2008 Woodie Awards
The Sports Pile: Five things we learned last week
Because lists are fun
Will Brinson
Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: Sports
Is making a simple list and then exacerbating the explanations a cop out of a column? Perhaps. Has it been done before? Absolutely. But every time I tried to sit down and write about a specific thing that happened last week, particularly involving football, I kept getting drawn back into another issue or five. So, I condensed them all into a nice list. Because lists are fun.
1. The Patriots are cheaters, right?
I don't want to go off on some really lengthy rant about this, because I believe it's being covered elsewhere in this edition, but I find it amusing that people are shocked and mortified by this. It's competitive athletics and everyone is always trying to look for an edge, hence Barry Bonds, hence Rick Ankiel, hence videotaping the defensive coaches on their sideline. And while I actually hate the Pats and think they should have been punished more than their slap-on-the-wrist $750,000 fine and loss of a draft pick, even if it is a first-rounder, people need to get over it and move on. Particularly when it's obscuring way more appealing issues…
2. Kevin Everett is the story of the year:
As someone who watched the Bills-Broncos game last week (not a fan of either, just my boy Marshawn Lynch) let me tell you how innocent that hit looked. Yes, Everett went into the tackle with his head down, a big no-no in the world of special teams, but the guy's a tight end-it's not like he's had a ton of practice tackling people over the course of his professional career. When he was carted off in an ambulance, and news reports kept coming in throughout the day that he was likely paralyzed from the neck down, or he would never walk again and certainly that he would never play football again… well, it seemed like the ultimate downer on the greatest weekend of the year. Journalistic mediums, from blogs to newspapers to radio and television shows, along with the teammates and every member of the NFL, were sending their collective prayers out to Everett, who underwent emergency spinal surgery.
1. The Patriots are cheaters, right?
I don't want to go off on some really lengthy rant about this, because I believe it's being covered elsewhere in this edition, but I find it amusing that people are shocked and mortified by this. It's competitive athletics and everyone is always trying to look for an edge, hence Barry Bonds, hence Rick Ankiel, hence videotaping the defensive coaches on their sideline. And while I actually hate the Pats and think they should have been punished more than their slap-on-the-wrist $750,000 fine and loss of a draft pick, even if it is a first-rounder, people need to get over it and move on. Particularly when it's obscuring way more appealing issues…
2. Kevin Everett is the story of the year:
As someone who watched the Bills-Broncos game last week (not a fan of either, just my boy Marshawn Lynch) let me tell you how innocent that hit looked. Yes, Everett went into the tackle with his head down, a big no-no in the world of special teams, but the guy's a tight end-it's not like he's had a ton of practice tackling people over the course of his professional career. When he was carted off in an ambulance, and news reports kept coming in throughout the day that he was likely paralyzed from the neck down, or he would never walk again and certainly that he would never play football again… well, it seemed like the ultimate downer on the greatest weekend of the year. Journalistic mediums, from blogs to newspapers to radio and television shows, along with the teammates and every member of the NFL, were sending their collective prayers out to Everett, who underwent emergency spinal surgery.
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