Super Teams? Get Yourself a Hulk

No one complained when the Avengers had Thor and Hulk on the same team or when the Justice League decided to add every big-name superhero they could find. Everyone just sat back and realized it wasn’t that bad after all. The culture of sports is shifting towards the age of the “Super Team”. It’s no longer all about a great player leading an average team to greatness, but about great players finding talent on their level to help pursue the ultimate-goal of a championship. A superstar in any sport will never be able to satisfy the media and the fans simultaneously, but having a championship ring does bode well to shut a lot of people up.
There always have and always will be teams in any sport that will put together a roster of all stars and potential Hall of Famers that will make their opponents look weaker than Batman after that whole Bane incident. Basketball had its Chicago Bulls in the 90’s and the 2010’s Golden State Warriors (Yes, there are many other historic teams. Just appreciate the references for what it is.). Football had the Cowboys, Bills, and 49ers in the 90’s running through its competition showcasing a handful of future Hall of Famers on each squad. As for baseball I’ll just let you take a wild guess at the greatest team there. Talent will always attract more talent and there is no changing that. Should we be condemning athletes to the worst parts of purgatory for signing with teams who have the pieces in place to compete for a title instead of having to settle for struggling with lack of talent or coaching for their entire career?
Let’s examine one of the biggest lightning rods when the mention of “super teams” arises. Kevin Durant, this season, signed with one of the best statistical teams in NBA history after having that very same team on the ropes with a 3-1 series lead in the playoffs and eventually losing to them the year prior. Many people jumped all over his decision to join an already highly talented team that was undoubtedly going to be a Finals contender for years to come. Many viewed the signing as weakness on Durant’s part for joining a team that beat him and for essentially going after an “easy” championship. Where is the weakness exactly? Was it weakness when Durant was bounced out of his first NBA Finals series by Lebron James and his mighty Miami Heat “super team”, or wait was it when he watched all the pieces of that very same team leave for other teams and all began to have break out careers away from the Thunder? Durant was either always criticized for never being able to carry an underperforming team to a championship or not playing good enough to elevate the players around him. Yes, he did join a 73-9 team who just so happened to be down 1-3 in a series in the playoffs and lost in the championship series after being up 3-1. They weren’t unbeatable, but with the addition of Durant that’s what everyone will now claim (The Warriors were 15-5 without Durant during the regular season). Everyone thought the Miami Heat during the 2010-2011 season would easily win it all after running through the NBA regular season and then eventually losing in 6 games in the Finals to the Dallas Mavericks lead by just a single superstar and veteran players. Just as Lebron James did, Kevin Durant must finally come to the realization that he will never be able to satisfy everyone’s expectations and maybe that is what’s best for himself and his career.
The biggest issue with the best players all sharing the same uniform would be the lack of competition left in a league when there are the same handful of teams that are capable of making a long run in the post season. The biggest offenders as of recent would be the two teams battling it out in their 3rd straight NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. The two teams considered to be the embodiment of the term “super teams” by damn near anyone who watches basketball. One huge reason casual fans enjoy following a sport throughout the season is the allure of never knowing which teams will go all the way. When even a low-tier sports fan is able to predict a Warriors-Cavaliers final at the beginning of the season. The allure is completely gone and what we’re now left with is an inevitable event that we must wait months to witness while knowing the results. That is not what sports represents.
Whether as a fan you agree or disagree with the concept of teams containing multiple all-stars through free agency signings, we must also realize that things like this are bound to happen through other means such as drafts and player development. Steph Curry didn’t come in to the league averaging over twenty-five points a game and Draymond Green was not a first round draft selection, yet here they are considered as elite level players at their respective positions. If an athlete wants to join a team, no matter what their record may be or who plays for them, we should be mature enough to consider that there are more than likely other factors that go in to a decision like this. Sports fans tend to misplace their thinking caps a little too often for my liking. 

