Sports are a catalyst for our society

The social climate in the 1930's in the United States was a proverbial powder keg. The economy was at one of it's lowest points in our history and racial issues became a social issue. What I mean when I say social issue, is when something becomes important to the society as a whole, not just a select group. Racism was very strong in the south, and a large migration of blacks to northern cities increased tension there; largely because of job competition in a horrendous economy. (Source) In addition to economic issues in America, political tensions were increasing due to the growing Nazi party in Germany. Amidst all of this, Joe Louis an African-American boxer, was establishing himself as one of the greatest boxers in the world. In 1938, Joe Louis fought Max Schmeling for the second time and much to the chagrin of both boxers they became political figures. They were both used in propaganda
by their respective countries and this fight became more then a Heavyweight Boxing match. The United States rallied behind Joe Louis, because despite racial tensions he was better than the Nazi's.



Two years prior to the big fight, Jesse Owens put forth a magnificent performance by winning four Gold Medals in Berlin, Germany. Joe Louis and Jesse Owens became more than just men to America through their athletic excellence. Joe Louis Jr. had this to say about his father, "What my father did was enable white America to think of him as an American, not as a black... By winning, he became white America's first black hero.". I could elaborate further on the great things Joe Louis did, but I think I've sufficiently shown his importance and why he's a personal hero of mine. Both Owens and Louis opened the door for other great black athletes in America who further perpetuated the social status of their race such as Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron.

You can make similar arguments about what sports have done for women's right. Events such as the 1900 Olympics where women were first allowed to compete, Jackie Mitchell becoming the first female major league baseball player (which included her striking out Babe Ruth), Katharine Switzer running the Boston Marathon under a fake name, and Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs in tennis.

The point in bringing up these monumental moments in the history of the United States is to show that sports play a large role in our society and it's progression. Sometimes it's hard to change people's paradigm in conventional ways, and sports provide a unique vehicle to change beliefs. Sports can do this even if it just starts with making it hard to hate someone who plays for your team or country. It is my belief that we are coming up on another serious social issue in America, and that sports are once again showing us the way. The social issue I'm referring to is religious tolerance.

It is my belief that religious tensions have reached a precipice in the United States. It seems like every time I turn on the news or go to CNN.com I hear/read something about a church being burned down, Muslims being discriminated against, or church's protesting seemingly outrageous things (like funerals for fallen soldiers). In addition to these horrendous things, I recently came across a study that showed evidence that Atheists are currently the most discriminated group in America. (Source). What this shows to me is a fundamental lack of respect for one another and it scares me.

Once again, I believe sports are trying to show the United States how we should treat each other. As I watched the World Basketball Championship (WBC) that took place in Turkey this past summer I saw a simple act that got me thinking about this topic. In the previous WBC, certain countries were offended by the dancers who performed at halftime and during timeouts. So this year when these teams were playing FIBA made sure the dancers dressed and danced a little more conservatively. It was a really simple gesture by FIBA, but I believe that simple gestures are all it takes. Another thing that jumped out at me is a slightly looser connection, but to me it is still worth noting. BYU is a religious University and when they decided to leave the Mountian West Conference and become an Independent in football things got a little crazy. The original plan was for BYU to become Independent in football and then join the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports. Things fell apart in the WAC and BYU's aspirations to be an Independent were shattered. The conference who came to BYU's aid is largely comprised of religious Universities(West Coast Conference) who have no affiliation with BYU. In addition to the WCC reaching out to BYU, Notre Dame (a Catholic University) agreed to play a series of games with BYU Football. Since BYU will be an Independent they'll need quality teams to play against to legitimize their team. With Notre Dame and other Universities agreeing to play BYU, they'll be able to put forth a good enough schedule to gain respect nationally. Sure the WCC is going to be bolstered by the addition of a school like BYU to it's conference and the Universities that agreed to play series with BYU will likely get a spike in ratings. But that's the point that I'm trying to make, religious tolerance can be mutually beneficial for all.

Sports like religion bring out the best and worst in people, but we need to take our queues from the positive things we see in both. It doesn't matter what religion you are or aren't, life is hard, so take it easy on people and do what you can to make things easier for everyone. It doesn't take a lot of work and it can be mutually beneficial for everyone if we just treat each other with respect. We've seen it work in the sports world, and I believe we can make it work in our everyday life as well. We've seen the blueprint for change in society with Civil and Women's rights, maybe we can apply lessons learned in the past to our present situation.

That's all for now, check back in next week and it won't be such a serious topic. This is just something that's been on my mind lately and I wanted to get it off. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday.

Nobody likes refs.

