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 From the little experience I have had talking to local athletes who had the opportunity to play sports on the collegiate level, many don’t make it through. There are many reasons but being homesick is a common one I have heard. It is not easy to leave everything you know behind especially if the college is many miles away from home. It is one thing to join the military and have no choice but to stay in, but you can just quit college and go home to mama anytime you like. If it were easy to make it in college then no one would end up working at factories, managing Foot Locker, or landscaping. Nothing wrong with everyday jobs, I do that myself,  it just takes a little more effort to do something that is not “everyday”. Perhaps someone could start a service that gets kids ready for college life and college athletics. Maybe someone already has done so. College athletes have a bit more on their plates than just normal students so they could use a course on what to expect.

Tags: college football, ncaa basketball // Add Comment »

 The fact that recruiting rules have tightened leads to coaches using webcams instead of face to face visits. This is just the market going around stupid rules that don’t stop any coaches from connecting with the athletes they want on the team. Before long there will be a couple of people have the grand idea that webcam contact with players should be against th e rules and the coaches will find another way around that rule. It is an endless cycle that makes no sense. If a player wants privacy he can get it. Caller ID, caller blocking, email filtering, etc.

Web cams new tool in college football recruiting - NCAA Football - Yahoo! Sports

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Stop the presses, or should I say stop the blogs for a current phrase, a star athlete received some benefits that were against some rules. No one cares. OJ Mayo of USC and future NBA Millionaire is th latest to be caught up in a mess or more appropriately he got his college in a mess. He will not feel any pain from this “scandal” other than a little media scrutiny. But USC could face probation and scholarship reductions because of him. The player has only a tiny bit of incentive to refuse gifts while the natural motivation to take some freebies is overwhelming. I blame the NBA for this particular case as they are the ones blocking high schoolers from coming into their league until a year after they graduate. but it is their league and they can do as they wish. The bottom line is that Mayo was going to get paid sooner or later and he chose sooner and so would you or I in his place. Star performers in business get paid more and are coveted in the real world so it is only natural that the same things happen with athletes. It is the unnatural restrictions that cause the problems. USC took a chance on a kid with no intention of staying past one year there thus they will pay some price likely. Mayo capitalized on his ability which is the American way. The schools and athletes are not the problems here. The regulations pretending that we live in a pure world full of rainbows, pink bunnies, and marsh mellow clouds are the problem. Get rid of the restrictions on paying players in college and everything becomes transparent. No back door deals. Let the stars get paid like stars. Let them do commercials for local businesses. The market will decide what they are worth.

ESPN - Ex-Mayo confidant says he gave USC star gifts including TV, cash - Men’s College Basketball

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I keep seeing all these stories about protests against China because of their human rights violations. I have no doubt they are guilty of many but the problem I have is the hypocrisy of other governments who are guilty of  other types of human rights violations. I saw a story on CNN a few weeks back about China moving people off their land to build Olympic sites and how awful they were for doing this to their citizens. This is no different than imminent domain policies here in the USA where private property owners can have their property taken not only for public roads but also for “economic development when officials decide it would benefit the public, even if the property is not blighted and the new project’s success is not guaranteed”. I wonder how many protests would occur had the Olympics been staged in the USA. If you have not noticed, our war (actually our government’s war) in Iraq has made us very unpopular. It is easy to point the moral finger at a foreign country and ignore the bloated, overbearing beast that governs one’s own nation, whether that is here or anywhere on Earth that government exists. Government is force, period.

Podium protests ‘a real possibility’ at Olympics - SI.com - Olympics

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Good read over at LB’s site  about being able to mute certain broadcasters during ball games. That is a great idea. The thing i would like to see is different angles mainly for football. I don’t care about all the closeups. I want the option of seeing the entire offense and defense in one frame to see who is open and how the secondary is shutting down a start receiver. Watching many high school playoff games from the mezzanine at the Georgia Dome has spoiled me. I like that view and would like that option during tv broadcasts. I know it will come one day but don’t know why it should not be soon. The technology is there.

