Monday, December 13, 2010

The Art of Football

Football is quite arguably the greatest sport known to man.  Why is football so great?  What makes the sport so appealing to the public? Is it the feeling of being under the lights on a Friday night? Everyone on your team striving for one common goal: beat the people on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage.

Seriously though, football has to be the best sport on the planet, when you put on those shoulder pads, underneath that jersey, and you don the helmet with your school colors emblazoned upon it, you cant help but just take a second and realize that you are about to take part in a great sport, you hear the fans cheering, you feel the rush of cold air as you take your steps onto the field knowing that in this moment, this is the biggest competition you’ve ever faced.  Lining up across from the other team on the line of scrimmage that is a true contest, the ball snaps, you fire out of your stance you hit that kid as hard as you can, and you don’t stop until you’ve scored or until that whistle is blown, then after that you get in your huddle and prepare to go at it again, that is what makes it the sport it is.

Those other people on your team, those are not just teammates, you are all a family, when you all get in the uniform, and you are all going out there to play some football, you are all one giant family, you are putting your absolute one hundred percent faith in the guy next to you, or behind you, knowing that you can get the job done.

Granted, I myself have not had the greatest success in football, I say everything about how great it is and about how much fin it is, but what about the other team, or yourself the “non-victors”? What about those guys, when I was in middle school and early years of high school football, losing was the worst thing that could ever happen.  Sophomore year of high school, our team made it to the semi-final state play-offs and was topped at the very end, knocking us off the road to state, when you look into that locker-room and you see all those seniors with the tears in their eyes, knowing that this was their last football game for the rest of their life, you know how it feels, their anguish is portrayed across their faces, and its contagious! The last football game you are going to play and you lose, I know I wasn’t the only one who had shed some tears that night.  But its all about bouncing back, those kids that aren’t seniors, those who have 1 or 2 more years left to make some magic happen, they have get going. To be the best, you must beat the best.

All these things make football the sport that it is, the intense feeling of playing under the lights, to the tears and sadness of losing a game, last one or not, makes no difference, to the realization of unity and a sense of family on your team, that is what makes this sport so amazing, what makes this sport so revered and publicized by the United States, America is in love with football.  Football for some, is not just a game, it is a way of life, and a sport that they live by.  all of these things and more are what make football what it is, the greatest sport...ever

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Ideas for an Editorial.

Football: An editorial on how great the sport of football is, how football is a great team sport and you need cooperation, communication, athleticism, and coach-ability to be a great football team.

Wrestling: write an editorial about how complicated and tiring the sport of wrestling is.  Write about how wrestling is a team, yet an individual sport and when you lose you have no one to blame but yourself, and about how mentally and physically exhausting and demanding the sport can be.

High School life: write an editorial about how high school life is one of the hardest time periods of a persons life, set aside the fact that the classes all but kill you eventually, but also the fact that high school kids have a lower IQ when they are around people their age and do the dumbest things.

Heidi Swift and journa-blogging

what is the real difference between writing on a blog, and writing for a paper, or for a public news piece?  in the blog its a lot more carefree and you are allowed to speak your mind and write about what you want to write.

take this blog, by Heidi Swift, for example. This blog post is dedicated to her crash with a squirrel while riding her bike, if you look at the style and colorful language of the post you will notice that her writing style is carefree and she doesn't care who reads the post or not.  When you read the same story,  however,you will notice that the post is more clean cut and prim and proper for the general public, she is limited to what she can say on the newspaper version.

How does this relate? When we see news in a newspaper or on the TV or any media broadcasting device, what we see or hear we believe is straight-up, legit news, however it has been edited and changed so that it is more appealing to the public, just because she drops a ton of F-bombs doesn't mean you have to change an aspect of the story.  i believe blogging is a similar form of journalism because it still gives you the news but it is not so clean cut, its straight to the point and its exactly what happened, i would rather hear the truthful story than some separate version of it that has been changed for public reading.

I actually do keep a blog (this one for journalism class)

stay away from squirrels!