“The stereotype of the dumb jock has become outdated — these days, athletes are more aware of U.S international policy, more inspiring, and more articulate than the President of the United States.”
Category: Archived
Are E-Sports, Sports?
“Beyond the platitudes, the similarities begin to arise in the skills it takes to play a game at high levels: quick reflexes, sharp aim, and precise timing are equally important in video games as they are in basketball, baseball, hockey, etc.. Players need to have an acute awareness of where their teammates, their opponents, and objectives are. An objective can be a hockey puck, or payloads you escort to or stop from reaching a destination to win a game of Overwatch.”
Taking the Game Out of the NFL
“The recurring pattern here is the NFL’s attempt to maintain a squeaky clean corporate image. It seems the NFL thinks that if they continue to deny CTE’s connection to football and deal with domestic abuse cases quietly and in-house, the sponsors will stay. This clean corporate image—remember, the NFL took in 12 billion dollars last season (a 14.5% increase from 2014)—seems more important to the NFL than its public image. By turning a blind eye to ugly realities, or denying them outright, the NFL is able to maintain their brand and see ad revenue continue to skyrocket.”
Bringing Sportswriting Back to Toronto
“In our conversation, Mirtle emphasized the importance of The Athletic staying fresh and young. “Our main subscription base has been surprisingly young,” he explained, “we buy into analytics and advanced statistics and are really trying to push the app.” The Athletic’s app has been steadily rising up the charts on the App Store. The goal of the app is to be interactive; they’ve modeled it after running and cycling apps providing on-the-go entertainment, like podcasts.”
Bargaining with the Olympics
“The owners and commissioner of the NHL are well aware of the players’ desire to attend and have tried to take advantage of that situation by using Olympic participation to get an extension of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) and the league. But as much as that sounds like it presents an easy solution to Olympic participation, extension of the CBA is really not in the interest of the players due to the section dealing with escrow, which is basically where the players have to pay the owners if the NHL doesn’t make enough money in a season.”
Sports and National Identity
“There’s a feeling among the players that they are playing for a larger symbolism than paying in American cities. Take, for example, DeMar DeRozan electing to remain with the Raptors instead of testing out free agency. Even if he wouldn’t make substantially more money, he might have wanted to play in LA, being born in Compton he must have grown up loving the Lakers. But think about it, the Lakers are one of four NBA teams in California and one of two within LA, they would compete with the Clippers for fans within LA itself. But the Raptors are special, they’re not just a city’s team, nor a province’s or state’s, they’re a whole country’s team and the players feel it.”
Was the Grey Cup Better Than the Superbowl?
“As a Leafs fan, I can’t help but feel a little jealous at seeing another multi-decade championship drought ending in 2016. It at least feels good when it happens to someone like Grey Cup MVP, Henry Burris. Playing Sunday on, well, the knee of a 41-year-old, Burris had a career game. He went 35/46, with 461 yards, 3 TDs and only 1 interception. Burris took the stage after the game to celebrate with his whole family — including his 7-year-old sleepy-eyed son who wasn’t born the last time he won a Grey Cup.”
Golden Knights and Desert Lights
“As may be expected, teams located in the desert have not been known to be great financial investments right off the bat (and sometimes never are). A prime example of this financial struggle is the Arizona Coyotes, who endure frequent chatter of relocation due to the fact that for several years the NHL had to own the team because no one else wanted to. That being said, Las Vegas is not Arizona. Vegas attracts far more tourism, and the NHL will be the only professional sports league in town.”
The NBA’s Greatest Athlete
“I would argue that James is the best player ever to play, or at least he will be the best NBA player of all time. At 31, James has three NBA titles, the most recent being his triumphant return to long suffering Cleveland, he’s a four time league MVP, and currently tenth all-time scoring leader. He plays with unbelievable passion and his singular clutch playoff performances are legendary.”
An Athlete For Modern America
“For now, the partnership between the UFC and McGregor is mutually beneficial. McGregor has no qualms with engaging in the kind of exaggerated trash talk that sells fights, and this, in turn, generates more money for both parties.”
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