Why Sports?

The other day I was talking to my friend of mine and I asked him if he was watching the baseball playoffs. To my utter disbelief, he said no he was watching the presidential debate. Nothing against the presidential debate or politics, but I asked him why he liked to pay attention to politics so closely. Once again I am not saying that if someone watches the debate they are instantly a politics fanatic, it's what determines the future of our country(Go Obama). Anyway, the next day I found myself wondering why I love sports so much as opposed to loving politics or anything else. No one in my family is obsessed with sports as I am or even likes sports. I go home and turn on a Thursday night game and my mom yells at me to bring a sappy movie and my dad grabs the remote and immediately brings CNN. So how did I get into sports? Well that question was partly easy to figure out; when i was a kid I was introduced to basketball and I absolutely could not stop playing it. To this day I try to get my friends to play football or basketball or any sport just because of the rush I get playing it that started from my childhood. Despite this I have grown up to watch sports of all different kinds and the reason for that is not just the fun of playing sports because obviously when I'm watching sports I'm not playing. So this leads back to my original inquiry. Why do people watch/love sports? After much speculation I think I may have it. Some people say it's the action or the hits; if that were true then more people would watch hockey, and baseball would never have become America's pastime. My final verdict was that people watch for the passion and the intensity of sports. The passion in the fans is shown at every sports event when tens of thousands of people show up on the free time and shell out their hard-earned money to watch their favorite teams in person. The players themselves have their own passion which, unfortunately, can get lost in professional sports; that passion of the players is why people love college sports where the "kids" are playing for the love of the game and for the rush that gave them happiness as small children. I recently saw a clip of a highlight reel for the Monday Night game between the Saints and the Vikings. This clip showed the Saints quarterback Drew Brees getting his team hyped up for the game they were about to play by explaining to them, in a chanting fashion, that they must protect their New Orleans home and take pride in the fact they live in New Orleans; he wants to use that as in intimidating factor against the other team. I have provided a link to the video, and honestly for some reason I can't stop watching it myself in fact I'm watching it right now(watch it in high quality). To the narrow-minded outsider, this act of pre-game chanting may seem barbaric and unnecessary, but they are not seeing what is really happening here. Drew Brees is uniting his team so that they may go out and play as one unit instead of many individuals, and the way he is able to do that is get them to chant together as he leads them in chant as he will on the field. Speaking of New Orleans, this city is a perfect example of sports passion. When Katrina hit New Orleans the city was devastated, but when the Superdome was re-opened, the city came together to watch the one thing they had left - football. The team recognized this and went out and played their hearts out as they beat up the Atlanta Falcons. It was an emotional night, but the passion and love of the game brought this city's pride back. So why do fans love sports as much as they do? The passion of the players brings cities and sometimes countries together as they battle for a set amount of minutes to see which city/country is better. No wars, no one getting hurt(sometimes), just living by the phrase: Leave it all on the field.

The Injury Bug Strikes Again

I read a comment on my first blog and I was happy to see that another cowboys fan agrees with me about the seemingly lost season of football. The Cowboys have already lost 2 games (Redskins, Cardinals) that were both just awful. In both games our offense was stagnant, but the Cardinals game was especially heartbreaking (and finger-breaking) because of how it ended. To those of you who don't know, as our offense was bad all game, so was the Cardinals. We came back to tie the game in the last second and sent the game to overtime. From there we actually went backwards in terms of yardage and then were forced to punt. When we punted TWO Cardinals players broke through their blocks and absolutely demolished the punter Matt McBriar, and proceeded to recover the ball in the endzone for a touchdown. Although the loss was no where near the worst part. In the first play of overtime Tony Romo broke his pinkie finger and on the punt Matt McBriar fractured his foot in, I believe, 3 places. So now Tony Romo is out for the month. Matt McBriar was placed on the Injured/Reserve list which officially ends his season. Also during the game Felix Jones, the first round pick out of Arkansas, partially tore his left hamstring and will be out for four weeks. This is bigger than people think because he has been outstanding for us; he gives us a great complement to marion barber's power running style by bringing unbelieveable speed. Although, these are not the only injuries the Cowboys are dealing with. There's still 3rd reciever Sam Hurd, who was originally thought to be out for the season, who is out for 6-8 weeks while he recovers from torn ligament surgery in his left ankle. There's Kyle Koiser, the starting Left Guard, who is questionable for Sunday's game against the St. Louis Rams, but most likely will not play because of a foot injury. Also Strong Safety Roy Williams, who is pivotal in run defense, is still out indefinitely from a fractured forearm he suffered Week 2 against the Eagles. It's not over - the backup safety Patrick Watkins is doubtful because of a neck injury. Anthony Spencer, the first round pick from a year ago, is doubtful because of a hamstring injury; sure he's not a starter but he gives outside pass rusher Greg Ellis time to rest while still providing production in the pass rush which right now is key with our sloppy pass defense. Speaking of pass defense, the pro bowl cornerback Terence Newman is out until mid November because of recovery from surgery for his sports hernia. Despite all of this there is still one player out but not because of an injury. Adam "Pacman" Jones has been suspended indefinitely by the league for his incident with the bodyguard HIRED TO KEEP HIM OUT OF TROUBLE!!! He is not eligible to play for a minimum of four games. This suspension is what has been all over sports news and what no one can stop talking about. If Terence Newman was healthy and was playing I would have no problem with this suspension, but under the conditions it could not come at a worse time. Adam had been playing pretty well despite what everyone on Sportscenter thinks. I have watched every game he has played in and I believe he is getting better. What most people tend to forget is that he was not playing football for over a year; he's still rusty. If you watch him play you will see his ability to stay with any reciever because of his speed and his discipline(on the field discipline). He's a smart player who recognizes different routes and if the play is pass or run. Watch some of his tape and you will agree with things that I have said here. At any other time I may agree with Commisioner Roger Goodell to suspend him, but he is filling in for Newman very well and I wish he would stop drinking, because if he does he has a chance to make our secondary one of the best in the league. Althought without him we start Anthony Henry, who i believe is more of a safety than a corner, and a rookie out of the University of South Florida, Mike Jenkins. Although throughout this blog I have failed to mention what I agree with in the comment i read. He/she talked about the playoffs being what really matters and how a team uses their momentum at the end of the season to win in the playoffs. As the Cowboys have shown, December(the last four games of the year) is what really matters; by the way they are not showing it in a good way if you haven't noticed. So I believe that once the Cowboys get everyone back from injury(Roger Goodell please don't suspend Pacman for the whole year, just leave it at the four games) along with the aquisition of pro bowl WR Roy E. Williams (yes, now we have both Roy Williams') the Cowboys have enough time to get our offense back in rhythm and our defense will have it's depth back. For this same reason I believe that the injury that ended Matt McBriar's season is the most devastating; the next time we will see him punt again, I will be a sophomore. One phrase can sum up my belief about the Cowboys season, "Its not how you start, its how you finish."