Posted on October 31st, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
Paying college athletes always has seemed wrong to me for a number of reasons. All college athletes aren’t big revenue producers. There’s no way to devise an equitable compensation system. Athletes in nonrevenue sports need the funds generated by big-money sports. A college education, along with training, equipment, travel, etc., has real value that shouldn’t be ignored.
But the past few years have loosened my grip on the position, making it harder and harder to defend. Now the NCAA has come out with major reforms regarding financial aid, academic standards, summer basketball recruiting and scholarship limits.
Yet it feels like a case of too little, too late.
I’ve always contended that scholarships are the fairest, most equitable way to “pay” all athletes across the board — as long as the NCAA avoids crazy rules that prevent them from earning income available to other students. College sports are akin to work-study programs at the very least, and they should provide comparable compensation.
Among the sweeping changes it announced last week, the NCAA will allow conferences to vote on providing up to $2,000 in spending money for athletes — what the NCAA calls the full cost of attendance. A similar stipend existed for college athletes until 1972.
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Posted on October 31st, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
Twice last week the Texas Rangers were one strike away from winning the World Series, as close as a team can possibly come. But they didn’t get that one strike against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 — in neither the ninth inning nor the 10th inning — proceeding to lose on Thursday night and again on Friday night.
But instead of being commended for piloting the Rangers to the World Series for the second consecutive season, manager Ron Washington was subjected to widespread second-guessing for his decisions in Game 6.
His use of relief pitchers and pinch-hitters was called “baffling,” as was his judgment in choice of players and when he chose them. Strategic moves that backfired in Game 7 were dissected, too.
Observers often display the 20-20 vision of hindsight when things don’t work as planned. And Washington was already on record about his managerial style, stating that he uses his instincts more than conventional wisdom.
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Posted on October 28th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
We don’t like to see superstar hang on too long, stumbling and fumbling through the twilight of their careers. We don’t like to look at their diminished abilities and reflect on the daunting athleticism of yesteryear. We don’t like to watch younger players who aren’t nearly as good, take advantage of old legends past their prime.
But it happens because some great athletes are addicted to the game, money and fame, and can’t imagine anything filling that void. That seems to be the case with Allen Iverson, the former Philadelphia Sixers great. Once a brazen poster child for hip-hop and defiance, Iverson now is humbled and hungry, asking for another shot in the NBA.
“I’ll play for anybody,” he told Yahoo! Sports.
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Posted on October 28th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
You know the thing about common sense? It’s not that common.
The NFL proves as much time and again in deciding what’s a fineable offense and what isn’t. The league often hits when it should stay, and stays when it should hit.
Under that formula of reverse psychology, New England tight end Rob Gronkowski will be a little lighter in the pocket shortly.
In case you missed it, Gronkowski was all over the news this week for being pictured with porn star Bibi Jones, who wore his jersey while he went shirtless in one of the photos that surfaced on Twitter. He spent part of Wednesday apologizing for the act. “I didn’t intend anything to hurt the reputation of anyone on the New England Patriots or on behalf of [team owner] Robert Kraft,” he told reporters. “It was just a simple picture, and that’s all.”
Hardly. It was a boon to Ms. Jones‘ career, as scores of men who never heard of her undoubtedly turned to Google for, um, more information. And it likely cost Gronkowski some cool points in the locker room, because Ms. Jones said she wanted much more than a photo op with him but nothing happened.
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Posted on October 27th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
It’s dubbed the “World All-Star Classic,” a proposed series of six games over two weeks played on four continents. The expected headliners are Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and Amar’e Stoudemire, among the NBA’s best players and biggest stars. They’re the guys who get the max contracts and TV commercials, the sneaker lines and endorsement deals.
They’re also the guys who apparently couldn’t care less about rank-and-file players, the bulk of the league’s workforce.
These all-stars are sending several messages, each worse than the other. It’s a far cry from the USO’s “Hoop for Troops” tour, designed to entertain troops and their families. It also lacks the quaintness of the star-studded exhibitions across the nation.
