What’s Wrong With $ports: Money

There’s an old saying: Money is the root of all evils.

In sports, this has never been more of the case. There is more emphasis on the money surrounding the game than the game itself any more. It's not just one specific sport, but practically everything associated with athletics starts with moola. Just look at some of things happening in the world of sports in the a 72-hour span this week:

• Over $1 billion dollars gambled on the Super Bowl, just as much on prop bets such as “Gatorade color” or “length of the Harbaugh handshake” or “length of the National Anthem” as the game itself. 
• $8 million dollars for a 60 second commercial ($4,444 per FRAME) during the Super Bowl. $4,444 per frame to watch the GoDaddy nerd make out with the supermodel. Take that $4 million commercial and give it to charity or something please? 
• Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco demanding top five QB salary and in his interview basically saying he didn’t care that it would mean likely losing major contributors like Anquan Boldin and Jacoby Jones. 
• A guy betting all he has to his name in Silver Linings Playbook on an Eagles game and a dance competition. (Okay, this isn’t within 48 hours, but I saw the movie for the first time last night. Great flick, an absolute must-watch!) 
• High school prima donnas getting up on stage and putting a hat on to say where they will go to play college ball. Do you know how much money goes to the school (and yes probably the player) by media going and shoving a camera in the young kids’ faces?

However, all of these are nothing compared to the latest scandal in sports: a match-fixing ring that affected over 600 soccer matches worldwide since 2008.

Livestrong?

So Lance Armstrong finally came clean that he in fact was dirty. He admitted to doping during his cycling career in an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Monday. Oprah questioned Armstrong extensively for two-and-a-half hours. The interview will be broadcast later this week on OWN.

Understandably, the Armstrong legacy is being tarnished from this doping allegation and now admission. However, it's the collateral damage that severely bothers me regarding Lance Armstrong.

Little League - Isn't It About the Kids?

Image courtesy of LittleLeague.org

For every great story, there is one not so great. The Little League World Series is no different.

For the first time in the history of the LLWS, an African team made the trip to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The team from Lugazi, Uganda, was certainly the fan favorite. The team had always played with minimal equipment and in bare feet before making the World Series. None of the players' parents could afford the trip to the United States.


But that doesn't mean they didn't have support. The town of Williamsport adopted the Uganda team as their own. Other Little Leaguers, too, took in the kids from Lugazi. One player from New Castle, Indiana, looked unhappy when talking to his mother one day. "Mom, they (the Uganda players) have nothing!" Well, they made sure that changed. Three truck loads of clothes and other items made the trip a couple of days later from New Castle to Williamsport, all for the team from Africa.

Lugazi Little League, Lugazi, Uganda
(Image courtesy of LittleLeague.org)

Their story is much more important than the outcome of their games. Uganda lost their two games, 9-3 to Panama (who is 2-0 and facing Japan in the battle of the last unbeaten teams in the International Pool) and 12-0 to Mexico (who is now 3-1 after defeating Curacao in the next-to-last elimination game in the International Pool, and will play the Japan/Panama loser).

Sadly, those two opponents (Panama and Mexico) are making headlines for something other than the results of the kids on the field.  They are in trouble for not following the Mandatory Play Rule.

In Need of a Triple Crown

This is just a quick post in anticipation of today's Kentucky Derby. Today begins the five week quest to disappointment, as this will be the 34th straight year without a Triple Crown winner.

Now, I know what you're all saying right about now: How can I possibly know that there will not be a Triple Crown winner this year?

The answer is quite simple, however: Consistency.

Back On The Mat!

It sounds like Dennis Quaid in the 2002 movie "The Rookie" but his is no Hollywood production.

Nearly ten years ago, fittingly in 2002, a wrestler from Iowa State University made national headlines in a sport many forget exists in athletics. Cael Sanderson finished his senior year with a national championship in the 84 kg weight class, his fourth consecutive. More impressive: he never lost a single match. He's the only wrestler in NCAA Division I history to go undefeated with over 100 victories, a feat deemed by Sports Illustrated to be the second greatest feat in college athletics (Behind Jesse Owens setting four world records in the 1935 Big Ten Track and Field Championships). Two years later, Cael won gold at the 2004 Olympic games in Athens. His performances rightfully place him as one of the greatest amateur (aka, REAL) wrestlers of all time.



