Jon Gruden Broadcasts Fair Game Involving His Brother

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Last Monday’s Monday Night Football game was more than just a platform for Russell Wilson’s athleticism. While the Seattle Seahawks racked up 27 points against the Washington Redskins 17, another element other than football was presented during a broadcast that included announcer, Jon Gruden. You’d imagine that because his brother, Jay Gruden, coaches for the Redskins organization that the interview would become a one-sided story of the glories of Washington and amplify the blunders of Seattle. However, the broadcast was nothing of the sort.

Even during pregame, it was obvious that Jon had no intention of showing favoritism towards his brother’s organization. He presented the strengths and weaknesses of both teams as if he had no association. He didn’t dazzle me more than any other broadcaster, but impressed me with his professionalism. However, I didn’t know what to expect when the game clock started.
The game soon turned into the Russell Wilson show. By the end of the night he had rushed for over 120 yards and threw for 201 passing yards. As each second ticked down on the clock, Jon held true to a good broadcaster and was completely unbiased. In fact, his broadcast criticized the decisions of the Redskins with comments that included, “I don’t know if they watched the wrong game film or what”.

I truly respected this type of broadcasting. It makes the game more enjoyable knowing that the broadcasters are bringing nothing to the game except good, unbiased analysis. It’s becoming more and more common that sports broadcasters lean towards one side or another while announcing. Whether it be the underdog versus the undefeated team or having some kind of association with one of the teams participating, broadcasters are leaking comments that show they have some kind of mindset about one of the teams or its players. It’s becoming frustrating to know that some broadcasts turn into matters of opinion rather than using their talents to help their viewers further understand the game.

However, Jon Gruden acted against this ongoing trend and broadcasted a fair game. Broadcasts are not places for tons of opinions. It’s an ongoing trend that needs to be addressed and I was proud to see that not all analysts are feeding into this.

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Redskins NEED Name Change

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Christopher L. Gasper wrote an incredible article for The Boston Globe on the need to change the Washington Redskins name.

I completely agree with what Mr. Gasper had to say about the name of the Redskins and how it is offensive to Native Americans.

Gasper talked about how it is racist for any team to be named the Redskins and how it is equivalent to a team being called the N-word. And, if you were to think about it, he is absolutely right because there is not one African-American who would be okay with any team being called the N-word.

I also like how Gasper pointed out how changing the name of the Redskins will not erase the history that they have made since moving to Washington. It will simply be the start of something new and fresh.

In fact, Gasper mentioned how the Indian removal Act of 1830 and Trail of Tears support the removal of the Redskins name.

Even powerful figures such as President Barack Obama, US Attorney General Eric Holder and Redskins cornerback Champ Bailey stated that it was a no-brainer that the Redskins should change their name.

Gasper did a great job in finding facts about how outraged people are when he said that the US Patent and Trademark office canceled the Redskins trademark.

Gasper did look at both sides stating that a lot of die-hard Redskins fans wouldn’t approve of a name change because it is what they grew up on. I understand that because I couldn’t imagine calling the Detroit Lions another name.

A simple solution would be to change the Redskins name to the Washington Braves. Many teams that move to different cities keep the original name and just change the city. For instance the New Jersey Nets recently changed their name to the Brooklyn Nets. I also feel like Native Americans should do peaceful protests so the world can actually see first-hand that the Redskins name is truly offensive to them.

Gasper did a great job with this article by critiquing how disrespectful it is for the Redskins to be called the Redskins and did a wonderful job backing up the sources.

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NHL Player Safety Looking to Hire Flyers’ Heavy-Hitter Chris Pronger

By Savannah Malnar

It’s October, which means it’s officially the beginning of the NHL season. As with the start of any sport season, there’s excitement, debate about teams and season predictions. But what kind of beginning of a season would it be without a little controversy?

As of October 8th, the NHL doesn’t lack that. It was reported that famed Flyer goon, (or enforcer, depending what side of the hit you’re on), Chris Pronger was interviewed for a job within the NHL player safety department. The media immediately blew up, for two primary reasons.

First off, Pronger has a total of 1,916 penalty minutes in the 18 years he played in the NHL. His number of times suspended? 22 games. Two of those suspensions were for hits to the head. He isn’t the first person that would usually come to mind regarding “player safety.”

Secondly, Pronger is still under contract with the Philadelphia Flyers for three more years. Because of concussion and eye issues, he will not play in the league again, but the Flyers need to keep him on long-term injured reserve and continue paying him for salary cap reasons. His salary while on the IR will be $4 million this season and then $575,000 the next two.

The hockey media seem to be in two camps, but surprisingly the sticking point is the remaining contract, not his reputation on the ice. In fact, after the initial shock and flurry of jokes about the irony of the situation, the media agreed he would be fitting for the job. To quote Nicholas Cotsonika, Yahoo! Sports hockey writer, “If you want to build a better safe, hire a safe-cracker.”