I went to a College Basketball game the other night and I lost my voice from yelling and boo'ing so much. It was one of the worst officiated sporting events I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot. I left that game dejected. As I walked to my car with my buddy Brad I started formulating an idea for a better way. Like always, sound off in the comments if you like it or hate it. It's just the thoughts of a fan who's had his heart broken too many times by officials.

Instant Replays and Challenges were a step in the right direction and I think they have largely improved the quality of the games without effecting the flow. But in my opinion we are drastically under-utilizing the technology we have access to. Some will argue that we need to keep the human element to the game to keep it pure, and that by using too much technology we are changing the game. I believe this is a straw man argument that people use to avoid innovation. Whatever sport you're playing there have been drastic changes from the advent of that sport. These range from changes to make things safer for the players to making the game more exciting. Golf is an example of a sport that has changed to be more exciting. Clubs have gone from wood to high tech metals that have been created to maximize the distance of shots or maximize the spin of a ball. In regards to changes for safety, football has been one of the best examples of this as evidenced by the evolution of equipment. These safety measures have allowed people to change the way they play the game. Take a look at a player from the 1890's compared to today.





This is why I think the argument of the purity of the game is a straw man argument, because they've already changed the game so much. I'm not lobbying to slow down the game to make sure every penalty or foul is actually there. What I'm saying is we should be able to use the technology that is readily available to make the games more accurate and balanced. Since I'm currently most burnt up about basketball my ideas for change are going to center around basketball although I believe the principal could be applied to many other sports as well.

I was raised to believe that everyone is accountable, from the Government to my Family there have always checks and balances. These checks and balances are not present in today's sports and I think it creates an unfair work environment for the players and coaches. What I mean is, a player is accountable to his team, his coach, and the refs. If he commits a foul then the ref blows his whistle and the player is penalized. If a coach exhibits behavior that is not befitting of his position then that coach can get technicals or be ejected. Even fans can be escorted out of the building if they get out of line. But what about the referees? What if they aren't on their game on a given night? Sure, players and coaches can talk to the refs and point out things that are bothering them, but in my opinion it appears to be largely ineffective. So why don't we use technology that's already available to make tangible changes to the game? I think it'd be pretty simple if the people in charge were willing to commit to it. Sports have become such a large industry that generates billions and billions of dollars, I think it is imperative that we create a better system.

So here's what I'm suggesting, a fairly simple solution that can be tweaked to fit any sport. Like I said, since I am most recently burnt up by a basketball game, I'm going to direct my solution to the game of basketball. I think the easiest way to do this would be to provide every team with a device that they can use to input their complaints as the game goes on. Say for an example they have an iPad. You create a program that displays the players who are presently on the court for the opposing team. When something happens on the court that a coach feels is a mistake by the ref, they can input the player and the offense that they believe the ref missed. They could choose these offenses from a general list of preselected complaints. Say a player is hooking on the block to create space for his shot, the complain would read something like "Illegal Contact". It would be easy to put a time-stamp on each complaint if you have a clock running on the program that is in sync with the game clock. You could give each team 5-10 "complaints" for the first half. At the conclusion of the first half the referees can watch these complaints from both teams within a matter of 2 or 3 minutes, that would give them about 5 minutes to discuss the video they've seen, and a minute or two to explain to the coaches their conclusions. I'm not saying every time they ref is going to have to apologize, rather they can explain they are allowing that level of contact on the block for the game and the team should adjust accordingly. If the performance of a ref is below the standard set by whatever governing body of referees they are associated with these refs should be removed from the game. I don't think every time a ref calls a game poorly it's because he prefers one team over the other, sometimes I think a ref can just be off his game. If this is the case, something needs to be done to create a positive work environment for everyone. How they handle the removal of a referee is a different discussion. The easiest way to do this would be to have an extra ref at every game, but this is quite expensive. You could have a system where a ref watches via satellite and fills in when necessary. There are many solutions, but the point of this post is to address the necessity of accountability from our referees.

This change in the game is important to the players, coaches, fans, and the refs themselves. I'm a huge Seahawks fan, and I'm still bothered by the Super Bowl in 2006. A team full of players who had spent their lives working to get to that point, some that may never have another chance to get back there, were subject to awful officiating. Naturally the fans were devastated, but it's effected those referees as well. Nearly 5 years later one of the referees issued an apology to the Seahawks for his role in the game. More famously, Jim Joyce cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Everyone knew he missed the call who saw the replay, even after watching the replay once they knew. Jim Joyce knew after he saw the replay in the locker room. That mistake could have been avoided in 10 seconds, instead we missed what would have only been the 19th occurrence of something in 110 years. Jim Joyce has to live with that for the rest of his life, as well as Galarraga missing out on a huge highlight in his career. That's why I think there needs to be a change, because while you can tell me it's "just sports", I'm going to tell you that lives are changed because of the things that happen in those sports.