Keyboard or Controller: The Rise of eSports

Remember all those game nights with your buds playing split screen and devouring bags of nacho cheese Doritos? Do you remember your younger self wanting to drop out of high school because you were convinced a life playing video games was the only rational future worth pursuing? Well congratulations because now is your chance to fulfill those Dorito induced fantasies. Video games have ascended beyond the confines of just your living room and are now sky rocketing towards becoming the world’s next big sport. As popularity for professional gaming grows, the age-old debate of what constitutes an event as a sport attaches itself to eSports like the Hive to Covenant (Halo peeps in here?).
Pro gamer, pro gaming or any phrase that has been synonymous with professional video game competition/players over the years now falls under the term eSports (Electronic Sports).
The beginning of the eSport scene is considered by many to be with the rise of PC gaming during the late 90’s with its popular first-person shooters such as “Quake”. These tournaments boasted the most robust prize pots ever at stake for any video game competition, reaching upwards of $15K.  
As the new millennium entered, so did the eventual boom of console gaming. The introduction of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles in 2006 brought in a new wave of gamer who were more prone to holding controllers than playing on a keyboard. The fast paced and popular FPS’s such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Halo 3 spearheaded the new wave of competitive gamers at major tournament circuits. Fans in the hundreds of thousands were online watching their favorite games played at such a fast pace and intense level that mirrors that of traditional sports we see every week. PC gaming only continued to cement its popularity with the introduction of immensely popular MOBAS (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena Video Games) such as League of Legends and Dota 2. Prize pots are now consistently in the millions for most major MOBA tournaments.
With the longevity of eSports having no bounds, it is not a question of the entertainment aspect that has critics up in arms, but its lack of actual physicality and athletic exertion. The fans live for the entertainment, and the generation of YouTube and live streaming has given gaming and its ambassadors the platform to enlist massive followings who enjoy a new brand of fast-paced competitive entertainment that doesn’t necessarily always involve a field or court.
Less physically inclined sports such as chess and poker have blurred the lines for what constitutes an individual as an athlete. Just as any professional athlete must keep their physical form in such pristine condition, a competitive gamer must sharpen their minds and reflexes for nearly 10+ hours each day. They must also account for the rest of their daily tasks such as working second jobs, attending class and maintain a life that cannot only revolve around their profession because there is no offseason for the eSports scene. Seasonal changes do not affect scheduling or grant players a break period. Aside from the daily obstacles, most professional gamers must put up their own money to travel to major tournaments to compete against hundreds of other opponents and must place in the top three just to be able to break even on all their expenses to be at these tournaments. This is all in the hopes that they attract the attention of sponsors, along with the hundreds of others also pursuing the same dream. That microscopic level room for error requires peak mental and emotional fortitude under immense pressure.
For the year of 2016, total eSports audiences were calculated at 292 million while also boasting a global revenue of $463 million (A 239% increase from $194 million in 2014). Even the biggest sports network in the world, ESPN, is now airing televised eSports tournaments weekly for games such as Street Fighter V and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
With only the sky left as a ceiling, there will only continue to be more surges in the world of eSports. This is not a simple fad or overnight sensation, this is a sport that is here to stay and will compete with any of the major professional sports in every facet from popularity to revenue. Scholarships are now being created for competitive teams at universities across North America. The rise of technology gave way to a new form of competition that rewards those who put in the work and time just as any athlete must do for any sport. Diminishing the overwhelming evidence in favor of eSports only continues to put you at a disadvantage of embracing the future if this is such a difficult pill to swallow. If all it took for a competition to be considered a sport was to gather healthy and sculpted individuals, scouts would have been at New York Fashion Week looking for their point guard or quarterback.    