Still, there is an apparent conflict of interest with Pronger being paid directly by the Flyers for three more years. He would have the opportunity to put voice his opinion on player safety cases for all of the teams in the NHL, including the Flyers. Would there be bias? Probably not. Would there be more controversy and maybe even lawsuits if a mistake is made? That situation isn’t out of the question.

Some of the media are calling for him to be hired, but for the NHL to not seek his advice on any cases regarding the Flyers. This seems fair. Bob McKenzie, hockey commentator on TSN, tweeted that the NHL Players Association is involved in this decision. As long as the players are in agreement, there shouldn’t be any more debate within the media.

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Concussions: Why the World and Soccer Should Listen

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By Kaleb Page

When it comes to the topic of concussions in sports the main sport in question is football. Rarely do you find discussion on concussions in any other sport and one rarely finds criticism thrown at other sports like one does with football. The time has come to look at the sport of soccer or fútbol, as a concerning area for concussions.

Recently in a match between Arsenal and Chelsea, Thibaut Courtois, who is a rising star at goalkeeper for Chelsea, fell victim to a blow that left him unconscious on the pitch. This blow resulted after a ball came in the box towards forward Alexis Sánchez of Arsenal and Courtois slid in to recover the ball before Sánchez could get a boot on the ball. The scene was a car- crash-like pile on the pitch that left Sánchez looking over a knocked out Courtois.

Doctors and training staff members came on to check out the star keeper and run what was said to be the Premier League’s standard for head injuries. Even though the guidelines were ran, there is one disturbing fact about what happened following this severe head injury.

For 14 minutes after the injury and testing, Courtois was allowed to play on. Yes, you read that right. The guy who was just lying on the ground unconscious after receiving a knee to the head was allowed to get up and play like nothing even happened. He was eventually taken out of the game, but that was after the fact that he played on for 14 minutes. Now if this happened in the game of football the uproar would be astounding and would almost guaranteed be the talk of sports for weeks on end. Yet when you turn on the television to SportsCenter, Fox Sports Tonight or even NBC Sports Network do you see the same outcry as if it was a sport like football? The resounding answer is no.

Taylor Twellman, who contributes on ESPN broadcasts for soccer, is a very outspoken member of the soccer community who has had his own battle with concussions in soccer. His own professional career was cut short by the mishandling of a concussion he received while playing. He recently looked at the mishandling of this concussion and the concussions in this sport over the years.

Even if you trace back to the World Cup this summer, Twellman was angered by the handling of concussions on the world’s biggest stage for soccer. Several players received concussions in various games, and yet they played on, or attempted to at least. This prompted a response from Twellman saying that, “It’s barbaric. The way FIFA has turned an eye to head injuries, it’s 1950s-ish.”

I could not agree more with Twellman and some of the others in the soccer community who have concern with the treatment and handling of head trauma in soccer. In this most recent development with a rising star like Courtois, it brings this issue to the forefront where it belongs just like it does with football concussions. In the end the question needs to be asked to FIFA and the respective leagues around the World: Do you care about your athletes’ well-being or are you going to continue to pretend like you care?

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Has the Media Forgotten Hope Solo?

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By Kate Roth

Over the past few weeks, sports media has been flooded with story after story involving a domestic violence issue, with majority of subjects being players from the National Football League.

After the Ray Rice incident, the media seemed to put the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL on blast for how they were handling the situation.

With the increased pressure coming from the media, the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell felt he had to take action. In doing so, Goodell suspended Rice from the league all together and implemented a new policy to help deal with future offenses.

Upon hearing the news of the new suspensions for players involved in domestic violence incidents, the media may have felt that like they had a part in starting that implementation. What the media failed to realize is that while they were so zoned in on attacking the NFL incidents, there were other situations going on in other sports that needed to be addressed as well.

Take for instance the Hope Solo case. Solo, who has had domestic violence issues in the past, has now been accused of assaulting her sister and her 17 year-old nephew. Even with all the media buzz around domestic violence issues in sport, Solo remains active on the Untied States Women’s National Team as she awaits trial in November.

The media has given very little attention to this topic, causing it to fall off the radar. By neglecting to cover this story the media has failed to show the seriousness of the situation and has taken the pressure off of the USWNT to suspend Solo for any period of time.

If the media were to have given the same attention to Solo’s case as they did for the cases in the NFL, the USWNT may have felt enough pressure to address the seriousness of the situation and make an example out of Solo to prevent this from happening with future players.

I think that the media really dropped the ball by neglecting to cover this story and essentially contradicted themselves by giving all of their attention to the NFL issues and ignoring the same issues happening with an athlete in another sport, as if we should pretend that what she did was not as serious.