Fast forward to 2009 when he took the job of wrestling coach at Penn State after a three year stint coaching his alma mater Cyclones. The stories I would read on a day-to-day basis in the Penn State paper The Daily Collegian truly made my jaw drop. I read stories of Sanderson getting on the mat himself and wrestling his players, teaching first-hand the moves that led him to four national titles.


Apparently, like Dennis Quaid's character's fastball in "The Rookie," Sanderson's moves showed that he was still an amazing wrestler, now in his early 30's. After a solid first year at Penn State, his players made a bet with him. If the Penn State wrestling team won the Big Ten Tournament, Sanderson would return to the mat.



Well, you can guess what happened next, as the best Hollywood directors couldn't have written a better script.

Penn State won the Big Ten title, but didn't stop there as they moved "onward" to a NCAA National Championship, in only Sanderson's second season in Happy Valley.





Sanderson of course kept true to his word, and the script continues. He wrestled in the United States World Trials in June, and moved on to the 2011 FILA world championships in Turkey this past Saturday. He finished fifth in the 84 kg division, the same class he wrestled in throughout his career, good enough to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games! He lost an early match to the eventual champion in the 84 kg division, but fought back to the bronze medal match. He didn't concede a point in either round of that match, and he dominated it, but lost the tiebreaker in both rounds so lost the bout. (I'll admit I don't know the scoring system of wrestling very well...I'm still working on it!) 

 For a seven year hiatus from the sport, to go out there and finish fifth in the world at his class is saying something! Give him another year of coaching his team, joining his team on the mat in practice more than likely as well, and who knows what this man is capable of doing! He is going to be a top contender in London next summer, and my money is on him to win it! He finished fifth with just a few months of training. He has a whole year now to prepare, so watch out London! Congratulations, Cael, you have impressed us yet again with your abilities as an athlete, as a leader, and as a human being.

GOOOOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!

USA Women's soccer/futbol has done it again! They got a big goal late in today's match off of Abby Wambach's head to lead them to victory over France. Combine this 3-1 victory with a shootout victory over Brazil in the quarterfinals on Sunday thanks to Hope Solo's great goalkeeping, and the United States are back in the World Cup Finals for the first time since 1999.

First, let me comment about women's soccer: I'm surprisingly enjoying it 10x more than men's. Many would argue that it's only because the US are actually good in women's soccer and not in men's...if so, then why did I end up watching many other matches, and my favorite match (besides USA/Brazil) was a group stage match between Norway and Equatorial Guinea?  Anonman is the best player at the 2011 World Cup Finals and nobody can convince me otherwise (sorry Abby).

Anonman (in red) was the only attacker for Equatorial Guinea, yet always had a good attempt on goal.


It was because of the fact that true goal-scoring opportunities appeared, unlike the men's game where every shot off of a foot ended up 20 yards over the crossbar. That may be part of FIFA's doing, but forgive me I like scoring and the average of 2.27 goals per game in the Men's 2010 World Cup (second lowest in history) is just unexciting. It was a miracle that the championship game didn't go to a shootout in my mind.

Also, and this may come out sounding very wrong, but here we go: The women are less girls than the men. There's no diving. There's no faking injuries, being taken off on a stretcher, then reappearing on the field 30 seconds later. There's no ignorant referees who allow great actors to buy free kicks by tripping himself.

 

 Oh no he got the ball away from me! I better fall down and make it look like I'm hurt!

This one is absolutely hilarious. A guy gets a free kick for punching himself in the face.....

So now let's get back to the current World Cup. Sweden and Japan are about to kick off their semi-final match, the winner to face the USA in the championship match. Japan knocked off host-nation Germany 2-1 and had a 4-0 win earlier in the tournament, but is inexperienced and playing with a lot of emotion.  Sweden defeated the US 2-1 in the group stage (two garbage goals on a penalty kick and a deflected free kick) and are playing better than Japan, but don't have the emotion that the Japanese have.

Here is the game tying goal for the US vs. Brazil in the 122nd minute...literally just 30 seconds or so from the match being over. Rapinoe (my favorite on this team) finds Wambach (who finally got out of her drought, knew it wouldn't last long!) who beats the keeper. She used her head well again today against France.


Either way, I like the red-white-and-blue in the finals. This team is ranked #1 in the world, yet was the last team to qualify for the 2011 World Cup in Germany. That doesn't matter, though. Hope Solo said it best following the France match: "We have the confidence because we know we're damn good." Come Sunday we might just see how "damn good" they are. USA! USA! USA!