Tag: football

State Sanctioned Violence

icaruswithwarmwingsLeave a comment

All day like, seventeen-year-old lungs rip against heaving chests, drained of oxygen instead filled with battery acid.

All night like, polyester raging against its seams, raging against boys, struggling against muscles, pads, and hearts all swollen, all wet with sweat.

With my boys like, helmets too tight to contain caffeine, concussions, and memories.

With my pads like, misshapen boys ill suited for football competing not only against another team but with themselves.

We hit the field like, a week of repeated beat downs a month of lows and season of confused agony.

Dropping bodies like, a body careens toward another without hesitation, without fear or knowledge of how it will collide with the other.

All day, he swells proud of his grit.

All night, he overflows with passion.

With my boys, he demands I follow.

All day, like a young stallion on a single stake.

With my boys, like the veins on his flank, roaring, like the muscles in his hock, screaming: raw power unfathomable in its adolescent intensity.

All day, he drives his head into his helmet and charges back onto the field.

Photo credit: SB Nation

Sunday Night Football

hwan6031Leave a comment

In boarding school, it is really hard to enjoy Sunday night football. Before moving to boarding school, I was in Dallas with my host family. Even though I did not like living with my host family, Sunday Night Football with my friends was unforgettable. I remember getting really hyped about every crazy play made by the Cowboys. We always had food like pizzas and wings while watching football, or we would go places like Buffalo Wild Wings and watch the Cowboys play and cheer them on with people that I don’t even know. Memories of Sunday night football will never be forgotten, and I will for sure enjoy Sunday night football when I go to college.

Photo Credit: USA today

Uh-Oh Superbowl

mariethearistocatLeave a comment

The Super Bowl. Probably one of the most American things to happen in America.

Being an American for my entire existence I’ve come to enjoy this sporting event. I’ve seen so many, that I know if it is relatively good or not.

This year was the 50th Super Bowl. That means half a century of an annual celebration of two team going head-to-head throwing around a football. Because of this, I had high expectations. And I was let down.

Now, I’m not a huge football fan, but the actual game wasn’t that exciting. From pretty early in the game, the Broncos were dominating the Panthers. The best football games are the ones that captivate you until the last quarter. But by the fourth quarter, the Panthers didn’t stand a chance.

The next disappointment was the half-time performance. This year it was Coldplay ft. Beyonce and Bruno Mars. Now, I thought Coldplay and Beyonce were going to perform their new song, Hymn For the Weekend. And during their colorful performance, Coldplay provided plenty of buildup to make the final number worthwhile. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Coldplay performed some of their most popular singles and then Bruno Mars and Beyonce just popped up. Donning black leather outfits with gold accents, the two stars competed in a dance battle. Unfortunately for Coldplay, Beyonce completely upstaged them. Especially, revealing her Formation World Tour right after. Overall, there could’ve been more cohesion during the half-time performance.

Finally, the commercials. Oh how terrible they were. The only one that gave me hope was the Heinz commercial with the wiener dogs running in a field of flowers. Now that was cute. Besides that, there was honestly no good content. I mean there was a commercial for IBS and toenail fungus.

And that’s why this year’s Super Bowl was not my favorite.

American Football Meets Crumpets

thericemuncherLeave a comment

October 25 marked the thirteenth NFL game in London’s Wembley stadium since 2007. The less than disappointing bout between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars was witnessed by over 84,000 cheering Brits.

Picture Credit: “www.usnews.com”

I hope that they know they are cheering for the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars…

Regardless of what low echelon team plays in Wembley, the soccer loving British will always find a way to fill the seats.

They have managed to hold two sell-out games in two weeks. The Bills versus Jags, and the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Detroit Lions.

In the 2015 season there are three scheduled games in London, next year league officials have told London fans that there are to be four.

This growing popularity in pigskin slinging in London has encouraged London officials to encourage a permanent team in England.

The most popular NFL team in London are the Jacksonville Jaguars – yeah I know.

NFL representatives are optimistic that a team could be moved to the crumpet-munchers around 2022.

