Raw Sports

Super bowl week is upon us... but can it match this epic greatness?

2012-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

People in NYC

2012-01-29T08:29:00.001-08:00

Guest post from: Kent Lara

A lot of people here in New York like to spend their weekends shopping or heading out to Brooklyn but for me it’s all about staying in my cozy living room and watching a good old fashioned movie on my directstartv.comsatellite. I spend all week at work and it’s really hard for me to imagine doing anything those two days other than recharging my batteries, so to speak, and I’m lucky that my husband feels the same way. Some of our friends say we’re boring but I think we just know how to live a life that doesn’t stress us out as much as theirs does! There are so many great things to do here in NYC and sometimes I worry that we’re missing out but it’s not like we never leave the house. During the week we meet people for drinks and hang out at the cool restaurants and generally just enjoy the city and that’s enough time for me to feel satisfied! I’m sure someone else out there has a similar story to mine.

2011-12-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

(via CBS)For the third straight year, attendance is down at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
In the stadium’s first year, the team drew an average of 89,700 fans. Even last year’s 6-10 team managed to attract 87,000 fans. But this year, the fan attendance number dropped to just 85,000 fans – despite the fact that Cowboys have a chance to win their division this weekend.

RJ Choppy with 105.3 The Fan analyzed the attendance drop from a few different angles, but does not see it as a huge problem. “The Cowboys have been sort of mediocre and the economy has been in the tank,” he said. “I don’t really think it should be such a long-term problem, but in the short-term, it certainly is a little bit of a concern.”
If the team starts winning consistently again, Choppy predicts that the attendance will go up again. “So much of it is economics,” he said. “You have to pick things that you want to cut from your life and, unfortunately, one of the first things that go are recreational.”
Adding to the attendance concern is the sheer size of Cowboys Stadium. While other NFL teams have been building smaller arenas, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones bucked the trend and went bigger. “Everyone who builds these new stadiums, they’re going smaller, more intimate, more quaint,” Choppy said. “I think the natural feeling that, well, that Cowboys Stadium is so big. It’s almost to the point where it’s not practical.”

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Underappreciated by roommates

2011-10-21T13:01:00.001-07:00

The article written by Alonso Kramer

I am so sick of my roommates. When we first moved in together, we got along great. However, now I just can’t stand them anymore. I finally decided to move out. I have just felt taken advantage of and underappreciated. I took care of everything for me and my roommates. All of the bills are in my name and I set up all of the utilities on my own. To show them how much of a pain it was, I decided to cancel everything. I had the water disconnected because it was in my name. I have the Direct tv cancelled because it too was in my name. And as of tomorrow, I will have the power turned off because it was also in my name. I know this is mean and there are better ways to handle the situation, but I am so over being a grownup and doing the right thing. This time I just needed to do something to make me feel better and to help them see how important I was. I just wish they had once acknowledged all I did. Just once would have made all the difference.

Saving More Than Before

2011-08-26T09:35:00.001-07:00

I appreciate the guest post, Jewel Rodgers
My mom recently told me that her and my father was trying focus more on saving money. That is an extremely funny statement coming from her because they love to spend money like it’s burning a hole in their pockets. However, mom said that since the economy has taken such a nosedive they feel like it would be a wise decision to start being more frugal. For me it is so strange to see my parents being concerned about whether they are going to have enough money to retire and live off of during their twilight years. I guess, as you get older it is strange to picture your parents as your equal but somewhere along the way it happens. Recently, I sent my dad a link that one of my buddies sent me at the office TEXASELECTRICITYPROVIDERS.com I told him that this might be a great way for him to save money and enjoy the benefits of an energy supplier with fixed rates. Hopefully, I’m not helping my parents move in with me in the next couple of months.

