Monthly Archives: October 2014

Ronda Rousey and the Quest for an Undefeated Lifetime Record

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By Kaleb Page

In a sport world like MMA where men dominate the scene, the baddest person on the planet, no matter the division, is actually a woman.

Ronda Rousey has earned her nickname “Rowdy” convincingly throughout her fighting career that began in 2011. Another nickname I think is fitting and should be considered is “the arm collector” due to this statistic: 8 of the 10 victories Ronda has, come by way of submission due to armbar. Even though people know what is coming it seems like she has her way with them, which unanimously led to her becoming the number one pound-for-pound female fighter in the world.

It can be said that the fire behind what Ronda is doing in the women’s bantamweight division in the UFC, is fueled by her competition in Judo as a representative of the United States. Her success of winning three gold’s, two silver, and two bronze medals over various competitions came with their fair share of losses as well. Ronda had a thought during Judo that ultimately led to her crossover into the MMA scene. In an interview with Jim Rome this week Ronda said, “I did all my losing in Judo, which is a lot of the reason why I wanted to do MMA so much because no one ever beat me in Judo that I couldn’t beat in a fight.” This quote so far has been proven time and time again, with Ronda convincingly winning every fight she has been in on her way to a 10-0 record.

Another thing that separates Ronda from any other fighter in her division is her win or die attitude. In the same interview she recalled a fight against Liz Carmouche and feeling like she could die in that fight. Liz put Ronda in a tight neck crank and dislocated Ronda’s jaw in the process. However, unlike some fighters who by that point would be tapping out, Ronda’s mindset was, “I would rather break my neck than lose this fight.” She did live up to her word and defeated Liz Carmouche with her trademark armbar later in the first round.

Ronda is a female icon in the world of sports that needs more attention than she is already receiving. Her ultimate goal of course it to end her UFC career in a fashion nobody at the highest level on the women’s side has done: retire undefeated. Her next opponent is rumored to be Cat Zingano, which is in the works to take place early 2015. Another stout test for Ronda with this opponent being undefeated as well.

If I had to put money on any athlete in a competitive sport like this to go undefeated, it would be “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. Just by the way she carries herself alone, puts her on a whole different level than any of her counterparts. Her relentless attitude and training are world-class in part to her time training as an Olympian. Even though in the world of MMA it only takes one punch, kick, or submission to end this dominating run; I just don’t see it happening. Especially when you have such a driven fighter who has only seen the second round once in her entire career; an insane number in MMA, and in the best fight league worldwide the UFC.

As to anyone else who has doubts as to why I am on the Rousey Bandwagon or as to why she could end up retiring undefeated, Ronda has a message for you: “All the ones (opponents) they bring are legitimate; I work and prepare so hard that there’s nothing they can do about it.” So if you got a challenge to bring Ronda’s way suit yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you already about what you are going up against.

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Merging World and Sport Headlines: Sport Media Coverage of Ebola

By Savannah Malnar

Sports are so integrated into our society that when there is a significant world event, it is inevitable that said event will slip into ESPN or other sport headlines. The Ebola epidemic is no exception.

It was only a matter of time until this major headline seeped into sports. When going to ESPN’s home page, right above the major headline ticker is a small tab that says “Ebola Concerns in the NFL.” This should be no surprise, with the primary cases of the disease in America being centered in Dallas, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

The Giants are scheduled to play in Dallas this Sunday, October 19th. Local news sites in both Dallas and New York are littered with headlines all telling the same story: The Giants were briefed by their medical staff about the disease and on ways to be cautious while there.

The fact is, all NFL teams have this information available to them through the league and their infectious disease partner, Duke Infection Control Outreach Network.  Despite this, it was reported by Dan Graziano of ESPN that the Cowboys themselves have barely talked about it as a team. Jason Garrett, coach of the Cowboys, was asked if addressed his team regarding the disease. He responded: “Really haven’t, to be honest with you. I don’t think it has directly affected us. So it hasn’t been something we have addressed directly with our players.”

The world media has certainly been all over the Ebola epidemic. The sport media may be soon as well. Already it seems every sport media source, local and national, has published an article regarding the Giants’ briefing on the disease.

While it is still very early to be extremely concerned, the sport media needs to be careful to present the information fairly and not over exaggerate. All the articles regarding the Giants were fair in saying the players were not concerned about going into the region where the disease was (though they may not bring children and wives along to this game, as a precaution), with Eli Manning saying, “I’m not worried about myself or the team. With what we’re doing and where we’re staying, I think we’ll be fine.”

