The Perfect Perspective

Believe it or not there are more important things than sports.  Like life.  Or having and being a part of a family.  Someone who understands this is Jay Williams who we had the absolute pleasure of interviewing last week.  I asked Jay if he had any plans of coming back. What he said truly amazed us:

Jay Williams Perspective - Craig Hoffman and Curtis Nolte

Perspective like this is not always found in sports. Often athletes return too soon from injury and cause themselves long term injury.  However it would aslo be nice to see this perspective from the fans.  I'm all for pouring your heart and soul into your team, but don't let a loss ruin your life. Because while you're busy being upset, you might lose a moment with your kid or your spouse, and losing that is far more important than losing a game.

Hi, I'm Your Tour Guide

The student television season started this week and thus my show, MT Sports Live (9 pm CST on MTTV!), did just that, went live. About halfway through the show we were discussing the weekly football press conference when I remembered a particular question that had really bugged me when it was asked of every player and coach. "Does the mindset change going from a conference to non-conference game?" I proceeded to go on a mini-rant (and for the record my co-host Zac Defrancesca, a fellow former athlete backed me up) about how this might be dumber than asking Bill Belicheck for an injury report. Its a question you've heard asked a million times by media members and the answer never changes: it's always no. This is why I now present to you the fans and all my fellow media members an explanation of why, so that hopefully we can never hear this ridiculous question asked again. So come with me, as I take you on a guided tour inside the mind of an athlete!

The modern athlete is trained in media speak, and most of them have learned how to answer many questions put forth by us in the media in a simplistic answer that really doesn't provide any new information. This is why its such a breath of fresh air for me as an interviewer to interview someone like MTSU starting point guard Chelsia Lymon, who simply tells it like it is. However to say this stale, mundane routine of obvious question leading to obvious answer is the athletes and overprotective coaches faults is ridiculous. Its our fault in the media too. Many media members are former athletes who couldn't make it on a higher level (this is not an indictment as this includes me) but still have a love for sport and want to stay as close to it as possible. However it seems like many of these people forget what its like to be an athlete as soon as they cross over the athlete/media line. The question in focus here "does your mindset change now that we're in conference" is a perfect example.

As soon as an athlete steps on their particular playing surface it's game time, no matter who the opponent. It doesn't matter whether MTSU is stepping on the field versus North Texas, Maryland, or Texas, for each individual player, they are just playing football. Does that mean they don't adjust based on who they're playing? Absolutely not. If you're playing Alabama you're probably not going to run right at Mt. Cody in the middle of the defensive line, but it has nothing to do with the name on the front of the jersey. Unlike an athletes attitude, game planning has nothing to do with the name on the front of the jersey, it's all about the names on the backs.

I am about to crush a longstanding mathematical anomaly in sports, and that is no athlete plays 100% all the time. This is because it's impossible unless you want to be dead by the end of the first quarter of your game. There is also no such thing as 110%. Once again this is because it's impossible this time not because of physical limits but because of mathematical ones. Athletes play at about 85-90% for most of the time than elevate their games as they see fit. The great athletes, or at least those with superior mental makeup (you don't always get the superior athletic ability with the Michael Jordan mind, trust me. I know because I got the brain and a 5'11" body that runs a 4.8), are able to tell when it is time to elevate their game better than the standard athlete, and they are also able to sustain it longer. This has nothing to do with mindset going into a game, its simply reading the game as it comes along. Kobe Bryant doesn't go into a game knowing at the 8:48 mark of the 4th quarter its go-time; he assesses the game is it progresses and chooses his time to jump. This is also why I can become unguardable in many pickup games despite rarely being the best athlete on the floor. I see its go-time and turn my game up to 100% while everyone else is playing at 85% and at that point its as Lee Corso would say, goodnight sweetheart!