The Business

2011-06-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Contribution by Stevie Kirby
Owning your own business is tough enough as it is, but with my silent partner decided to drop out of the venture just a couple of months before we were supposed to open the store, my whole life turned upside down. I was pretty much painting, because I didn't know how was going to make this work, but after I calm myself down I realized I can check things off the list one item at a time. The money wasn't an issue, it was the fact that my partner was more or less the brains behind the operation. The first thing I did was sign up our credit card and check card processing after I did a lot of research online at different sites like www.bank-card-processing.com. After that, I consulted with a tax attorney and a human resources expert to make sure I had everything covered when it came to the logistics. The store is really taking shape in inventory is starting to come in… I guess I'm finally going to make it by myself after all!

Getting The Right Gear For The Game

2011-04-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

(David Haney)As we all know having the right tools for the job is essential and in the world of sports not having the right gear can mean the difference between going home a champion and just going home. For a great deal of amateur athletes the price for professional gear and accessories might be a major hurdle to overcome but the benefits of having high quality, durable equipment far outweigh the high upfront costs.

Although you might be able to find a cheap Lacrosse Rebounder affordable Baseball Cleats or even a discount micargi beach cruiser it is often a case of buyer beware because many of the sporting goods sold online are of dubious quality or just plain cheap, so remember: when purchasing sporting goods or equipment on line or in real life you get what you pay for.

Dirty Jobs is the best

2011-04-19T06:57:00.001-07:00

Guest written by our friend Gladys Fuentes

I like to stream my favorite shows over my 4gINTERNET connection when I’m commuting on the train. I really like anything on the Discovery network because it’s usually pretty informational and interesting, but really, my guilty pleasure are all the ghost hunter shows on the network. The teams of ghost hunters are really adept at finding ghosts and generally spooky places, and the characters are entertaining as well.

I also like the show “Dirty Jobs” starring Mike Rowe. He’s hilarious! He goes to different businesses and basically does the job of the people w! ho work there. He’s usually covered in dust or slime or oil by the time he’s done with each job, but it’s a good way to show the public how hard and thankless some of these professions really are! Mike’s a really affable guy, too, and he always seems to blend right in no matter what kind of work he’s doing. It really makes me thankful for my nine to five desk job, I can tell you that!

Could Babin be the first of many to jump leagues?

2011-03-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

(yahoo sports)There's an interesting potential twist to the current end of the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, which is this: If players want to play for another league, there doesn't seem to be anything stopping them from a legal or contractual standpoint. If the UFL or CFL hit up Randy Moss (notes), Aubrayo Franklin (notes) or Bruce Gradkowski (notes), and asked them to take salaries in the low six figures to play some sort of football with a network deal that would get their efforts telecast in most American homes, there doesn't seem to be anything the NFL could do about it. Once the CBA ran out and the NFLPA decertified last Friday, everything was fair game.

It's a subject that's been of interest to me for a few months, and I asked two player reps — Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita (notes) and Baltimore Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth (notes) -- about it on an NFLPA media conference call on Jan. 11. George Atallah of the former NFLPA also chimed in.

Me: This is kind of an out-there question, but is there anything anywhere that would prevent NFL players from forming or joining an alternate league in the event of a lockout and/or CBA expiration?
Atallah: I think it's an interesting question. Well look, once the contract expires, all bets are off. Once the CBA expires, [the players are] unemployed.
Fujita: That's kind of what I was going to say. You know, if there's a lockout, we don't have a place to go to work. Could the players start their own league? Yes, absolutely, that could happen. Will it? I don't know, but yes, that's kind of a far-out-there question.
Foxworth: I mean, we're unemployed at that point. We'll be looking for work anywhere so if there's a league that's offering us a reasonable deal, it's not unreasonable that an unemployed man would take a job that offers him the ability to demonstrate the skills that he has.
Me: Ooookay.
Fujita: And maybe we'll coach in runaround teams, too.
Foxworth: That was awesome. I want to be the owner of the Baltimore [Brands].

