The internet is full of inspirational videos. Sports videos, spiritual videos, just plain old inspirational videos, but there are few that touch me and make a big difference. Being that team sports have not always been a part of my life, but have recently come up and made an impact I look for something to keep me moving. Something that makes me want to play hard and something to inspire my teammates. A quote by Henry Ford is something I keep in my mind when the team is having a hard time, “Keeping together is progress, coming together is a beginning, and working together is success.” 
Sometimes our teams don’t work together, but work as individuals. That isn’t how the game is played. Some people have to be willing to work hard and get none of the glory. Being a lineman in football I understand this feeling very well. I go out everyday and I try and I try. Am I the best at it? No, not even close, but do I try? Yea, I try really hard day in and day out. But nobody ever says, “hey he really took up space so that that someone else could get the glory.” The glory goes to the people who run the ball, throw the ball, but that’s not possible without the people on the line. As our coach said, we are the Dirty Dogs. Nobody wants a dirty dog, but they are rough and tough, but get no glory. That is how to work as a team, everyone has to be willing to put in 110% and get nothing in return personally, but understand it was for the betterment of the team. This is one of the first speeches that truly inspired me to be better and do better.
Tag: defense
Something Happened? Guess I gotta write about it
So I know I said that I wasn’t going to talk Eagles anymore after last week. The team has been completely deflated and it was just a waste of time to talk about these guys. Well, this week is a different story.
The Eagles actually won a game today.
Going into today’s game, the Eagles’ last win was on September 30th, which is over 2 months ago. That’s a long time in the NFL. The last 2 months have been increasingly depressing. Loss after loss, the Eagles just looked sloppier and sloppier.
Today was our day as rookie QB NICK FOLES (sorry I’m still excited), led the Eagles to a 4th quarter comeback, bringing the team to victory after suffering an 11 point deficit.
There are a lot of things to talk about after a game like today. There were a ton of highlights. Let’s talk about them.
First, I want to give the defensive player of the game to Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Nnamdi Asomugha, who looked like the players we thought they were when they came to Philly. The two gelled very well today as the team has completely eliminated the wide 9 formation from their playbook. The only times I saw either get seriously beat was on zone coverage once again. However, on man coverage, the two were superhuman. DRC didn’t allow many catches today at all. Nnamdi allowed another touchdown pass, but he needed to make a split decision on his coverage. He made the right call, but noticed it just a bit too late. He also suffered a neck injury early in the game. He returned later on and finished up.
Don’t Worry About It
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.
Finally something good to say about Juan Castillo!
I’ve done a lot of criticizing of Eagles defensive coordinator Juan Castillo. I’ve questioned his schemes and his coaching methods. I questioned his treatment of the rookies, namely first round draft pick Fletcher Cox. I discussed my displeasure in regards to the handling of All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.
Now, unless something else completely ridiculous occurs, I will end my rampage against Juan Castillo.
Some of you are probably wondering why I’m ending my constant ranting about Castillo.
Juan Castillo has been fired by the Philadelphia Eagles.
FINALLY!!!! WE HAVE BEEN SET FREE FROM HIS MEDIOCRITY!!!! IT’S FINALLY HAPPENED!!! YES YES YES YES!!!!!!
Worst Person #25-Colts Rush Defense
Ok, I can understand a defense having a bad day here and there against some top notch players. We saw the Eagles today with a few bumps here and there and the 49ers had some trouble containing the high-powered New York Giants. However, both of those offenses have elite, premier players.
Enter the New York Jets.
The only player on their starting roster right now worthy of any recognition is wide out Santonio Holmes, and he’s out for the season with injury. Despite this fact, the Jets were able to EXPLODE with a vicious rushing game today against the Indianapolis Colts, who just last week, were able to keep the Green Bay Packers in check.
The Packers are loaded with star power. The Jets? Not so much.
Enter Shonn Greene.
The running back burst out today with a 32 carry, 160 yard, 3 touchdown performance.
WOW!!!
I gotta point out that Greene, while not a terrible running back, is not a top 10 or even 20 back in this league. On a good day, he has potential to explode with talent. But most days, like when Rex Ryan and the Jets decide “Hey we drafted Mark Sanchez really high! Maybe he should throw the ball more,” Greene doesn’t get a chance to do much.
Sanchez ended the day with 89 yards passing on 18 attempts. Yes, that’s bad but not as bad as how easily the Colts defense was taken advantage of while the Jets ran the ball. It wasn’t even close.
Greene isn’t really a finesse player, but I guess the dude can play ball.
I also want to reiterate how relatively unknown Shonn Greene really is. I went on to google images to find this picture, and i had to go down a little bit before I found a picture that wasn’t either him in Jets training camp or in college. His pro career is very quiet. Maybe this will kick start him a little bit.
My First Mock Trial
On Thursday in my Law and Society class, my class had our first mock trial. We were introduced to the idea of it the week before, and were given a whole packet of information about the case and the testimonies of witnesses. We read over it all to get a better understanding of the case.
The basic outline of the case was playing off the story Hansel and Gretel.
In this incident, they walked into a Gingerbread House shop, owned by Ms. Crueller, with the hopes of finding a job. But then, they broke some gingerbread houses, and were was a misunderstanding where Ms. Crueller ended up in her hot oven with burns on her arms, and the children ran away. Ms. Crueller pressed charges on these children, including aggravated battery, criminal mischeif, and petit theft.
We were broken into teams of the defense and prosecution; I was on the side of the defense, and was acting as an attorney. I gave the opening statement, and also cross examined the prosecution’s witnesses. There were 2 other attorneys on my team, one of which did direct questions to our witnesses, and another that did more cross examination and the closing argument. There were also 3 people acting as the witnesses, Hansel and Gretel Schmidt, and also a local shop owner that knew Ms. Crueller and met Hansel and Gretel, and thought they were good kids.
I was so intimidated in the beginning – I absolutely hate public speaking. It made it much worse, also, after the opposing team’s attorney gave their opening statement. It was much longer than mine, and he was much more confident. But I did put in hard work and effort on my own statement, and I knew it wasn’t bad in the slightest. So, I gave my opening statement, and the the questioning began.
The part I really enjoyed was the cross examination. The fact that I could, in a sense, prove my points without any cooperation from the other side was very pleasing. Also, there were many points brought up in the prosecution’s direct questioning that sparked questions of my own, and ended up helping me in my questioning and proving my client’s innocence.
There was one HUGE problem that occurred, though. A witness on my team decided to lie, and made a false statement that, in the end, lead him to incriminate himself. Despite that one mishap, everyone preformed so well, and it was a really great first mock trial. To be honest, I was impressed with my own performance, and the performance of the others on my team.
In the end, the jury that we had came to the verdict of not guilty on the charges of aggravated assault and criminal mischief, but guilty of petit theft. Which, in my book, is nothing to complain about. We did a much better job of defending than I thought we would.
Never though I’d say it, but I am SO extremely excited for the next mock trial, and beyond that, our FINAL mock trial even more. Our first one was such a success, and I can only imagine what we are going to be like on at the end of the year, when we’ve had even more practice.
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