The same is true on a football field. In football when the ball is snapped you go and then the whistle blows so you stop. In theory you would go 100% for that time, but anybody who's watched a football game knows that's not the case. No, not because the tackle got beat by the defensive end on a particular play (someone has to win every battle). However, the evidence lies when about once a game a guy gets blown up on a block because he didn't keep his head on a swivel, or a receiver gets leveled over the middle because his quarterback left him out to dry. Paying attention is part of playing 100%, and in football the result of not playing at 100% is typically quite devastating for you or one of your teammates.

As Herman Edwards would say, "you play to win the game." This doesn't necessarily mean you play your hardest. You have to play better than the person opposite you. That's it. No matter how hard they play you have to play better. If you're 50% is better than your 100% than why play your best? It's wasted energy. If you have that much of an advantage than you play well enough to win decisively and that's the end of it. Does that sound great? Of course not. If a player admitted that to the media would his coach have a fit? You better believe it! However that's the truth and now you have to deal with it.

The important fact out of all of this though, is that it is not determined before a game how much effort a player will put in. Sure a player or a team can start on fire because they've preached putting forth the extra effort but eventually its the same game you've played all your life and you play it as such. The goal of an athlete is to maximize his or her abilities for the entirety of the game and it is up to them to figure out how to do that. "Leaving it all on the field" does you no good if you've left it all by halftime. Remember, a game is a game is a game is a game and a play is a play is a play is play is a play, no matter who an athlete is playing. So now that we have this understanding can I PLEASE never hear the ridiculous conference question again?

Alright that's enough, rant's over. And now that I mention it, so is your tour. Watch your step on the way out. Oh, and tips are gladly accepted!

Tweet Tweet

First it was Xanga.  Then it was Myspace.  Then Facebook took over the world.  And while Facebook is still going strong, there is a new networking phenomenon that is taking over the world: Twitter.  It's simple, you get 140 characters to tell people anything you want.  What you're doing, something they should see, or maybe even what your blog's about.  You can also post pictures and links as long as everything you do is under 140 characters.  You can also send direct messages (like an internal twitter email) or even reply to somebody by mentioning them by name in your tweet (a twitter post).  All this is fine and dandy but what in the world does it have to do with sports?

How about this tweet a few weeks ago:

"grant hill told me before the game that the suns WOULD show up today -- he just looked over at me from the huddle and mouthed 'i was wrong'"

-or-

"heading to dinner with CC and a bus of his family! met Michael Jordan and tori spelling,,,,and we won! great day!"

The first tweet was from ESPN/ABC sideline reporter Lisa Salters during a critical game a few weeks ago between the Suns and Mavs.  The second tweet is from Nick Swisher after the Yankees first win in new Yankee Stadium on Friday.  So what's the big deal you ask?  Here's the big deal, I didn't get these off TV or search for them on the Internet.  I got them off their Twitter pages.  Pages I can see.  Pages I follow.  When you sign into Twitter and go to your home page you can see the most recent tweets from all the people you follow.  And from the people I follow you'd think I was a lot more than a college freshman:  Shaq, CC Sabathia, Derek Fisher, Pete Carrol, ESPN's Jayson Stark, Stephen A. Smith, Lamar Odom, and Chris Bosh.  On top of these sports A-Listers, if I so chose I could be following Ashton Kutcher (the first to 1,000,000 followers), Taylor Swift, Diddy, Ludacris, John Mayer, and yes, Oprah.  I can also follow President Obama and John McCain.  And then there are the multitude of news sites and services that post feeds including CNN and ESPN. 

All of this is just goes to show us once again how much smaller the world is getting.  I, Craig Hoffman, in Murfreesboro, TN, know who Nick Swisher ate dinner with last night.  He plays for my favorite baseball team!  This is also showing us how smart we're getting.  ESPN has mastered twitter.  They have their anchors update from the SportsCenter desk bringing us inside the studio and letting us know what the anchors are thinking as they sit there for 3 hours in the middle of day.  This particularly intrigued me last week when Harry Kalas past and this came through from Chris McKendry on the SportsCenter Twitter: "Chris McKendry: Could cry on TV. Harry Kalas gone at 73. The voice of my generation of Phillies fans. He called every game of my life."