How to Improve Sports Broadcasts | Larry Brown Sports

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All the hype about Matt Walsh having tape of the Rams walk through before the 2002 Superbowl was just that. Turns out he had nothing new to further damage the Pats. Or was it just hype? I don’t know if these tapes are really “tapes” or DVDs but I will assume they are vcr type tapes for now. Maybe Walsh had the walk through but decided to tape over it to get his favorite soap opera or American Idol. If so I imagine him kicking himself after he saw the tape labeled “Rams Walkthrough Cheat tape” playing a no talent singer on a show built for the dumbing down of America. Too bad Matt, but that is what you get for being a rat.

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 The NBA has been good for the past couple of years really, but it is really back for me this year. I have watched every game I could this post season. Not since MJ’s last ring have I been interested in the NBA and more than just the Finals. Even my hometown hawks are creating buzz in the ATL. That series is going 7, believe dat. The Lakers look like the best but those damn Spurs will not go quietly into that good night. The last series against the Suns just solidifies how much I hate them. I do like Tim Duncan’s quiet excellence. But I really hate that pretty boy Tony Parker and the gnat-like Manu Ginobili. How bad would Scotty Pippen, MJ, & the crew have made these posers looked? Last year the Spurs were aided by the BS suspensions after they tried to decapitate Steve Nash. But this season they will have to deal with a hungry Kobe Bryant who is not on an island with no help. I cannot wait for the former villain, Bryant, to be transformed into a hero when they dispense with San Antonio.

My man Mark Cuban just clipped his coach and he should make Dirk next on the hit list. His best player is also his softest player. That is a huge problem and cannot be fixed. Dirk is not a rookie feeling his way out. He is a veteran wus now an cannot change I am afraid. No star player I can recall would allow an opposing player to touch their face the way David West did to Dirk. AI, MJ, Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, etc would not take any BS like that ever. The fact that Dirk took it and no teammate came to his defense tells us all we need to know about his toughness. If you have time at least keep up with the playoffs through highlights. You’ll be glad you did.

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The Falcons had little choice in taking a QB so early. However it makes all the back ups irrelevant since the big money Matt Ryan will get forces the team to play him and stick with him. Of course if the back ups were any good they would not have needed a QB in round one of the draft. Redman had potential but he was connected to Quitrino and last year’s debacle so the Falcons had little use for him long term. The Birds need so much help that it would have been nice to trade away the high pick for several first and second rounders. But I do not see any Hershel Walker for your whole team trades available.

Falcons draft QB Ryan | ajc.com

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Let me get this disclaimer out of the way: Drugs are bad.  Now Josh Howard should not have publicly stated that most NBA players use marijuana. That is not fair to the guys who are not getting baked. Most people in the media are crushing Howard and the timing of his statement was not good being down 2-0 to New Orleans. I won’t spend pages stating the case that marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol . It is hard for me to say since I have experience only with alcohol & not the hippie lettuce. The fact that weed is illegal has a lot to do with collecting fines and keeping the courts full. Check out Law Enforcement Against Prohibition for more information. All I am saying is investigate the situation for yourself and decide. Don’t believe me or the politicians who create all these laws. Do your research to see who is harmed by personal activities. All that said, I think most people’s lives will be better without using any drugs as a small percentage really get hooked on even alcohol & hurt themselves tremendously along with their families. The laws are not stopping these activities though. They just make life a little more dangerous for everyone. Check out the history of alcohol prohibition to see how violence erupted when beer was illegal. I don’t see many shootouts involving beer nowadays. That is because it is available and not part of the Black Market.

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Just a quick question. When did winning a game 3 NBA playoff game warrant confetti and streamers from the stands? I thought the playoffs were over for a second. Mark Cuban , please get a handle on this problem. It is like giving trophies to 2nd graders in rec ball after losing every game. I understand it for kids but this is the highest level of basketball.

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