Bountygate-Quick Reaction

I suppose I will have to write the Bountygate column that everyone else is writing, as the situation calls for it at the present time. I'm not going to focus on the morality of the issue (its wrong!) or what the punishment should be (Gregg Williams shouldn't be allowed to coach for at least two years, players should be suspended). Instead, I'd like to talk about the fact that bounties have been going on in the NFL since its beginnings, and that Roger Goodell is going to have to crack down in order to completely eliminate them from the league.

Football is like modern gladiator fighting, except with padding and fines if you  mortally wound somebody. I kid. In all seriousness, football is a hard-hitting, violent sport, and its important that Roger Goodell understand that before he tries to completely change its face. Why do so many people watch football every weekend? For amazing offense, yes, but when the defense comes on the field we love to see hard hits. And up until recently, the NFL has embraced this part of its identity. When it came out in the 1980's that Buddy Ryan had placed a bounty on certain players, the whole thing was treated as a joke (for a full article, check out Shutdown Corner, the wonderful blog run by the people at Yahoo! Sports). Player safety has only recently become an issue, with certain hits being deemed "illegal" and players getting fined and/or suspended. 

But this is football. It can't be that easy to tame a pack of fired up men who are hungry for blood. Its impossible to take the battle aspect out of football, because without that passion and violence, the sport is going to just be a group of guys running at each other with no point to it.Think 2012 Pro Bowl. We watch sports for their emotion, passion, and fire. This is why players play, for the emotion and to be the best that they can be. 

In professional football locker rooms, it is going to be impossible to take away the bets that a player can have so many sacks in a game, or hit somebody so many times. It is entrenched in the game, and a motivation for players to do their job well and entertain the crowd that pays them. In this capacity, I don't have a problem with it. However, its taken too far when players are getting paid for injuring other players, but this is not a stand-alone case. The NFL needs to realize that it is unrealistic to think that only one coach in the league is doing this. Either they deal with this on the full scale, and launch investigations into multiple teams, if not all, or they shouldn't do anything at all. To punish Gregg Williams and the Saints won't be enough for something this entrenched in NFL culture. This could be the next phase of Goodell's attempt to tweak the mindset of the football world, if he plays his cards right.

Heat vs Lakers

I'll make it no secret that I thoroughly dislike Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, probably because I love Lebron James and the Miami Heat. Along with most other people, I picked them to win the Finals this year, and so far I think they've lived up to that expectation. The last couple games have been a bit of a setback for them, however, losing to Utah (a mediocre team) and now to the Lakers.

 To me, the Lakers can never be considered mediocre because of the talents of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, but for various reasons they have been the past two seasons a shadow of the previous Lakers. That being said the Lakers won this game decisively, which brings me to an interesting question: Although Dwyane Wade and Lebron James are the two most heralded members of Miami's Big Three, is Chris Bosh more important than most people think? Miami certainly struggled against Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol without their dominant big man, who has been out for three games after the death of his grandmother. Losing Bosh forced Miami to play Lebron at the post, which is definitely not his forte. It also forces Lebron to guard posts, also not his forte. Being Lebron, of course, his unnatural post-up is better than  85% of actual big men's post-ups, but the Heat would much rather have him creating from outside the three point line, where he can drive, pull defenders, and distribute the ball. Bosh also averages 18 points a game, which the Heat would have welcomed as the Heat lost by 10.
Despite two consecutive losses, I still think the Heat are the best team in the NBA. Their record so far is 28-9, one of the best ever through 37 games. The Bulls, the Thunder, and the Spurs all have the Heat circled as the team to beat.

The Debacle That Was Duke vs UNC

Before I begin this post, I would just like to inform all readers that I did not watch the entire Duke-UNC game last night. I watched the first half, which seems to have been indicative of the entire game. After one half, I felt like I could be watching other things more worthy of my time. Like Baylor and Iowa State. Or Doctor Who. Or even whatever is on Disney Channel at seven o'clock on a Saturday night. You get the idea.

Anyway, the night was just awful for Duke. I've said it before, coincidentally enough during the first Duke-UNC game, and I'll say it again-Austin Rivers has too much confidence. Time after time we've seen him throw up guarded shots from three feet behind the three point line. Luckily for him, they sometimes go in. Case in point, the last second shot that won them the last Duke-UNC game. But this time around, nobody's threes were falling, least of all Rivers'. He shot 1 for 6 from behind the arc, a dismal 17%. In fact, his entire night was below average-38 minutes, 15 points off 6 for 18 shooting, one rebound, three assists, and four turnovers. The rest of his team didn't help him. Free throws, especially, were Duke's weak point, shooting 57% from the line. This loss could be put down to just a bad shooting night on Duke's part, but I would argue that a better team came into Cameron Indoor and beat the Blue Devils last night. 88-70 speaks volumes for these two teams and their seedings when it comes to the NCAA tournament.

Welcome

Hey, my name's Olivia. Welcome to my blog, Musings of a Disinterested Fanatic. Being a sports blog, it'll be full of things that most sports blogs are full of-scores, predictions, highlights, etc.- but I'm going to try to come at it from a different angle. Hopefully, there will be some intellectual conversation, and some philosophy and theology may even come into play. Enjoy!