ESPN has also used this (as many others have) as a marketing tool.  On top of SportsCenter I also follow all the ESPN radio shows.  Of course they post from the studios saying random things like Scott Van Pelt telling us he went and got a soda and was going to pay for it later, but more importantly they tell us in tweet form when guests will be on and thus, those of us in Twitter world know when to listen.  

So Twitter can be used to know what our favorite athletes and celebrities are doing, what's going on on the set of our favorite shows, and when things are going to happen on those shows.  Any other wonderful uses?  Sure.  Say maybe a young aspiring journalist (me) bringing his blog to the attention of one of the best in the business (Lisa Salters)?  Yeah, already did it.  (And Ms. Salters if you are indeed reading this I would like to thank you so much for taking a little time out for someone you've never met and I would love to know what you think!) 

Technology makes the world a smaller place and the more people that dive in the better.  It brings people together yada yada yada, but most of all: it's just plain cool.  140 characters have never said so much.  I thought that Facebook would be the end for a while after it sprinted past Myspace, but with Twitter catching on quickly who knows what the future holds.  But in the meantime, I guess we'll all just tweet away.

Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/choffman223

Forever in our Harts

I'm 19 years old.  I have friends who are 22.  Heck one of my best friends is 24.  Nick Adenhart was 22.  He had just pitched the game of his life, six scoreless innings in the major leagues, and was on his way out to celebrate with 3 friends when the vehicle they were driving was blindsided by a minivan that ran a red-light.  The driver of the mini-van was drunk, with a blood-alcohol level 3 times the legal limit.  The driver was also driving on a suspended licence which stemmed from a previous DUI.  This is just another reminder of how precious life is, and it reminds us that every day could be our last.  It also shows us how we can go from our highest moments to the end, just like that.  It's often said that life isn't fair, and the end of life is no different.

At 22, Nick Adenhart was far too young to go.  He was a precocious pitching talent, dominating 18 year old travel leagues at the age of 14, and the night of his death had made his first start in his first full rookie season (he had a few starts last year but is still considered a rookie this year).  However according to teammate Dustin Moseley, Nick Adenhart's talents went far beyond a pitching mound and a baseball diamond.  He was a bright young man who according to his father was everything a dad could dream of as a son.  The most convincing thing to me in the day following Adenhart's death was the reaction of his agent Scott Boras.  Boras is known as a hardass to say the least.  One who doesn't take anything from anybody, and whose sole purpose in life is to make money for his clients and in turn himself.  When talking about Adenhart, Boras completely and utterly broke down in tears.  Not shed a tear; broke down in tears.  A man who some believe has a heart of stone was crying uncontrollably at a microphone and could only compose himself long enough to say, "we lost a great young man."

Although the promising life of Nick Adenhart was cut short, life for the rest of us, and for his teammates goes on as did their season.  Friday night the Angels played their first game since Adenhart's death and what I saw was simply unbelievable.  With a memorial of his image in centerfield, his number 34 on the mound, and heavy hearts all around, the Angels took the field motivated to get a win for their comrade, something they had failed to do despite his brilliant performance a few nights earlier.  I didn't get to watch the game but I did see highlights, and I really didn't need those.  All I would have needed to see was a single picture of Angels' starter Jared Weaver's eyes to know how much this meant to him and the rest of the team.  I have never seen a player in any sport be more in the zone than I saw Weaver Friday night.  To say he wasn't going to be denied would not be doing Weaver justice; simply put, failure was not an option and it never crossed Jared Weaver's mind.  

