My thoughts on sports and life

In the world of sports, we, as fans, are always looking for the next big story, the next phenomenon, the next hero. This is true now, in the age of the internet, more than ever. It could be a cinderella team making an unexpected run, such as Virginia Commonwealth's unlikely run to the Final Four in 2011. It could be a particular player, who comes from nowhere to grab center stage, like Victor Cruz from the New York Giants. These, and other examples come along every year, in every sport. However, from time to time, a story comes along that rises above just being a great story, and becomes a media juggernaut, dominating headlines, sports talk, and social media. During the 2011 NFL season, Tim Tebow took over as the starter of the Denver Broncos and the NFL was turned on its head. The world watched every move he made, wanting to see what he would do next. His team kept winning games, and the fervor grew. Twitter exploded with record setting mentions after his 80-yard game-winning to...

All sports fans have a favorite team. It's who we root for year in and year out to win championships, and we're emotionally invested in everything they do. We follow even the smallest bits of news that concern our home team, reveling in the good news, devastated by the bad news. We also have favorite players. They might be members of our favorite team, but they don't have to be. Barry Sanders is my favorite football player of all-time, and he never played for my Bengals team. The reasons for liking them could be nearly anything, but once we become a fan, we usually stay a fan no matter where they go. Likewise, there are teams and players we dislike for varying reasons. So, I'm going to do something a little different. Here are my least favorite players in various sports of all-time, in no particular order. Christian Laettner-To begin with, he plays for Duke, which automatically puts him in a hole, but it goes beyond that. In the 1992 NCAA tournament, Duke met my Kentu...

Super Bowl XLVI is now in the books with the New York Giants besting the New England Patriots 21-17. As usual, there are lots of what-if's, should'ves, and hindsight. Praise and blame are passed around in equal distribution, and, as always, the quarterbacks take on the lion's share of both. Eli Manning, a year after being ridiculed for the amount of turnovers he had, has placed himself squarely in the elite category with his 2nd championship, and 2nd Super Bowl MVP award. He deserves all of the accolades and attention being heaped on him for the way he played. On the other side of things, Tom Brady is being knocked by some for failing. As the QB, he takes some blame, but in this instance, I believe he's taking more than he should. Brady went 27 for 41 (completing 16 straight passes at one point, a record) for almost 300 yards and a couple of touchdowns. His game-opening safety hurt, but it wasn't the deciding factor. To me, there were a couple of big aspects of th...