WOO FOOTBALL! not…

thericemuncherLeave a comment

In the US of A every Sunday is a day of gathering between family and friends. No, not church, football!

Picture Credit: “cdn.fansided.com”

Now picture this, you’re sitting with your friends on Sunday and turn on a NFL game. You tune in just as commercials start. You think, “oh no big deal, I’ll just go grab some more chips and guacamole”. When you get back one of the teams is running a play so you sit down to watch it. Five seconds later the play is over and commercials come back on.

Now you have food, but no entertainment. Unless, of course, you enjoy the same commercials being repeated for three hours.

This infuriated me, I felt that I was watching less of the actual game compared to commercial time. So I did a little bit of research.

Picture Credit: “www.sportsgrid.com”

 

 

This pie graph will help demonstrate my frustration. According to the graph, the actual action in a football game (meaning when the ball is snapped till the play is called dead by an official) happens in a mere 11 minutes. Compared to that there are 63 minutes of commercials, 67 minutes of players standing around, 35 minutes of random shots of coaches, the crowd and cheerleaders. Even the replays take up more time with 15 minutes.

If that doesn’t annoy a football enthusiast like myself, then I don’t know what will.

Homecoming

happyrose15

Photo Credit: reflector.uindy.edu

This past weekend many schools held their homecoming dances and games.

A time in the year when school show their spirit and during their dances the student body dresses up and post on Instagram how they got asked to this “magical” night, most likely to spark a flame of jealousy into their hundreds of followers.

Photo Credit: twitter.com

At OVS we don’t have homecoming, for a couple of reasons.

First, we don’t have
a football team making those ever so famous homecoming scenes, where the home team pulls through when their star player is injured and the water boy ends up making the game winning touch down – impossible for us to recreate.

Next, we are a school of less than 200 people so it makes little sense to have a dance where only twenty people who really want to be there.

Homecoming is a time when of the student body comes together as a community and shows their dedication to their school, but since OVS is already such a tight-knit community we don’t need a dance or a sports event to bring us together.

 

Superbowl Sunday

mushuooLeave a comment

I have been watching many friends and teachers walk around with a sad and slightly annoyed look on their face for the past week or so. Why? Apparently because with the close score of 22-28, the Seattle Seahawks beat the Green Bay Packers in the game to determine who will play in the Superbowl XLIX this year in Arizona.

The Patriots dominated in the finals to determine which teams face off in the Superbowl, and this will be their sixth time in the Superbowl since 2001.

However, there was some controversy over the massive 45-7 victory.

There have been many accusations of the Patriots team purposefully deflating the game balls used in the AFC title game.

One specific person has caused all this havoc for the Patriots; a locker room attendant who was one of the few people to have possession of the balls shortly before the game.

Ridiculous? Maybe.

But many say otherwise.

Photo Credit: http://www.mashable.com

It’s Patriots versus the world.

 

Equestrianism is Not a Sport… Say Football Players

Daphne Psaledakis1 Comment

One of the debates currently coursing through the student body at OVS is between football players and equestrians. The football players seem to think that horse-back riding is not a sport.

First of all, I’d like to invite football players to a sit-up competition. The equestrians would win.

Everyone who has sat on a horse even once can recognize the talent, skill, and hard work it takes for a 97 pound person (me) to maneuver a 1,500 pound animal to move forward, sideways, backwards, to jump and gallop and stop, all without looking like you’re doing anything. Not to mention the 1,500 pound horse has a mind of its own, a mind which most often, relishes in doing the exact opposite of what you want him to.

Horse-back riding isn’t a sport? Yeah right.

Whenever I can bully my dad into giving me a piggy back ride, which has been less and less often as I’ve grown taller, he has to remind me over and over again not to squeeze his sides with my legs. That would be because after thirteen years of gripping the sides of a horse, my legs are pretty strong.