Funny ha-ha, yes, but according to former Tennessee Titans defensive end and current free agent Jason Babin (notes), it's an idea whose time may have come. The NFL has never experienced a work stoppage when alternate leagues were in effect, and while the UFL has no illusions of competing directly with the NFL as the American Football League and United States Football League did, players who love the game, or who want increased exposure for their skills, or who have run out of money in an extended stoppage, may very well jump ship. Babin's no scrub, either -- he made his first Pro Bowl in 2010 after racking up 12.5 sacks for the Titans. And former Dallas Cowboys practice-squadder Troy Bergeron (notes), a receiver who just signed a reserve/future deal with Dallas, wound up skipping off to the Arena League.
"Right now, I am free and clear to do as I please,'' Babin recently told Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean. "I could play in the Canadian Football League if I wanted to."
More importantly, he could play in a UFL that has been dealing with a lawsuit brought by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who loaned the league $5 million and was rather unhappy about not receiving payment. It's well-known that Cuban has thought about buying teams in other sports — he tried unsuccessfully to purchase the Chicago Cubs in 2008, and you'd think his entrepreneurial instincts would certainly pick up on the possibility of owning a team filled with NFL players, even in the short term. Other entrepreneurs, who see the cash cow the NFL has become (no matter what the league's current owners may have us believe), might buy in and resuscitate the UFL for the kinds of short-term gains the younger league might provide if it was literally the only game in town.
"I know those leagues would love to grow their awareness and if they got a certain amount of high-profile guys to join in, the money would go from the NFL pool to the CFL or UFL pool and maybe they could negotiate a TV deal," Babin told Wyatt. "Now that would scare the [stuffing] out of the NFL owners if they could pull something like that off, you know?
"So the NFL owners are fighting two fights. They are fighting a lockout fight, and they could be fighting the rise of the other leagues. They make themselves vulnerable the longer this lockout goes on.''
If the players don't win the antitrust lawsuit that begins on April 6, and the owners are permitted by law to lock the players out, the odds of a quick settlement are dim at best. The owners would likely use the leverage given by a lockout to dictate terms. But if a high percentage of the players were to play in a different league, it could be a victory on two levels. First, the players would prove that this really is about the game to them. Second, the players could build equity in the hearts and minds of an American public that, for the most part, doesn't care at all about the specifics of a labor fight — they just want football.
And the machinations of an alternate league could be one way for America to have it.

Anthony's 50 points not enough in Nuggets' loss to Rockets Read more: Anthony's 50 points not enough in Nuggets' loss to Rockets - The Denver Post ht

2011-02-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

Losing Nene for the game was one thing, but when the Nuggets also lost their starting point guard, winning Monday night became a hill impossible for the team to climb.

Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups hangs his head after getting called for a foul during the first half on Monday. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

The Rockets handled the Nuggets with relative ease, outlasting the hosts 108-103 at the Pepsi Center in a library-like atmosphere from fans that never were given a reason to consistently cheer.

Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, who tied his career high with 50 points, made a double-double of it with 11 rebounds as well, but the Nuggets could not overcome the loss of Nene, who sat due to illness and Chauncey Billups, who left the game in the second quarter with a strained left knee and did not return.

Sharpshooting Houston guard Kevin Martin pretty much provided the knockout punch himself in the third quarter, where the Rockets took a two-point halftime lead and turned it into a 15-point lead going into the fourth. Martin outscored the entire Nuggets team, 18-16, in the quarter, and all the Rockets had to do was hold on from there for their second-straight road win.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, dropped their second straight home game. It's the first time they've dropped back-to-back home games this season and the just second time they've lost consecutive home games in the past four years.

Ty Lawson had 19 points, six rebounds and five assists as one of just three Nuggets in double figures. Meanwhile, Martin, who had just eight points the last time Houston visited the Nuggets, more than made up for that as he exploded to score 37 points with seven assists and four rebounds.

