Category: sports

Random Disney Trip

backinphillyLeave a comment

As I write this, we are about to leave for a day long trip to Disney. These past couple days away from school have been filled with excitement, heartbreak but most of all, FOOD!

Yesterday we found a place in La Jolla that advertises the sale of a cheesesteak. Before yesterday, the only place I was getting cheesesteaks from in this town was Jersey Mike’s and Philly station. Both of which are somewhat subpar.

Yesterday, the restaurant had the ingredients that we were waiting for.

Amoroso’s rolls? Check!

Provolone and Cheez Whiz? Check!

Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer? Check!

Every thing was falling into place. That was until we found out that the cheesesteaks were made with roast beef.

Now I’m not going to sit here and pretend to have any idea what kind of meat goes into a classic Philly cheesesteak, but it ain’t roast beef. Something about the taste just wasn’t right. We quickly recognized that the meat ruined the sandwich.

But I wanna mention one massive heartbreak from today. The Eagles, once again, lost.

At this point, I’m not surprised. I’m just annoyed and pissed off. I’m disappointed. It was hard to watch my team fall so pathetically. But I digress. We move on. That’s the Philly way.

Well, hopefully Mickey Mouse and all that crap will help me feel better. I’m going to spend tomorrow in Disneyland with my family and my girlfriend.

I hope nothing goes wrong. What could possibly, right?

I sure screwed THAT up!

backinphillyLeave a comment

In my last blog, I began praising the rookie quarterback Nick Foles for taking the reigns and looking like a pretty solid performer during his first regular season action of his career. Vick went down with a concussion and Foles was looking pretty good. I was really excited. It was now time for the new era to begin.

Foles played great ball, but the Cowboys put up 21 points in less than 3 minutes with a Romo touchdown pass to Dez Bryant, a punt return touchdown and a pick six that I don’t blame on Foles. The ball bounced off BOTH hands of DeSean Jackson. The throw wasn’t great but in the NFL, if you get both hands on the ball, you better flippin’ catch it. We didn’t give him a contract to screw up.

That isn’t me trashing DJax. The guy has played well this year despite the crap going on with his team. But there are definitely problems with this team.

There are only a couple bright spots for the offseason this year.

1) The Eagles are only faced with one player who they may want to resign. Last year, the Eagles resigned just about everyone that needed to be resigned. The Eagles are entering rebuilding mode. But that doesn’t mean losing everyone. Defensively, I’d resign DRC if they can. Is it the end of the world if we don’t? No. But that’s a fast guy with almost sure hands and pretty good vision. Plus, he’s only 26 years old. He’s got time to develop, cut down on penalties and improve his skill set as a top 10 cornerback. He’s got incredible potential. However, the Eagles will be cleaning their defense up this offseason. In my eyes, the only defensive starters I would keep are DRC, Nate Allen, Kurt Coleman, DeMeco Ryans, Mychael Kendricks, Trent Cole and I would bump Fletcher Cox into the starting lineup over Mike Patterson.

A lot of you guys are probably wondering why I left Nnamdi Asomugha, someone I was obsessed with coming into Philadelphia, off the list.

Quick answer, look at his stats over the past two years. Actually look over the past three years.

He’s over 30 and somewhat washed up. If not for how massive his contract is, I’d hold onto him. But he’s scheduled to make about 15 million dollars next season. I believe only 4 million is guaranteed money, and now there are murmurs that Nnamdi might be released if they can’t negotiate his contract. I’m disappointed at this thought, but that’s what you get from being a free agent bust.

2) The Eagles will be under new management. The team is going to have to find a new group of coaches that can mold the new-look Eagles. Andy Reid is finished, that much is for sure. Is Vick gone too though? The answer appears to be yes at this point. Only time will tell. Foles will start this weekend against Washington. It’s his first pro start. I’ll be watching with excitement of course.

That’s all the good we got. There isn’t much else. Nothing to see here. We just suck.