It would have been very easy, and will be very easy, for the Angels to just go through the motions this year, and really no one could blame them.  The baseball season is 162 games long and during the 8 months a year baseball players are together they become family.  And although Nick Adenhart was only a rookie, he played with many of the young Angels players in the minor leagues and was there through all of Spring Training this year.  He was a brother, and a younger brother at that, to everyone on the Angels roster, and instead of going through the motions they went out and played in their fallen brothers memory.  

I've said it before and I'll say it again, sports has an ability to bring people together after tragedy unlike anything else in the world outside of music.  Sports and music both allow the mind to escape into the world of a game or a song.  After 9/11, all of New York held its collective breath as the Yankees advanced to the World Series.  After Hurricane Katrina, the citizens of New Orleans wanted nothing more than to have their Saints back.  And a year later when they finally did, the buzz in the Superdome was far greater than Bourbon Street (or anyone on it) during Mardi Gras.  And while these situations were far greater tragedies in terms of numbers, the loss of Nick Adenhart hit the Angel and Major League Baseball families just as hard.  I expect the Angels to keep playing for their teammate and despite the fact that their on field talent isn't nearly what it has been in years past, I now expect them to be around in October.  And when this season is over, I think they will be proud of how they represented a teammate, who's life was cut far too short, and who now, as a fan put it at a make-shift memorial outside the Angel's Stadium, is playing with another team of Angels.

R.I.P Nick Adenhart

1986-2009 

What I Heard in The Herd

When some people talk you can't help but listen. When our President speaks people listen, because he's a well-spoken person with incredibly important things to say. When our last President spoke people listened because there was likely to be a verbal train wreck. When Robin Williams talks people listen because they want to laugh and when Charlie Steiner spoke and wasn't laughing it was a miracle. For me, especially lately, when Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio speaks I've been listening. He admits to being a polarizing figure and is opinionated to say the least, but for the most part I tend to agree with him and there is no doubt in my mind Cowherd gets it. There are those people out there that get it and those that don't, it's a fact of life. Similarly some businesses, including sports leagues also get it and others don't. Citi, trying to give hefty bonuses to upper level executives while their clients money is going down the toilet doesn't get it. The NFL, as Cowherd pointed out on his show Friday, gets it.

"The NFL is only league in this country that runs itself like a business in a TV show, and that's why the NFL leaders get it. They're not even a league. They're not even a sport. They run themselves like a business in a TV show. They are brilliant. Nobody in sports does it better."

And this to got me to thinking. And the more I think about it, the leader of The Herd is right again. The NFL really is King...and here's why.

Think about this: March Madness is supposedly the biggest non-single day event we have in this country. Everybody cares about it in some form or fashion because everybody has a bracket. To me, it's the most wonderful time of the year (see the blog from 2 weeks ago) and yet with it's culmination and showcase event, the Final Four, coming up on Saturday all anyone was talking about all week was Jay Cutler. OK, so after the first few rounds when most people's brackets were screwed a lot less people care and you're back to a typical college basketball fan base. Fine, I'll give you that.

What about, say baseball? It was once king and still is considered America's past time. However, excuse the horribly easy pun, it's past time for the past time. According to two studies, one by Harris and one by ESPN, baseball has lost half its audience in the past 20 years. It has horrible ratings amount young viewers and has nearly no African-American audience, two groups that have flocked to the NFL. Why? Baseball is the ultimate good-old boy sport. The biggest technological change on the field in baseball in the past 100 years is that more players are now using maple bats as opposed to ash bats. Gloves have gotten a little nicer but functionally they haven't changed. It wasn't until last year that baseball finally gave into replay, a technology the NFL gave into nearly a decade ago for the second time. People in baseball and more importantly people in charge of baseball would rather see the game stay the same than a call be made properly. I understand the human element but c'mon...really? And you wonder why baseball's audience is falling by the way-side.