2017 Never Looked So Ignorant: An Ode to Women in Sports

Today is the day we honor the women who nursed us back to health, helped us with our homework after ten hour shifts, and sacrificed to provide lives we can be grateful for. Now while we all take a day out of the year to appreciate these outstanding women, there are many who use every other day of the year to assault, abuse and antagonize women whether they be mothers or not simply for their preferences and occupational choices. Just as any male dominated profession, a woman in the sports world in any role often become recipients of unrelenting vulgarity and antagonistic language. The “back to the kitchen” and “make me a sandwich” jokes are still alive and well folks, and it’s time we stop ignoring those responsible no matter what jersey they wear.  
As a rational sports fan, you learn to love the competition because of the level of effort and determination put on display for our entertainment. It’s all we need.
Then we have the special fans, such as the severely underwhelmed ones, who salivate seeing 360 dunks and bicycle kicks, and throw tantrums when there aren’t any on display. Keeping them company are the fans who get extremely defensive and threatened when they sense a female attempting to infiltrate their sports realm and they treat it worse than that time the Empire discovered the Rebel base on Hoth. (We all deserve a good Empire Strikes Back reference every now and again).
The Pat Summitt (All-time leader in career NCAA wins for any Division I coach), Serena Williams (More major championship titles than any other tennis player in its Open Era history) and Abby Wambach’s (One of the most decorated stars in U.S. soccer history) of the world have put the weight of unbearable scrutiny and unsatisfied expectations on their shoulders and proceeded to do squats with those bad boys. The list of women who have proven that their skills and achievements are not just “good for a girl” stretches a lot further than most ignorant fans can probably count. They have become leaders and icons in their respective sports, setting records and accumulating medals and awards on a scale that could fill out a lot of your favorite male athlete’s trophy rooms.
Seeing women succeed and ascend to such high plateaus triggers a defense mechanism for any close-minded individual, who then takes to their keyboards to unleash unbridled, toxic fury upon Twitter and comment sections of sports articles everywhere. Individuals with mother’s, sister’s and aunts have the time to comically debate on Serena William’s gender or attack Abby Wambach ‘s sexual preference, are often the ones who want to defend their own blood with such hypocrisy?
Even within sports media, many women still do not attain even the most decent levels of respect that every person should be entitled to. Attempting to research female sports journalists, as I did, will leave you severely disappointed in our country’s desire to use search engines for anything other than beer, food or porn. Searching “ESPN Female Journalist” will grant you many options to choose from such as “Hottest Female Sports Reporters” or its equally informative counterpart “Top 15 Hottest Women of ESPN”.
ESPN’s Jemele Hill has been of the most targeted on air personalities/journalist on the sports spectrum during her rise through the company’s ranks after joining in 2006. Hill, a graduate of Michigan State University with a BA in Journalism, has won several awards for her work in her field and has held a handful of positions in the journalism world after her graduation in 1998. The unnecessary amount of hate and violence directed toward her daily comes through every form of social media platform. Her success as not only an African American woman in the sports world, but as a WOMAN in general along with her unique and seamless method of infusing pop culture within debates have transformed her in to a lightning rod of terrible pleasantries. The words used to describe her by the online community is truly saddening because it only highlights how little respect a majority of fans have for women like Jemele and her female colleagues. Jemele Hill represents the closing chapters of a very close-minded era of sports. She has continued to press on never taking her foot off the gas.
It’s understandable to think this is just a massive case of machismo entering its final form, but the issue does not end once you hit send. An actual human being is being subjected to your unnecessary hate and discrimination for pursuing their passion. Many of us who are sons to mothers, brothers to sisters, or grandsons to grandmothers should be more morally inclined enough to not attack someone simply because they are of the opposite gender. When I come across a man almost twice my age more concerned with sharing his opinion on the Olympic Women’s Gymnastics team looking like “men” than congratulating their historic achievements, it really has me worried about the direction our fan bases are going in.
 

Civil Rights x World of Sports

The state of affairs in sports is ever changing to coincide with the country’s transition in to a more modern and progressive society. Leading the world of professional sports are its athletes who have become much more bold and forthcoming during this new internet age of tweeting and swiping left. Now more than ever athletes are taking advantage of their exposure and social influence to incite the masses 140 characters at a time.