The Pressure of Dreams

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

For those of you who don’t know, I wrote a blog a little while ago called “My Best Friend.” The subject of the blog is my horse, Time, who is indeed my best friend. He listens to me, whether he wants to or not, and doesn’t pass judgment.

A couple weeks ago, Time and I participated in a Don Sachey clinic. It was extremely fun, and also very frustrating.

My horse does this thing sometimes, where he locks his neck and basically makes it impossible for me to do anything with him.

It makes me want to stomp my feet and scream. Almost like I’m four years old again.

But that’s beside the point. Riding has always been an escape for me, a time when I don’t have to face the reality that is everyday life. I’ve been riding since I was two, and my dream has always been to go the Olympics with it.

WIth those kind of dreams, it’s hard to escape the pressure that accompanies them.

Read More »

Choices Follow Up

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

So I was thinking again yesterday, occasionally it can be dangerous when I do that, but it wasn’t, it rather was quite productive.

I went home and turned on the TV and was looking for some sport to watch being as the NHL is STILL locked out… cough* cough* Bettman (still waiting).

Any who, I saw something called “A Football Life” and turned it on.

It is a series who follows a different player every week, but it shows their life through the season.

Yesterday’s episode was featuring Ray Lewis, “the Ravens 16 year defensive soul,” as the show called him.

He is actually someone I can admire and look up to.

Read More »

Nick>Vick

backinphillyLeave a comment

It’s only halftime in the Eagles-Cowboys matchup today, I don’t wanna take the chance that something negative happens before I write this blog. I wanna actually speak about the replacement of the Eagles’ quarterback.

Before halftime, Michael Vick took not one, but two consecutive shots to the head. After further evaluation, he’s down for the count.

Vick suffered a concussion today. While I hope the man can recover and get healthy again, I’m somewhat relieved as an Eagles fan.

C’mon guys. We all knew that as long as Reid is coach, Vick would never be benched in favor of a rookie. Something needed to happen in order for the fans to be pleased. We wanted Nick Foles, the phenom rookie quarterback during the preseason. He looked solid then, and so far today, he hasn’t looked bad at all.

He’s performed relatively well. Has he scored yet? No. Has he thrown any game breaking passes? No. But most of the plays that Foles has been in for have been handoffs to LeSean McCoy. He has thrown a few passes and they’ve all looked solid except for one that was almost intercepted.

Give him a break. He’s just a rookie.

As we all know, he won’t get much room for error behind our offensive line. However, the line hasn’t looked completely useless today. Does that mean they’re playing well?

Read More »

Vick Doesn’t Use Protection

backinphillyLeave a comment

I have finally found one of the many issues surrounding the Philadelphia Eagles. Aside from the porous defense, the Eagles appear to have signed 5 members of PETA to block for Michael Vick.

For those living under a rock the past few years, Vick killed dogs. It was kinda hard to miss. That’s the joke people.

In all seriousness, the Eagles line has been completely unacceptable this season. Vick has given the ball away and been taken to the ground more than any other quarterback in football. I don’t want to see my quarterback bite the dust whenever he drops back to pass.

This offseason, the Eagle offensive line looked rather strong. Center Jason Kelce, who had a strong rookie season last year, accompanied by All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters, veterans Evan Mathis and Todd Herremans, and weak link Danny Watkins made up Vick’s protection.

During the offseason, Peters torn his Achilles tendon TWICE, ending his season for the most part. The team has stated repeatedly that they hope Peters will return sometime this season. I find this highly unlikely.

Ok, while Peters is the best we got, losing one guy won’t render us useless. The Eagles then went and signed Demetress Bell to fill the void left by Jason Peters. He’s not bad so I guess we will still be fine.

Read More »

Soccer

kirbyfullyloaded3 Comments

Football, or as we Americans call it, soccer.

Yes, I’m aware that the above is not a complete sentence.  However, the winter sports season is my favorite, as I get to play soccer.