Ebola is a fair concern in sports where traveling is a necessity, but the sport media should consider to err on the conservative side of reporting on it until it is clear whether players in any sport are in any real danger of contracting it through travel.

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Tough Love From Media in Cleveland

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By Kate Roth

The Cleveland Browns improved their record to 3-2 this past Sunday with a dominating 31-10 victory over their rival Pittsburgh Steelers. Through his performance, quarterback Brian Hoyer, showed us once again that he is capable of leading an NFL team and is deserving of the starting spot over fan favorite Johnny Manziel. For once, everything seems to be clicking for the Browns considering they have a quarterback they can trust, their star running back in Ben Tate has just emerged off the injured and is performing well and their schedule over the next few weeks seems to be playing out in their favor. This is something that Browns fans have been looking forward to for years and now that everything seems to be falling into place, I’m not sure the media knows how to handle it.

Following the win on Sunday I was fully expecting this week to be filled with local (Cleveland) sports articles regarding the success of the Browns, and the potential to really make a statement in the up and coming weeks. The last thing I was expecting to see is negative comments about the team and especially not the “Hometown Hero” Brian Hoyer.

Unfortunately the media caught me off guard and this is exactly what I ended up reading. Stories claiming that Hoyer is considering not signing a contract extension with the Browns and instead looking for the next big contract, comments that Hoyer later denied. Other articles discussed how the injuries to center Alex Mack and defensive lineman Armonty Bryant could be very costly to the Browns, preventing them from winning the games coming up on their schedule.

There was even an article that criticized Hoyer for wanting to turn current Dallas Cowboys fan and Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James into a Browns fan, claiming that Hoyer needed to stay focused on his job as the quarterback of the Browns and not worry about who LeBron is cheering for.

It’s almost as if the Cleveland media is so used to watching the Browns lose that they’re not quite sure how to react to the success of the team.

Instead of picking out anything negative they could find about the team they needed to be applauding them for the great performance they put up over the weekend and throughout the season thus far. After a 31-10 smack down on your rival there should be plenty of positive things to talk about.

Even though it is still very early in the season and may be too early to tell how the team will perform throughout the year, things are still looking up in Cleveland and fans are really starting to believe and get behind this team. Now it’s the media’s turn to jump on board and enjoy the ride for as long as it may last and create positive news stories instead of negative.

It’s time to turn this Factory of Sadness around and an easy way to start this is through the media.

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DaVaris Daniels is #NDNoMore

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By Ellen Chlumecky

The Notre Dame athletic department athletic department made the vote to suspend three out of the five football players involved in the academic fraud investigation who will now not be playing for Notre Dame this season. The three men who are suspended are: DaVaris Daniels, Ishaq Williams and Kendall Moore. All three have made comments about what their plans will be from here.

Ishaq Williams openly stated that he would wholeheartedly like to return to the team for the following season. Kendall Moore, already a current graduate of Notre Dame, stated on Instagram how he was disappointed about the decision but has decided he will not return to Notre Dame for next season. Moore placed a long post on his Instagram expressing his gratitude towards Notre Dame and while he is upset about the decision he will move forward.  Both expressed how they were both looking forward to the new chapter of their lives and believe their integrity remains intact as they leave Notre Dame.  While DaVaris Daniels, also already a current graduate of Notre Dame, has made it known quite profoundly how much he would love to return to Notre Dame next season.

DaVaris Daniels has taken to Twitter to make his voice heard about his desire to return to Notre Dame. Daniels tweeted a few posts on Twitter expressing his gratitude towards Notre Dame and how he has no intentions to transfer schools. His father, Phillip Daniels, has also taken to Twitter to talk about the situation. He first posted how DaVaris will be suspended for this upcoming season. The next post was about the possibility of DaVaris returning in the 2015 season and how it would be a great opportunity for DaVaris.

While it is easy for all these young men to take to social media to rant or post nasty messages about the situation, none have shown any signs of this particular behavior. They have only posted positive remarks about the wonderful education they have received, the opportunities they were given and the people who have supported them through this time.

Notre Dame holds high academic and ethical standards. The way these young men are handling the situation show that while they might not believe they are in the wrong, they have yet to blame the institution for their mistake. These players were in the wrong for what they did and should be punished for their actions, they at least showed maturity in leaving the institution without blaming anyone in the process.