Professional athletes have always had the platform to project their thoughts, rarely are they using that platform to raise awareness for very real issues that affect millions of Americans daily. It all comes down to whether the responsibility falls on the shoulders of professional athletes to push agendas outside the realm of sports. An athlete attempting to speak on civil or political issues usually doesn’t fare well, but those throughout history who have taken the risk have had a hand in creating this “progressive” country we have such a love/hate relationship with.

If you were to hear the names Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, and Colin Kaepernick what would first come to mind are their obvious athletic achievements and not how these three men are civil rights activists of their respective generations.

Jesse Owens famously raised his fist in pride at the 1938 Berlin Olympics to showcase courage and solidarity for those facing oppression. In front of Adolf Hitler and the rest of the world, Owens demonstrated immense courage in the face of overwhelming oppression from not just the audience and its host, but those from his own country who salivated hate at the thought of an African American representing their country. He raised his fist to show that he will not back down in the face of absolute oppression and others do not have to be afraid to follow.

Almost 30 years later we had Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers to ever live, sentenced to three years in prison for evading the Vietnam Draft. Ali explained that his beliefs as a Muslim prevented him from unnecessary conflict. Muhammad Ali’s defense of his religion reflected the voice of those whose religion did not matter during a time where Christianity ruled over the country as the indisputable form of worship. He fought for those who were not able to fight for their beliefs on their own.

So, who was going to be the next high profiled athlete to step out on the ledge and become the next athlete turned activist? Enter NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. During the national anthem of a preseason game in 2016, Kaepernick was seen sitting on the sidelines while everyone in attendance rose and raised their hands to their hearts. Instantly placed under the spot light, Kaepernick became the talk of media outlets and talk shows non-stop for the next six months. His actions, as he explained, were an attempt to raise awareness for the overwhelming amount of oppression and injustice plaguing our country’s minorities and other various groups. Under severe scrutiny and risking his career, Kaepernick took a knee to let the country know that he won’t stand for oppression any longer (that one took me 15 minutes to come up with).

What these three individuals demonstrated was nothing short of courageous and inspirational, yet all three were met with unbridled backlash from every direction.

It didn’t matter that Jesse Owens risked his life by setting foot in a country led by a man hell bent on creating a perfect race to wipe out all others. It also didn’t matter when Muhammad Ali gave millions of people some of the best televised events to ever grace the screen for the very same people who criticized his decision to defend his religious beliefs proudly. It certainly didn’t matter that Colin Kaepernick donated all his jersey proceedings and a total of one million dollars to various charities and organizations founded to support minority groups and teens despite analysts of every kind demonizing him with every donation made.

Our country is far from perfect but it is men and women like the aforementioned that have made the effort to mold a society worth being prideful of. Men and women have put their lives and freedom on the line to push this country in a direction that is more accepting of everyone and we have the audacity to sit in our homes and speak ill of them. We advocate for our professional athletes to be role models and represent moral integrity and leadership, but turn our backs on them as if they are the cause of all that is wrong in this country. Instead of attempting to find solutions, people would rather make jokes and ignore the issues. For all the jokes being made about Colin Kaepernick, stop and think about how ignorant you may appear criticizing a man trying to create better lives for thousands of people. Still feel proud of those memes now America?

Better Left Unspoken or Time For Change?

Part of life is knowing when there are certain actions or decisions that are more or less mandatory just because they never need explaining they are just “done”. You offer your seat to the elderly, you don’t tell your best friend Ned Stark dies in the first season (NEVER FORGET), and you definitely do not ever use the bathroom without checking for toilet paper (Been there and sadly done that). These make a few of the infinite number of unwritten rules in life that we never ever question and rely on natural instinct imbedded in our subconscious to make the right decisions in the same manner we obey laws. Where is the line in the sand drawn when unspoken law is given free rein to regulate without consequence?