I hope that if another situation like this were to arise, the media would realize their mistakes and give their attention to all of the serious issues in sport, not just the ones involving the most popular leagues or players.

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Back in Full Swing: Start of the 2014 NHL Season

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By Ellen Chlumecky

The 2014 NHL Season kicked off this Wednesday with a substantial amount of media attention from a multitude of different media outlets. While the NHL is not the number one popular sport currently in the United States, NHL teams’ public relation and marketing teams have been doing an exceptional job at getting the attention on the NHL.

Hockey is not covered much as sports such as football and basketball, however hockey is still proclaimed one of the four major sports in both North America and the United States. However, NBC Sports Network has world class coverage which includes weeknight games all week and the rivalry night during the week. NBCSN is also starting to show some college hockey games in addition to the NHL games.

In addition to local radio stations and TV stations in each of the respective teams’ areas, the NHL franchise has taken to Twitter to promote the 2014 season. All of the individual NHL teams have also taken to Twitter to promote their games and the start of the season. The NHL also decided to create a Snapchat to promote their stories and game times. They also post daily to their Instagram account, which had a countdown of the amount of days until the season started. The NHL franchise is trying to hit every corner of the media to broadcast the start of the season and to get more and more people to watch. The NHL wants all types of fans and are trying to expand their media horizons even more than ever.

While the NHL is being supported by NBCSN and other major media outlets, one of the biggest sports media outlets that tends to ignore the NHL is ESPN. While NBCSN own all national coverage rights to show NHL games, it shouldn’t stop ESPN from broadcasting stories or highlights of certain games. The reason why ESPN is not a huge supporter of the NHL is unknown, but despite this setback, the NHL seems to be doing fine without their support. It is set to be a great season for the NHL with plenty of fresh faces and a multitude of teams ready to battle for their chance to hoist the Stanley Cup. The NHL franchises should be commended on their hard work with the marketing, promotions and advertising they have been doing to promote the league further. Here’s to another great NHL season!

 

Hockey: The Neglect Continues for the NHL

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By Nicholas Muhl

I was born December 29th, 1992. That year the Pittsburgh Penguins won their first Stanley Cup behind NHL Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux. Growing up as a young kid in the 90’s, I was raised to love the National Hockey League. To this day I can remember collecting NHL hockey cards as a kid, and knowing many of the players that played for each team.

I grew up watching the toughness of defensemen Scott Stevens of the New Jersey Devils. I saw both goaltenders Patrick Roy and Martin Brouder battle for who was the best in the NHL. Both are now probably two of the best hockey players to ever play. And I saw the Dallas Star’s Brett Hull score the infamous “No Goal” in triple overtime to defeat the Buffalo Sabres in the Stanley Cup.

In the 90’s and early 2000’s, the NHL was in it’s prime. The NHL is much different a decade later. It’s experienced two lockouts since 2004 under commissioner Gary Bettman. Events like Todd Bertuzzi’s blind side sucker punch on Steve Moore in 2004, and Patrice Bergeron’s Grade III concussion in 2007 have called into question the brutality of the sport.

Rightfully so, for a time period, the NHL was it’s own worst enemy and received little to no media coverage because of it. There was a point where many NHL games were being shown on little known media networks like OLN. Gone were the big time games on ABC, NBC, ESPN and other major networks.

However, the NHL is building back to what it once was. Superstars Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have generated national attention to the NHL and have become household names, even for the non-hockey fan. The 2014 Stanley Cup final between the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers was the second most watched Stanley Cup final since 2006.

Now, days before the 2014 NHL season is set to begin, where is the media coverage of the NHL? After such a highly watched Stanley Cup, why do I find myself, an avid fan of the NHL, barely feeling like the season is set to begin at all? Nightly SportsCenter episodes are spent discussing players like Johnny Manziel and LeBron James. Headlines are all about the major sports like football and basketball.

While the NHL still has a long way to go before it can be once again included with the major leagues of the NFL, NBA and MLB, it is now on the right path. However, the NHL will never make a comeback until major networks like ESPN begin giving the NHL the coverage it deserves. It’s frustrating as a fan, because these major networks make it harder to be a fan of a sport so many love.

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Timing is Key in the Media for the New Ryder Cup Development

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By Alex O’Connor

The 2014 Ryder Cup was one to forget for the United States. The U.S. lost to the Europeans by a score of 16.5-11.5, which is a margin of five more matches won for the Europeans. The man who chose some of these players was Tom Watson. Watson is a legend in the golf industry, having won multiple major championships. However, Watson has only been a Ryder Cup captain once. Coming into the tournament, there was heavy media attention on how much of an underdog the U.S. team was. For example, on September 11th of this year, rydercup.com uploaded a segment giving Europe the overwhelming nod to win.