Read more: Anthony's 50 points not enough in Nuggets' loss to Rockets - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_17322419?source=commented-#ixzz1DLb4zumQ
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Steelers C Pouncey out for Super Bowl

2011-02-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

(yahoo)DALLAS (AP)—Maurkice Pouncey (notes) is sidelined for the Super Bowl.

The Pittsburgh Steelers center has a high left ankle sprain that has kept him out of practice since he was injured nearly two weeks ago in the AFC championship game. Now, the rookie Pro Bowl selection will miss the big game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

“He’s out,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told a pool reporter Friday after the team completed its final full practice indoors at TCU.

Backup Doug Legursky (notes) will play in his place in what will be his first NFL start as a center. Signed as an undrafted free agent out of Marshall in 2008, Legursky started four games at guard earlier this season.

“The NFL is made up of lots of players like him: guys who somehow got an opportunity and seized it,” Tomlin said. “We’re completely confident that he will seize this opportunity and play well. That’s why we’re not changing what we do.”

Pouncey needed crutches and wore a walking boot on his left foot as he got off the team plane in Dallas on Monday, but didn’t need either during the players’ final media session Thursday. Tomlin said earlier Friday that the rookie Pro Bowl selection would not play if he could not participate in the team’s last practice.

Defensive end Aaron Smith (notes) also is out. He’s been sidelined since Oct. 24 with a torn triceps muscle and has been limited in practice.

The Packers’ main concern is outside linebacker Erik Walden (notes), who was listed as questionable with an ankle injury.

Wide receiver Donald Driver (notes) tweaked his quadriceps this week and has been limited in practice, but Packers coach Mike McCarthy said earlier Friday that Driver is expected to play. He is listed as probable.

Meanwhile, the Steelers practiced with crowd noise piped in for the first time this week.

“We’ve had a very good practice week, very normal,” Tomlin said. “We’re lucky to have guys who just love football and love one another. It’s a special group.”

Snow, cold make Dallas feel more like Green Bay

2011-02-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

(yahoo)ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)—Football fans whose flights had been canceled struggled Saturday to get to Dallas for Sunday’s big game, while those already in town for the Super Bowl were contending with temperatures and snow typical of Pittsburgh and Green Bay but unusual in Texas.

A fresh blast of snow and ice canceled hundreds of flights Friday, transformed highways into ribbons of white and caused dangerous sheets of ice to fall from Cowboys Stadium, sending six people to the hospital. It was enough to turn the biggest week in American sports into a Super Mess.

The injured included private contractors the NFL hired to prepare the stadium for the game, authorities said. One man was hit in the head, another in the shoulder. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.

Alison Crombie, a spokeswoman for Getty Images, said Saturday one of its photographers, Win McNamee, also was hurt. He was flying home and would be assessed by his doctor there, she said.

Most stadium entrances were closed as a precaution. Officials raised the temperature inside the arena in an attempt to melt remaining ice.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area received as much as 5 inches of snow overnight— nearly twice its annual average—and by Friday morning downtown Dallas hotels were selling ski hats and scarves alongside cowboy hats. A winter storm warning was issued for suburban Arlington, home of the $1.3 billion stadium where the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers are to play Sunday.

“It looks like, `Oh, no, I’m back in Canada,”’ said Sammy Sandu, a 32-year-old property developer from Kelowna, British Columbia. “It’s just pouring down snow. Are we still at home, or have we left? We didn’t drink that much last night, did we?”

Forecasters expected game day to be mostly sunny, with highs in the 40s, which would probably not be warm enough to melt all the snow and ice.

Sandu made it to Dallas with his father Thursday, but other members of their party weren’t so lucky. His brother still hoped to arrive from Miami in time for the game, but a friend abandoned the trip after a flight from Vancouver was canceled.

The winter weather wasn’t expected to faze the teams competing in the real event, nor their hardy fans, who are used to cooler climes. The temperature in Dallas on Friday stood at 20—the same as Pittsburgh. Green Bay was slightly colder at 17.