“Eye for eye and tooth for tooth” is known more in sports as “Low blow for low blow and fastball to the head for fastball to the head”. Enacting vengeance for a teammate who has been hurt or disrespected during a game is part of the comradery that is forged during those hundreds of hours of practice and time that fans do not get to see.

The biggest concern in sports are when players are allowed to instill their own set of rules and police the game themselves to establish order the way they seem fit. What adds to the concern is that athletes already know how to dance their way around the rule books better than Antonio Brown on Dancing with The Stars. They’ve discovered every method and loophole that allows them to get away with offenses that appear “cheap or “dirty” to fans, but within the rules of the game technically.

Hyper physical contact sports such as American football and hockey are games in which applying an “eye for eye” mentality can easily lead to serious and sometimes life altering damage. In hockey enforcers, which are typically the biggest players on each team, have a sole purpose of targeting down opposing team’s players who may have took a cheap shot our talked a little too much smack. Baseball is no different when it comes to its pitchers who intentionally will hit opposing batters if they feel disrespected by another player. These actions are completely within the rules despite these being the kind of actions that can lead to a person suffering an injury that could affect their careers which in turn affects that player’s family and their future. A person’s life should not be left up to those willing to take matters in to their own unlawful hands. If it’s something that happens so often to the point where even game announcers comment on it casually, there’s an obvious need for it to be addressed by the front offices.

Some of the more entertaing parts of watching sports are the celebrations and mannerisms of athletes expressing themselves in front of millions of fans. Many love this while many others may look at it as just not having a place in certain sports and doesn’t have to be spoken on amongst players.

The casual fan witnessing a baseball player smack a homerun and then flip his bat towards the dugout is an exciting moment by a player making the game interesting. Current and former players at any level see only a bat flip and a complete lack of sportsmanship that goes against the integrity of the game. There is nothing in the rule books that prevents it, but baseball players would argue that it is one of the most sacred rules of the game that will never appear in a rule book. Toronto Blue Jay’s powerhouse hitter Jose Bautista is the most infamous offender of this un spoken rule in recent memory. With the Blue Jay’s tied with the Texas Rangers late in a playoff elimination game, Bautista smacks the go ahead three run homerun to give the Blue Jay’s a lead they would ride to a victory over the Rangers. While the attention should have been entirely on an incredible playoff series with an amazing finish, all the focus shifted to Bautista’s exuberant bat flip. Everyone began taking sides over the display. Bautista commented on it after the game when asked on whether it was planned or not simply answered that he was “caught up in the emotion”. Is this not what we want out from our athletes? To see the raw emotion that ignites a fire under everyone’s ass both fan and player alike? Baseball is a more paced and meticulous game that has a reputation for being “too long”, yet with a simple action the entertainment value sky rocketed in an instant. Wouldn’t things such as bat flips improve the longevity of audience’s attention spans during baseball games?

While there have been some improvements to certain rule books that help to cut down on the more physically damaging aspects of unwritten rules, there is still a long way to go before any significant change can be made. There’s no place for the intention of causing another pain in any facet whether it be in a game or in everyday life. Surely there’s a way to keep the good and throw away the bad, but it’s never that straight forward with sports.

Business Vs. Morality Has An Obvious Winner

A business is only as strong as the employees that strengthen its foundation. Professional sports are no different. The beauty of professional sports is the illusion that the entertainment is all that matters but then we have the instances where the business interrupts the entertainment to remind it who exactly runs the show. When a business as powerful and influential as the National Football League has the authority to fine its players tens of thousands of dollars in fines for wearing the wrong color socks, it becomes apparent that maybe there’s just a little too much power being siphoned to the top. Just how much control do athletes have to relinquish in order to live out their child hood dreams?

As sports fans we feel a part of a pseudo-family every time we tune in to watch our favorite teams and players. We cheer in triumph with them and weep in misery for defeat (Hey if your team has the worst defense in the league three years running you’d cry too). As much as the athletes have done themselves over decades to sustain popularity among their respective sports, it seems profession American football players are still stuck under the weight of the gavel that stands at the ready to hand out the most ridiculous forms of justice in any sport.