No, this all-star tour looks like a selfish, self-centered money grab by the league’s elite, oblivious to the tour’s effect on their fellow players, labor negotiations and the general public.
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Posted on October 26th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
Using “brave” to describe athletes and their feats is almost always a poor choice of words. But it’s quite appropriate in describing Miami Dolphins wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who has been exhibiting a form of courage that’s rarely seen in sports, especially the macho world of pro football.
Marshall holds the NFL record for most receptions in a game (21), but he’s about catching more than just footballs. He’s on a mission to catch men and women living with borderline personality disorder. He addressed about 250 students Monday at Harvard University, telling them how therapy helps him cope with the NFL’s pressure and fame.
“I’m excited for this opportunity,” Marshall said. “I’m excited to use my celebrity, my fame, whatever you want to call it, to be one of the faces of mental health.”
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Posted on October 24th, 2011
NBA All-Star and Montrose Christian School alumn Kevin Durant
By DERON SNYDER
It’s easy to be jaded and cynical and skeptical about the merits of big-time youth basketball, in which teenagers fly around the nation, play on national TV and grace magazine covers.
It’s easy to surmise that the attention is excessive and premature, contributing to larger problems in college and beyond because it puts teens on pedestals and instills a sense of entitlement, merely because they’re good ballplayers.
But it’s harder to reach those conclusions once you learn about some of the players or watch a documentary like “Prayer For a Perfect Season,” which debuts Tuesday on HBO.
This exceptional, behind-the-scenes look at an elite-level prep program provides much more than the sliver of sports — the actual games — we’re accustomed to watching.
“Prayer” clothes the players and coaches in humanity we typically forget when discussing rankings, records and statistics. Though it chronicles the 2010-11 season of St. Patrick High, the Elizabeth, N.J., school that finished No. 2 in the USA Today Top 25, the documentary details storylines undoubtedly found at other national powerhouses.
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Posted on October 21st, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
The descent has been startling in angle and suddenness, a sharp decline seemingly out of nowhere.
Two years ago, Donovan McNabb was enjoying his 11th season as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, in the midst of leading his team to yet another first-place finish in the NFC East. Philly advanced to the playoffs for the second consecutive season and the seventh time in McNabb’s tenure.
But the Eagles decided they were set for the future with two younger quarterbacks – Kevin Kolb and Michael Vick – so McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins in April 2010. That could’ve been the first red flag, the fact that Philly didn’t fear shipping its quarterback to a division rival.
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Posted on October 21st, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
HBO host Bryant Gumbel made a few accurate points Tuesday in his rant against David Stern, especially the part about the NBA commissioner being “infamously egocentric.” But in trying to climb inside Stern’s head and assess Stern’s intentions, Gumbel invited questions about his own perceptions and motives.
Gumbel said that Stern “has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer, treating NBA men as if they were his boys. It’s part of Stern’s M.O., like his past self-serving edicts on dress code or the questioning of officials,” Gumbel said. “His moves were intended to do little more than show how he’s the one keeping the hired hands in their place.”
Comparisons between pro athletes and slaves or leagues and plantations are cringe-worthy and totally inappropriate. They diminish the horrific experiences of the Diaspora, forced labor, ripped-apart families, raped women, sold children, lynched men, etc.
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Posted on October 18th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
Females who play tackle football against males are rare and usually found at a particular position: kicker. That keeps them from virtually all contact, but it doesn’t ensure their acceptance or safety, as evidenced by the ordeal of Katia Hnida, who in 2003 became the first female to score in an NCAA football game.
Eighth-grader Mina Johnson plays positions that are much more physically demanding — nose tackle, guard and linebacker — for Virginia’s Southampton Academy junior varsity, but she doesn’t worry about acceptance from her teammates. The same, however, isn’t true for North Carolina’s Lasker Northeast Academy, which threatened to forfeit last week if Johnson played.
So she decided to sit out for her team’s sake. “[They] said they wouldn’t come to the game and would forfeit because I am a girl,” Johnson told the Tidewater News.
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