Nobody likes referee's. They have one of the most difficult jobs in sports and by the nature of their job they are going to make someone upset with each decision they make. I realize you'll never be able to make everyone happy, but I think there has to be a better way than what we're currently subject to.

BCS Busted if Boise State isn't a Buster

First off I appreciate all the support from my first post, I didn't expect this blog to get the response it did so quickly but it's greatly appreciated. Hopefully as I continue writing I'll get a little better and this can become more of an interactive experience where people's voices are heard. I love talking about sports and appreciate comments from other people who share my passion. I wanted to post something about the talent rich area of Seattle basketball, but I'm still waiting to hear back from a 206 Baller I reached out to. We'll see if I get lucky and hear from him soon, in between time I have to get this BCS stuff off my chest!

It's that time of year again, not just the holidays, but the time where everyone gets to complain about how bad the BCS is. Generally, I try to stay out of this debate because largely I think the BCS gets the two best teams in the National Championship. And there is an outside chance they could still get it right this year, but I'm not banking on it. I believe this year is potentially the most egregious case for the BCS system being fundamentally broken and exclusionary. You can make a case for Auburn back in 2004 being a debacle, but realistically things just didn't fall their way as Oklahoma and USC were ranked higher in the pre-season poll and went undefeated. Maybe that's what we'll end up saying about Boise State if they are denied an opportunity to play in the BCS Championship after this season; but in my opinion it's slightly different story. It's different because Boise State was ranked higher in the Pre-Season polls than all three of the teams presently in front of them in the BCS standings. So in this post I'm going to make a case for why Boise State proves the BCS is fundamentally broken.

Boise State has been the modicum of success for the last 5 years with the exception of a "down" year in which they only won 10 games. Over the last 2 1/2 seasons (including this year) they are 34-1. They were undefeated last year in a season where they played both TCU and Oregon (2 of the 3 teams currently ranked higher than them), and they returned 21 of the 22 starters from that team. It's true that while last years victories don't necessarily reflect the current talent level at either TCU or U of O it is notable when you consider the volume of players who returned for Boise State. In addition to that, TCU is largely the same team on offense as they have returned their QB Andy Dalton, WR's Jeremy Kerley and Jimmy Young, RB's Ed Wesley and Matthew Tucker. Additionally their Offensive Line has stayed primarily the same, but you return your leading passer, top 2 WR's, 3 of your 4 rushing leaders. The difference between the leading rusher who did not return and the second leading rusher is a mere 70 yards and the largest gap between the leading rusher and the fourth leading rusher was only 150 yards. Their defense has largely stayed the same as well with the exception of losing two elite LB's to the NFL, which is why some analysts like Mel Kiper contend their defense is worse this year. They both had victories over Oregon State and a team on the road who was ranked #5 at the time they played. So there is minimal differences between these two teams resume's, yet TCU jumped Boise State in the rankings. You can tell me you think TCU beat the #5 team they played more convincingly and you're right, but it was also an in-conference rival who was largely overrated as they hadn't played any real talent all year. While Virginia Tech may have stumbled after their loss to BSU they have since rebounded and are looking at winning their conference and are back in the top 20 in the nation so that's a wash to me if not a point in BSU's favor. So how is Boise State currently on the outside looking in? If the season ended today, the team with the longest current undefeated streak in FBS who beat 2 of the 3 teams ranked above them during that streak would not play in a National Championship game let alone a BCS game. This is ludicrous to me and I believe shows a fundamental flaw in the system. It shows there is literally nothing certain schools can do to be taken serious in College Football. At the beginning of the season when they beat Virginia Tech, the #5 team, analysts refused to take BSU serious. Dismissing them regardless of what they did for the remainder of the season; they said there was nothing BSU could do to merit being in the National Championship because of the conference they played in. Whether you think BSU is good enough to play in the National Championship or not this should bother you. Because you can debate their talent level against that of the SEC or the strength of schedule all day, and you can make some valid points against Boise State. What bothers me is there isn't an opportunity regardless of a team's resume for a non BCS Conference school to get to the National Championship.