The National Football League and its commissioner Roger Goodell have been infamous for cracking down significantly on uniform and attire violations. There have been fines ranging in the hundreds of thousands for advertising brands through apparel as in the case of former NFL player Brian Urlacher who was fined $100,000 for wearing a Vitamin Water hat. Vitamin Water is not sponsored by the league and so Goodell issued the stingy fine in an attempt to show off his muscle to the NFL’s big name sponsors (Papa John’s, Pepsi, McDonald’s, etc..) and prove he has his employees under control and won’t advertise anything that is not associated with the NFL. This would be an example of a somewhat excessive, but understandable reprimanding as the NFL does want to protect its other brands and not advertise other products freely. Even more understandable when you consider that NFL games are always at the top of television ratings and viewings during its seasonal time slots with its championship game the Super Bowl being the most watched televised program every year by far and large.

The NFL is a marketing machine and it knows it must protect itself. This is why there is specific uniform required for any big business. It’s standard protocol any way you see it.

The flipside to all this is that Roger Goodell isn’t considered one of the most disliked figures in sports without having rustling a few hundred feathers. What makes a person idolize an athlete is relatability and understanding through their emotions and representation when we watch them. There is no chance of that happening as long as you are in the NFL. It does not matter how positive the cause or message, if it isn’t sponsored by the NFL or vice versa then you will be fined for promoting it. In 2013, then Denver Bronco wide receiver Brandon Marshall was fined $10,000 for wearing green cleats in order to promote National Mental Illness Month. Marshall himself suffers from bipolar disorder and wanted to promote awareness for illnesses that plagues over 45 million Americans. It didn’t matter whether Marshall was trying to use his platform in a positive way, all that mattered is that the NFL does not have a partnership with any mental illness organizations worth advertising. To put this in perspective a player that very same year was fined $5,000 for an illegal hit to a player’s head. Fashion over health is what should have been the NFL’s new slogan.

Multiple players have been fined over the years for even honoring the passing of relatives. Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward was fined $5,787 (no idea where they conceived such an odd number) for honoring his late father by writing his father’s nickname “Iron Head” on his eye tape. I’m sure if the message written was “Papa Johns” Goodell would’ve given him a bonus instead.

The biggest question in all this however is the fact that for the entire month of October, the NFL honors Breast Cancer Awareness month and yet why do they choose to neglect to ever promoting awareness for any other illness or disability? All players are allowed to wear pink gloves, cleats, towels and any game gear with the Breast Cancer Awareness symbol sew on it. This is a great way to not only bring awareness to a very serious illness, but also bring in revenue for research as the NFL has been partnered with the American Cancer Society since 2008. It’s unfortunate however that rumors that the NFL donates only %5 of its proceedings from pink gear sales to the ACS. As positive as the NFL tries to promote itself to be, how is not able to align themselves with various other illness organizations when they already dedicate an entire month to one? It can happen but not unless there’s a big payoff for the NFL.

The decision is yours to make. Does the NFL place too many restrictions on its athletes? Should other professional sports follow in their footsteps to keep their businesses safe? What are your thoughts and opinions?

Worth of Two Weeks In August

As we put the month of August in our rear view mirror, we also leave behind a truly historic month. The dominance on display in Rio De Janeiro at this past year’s Summer Olympics from Team USA has been one that we as a country can take comfort in seeing for the world of athletics to witness. With one hundred and twenty-one total medals (3^rd highest in our country’s history at any Summer Olympics’) and all the hype during the Games, there was never a chance to consider what else goes on in a host city especially one that may not have ever been fit to host. At the time of publication, the Olympics’ have been almost a month removed and it is now time for all those watching around the world to return to normalcy.