Now, I hate running.  Even though I do cross-country in the fall and track in the spring, I am really not a runner.  I wish I was, but I’m not and that’s just how it is.

That aside, I love running in soccer.  I love the sprinting, and the distance.  My friend Ally and I run at least two additional miles after practice every day.

Here’s the other thing: I’m terrible at soccer.

I played as a kid in one of those coed AYSO leagues.  The only thing I remember from that was when a kid named Peter fell off the monkey bars near our practice field and got a concussion.  I was sad because he was never the same when he came back, and I had a crush on him.

I played again in seventh and eighth grade on the school team, and wanted to play my freshman year of high school.  But, I popped out my knee during cross-country and skipped a year, joining back up as a sophomore as left wing.

I’m currently the only left-footed player on my team, so I guess that’s something.

But back to the point, I’m awful.

I just can’t seem to get my kicks right and I don’t know why.  But that’s ok; I don’t mind.

Who needs aim when you can just smash?

That’s what I do.  I just barrel into whoever is in my way and pass it to the players on my team who actually have all that fancy ball-handling down.  It’s a party, and I like it.

I love the physicality of soccer, the movement, the heat.

There’s something incredibly fierce about the pace and the nature of the game.  It’s like an unexpected dance, the opposing team always has you guessing.  You have to figure out how to move with them, anticipate their actions and take your queues.

Of course…I’m a horrendous dancer, but that’s mostly irrelevant.

Choices

callmemaybe321 Comment

I have been thinking a lot lately about what my future is going to be like.

Not as a grown adult, but where I want to go to college, what I want to study, and what about sports?

Thinking about what’s going to go into getting in to the schools I want to go to, and if I will be able to do it.

It’s a lot to be thinking about, there are so many choices we have to make even at the young age of 16, but I have realized the future is really up to me and how hard I want to work.

I have always been the kid who doesn’t put in the effort, and I come out with a few As and a few Bs.

I have realized I need to start actually trying to put in more effort to make it all As, instead of sitting on my butt when I have free time, maybe I should study more, and get work done before sunday night.

Maybe that means I can sleep more seeing as my schedule right now is crazy.

That brings me to the other thing I have been thinking about.

It was just last year that sports started to mean something to me again.

Read More »

Don’t Worry About It

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

This past Saturday our football team had our last league game against the Laguna Blanca Owls.

Contrary to how I was feeling going into this game, and what I wished had happened, we did not end up winning, but lost our fifth consecutive game.

Sadly this season came to an end sooner than I had hoped, and not the way I wanted to leave the field.

We finished with a final score of 44-26.

That is much closer than some games we have played, and once again we played a great second half, but it takes more than that to win football games.

We did not start off with a defense that was aggressive enough to set the tone early.

While we did stuff many plays, the Owls were able to put points up with more ease than they should have had.

Read More »

Here We Go Again!

backinphilly1 Comment

Well, this sucks. The Eagles, once again, are underachieving. Despite the firing of ex-defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, the Eagles have once again fallen far from expectations. The team just doesn’t look solid, and we are close to the halfway point.

One major red flag was this past weekend. The Eagles, with Andy Reid as head coach, have never lost a game following their bye week. This year was a different story. The team looked even sloppier following their bye, almost as if they hadn’t put in any extra work to help their cause.

I don’t blame this recent loss on Michael Vick. I blame this one on coaching and defense. I do not blame new DC Todd Bowles. He was given two weeks to turn a lackluster unit and completely transform them. That’s a tall task considering how much star power the defense has.

Let’s go down the list.

Jason Babin has been horrendous. He hasn’t been able to get to the quarterback at all this season. He’s far behind his 18.5 sack mark from last year.

The other defensive end, Trent Cole, hasn’t had any success either. However, if both pieces can improve, the entire defense will improve as well.

I now turn the attention to one of the most incredible busts (although still somewhat too soon to tell) I think I’ve ever seen.

Read More »