a shift back to a more traditional and charismatic coach like that of Rockne. From personal experience I have seen this. When I played in college the main goal of our coach before even winning games was to shape his players into men. He put a high importance on faith and character. During the recruiting process he made it known that these were his goals and that he looked forward to his recruit being a part of something great  during his weekly phone calls. I also see this same style in coaches like Jim Tressel from Ohio State and Pete Carroll from USC. They seem to really care about their players not only based on their ability but their characters. These coaches develop close personal relationships with their players and have a very clean and fun-loving image to the media. While you can say their styles may seem different, they both seem to evolve around personal relationships and building character. In these ways I think the college football coach has transformed back into the ideals of Knute Rockne and the "unique formula".

Sports Heroes

I know this post is kind of late but I need to catch up.
When I think of sports heroes the first name that comes to my mind is Babe Ruth. I think there are many reasons we can consider him a hero in sports. First of all is his upbringing and youth. Being an orphan and not having a very good childhood Ruth epitomized what it meant to live the American Dream. That is success without being born into it and it not just being given to you. I think a lot of people can relate to this as being the American Dream. Maybe not having as much success or fame or riches as Ruth but living a very comfortable life relative to where they started. Also I think people liked the fact that he was an out of shape man and didn't seem very athletic. These factors gave everyday ordinary people hope for more in their lives.
It is kind of strange and difficult to imagine the sports stars of today being heralded as heroes by later generations. It seems that no athlete today or even in the last 25 years has accomplished or will accomplish the kinds of things the Babe did. He shattered records and rewrote the books. Today there is just too much competition out there. I think the only players that may be close to being considered sports heroes one day are Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. They have already established themselves as dominating their respective game as Ruth did. I just wonder how a player like Babe Ruth will be looked upon after many more generations of players come and go in each sport. Hopefully he will always get the same respect and be regarded as the same hero he always has been.

Sports Commentators

I believe that as a fan the commentator of a game has a lot to do with how much I can enjoy a game. Sometimes if I feel the announcer is biased either way towards either team I can't even stand to watch the game. I really can't stand a bad in-game commentator. Sometimes I even mute the game on TV and find a local radio station that is broadcasting the game. It is very important to me and I'm sure a lot of fans to have an unbiased intelligent announcer. 

Some of the most important and biggest plays in sports history have some of the most memorable quotes from the commentators. It seems that every big sports moment is paired up with a commentator. The best commentators are those that know what they are talking about, are unbiased and are dramatic. Being dramatic as a commentator makes it seem that the game is as important to them as it is to the fans. That is important in a commentator.

In some instances I think it is okay to be biased as an announcer. If the announcer calls games only for a certain station and team then it is okay. I think Michael Reghi was a great caller of games for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was very enthusiastic about the Cavs and people felt like he was a fan calling the games. He was famous in Cleveland for his intense and dramatic calls of plays. I think it was wrong that he was fired and was replaced by the Detroit Pistons announcer Fred McLeod. Cleveland needed a Cleveland guy like Reghi calling the game, not the enemies former announcer. 

With all things said, I think it is very important who the commentator is in enjoying a game.

Intercollegiate Athletics

Intercollegiate athletics are a huge part of the history and philosophy of sports. I think it is safe to say that intercollegiate athletics are taking over the sports world. That is at least in two sports, football and basketball. A reason I think that intercollegiate sports may be more popular than professional sports is because not all states or big cities have a professional sports team. However, all states and most big cities have a big college program. 

For example, look at the Arkansas Razorbacks football team. Arkansas has no professional sports organizations in the whole state. People latch on to the Razorbacks as their professional team. Darren McFadden became a superstar playing in a state with no professional team but excelled at the college level. Another great example is at Utah and Boise State. The only professional team in either state is the Utah Jazz NBA team. Neither have a professional football team. Both states connect better to their collegiate teams. Utah and Boise State have had a lot of success as smaller schools competing against the bigger schools. I think most of the focus of sports fans in these states are on their football programs. Even in states where professional sports are prominent, like in Ohio, a lot of people enjoy watching the Ohio State Buckeyes rather than any other team. I think this is because of the success Ohio State has had and a fan likes to root for a winner. All other teams in Ohio have had very little success and sometimes its hard to be a fan of those teams. 

Another point to be made is the following of the NCAA basketball tournament. It alone is the biggest sporting event in the United States. Every game is bet on and people do brackets and pay attention to the tournament even if the team they root for isn't in the tournament. I used to watch the games in class in high school on a five inch TV to keep up with the games. 

The final reason is that collegiate athletics are pure. Players aren't competing for money but for pride. It's not about that next paycheck but for your school and the fans of your program and the history. That isn't seen nearly as much in professional sports.

All of these reason are why I think college football and basketball are taking over the sporting world.

The Origins of Baseball

I found Thursday's class to be especially interesting because I am so interested in the sport of baseball. I really enjoy finding out and discovering new things about something I already know a lot about. The origins of baseball have always been kind of a hazy area for me - especially the early rules. Though a lot of the rules are the same, some I thought were kind of strange or funny. First of all, there were no called strikes, you had to swing and miss three times in order to be called out. I am very glad that this isn't the rule today because I don't see a lot of players at any level swinging and missing completely three times. Either the pitchers were very good in this era, or the games were very long with more hits and most outs came via a batted ball. I guess the point wasn't really to strike anybody out in that era but to let them hit the ball though seeing as that the pitcher was obligated to toss the ball gently. 

These are the really early days though before games even got very competitive. What really struck me however, was that even as the game progressed into a more competitive era, for a while an out could be recorded by throwing the ball at the runner. I found that funny because when I used to play stickball when I was younger we would use a tennis ball and outs could be recorded by throwing and hitting the runner with the ball. I always wondered how that came to be. As weird and interesting as some of the rules of the game were then, I am very glad where they are and have been for generations now. Baseball seems to be a game where the rules have changed the least over the course of the years. Almost every year there seems to be a rule change in professional football. I think that baseball has very sold roots and the rules for the game that were established so long ago are still perfect for today's game.