“We deal with it very well back home,” Steelers fan Alex Sax said on his way the NFL Experience fan festival in Dallas. “Here, they don’t know how to deal with it. There’s no plows. No salt trucks. When we drove from airport, we were the only car on the road.”

Asked if the weather could affect future Super Bowl bids, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the conditions this year have been exceptional.

“We’ve had a winter to remember. Some would say to forget,” Goodell said. “It’s going to be a great weekend for us, and the weather’s getting better.”

The Super Bowl is scheduled to be played in Indianapolis next year and in the open-air New Meadowlands stadium in New Jersey in 2014.

Associated Press writers Danny Robbins, Linda Stewart Ball, Jamie Stengle and Paul Newberry in Dallas and videographer Rich Matthews in Arlington, Texas, contributed to this report.

Old warriors endure painful irony of NFL’s greed game

2011-02-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

(sportingnews)NFL commissioner Roger Goodell gave his state of the league address Friday, and this is what we learned: The owners and players each think the other is too greedy, and it could cost us the 2011 season.

Meanwhile, the Super Bowl—the largest, most extravagant, decadent sports day/marketing bonanza of the year—will be played in a palace of a stadium that cost $1.3 billion to build.

“I know people at home think this is billionaires against millionaires,” Steelers safety Ryan Clark said, “but it’s more than that.”

At least it should be.

The world wants to hear about Maurkice Pouncey, and whether the Steelers’ rookie center will be ready to play Sunday in Super Bowl XLV. I want to hear more about Mike Webster, a Steelers Hall of Fame center who died from complications of numerous concussions he sustained while playing.

The world wants to talk about Troy Polamalu, the Steelers’ star safety and the league’s best defensive player. I want to talk more about Dick “Night Train” Lane, the greatest defensive back to ever play the game—and whose family barely had enough money to bury him.

While current owners and players haggle over millions, while they publicly complain that one of the most successful and healthy businesses on the planet is in danger of economic crisis, the sweat and steel of players who built the foundation of the game is long forgotten.

“Jerry Jones may have paid for that new stadium in Dallas,” NFL Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure said, “but he didn’t build it.”

It’s almost fitting that we’re here in Dallas, and the collective bargaining agreement has become the biggest story of the week. This is where America’s Team was born, where the game was nurtured and developed and blossomed long before petty and petulant owners like Jones and Danny Snyder came along.

That billion-dollar stadium may as well be an architectural graveyard; the blood and bones and ligaments and tendons of players gone by buried deep in its soul. Players that have long been ignored by the NFL once their careers were complete.

DeLamielleure played 13 seasons in the NFL and is one of the best linemen in the history of the game. Yet his NFL pension is a measly $1,200 a month.

“And my pension,” DeLamielleure says, “is a lot better than most.”

The NFL recently signed a $2 billion television contract with ESPN, a mere percentage of the league’s annual income from television (FOX, CBS and NBC also pay billions), apparel ($1 billion deal with Nike) and stadium revenues.

Player salaries and benefits have never been better. There are mega-signing bonuses for college players who have never played a down and marketing deals and image rights fees.

Meanwhile those who built the game can’t get out of bed without help from their wives or prescription medication or both. The pain still rips through DeLamielleure’s right elbow when he leans on it the wrong way. His knees hurt, he has headaches—and he’s one of the lucky ones.

Some can’t walk, some are homeless. Some have dementia and memory loss from head injuries. All of them need help.

It’s shameful, really, that it has come to this. Pensions for the men who built the league were bartered decades ago, and the current CBA is all about current players and owners getting theirs — and protecting theirs.

“When you’re wealthy,” DeLamielleure says, “you have no clue unless you walk in another man’s shoes.”

Billionaires vs. millionaires. There are no winners in this greedy game of chicken.

Only the bones of the game’s greats underneath the rubble.