Like many host countries’ past, Brazil was under tremendous international pressure to prove to not only the International Olympic Committee (IOC) but to the rest of the world that it was fully capable of giving itself a face lift (Brazilian face lift…there’s a bad joke in there somewhere). Unlike any other host country however, Brazil became the first South American country to host the Summer Games. Rio De Janeiro quickly became the most watched and studied city in the years following its Olympic bid win.

The obvious red flags that arouse surrounding Rio De Janeiro’s bid were its lack of infrastructure to support new Olympic facilities or the impending boom of tourism, the dangers of local crime that infested nearby favelas, toxic sewage being funneled in to Guanabara Bay and the amount of funding needed to create the IOC’s vision of a mega event. With time no longer on their side, Rio’s biggest concerns were slowly becoming the world’s concerns as representatives from every corner of the earth would eventually all be subsequent judges for Rio De Janeiro for two weeks in August.

In an attempt to erase the negative stigma that most of the world had about Brazil and its capital city, certain “steps” were taken to create the IOC’s latest spectacle. Favelas are as common place in Rio as tourist are, the possibility of crime spilling over in to the view of the rest of the world could not be allowed. Special task forces were created and sent in to the favelas in an aggressive and violent attempt to try to put a lid on the crime rate booming within the impoverished shanty towns. These aggressive approaches led to a spike in innocent civilians being killed by police. Lack of infrastructure opportunity in the city of Rio De Janeiro forced planners to host the events in all newly built facilities and stadiums outside the city. The space for the new facilities were only made possible after over 77,000 people were forcefully evicted from their homes to make room over a five-year span from 2009-2015.

The people of Rio De Janeiro very well may not ever profit from the revenue from the Olympics that would promise to be the answer to the country’s financial struggles. Past host cities such as Montreal (1976) and Athens (2004) left both their respective countries in a large financial hole. After hosting the Winter Games in 2014, Sochi is still maintaining facilities that were built for the Olympics’ and will have had no other use since the end of the Winter Games. This may well be the road taken by Rio De Janeiro as they are expected to rent out the Olympic village suites as luxury condos as part of the village’s transformation in to a luxury resort that will sure to attract only those able to afford it. The only possible way that the city can gain financial bearing after what it gave up for the IOC.

Brazil’s Olympic bid became almost solidified after hosting the 2007 Pan Am Games which required funding from public funds such as the Federal Worker’s Fund to build its newest facilities. Many of those facilities go unused to this day and require additional funding to maintain structural integrity due to these facilities having been built on unsuitable wetlands.

Unfortunately, many Olympic facilities were also built on similar unsuitable lands. On top of facility costs major improvements to public transportation, airports, docks, and tourist housing all were required to accommodate the massive influx of tourist traffic during the month of August. Only 40% of funding for the Rio’s face lift came from government (Federal, state, and local) and top sponsors such as Pepsi and McDonald’s. The other 60% came from tax payers. At no point it seems did government officials ever fathom that tax payers would not notice how much was sacrificed at their expense to showboat to the rest of the world for simply two weeks.

With Brazil having a population almost entirely dedicated to the world’s most popular and affordable international sport in futbol, is there hope to see any local kids from the favelas making it on to any of those grand fields or courts to play some tennis or maybe go skeet shooting? We all know who can and cannot afford to even set foot on the soon to be luxury resort. More or less it is a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands who live a few miles from what they aren’t allowed to touch.

 

The Woes of the Rational Sports Fan

Remember that time your team gave away the game winning score or came up short in the last minutes of regulation? A rush of emotion ranging from confusion to anger flood over you and your television is now the recipient of your latest rant on why “This just isn’t our year”. I am guilty of all the above on many occasions, but that sudden rush of emotion only surfaces during encounters with true passion. Do you remember the exact moment in time when they become “your” team or your favorite player? Do you remember crossing over from the casual fandom to the die-hard culture that defines sports in its entirety?