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Florida Panthers Struggling to Attract Fans

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By Alex O’Connor

Attendance at Florida Panthers games is once again becoming an issue for their organization. Last night, just 7,311 fans came out to see a 1-0 loss against the Ottawa Senators. The Panthers dropped to 0-2-1 on the season and are now under scrutiny not only for their product on the ice, but the lack of hockey interest in southern Florida. NBCsports.com focused specifically on Florida goalie Roberto Luongo, noting that he has played for packed houses with the Vancouver Canucks on a regular basis. In addition, The Miami Herald interviewed Luongo after the loss and he plainly said, “If we want to get some people in the stands, we need to start winning some games.” However, Luongo added that “He doesn’t pay attention to that stuff”, so it may or may not have a large effect on the team’s performance as a whole. Through the media’s attention on attendance and the team’s’ poor performance, the Panthers could be in for a tumultuous season that may put doubts in the minds of many who believe they will be in Florida for an extended period of time.

Social media also had a profound impact on the reach of this story. Numerous accredited sport commentators, writers and analysts were tweeting pictures of the empty stands from their vantage point. The pictures are stunning, as there are almost hundreds of seats open among each section. The most notable picture came from Bruce Garrioch, an award-winning sport journalist from the Ottawa Sun who tweeted a picture of the crowd at game time. The post has almost four hundred re-tweets and was one of many to point out the low attendance.

Another aspect that is hurting the Panthers organization is their lack of incoming revenue from ticket sales. On September, 17th of this year, an NBCsports.com article was published that pointed out the financial woes that the franchise was in. The title was “Panthers owners say they’re committed even though team has lost ‘tremendous amounts of money.'” These losses are between $20-$30 million annually, and are losses that they have asked Broward County in Florida to cover. This is an expense that will not be easily fixed and could loom over the organization for many more years. However, new owners Vinnie Viola and Doug Cifu wrote a “vote of confidence” letter to Panthers fans in mid-September. In the letter they highlighted the acquisition of star goalie Roberto Luongo and how moves like this one is their commitment to the Panthers producing a Stanley Cup caliber team. Though this is encouraging that the owners are on board, they may need to find another avenue in which fans can once again become excited about their organization.

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Positive Spirits for Michigan State

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By Kia Tyus

An article written by Mike Griffith of Mlive.com touched on the expectations about Michigan State.

Griffith starts the article off touching on the point that Michigan State has gone from being hopeful to win a Big Ten Championship, to it being expected from the general public that they are going to win the Big Ten Championship.

I like how Griffith used facts like how the Spartans are 5-1 and ranked 8th in the nation, and how he noted major wins against Nebraska and Purdue respectfully.

Griffith also compared two of the nations top coaches: Mark Dantonio and Nick Saban.

Griffith explained how Dantonio has a calmer approach when dealing with pressure. Griffith even goes into detail about how Dantonio is more worried about his players being happy and embracing the moment, even stating “I think it’s a good problem to have.”

Saban on the other hand had more of an aggressive approach complaining about how it pisses him off that the public puts so much pressure on his players to win, but still isn’t satisfied enough if he doesn’t win by a lot. At the end of the day, Saban is more concerned about his players fighting through a hard fought game and coming out with the win. Saban just cares about his player’s happiness.

The way the editor edited each coaches approach made Dantonio seem nice and calm and Saban seemed like a loose screw. In fact, both coaches wanted the same thing, for their players to be happy. They both went about the interviews in different tones but there is no wrong to the way they answered the question.

Both coaches are passionate about the game and most importantly, both coaches care about there players.

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NCAA Investingating Jameis Winston for Sale of Autographed Memorabilia

By Matt Rogers

Another year, another investigation and suspension by the NCAA due to the distribution of current FBS football athletes’ autographed memorabilia. This year the culprits are University of Georgia Running Back, Todd Gurley, and Florida State Quarterback, Jameis Winston. One thing that both of these players have in common is they are both two of the most recognizable names in college football and they are, or were, both prominent leading candidates to win for the 2014 Heisman Memorial Trophy.

It seems that every year in recent seasons, a star player has been either investigated or suspended for an incident that most people of the general public would not consider wrongdoing. Receiving benefit for their own autographed jerseys does not seem to be something worthy of receiving a suspension that could harm the player’s stock in the upcoming draft.