Last spring, I decided to take a break from riding. For some reason, I decided to do cross-country running as my fall sport. First of all, that was a terrible idea. Secondly, I realized that I’ve gotten off a horse sweatier than I’ve been after a four or five mile run in ninety degree weather.  My muscles have been far sorer after a challenging ride than they have been after a long run.

Horse-back riding makes you use muscles you didn’t even know you had. It makes you focus, and plan out every move of each finger, arm, leg, and foot because the tiniest movement from any part of your body could send your horse off running or bucking. The horse can sense your fear. It can sense which way you look. It knows what you’re going to do almost before you do – and it loves to do just the opposite of what you’re asking.

So to the football players who think horse-back riding isn’t a sport (cough cough my editor in chief cough cough), I invite you to come to the barn and ride for sports one day. Forewarning, you’ll have a hard time moving the next day.

Time Jump

1-0…. Again

callmemaybe321 Comment

Well we just played our first game of the season on Wednesday and just like last year’s first game…. WE WON!!!!

It was a great game against Thacher’s JV squad, but we came out on top.

The game started of with an upbeat tempo.

One of our running-backs, Min Choi, scored a touchdown on the first play of the game.

I thought I was going to be a lot more excited when that happened, but I felt like crap.

I had been fighting a gnarly cold all week and I still am.

I had crap in my lungs making it hard to breathe, and I was just generally exhausted from being sick.

On top of that I was stupid and forgot to drink anything during the day which is unlike me. I was so crazy dehydrated during the game that I kept getting dizzy, and I didn’t really pay attention to what was going on; I kind of just played and that was it.

Anyways, it was still fun to play.

Playing a game is always fun especially when the score climbs and climbs and climbs, with nothing on the opposition’s side.

By about 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter the score was 44-0 in our favor.

Thacher ended up scoring shortly after that, but it wasn’t enough to make a come back.

We were very excited to play, and we as a team are looking forward to playing Trinity Classical Academy next week.

It is going to be a very tough game, as Trinity was 5th in California last year, but we are a different team then we have ever been.

Before our games and during practice sometimes I lead a chant where I ask my team what season it is. The answer to the question…. THE SEASON!

This is the season for OVS football. Almost our entire team is seniors. We have all played and started for 3-4 years. The total years between all the players is what all high school teams are looking for.

Not to mention, or defensive and offensive line adds up to close to 1,000 pounds of pure man.

I hope this season goes well and I hope we go undefeated. The only downfall to us going undefeated is that I made a bet with a teammate.

I bet him if we went undefeated I would pierce my nipple and my ear, and connect the two piercings with a chain.

I have no idea why I made this bet, but in the state of happiness I will be in if we win every game, I don’t think the pain will bother me.

Stay tuned to the blog to check on the well-being of my nipple, oh yeah and also how we do on the rest of our games.

This is THE SEASON!

Worst Person 29-Titus Young

backinphillyLeave a comment

Everyone kinda saw this one coming. The only real question is why haven’t I done a worst person on Titus Young way earlier?

I’ll be honest. I thought he was going to grow up, and figure it out. Instead, he’s turning into a diva wide receiver that can’t stay out of trouble with the law. He kind of reminds me of Chris Henry.

What? Too soon?

Oh well.

Anyway, Titus Young has had a rapid decline in the NFL as he has gone from the number 2 target of Matthew Stafford behind Calvin Johnson, to a job-less, confused young man.

His locker room antics caused the Lions to release him, and he was picked up by the Rams. However, less than two weeks later, the Rams cut him too.

Not a lot has been released about what he had going on in the locker rooms or in coach meetings. Regardless, this sequence of events has led to the downfall of Titus Young.

But he’s back in the news once again, and this time, he’s not in trouble with a team. He’s in trouble with the law.

This past week, Titus was arrested three separate times, including two times in a 15 hour span.

I had very high hopes for Titus. I expected solid football-related things out of this guy. Unfortunately, I don’t think another team will take a chance on him. I feel bad for him, but he did it to himself. Currently, he is being held and his family is considering whether or not to pay bail for him.

Titus, you have two choices. Either shut up and play, or continue to ruin your life.