I can’t say I remember that exact moment, but I do know for a very long time I have been a fan of teams that could be considered underdogs or not good enough to be anyone else’s favorite team. When you grow up in New York City, more specifically the Bronx, there are two things you learn even before you can walk: 1-There is a bodega on every corner and 2-If you’re from the Bronx, you’re a Yankee fan. The mecca of baseball royalty has been a mere 20-minute walk from where I lived during most of my teen years. These years were when I began comprehending things on more than just a basic level. I could now see things have a history to them. I gravitated to sports faster than I could anything else. Of course, I started off as a fan of any New York team. You want nothing more than to be able to let everyone know that New York sports are what you’re proud to represent. Not me though. I wanted the team I root for, yell at my screen and hold my breath in anticipation for, to be the one that I never have to question my loyalty towards. I wanted the team that maybe not everyone will cheer for because they may not seem like much, but when their shining pinnacle finally arrives I can say that I was a part of the metamorphosis. Once I settled in to the sports culture was when that I became exposed to some of the worst kinds of people. At its core, sports should be about love and comradry among others who share the same devotion and it is unfortunate that it can also show a side to people that should not be shared.

 

You’re NOT a Traitor if You’re Hometown Team isn’t your Favorite

It’s astounding how often I’ll hear this claim. When you’re from a city as overpopulated such as New York City where pride and arrogance is the city’s bread and butter, it’s no surprise to be reminded with the familiar rings of “Madison Square Garden is the greatest sports venue in the world” or my personal favorite “Well the Yankees won 27 championships”. *sigh*. Yes, while one of those is an actual fact and the other is an opinion, it does become somewhat of an annoyance when you’re looked at funny for proudly declaring the team you support which resides outside state lines. Is it my fault my favorite professional teams just so happen to be in a different time zone as the other? No it isn’t. Is it my fault that I love the culture, uniforms, and players of different teams? Hell yes it is and I am proud of it. It is easier said than done, but do not let the negative influence of toxic sports fans dictate who you support and who to become a fan of. Don’t allow the mob mentality to take over your own thoughts.

 

Just Because a Player/Team is better, Doesn’t mean you forget your manners

Whenever I take a casual scroll through the Facebook comments of almost any Sports Center posting, I have been conditioned to very rarely be taken aback by what some sports-loving individuals can spew through their keyboards. Now while I do not support some of the constant coverage the sports media giant focuses on (I get it, LeBron had skim milk with his cereal this morning thanks for the update), fans should try and understand that the hateful and disgusting comments being directed towards many of these athletes and teams are not the way to go about things. Whether you hate them because they ended the season for your beloved team, or because they just signed a new deal with your rival club, it does not mean these aren’t human beings who for the most part we know nothing about apart from what they do during game time. We do not know their upbringings or what they and their families had to endure to reach this point in their lives where they now entertain the masses. We are quick to give in to our primitive instincts and act out of character when using social media to mask ourselves, but when these high profile athletes are suddenly struck with tragedy we choose to ignore the fact that just yesterday the comment of “He should go die that S#% player” seems a little too harsh now doesn’t it? A bit of advice. Try not to comment on a game as soon as it’s over because 9/10 times you’ll just make a fool of yourself for letting emotions dictate what you type.

 

The Finale

Do not forget that these men and women put their bodies through hellish amounts of training day after day for years just to give us the fans those 60 minutes of entertainment and memories that many of us love to think back on and hold dear. Whether they may not be literal angels with halos hanging above them, fans should not forget that these athletes have done nothing at all directly to you so why give them all this power over you?

Start of Something Good

Thank you all for starting this journey with me. Like thousands of others, I never knew what exactly I wanted to be doing as I became older. The one thing I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I could always find solace, happiness, and confidence in was through writing. Whether it was a quick rant on the status of relationships during this day in age, or simply just attempting to relieve my mind of thoughts, I could not stop myself from loving the craft. I am by no means a perfect writer or editor and so I ask anyone who chooses to follow this blog to bear with me through the errors and mistakes  as this is just the first stepping stone leading to much more grand plateaus. Let’s get to it!