Anything Jameis Winston does, especially anything that Jameis Winston does wrong, is going to be discussed countless times on all of the national news and sports channels, especially ESPN, the most viewed sports channel on television. Since the incident broke, SportsCenter has run the story on every episode of the show, at least once, sometimes multiple times per show.

It does not help Jameis Winston’s case that he has already been in the news for all of the wrong reasons since this past summer. First it was the criminal sexual assault case stemming from a December 2012 incident. Then, it was for shoplifting crab legs from a local Tallahassee grocery store. In recent weeks, it has been for publicly yelling obscenities that resulted in a game suspension from Florida State’s game against Clemson. After mentioning all of these incidents, the investigation that Florida State University is currently conducting into the sexual assault case for a possible code of conduct violation this week is also worthy of a mention because of the attention it is receiving from the national media.

Whether Jameis Winston is actually guilty of any of these crimes is meaningless at this point. The incidents have received so much attention from the media that the public consumes that Winston has been assumed guilty of all of them in the court of public opinion. This may or may not be fair, but it is what it has come to when dealing with the multiple incidents that Winston has been involved in. The media and NCAA are solely responsible for all of the praise and criticism that the most successful players, like Winston, receive from the opinions of the public.

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Is Jameis Winston Too Much of a Distraction for Florida State?

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By Kate Roth

It seems as though the media cannot get enough of Florida State star quarterback, Jameis Winston. There is always a story talking about Winston’s talent on the field or more recently his troubles off the field. The question now is not whether or not the spotlight will be on Winston, but rather will that spotlight serve as a distraction for the FSU football program.

There have been more breaking news stories about Winston in the past two months than most players have had in their entire football careers. Just in the past three days there were numerous stories surrounding Winston, involving the alleged sexual assault case and now claims of Winston signing autographs in exchange for money.

It just seems as though this young athlete cannot catch a break. Once one story starts to die down, one or two more pop right back up in the media, putting Winston under fire again.

What most people don’t realize as they read these headlines and watch these stories is that this negative attention is not only effecting Jameis, but his coaches and teammates as well.

As much as players try to turn their heads to media and ignore the stories, it is almost impossible for them to go through their daily lives without hearing all these claims being made against the star of their team. Situations like this make it easy for a team to lose focus, and no matter how hard they try they will always be distracted by the media (positive or negative) that surrounds their team.

This can be seen by watching the highlights of the Florida State versus Syracuse game this past Saturday. Even though FSU came away with a 38-20 away victory, it was clear that this was not the team’s sharpest performance, Jameis included. Passes that usually come naturally to Winston seemed to falling short and the team’s overall performance did not live up to the expectations of being the number one team in the nation, leaving the voters no choice but to move Mississippi State into the number one spot after their incredible performance against Auburn.

Now the pressure is on for number two Florida State as the fifth ranked Fighting Irish of Notre Dame come to town this Saturday. Not only is this the biggest game of the year thus far for FSU, but it will be showcased as the college football game of the week on College GameDay.

If there was ever a time that a team needed to get rid of off the field distractions this would be it. Unfortunately for FSU, it does not look like the distractions are going to end any time soon, as long as Jameis Winston remains their starting quarterback.

It will be interesting to see how the team handles all of the pressure and distraction this week as they aim to stay undefeated and regain their spot as the number one team in the nation.

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A Comeback 29 Years in the Making: The Kansas City Royals Postseason Surge

By Savannah Malnar

The year was 1985, and the Kansas City Royals were World Series Champions, but hope for another title had all but disappeared for the next few decades. Up until this season, the Royals had not been seen in the postseason since that Game 7 win. That’s a drought of 29 years.

They’re back now with a vengeance, and the media is loving it. Articles about this team without the author referencing the Royal’s energy and confidence are nearly non-existent.

Everyone wants to analyze this playoff run. Ever since they took out the Oakland Athletics in the American League Wild Card Game, they’ve been unstoppable. They have won all of their postseason games to date. They swept the Los Angeles Angels, a World Series favorite. They have seven home-runs in the postseason, which is the same amount they had in their final 23 games in the regular season. But why? What’s the cause?

The media seems to insist it’s because of, surprisingly, their inexperience. These “kids” are so excited to just be in the postseason that the pressure isn’t getting to them. The Royals’ designated hitter, Billy Butler, is quoted by ESPN saying: “I’ve always heard the veterans with postseason experience always have the advantage because they know what to expect. That hasn’t been the case, I can’t put my finger on why. Hey, it’s my first experience.”