Once the tournament began, there were several pairing moves made by Watson that were heavily scrutinized. Recently, golfchannel.com reported that Watson changed his mind on the adding of Bill Haas to the roster instead of Webb Simpson. Through the media’s portrayal of the pairing selections and his last-minute roster decision, Watson had an overall unsuccessful tenure as the Ryder Cup coach this year.

The first subject of criticism that was highlighted in the media about Watson’s tenure was his roster placement during the tournament. The main two pairings that were under the most heat were Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. On Saturday, Spieth and Reed won their first match, while the latter had lost. Instead of putting Mickelson and Bradley out for their next match, Watson benched them in favor of the two Ryder Cup rookies. Reed and Spieth went on to halve the match. One of NBC Sports lead Golf anchors, Johnny Miller, was not fond of Watson’s original picks, and this decision only added to the negative impression of the U.S. team.

It has been reported that Bill Haas was originally supposed to be the final captain’s pick by Tom Watson. This was based on the word of some U.S. players. However, Webb Simpson sent a text the night before pleading his case to Watson, having already told his players that Haas was the last pick. The bottom line was that their was a clear lack of decisiveness in the situation and false hope among the players. However, the media only knew about Simpson’s text and not of Haas’ “confirmation” at the time. In the case of the media, one crucial fact was left out of this situation and was not properly addressed until yesterday.

This year’s Ryder Cup is one that should soon be forgotten by U.S. fans and players alike. However, this new development will keep a sour taste for a little bit longer. The media presence in this situation was simply not in the right place at the right time. Regardless of the timing, Tom Watson is being painted in a negative light and will ultimately have a difficult time renewing his captain’s seat for future Ryder and President’s Cups.

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Brock Boyer Back in the State Tournament

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By Kia Tyus

Andrew Williams of The Courier recently published an article about Brock Boyer making history in North Baltimore.

This article starts strong by stating multiple facts about Brock Boyer and the history of golf in North Baltimore.

The article did a great job in talking about the 34-year drought since a player from North Baltimore made it to state finals. Meaning, since 1980, no golfer from North Baltimore has made it to the state finals.

Boyer wasn’t even thought about the last time a golfer from North Baltimore made it to the finals, which is why the senior’s impressive 78 at the Division III boys district golf tournament on Thursday at Stone Ridge Golf Club got the community buzzing. Boyer will compete at the golf tournament on October 11 and 12 at North Star Golf Club in Sunbury.

Boyer stated that this accomplishment was a “great feeling”.

After the short Boyer introduction, the article took a turn for the worst by discussing other competitors whose scores happen to be better than Boyer’s.

I feel as though if you are going to highlight such a historical moment the author of the article Andrew Williams needed to focus more on Boyer and his accomplishments in the tournament.

Williams in a way disrespected Boyer by not fully acknowledging him throughout the entire article. Something Williams could have included in his article was writing about Boyer’s early golfing days and the struggle and heartbreak of never making it to the finals.

Maybe Williams could have asked more questions, such as if there was any pressure to break the drought.

To me, if you are going to acknowledge someone especially in the title you owe that person a full article, not half an article. It was wrong for Williams to discuss the competition Boyer would face.

It was Boyer’s time to shine and embrace the moment of such accomplishment. If Williams wanted to write about Boyer and his competition, that should have been a separate article.

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MLB Playoffs: Lost in the Mix

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By Kate Roth

With all of the excitement surrounding the many college football upsets lat weekend it seems that the Major League Baseball Playoffs have gotten lost in the media.

One would think that a sport known as America’s national pastime would receive a bit more coverage during the playoffs, which are undoubtedly the most intense and exciting part of the MLB season. Yet every sports media show and site you look at is showing the same clips from the big college football games played on Saturday.

This is not to say that there has not been any media coverage of the MLB playoffs at all, but in my opinion the small clips and highlights that are shown on SportsCenter are not nearly enough.

Over the weekend the Kansas City Royals (a team who has not made the playoffs in 20 years) upset the Los Angeles Angels (one of the favorites to win the American League) by completing a three game sweep to advance to the American League Championship Series. To me, an upset like this on the stage that they had to play on should be the main highlight of every sports media page and show. Just watching the highlights from this series alone would get fans more excited to tune into the rest of the MLB playoffs.

Without the media giving the MLB any attention, it seems as though fans have forgotten that the playoffs are even in action. All of their focus has gone towards who will be the top four teams to make the college football playoffs, even though they are only half way through the season.

Fans enjoy knowing about the sports and teams they are going to watch before actually watching them, that way they are familiar with the players during the game and have a little more background to keep them intrigued.  If the media were to spend a little more time showcasing the MLB playoffs I think we would see an increase in fan interest because they would have more information on the teams giving them reason to actually watch the games.

Overall, I am excited to see how the rest of this MLB postseason will play out and I hope to see more attention from the media along with more fan interest in our national pastime.

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