The NBA might be the only pro sports league that has a chance at catching the NFL any time soon. It's entering a golden age (see last weeks blog) and its image is on the rise. However for some unknown reason many people who love basketball HATE the NBA. They say its too much of a one-on-one game. I have two responses to that. 1) Have you ever seen LeBron James play? The man is one of the best passers the league has ever seen. Add in Chris Paul and Deron Williams and you'll get your passing fix. and 2) OK so some games are very 1-on-1 oriented. These are the best players in the world, watching them go 1-on-1 is great entertainment. However some people will be stubborn and still hate the NBA, and even if I did convince these NBHaters there are still far more football fans than basketball fans.

Simply put the NFL is king. The only thing close is College Football. In the South people actually care more about College Football but you'd be kidding yourself if you thought that meant that, like the NBA and College Basketball, they still didn't care about their pro team. Add these people to the millions in places like Boston and New York where the NFL is numero uno and there isn't a legit college team in sight (Boston College doesn't count because quite frankly most people in Boston don't really care about what's going on in Chestnut Hill) and it's clear that across this great nation, our sport is football, and not just football, NFL football. The NBA season is winding down with an epic playoff battle, the MLB season is starting this week, and the Final Four (the culmination of March Madness!) is Saturday night...and tonight's lead story: how an off-season move in a league that hasn't seen a game in 2 months and won't for another 4 will effect the teams involved and the rest of the league. Still have any doubt that the NFL is king? I think not.

Will You Be Watching?

The NBA has always had superstars. It's always had great teams. But in my opinion its really only had one true golden age which was the 80's and early 90's. That is until now. The 60's were dominated by Bill Russel and the Celtics. The biggest news from the 70's was the ABA merger and Julius Erving's hair. The 90's were dominated by that MJ fella and the early 2000's were the Lakers and then the most boring dynasty in NBA history the Spurs. However the 80's was a spoil of riches unlike any other in NBA history. A multitude of transcendent superstars where the only thing that matched the quantity was the quality. And even with that being said there were two that outshone all the rest. Julius Erving, Moses Malone, James Worthy, Robert Parish, Isiah Thomas, Kareem Abdul Jabar, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and a young Michael Jordan all were stuck outside of the spotlight that was dominated by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Luckily for us, the spoil of riches is back. And if you're not watching NBA basketball you need to, be because you're missing out.

First of all the two in the spotlight: LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. They battle for the title of Best Player in the World on a nightly basis. To me its not really a question as amazingly brilliant as LeBron is. The best player in the world is Kobe Bryant. He's a better shooter, a better defender, can get to the rim at ease (even if he can't do it with the authority LeBron can), and the thing that separates him most from King James is he's an assassin. His nickname is the Black Mamba for a reason. He has no mercy and wants to rip your heart out. Interestingly enough if you ask LeBron James he agrees with me, saying Kobe is still the best. However LeBron is catching up quickly and in large part to Kobe and the time the two spent together on Team USA. LeBron has gone, in a year, from a defensive liability to an elite defensive player. He's also a greatly improved shooter, specifically from the FT line meaning you can't tackle him when he goes to the rim anymore (although he usually would still get at least the two anyway).

But the spoil of riches doesn't end there. Right outside the spotlight is a man, who unlike LeBron, already has a ring. Dwayne Wade is without a doubt to me the 3rd best player in the world. He's an elite defender, a great rebounder despite his size at 6'4", he can score in bunches from inside and out, and like Kobe has a killer instinct that makes him lethal on both ends of the court as the clock winds down. We saw this in the 2006 finals as he single handedly beat the Mavs but then he got hurt. And then he got hurt again. And again. And then, last year, the Heat did a brilliant thing. They sat him. They let him get healthy, and even when he could have played they made him sit. They weren't going to make the playoffs even in a horrid Eastern Conference and so they made sure he was 100%. And then the Olympics happened and Dwayne Wade was the best player on the floor, a floor that includes the two guys I've already talked about. This year he's had many magical moments and has found himself in the middle of every MVP discussion and his case is getting stronger with the more wins he wills his mediocre team too.