This was an interesting article for me to write, because in general I would consider myself an elitist in regards to college football. I think the talent in the big conferences is superior to that of the smaller conferences, but what bothers me is there isn't an opportunity for these small conferences to be represented at the highest level. I don't know what the exact solution should be, there are all kinds of issues with doing a playoff system. Some potential solutions could be modifying the regular season schedule to allow for one game around this time (Game 7,8, or 9) where the current leader in a BCS conference has to compete against an elite team from a second tier conference like the WAC or MWC. Here's an example of what I'm saying to make it a little more clear as this idea is kind of obscure. Pair a BCS conference with a non-BCS conference, for this example let's say the Pac-10 and the WAC. You set a specific game towards the end of the regular season where each team in the Pac-10 will play a respective team in the WAC. So the #1 team in both conferences would meet each other (maybe at a neutral field) and we could get a good measure of how these elite second tier teams match up against the best conferences in the country. You might be thinking that's the point of playing strong non-conference games at the beginning of the year. I would contend that these games aren't as beneficial as they appear to be. First, they are at the beginning of the season which puts them far out of the minds of voters. Second, we really don't know who's going to be good at that point. Boise State beat Virginia Tech who was ranked #5 in the country in the first week of the season. It was a huge victory for them, but then it got negated in a lot of ways the following week when Virginia Tech lost to an FCS school. Fortunately for BSU, Virginia Tech has largely bounced back and are showing that they are a good team. But this isn't always the case, and if the big non-conference game was towards the end of the season we would have a better measure of who the elite teams in each conference are. The logistics would be a little annoying as you have to figure out travel and a location to play the games, but I believe the benefits of equality in college football outweigh the challenges. We've seen several great stories in college basketball because there are opportunities for the small schools to make it. Just as recently as last year Butler made it to the National Championship game and was just a half court shot away from being one of the greatest Cinderella stories of all time. All I want is for people to have an opportunity if they've earned it. If you like my idea or have a better idea sound off in the comments section and get the ideas going. That's all from me for now, thanks for checking out the blog.

Breezy

S.O.S. (Save our Sonics) Why you should care

It's been a couple years now since the Sonics were stolen from Seattle and it still hasn't gotten any easier. I'm clearly not the only one who's still bitter and sad about the team of his youth being stolen from him as evidenced by the demonstration at the Blazer's vs. Thunder game last week. I won't go into too much detail about this since I sadly wasn't able to participate, but if you're curious about it you should take a look at this blog which chronicled the events. It was largely organized by the good people at Sonicsgate which have easily been the largest entity for bringing awareness to the unfortunate events that led to the Sonics being taken away from Seattle. They produced a documentary titled "Sonicgate: Requiem for a Team" that has received numerous accolades and awards that I would encourage you to watch for free on their website if you're curious about the aforementioned events. What I want to focus on is two-fold, why people who aren't from Seattle should care and secondly the surprising strength of the basketball talent in Seattle.

So you're not from Seattle and don't really care about a team who moved across the country? Here's why you should, because it could happen to you. Seattle isn't a bad place to have a franchise, matter of fact it's one of the prime places to have one. Seattle is the 14th largest television market in the United States of America. It is also home to numerous large corporations that have shown great support to other professional sports teams in the area, like Microsoft, Nintendo of America, and Boeing to name a few. It is also home to several billionaires like Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Paul Allen. So with all of these benefits to be in Seattle how could they lose a professional sports franchise? It had to be the fans fault then right? Not exactly, even in the last 5 years of the franchise being in Seattle they still filled the Key Arena to 90% of the capacity. Numerous players have come out and spoken about their feelings on the fans of Seattle, like Gary Payton in this clip:

Additionally, a current NBA player for the team who was formerly known as the Supersonics (Nick Collison in Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team) spoke out about his feelings on the fans of Seattle and how Seattle has become his home even though he is no longer employed in that city. So who's to blame? Most people blame the government officials from the Mayor to the State Legislature and/or 2 greedy owners who manipulated a situation to profit themselves (Schultz the former owner and Bennett the current owner). I could go into greater detail about the factors that led to this sad event in the history of Seattle but I'd urge you to check out Sonicsgate . They have produced a fantastic documentary which clearly outlines the departure of the Supersonics in a way that a quick summary would not do justice. The point is that the fans aren't the party at fault, it was influences outside their control that took away something they loved and it could happen in other places. The Supersonics were a highly successful team prior to the events that led to them leaving town. They won an NBA title and were one of the most successful teams of the 90's. That's why you should care about a team moving across the country and a different city hijacking it's history, because if it can happen in Seattle it can happen virtually anywhere.

I'll make an additional post soon in regards to the talent rich Seattle area for basketball.

Lastly, while myself and many other Supersonic fans may sound bitter, in my experience most of us still have love for a lot of the players on the Thunder and wish them well. Kevin Durant was beloved in Seattle and I haven't heard a Supersonics fan speak poorly of him or any other player on that team. We wish them well, but as for their franchise, I wish them abject failure for what Clay Bennett did to our team and City.