One thing is for sure though; despite the cause, the Royals are becoming a media and fan favorite for this MLB postseason. The Huffington Post dedicated an article to 27 reasons the Royals are becoming America’s new favorite team, and even the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “It’s Official: The Kansas City Royals Can’t Lose.”

While this is definitely the feel-good story of the season, is it right for the media to be covering them so subjectively? Many of the articles about the Royals playoff run don’t reference their opposition. There are unanswered questions in a lot of these articles; maybe it was the Athletics’ pitching that really was the reason the Royals won the Wild Card game. There were most likely factors outside of the Royals themselves that could be contributed to their sweep of the Angels.

Whether the media is right in this or not, they are definitely creating new fans of the Royals with all of the hype. This is a postseason run that will be remembered by baseball fans all across the country, not just in Kansas City.

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Famous Jameis: Where is this Star Heading and the Dark Cloud Circling Florida State Football

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By Kaleb Page

Nobody can deny the talent they have seen from game to game by Jameis Winston over his short time at Florida State. On the field his precision passing, passion for the game and command of the team has those at the next level drooling at what they could get. However, the star that is Jameis Winston could be on a collision course with a fate that nobody expected when he burst on the scene.

It all started on December 7th, 2012 when a female student was allegedly a victim of sexual assault by a male the morning after going to a local night club in Tallahassee, Florida. It took 34 days for the police to identify the man who did this and it was the victim who identified who it was, not police; the man identified was Jameis Winston. Prosecutors then waited another two weeks to contact Jameis about this, and then went on to do an even bigger baffling move. Without even interviewing witnesses or getting a DNA sample from Jameis, the case was closed on February 11th, 2013. But wait there is more. After letting nine months pass, on November 14th, 2013 investigators finally took interviews and a DNA sample from Winston. Ultimately leading to a ruling by the local prosecutor to not prosecute Jameis due to lack of evidence.

This whole thing from the start reeked of fishy methods and things done not in the sake of justice and truth but rather in the best interest of the school and its athletics. This event also brought into question the character of Jameis and how could he possibly do something like that or even put himself in that situation. This event is getting more press of late due to a report issued by The New York Times on October 10th, 2014. This report had shocking evidence as to how bad the university and law enforcement handled this situation. The school and law enforcement should be ashamed of how this all was handled and is still being played out. This made me think of a big question that could be added into this situation: How far will schools go to keep their star talent on the field?

Even though that event is the most serious and needs more attention, that was just the beginning of things that left people around the country wondering: What is Jameis thinking?

The same year of the alleged sexual assault (2012), Jameis and teammates had a BB gun fight in their apartment causing damages up in the area of $4,000.  Then in April of this year, Jameis went to a local grocery store and was caught stealing crab legs. He went on to make an apology and said “he forgot.” Then in the student union of Florida State he was seen on top of a table screaming an explicit phrase that got him suspended for the entire game against Clemson.

The straw that could break the camel’s back might be on its way. Recent developments are showing that the compliance department within Florida State athletics is investigating more than 950 autographed items by Winston found on the same site as Georgia’s suspended running back Todd Gurley, who had 500 items on the site. With this being a relatively new development it will be interesting if Winston will receive the same punishment as Gurley and be suspended for the rest of the season, thus possibly ending his Florida State football career.

Will the punishment happen though? From the track record of little to nothing done to discipline Jameis for his actions, my answer to that question would be no. Now Jameis may be a good person deep down and since I don’t know him maybe I should step back on my judgment. However with that said, it is hard to look at the list of bad judgment that follows him and not make a judgment of my own about the person he is. I wish Jameis for all his talent he had on the field, had just the equal amount of talent to think before he acts.

As for the big storm cloud building by the day around not only Jameis but around Florida State athletics and Tallahassee law enforcement, only time will tell the implications of their actions. It will most certainly get worse before it is all over, and for all that Florida State has built in the past years that made them into a premiere place to be, it all could come tumbling down. The investigators and prosecutor as well could see their credibility and reputation tarnished. But this all circles back to one person: Jameis Winston. Now is the time for this star to either wake up and become something better on and off the field, or continue on this path.

It is either he goes on to shine like so many of us believed when he just began, or this star will become like so many stars before it and implode on itself, turning into a black hole full of mystery. Mystery as to what could have been of Jameis Winston.

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