After that there is a significant drop off. Oh wait. No there's not. Not even close. To make it easier we'll go by position:

Point Guard: Its an argument we'll be having for years, who's better? Chris Paul or Deron Williams. It's also possibly a future blog topic. Both can pass, score, and our tremendous leaders. Most people say Paul has the edge and I agree but Williams is ridiculously close. Add in Devin Harris, Derrick Rose, and Tony Parker and we might have the highest quality of PG play the NBA has ever seen.

Shooting Guard: You can't start here without saying that Kobe and D-Wade got their own paragraphs. Next is Brandon Roy, who, ever since trading his Washington Purple for Portland Red he's been a stud. The future is also here in O.J. Mayo. He, along with Rudy Gay, might actually make the Grizzlies relevant sometime soon.

Small Forward: LeBron has his own paragraph above, nuff said about him. One of his best friends could also easily have his own paragraph and that's Carmelo Anthony. Melo has had his share of off the court problems but on the court he's been nothing short of spectacular. He can score with anybody and thanks to some quality time with his old college coach Jim Boeheim and Coach K this summer he now plays defense. From what seems like out of nowhere a guy named Danny Granger has emerged to be a 25+ ppg player who will eventually find his way out of Indiana and be a major player in this league. Also, Kevin Durant is still skinnier than me and only in his 2nd year and is already averaging 26 a game.

Power Forward: Relatively speaking Power Forward is a shallow position in the NBA right now. The argument for the best PF starts and ends with Chris Bosh. He's skilled and he's long which is a lethal combination. He's a great offensive player and a very good defensive player. The ugliest game in the NBA also resides in this position in Dirk Nowitski. He's not a good defender but he's 5th in the league in scoring and is every year. He's also capable of hitting the big shot. The future here isn't here yet but it's coming. His name is Blake Griffin and he's a monster. He's a freakish athlete and brutally strong. He's gonna give NBA forwards and their coaches fits for years to come. Don't sleep on last year's Blake Griffin either...yeah that Michael Beasley fellow. He hasn't been spectacular this year but he was just as dominant in the Big XII last year as Griffin was this year and he's a much better shooter than Griffin. We didn't get to see them battle as much in college as we would have liked but these two horses could be battling for years on the block in the NBA.

Center: This is always the weakest position in the NBA league wide because a great true center is hard to find. However there is one in the league right now and he's not going anywhere. Shaq may have been the original superman but Dwight Howard is the real deal. He is a young Shaq with a little less offensive game. He's got athleticism you're simply not supposed to have at his size. I sound like a broken record but Howard benefited immensely from his time with Team USA the past few summers because he had to play defense. Howard often found himself on the bench in favor of Chris Bosh because he couldn't defend the pick and roll. So he learned. And now he's the leagues leading shot blocker and rebounder and his offensive game is coming around.

You might say ok, that's a nice list of good players, but then you'd be selling yourself and those guys short. Every single player I named is or will within the next two years be a bonafide superstar. And it gets better. In 2010 many of them (including D-Wade and LeBron) could be finding new homes in major cities. You could have LeBron and Bosh in Madison Square 41 nights a year while D-Wade and D-Rose play in the house that Michael built in Chi-town while Kobe and his amazing young supporting cast are lighting up LA. Add in the fact that the Boston Three Party is already in Beantown and you're the 76ers giving Andre Iguadala some help more and better than Elton Brand from every major classic NBA team being a power house at the same time, for the first time in NBA history. It's coming people. Get ready. We're at the beginning of a golden age in NBA basketball and it's only going up. All the players I named with the exceptions of Kobe, Dirk, and Tony Paker were drafted after 2003 (the year of Lebron, D-Wade, Bosh and Melo). Not only are all of these players great but they're young. Really young. They'll still be around in 10 years and these 10 years will very likely be the best 10 years the NBA will see for a long long time. So as the ball goes up and the records go down the only question is, will you be watching?