Although I have mentioned my older brother here and there on my postings I have not yet told about the most cool experience a sport fan can have. Most of us who love sport dream of the diving catch, the game winning home run, the three to win. We imagine ourselves on the biggest stage rather that be the Olympics or the height of any other athletic profession. My older brother, Tyler Grisham, upon graduation from Clemson University began a three year career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. During his first season he played in a few games before inviting my family and I up for a December 26th game during everyone's Christmas break. Tyler had played sporadically the games before but saw an entire half of play during their game against the rival Baltimore Ravens. He looked open a few times to us but we did not care if Ed Reed, Ray Lewis and the rest of the Ravens D were covering him, we wanted a catch. It was more amazing than anyone could imagine. It was playing in the front yard with that guy, my brother, all over again, except he was the best in the world now. The game was close and in the fourth quarter a pass came his way on a big third down and four. He caught the pass on and out pattern for fourteen yards and kept the home team alive. The drive ended in a field goal by kicker Jeff Reid and eventually sealed the win for us after a few bonehead plays by the Ravens. Seeing him in the tunnel after the game, being surrounded by other professionals, it was as if he had made it. It is the most awesome thing to think about a middle school kid running around a large neighborhood with weights in a back pack worked hard enough in a stream of time in order to rise him to compete with the best football players on earth. Like many great and joyful things it can not be put into words but it was and is my most favorite sports memory by far and I can nearly guarantee it will stand for a lifetime.

Baseball Season

Baseball, with the NBA in the playoffs, will soon take center stage in sports and we will see ten plays in a row of mediocre level difficulty on ESPN for a few months.

Social Media in Sports

It has long been debated, well as long as social media has been around, if it is a good thing for high profile athletes to use social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. It is obviously a good way to let the community get to know you, to put a face with the player in a way. It can also be a negative thing considering the often bad judgement we see from these high paid young men. It is an interesting debate and like many ideas no side is all right. There are a number of positive and also negatives that come with these guys and girls using social media today. What do you think?



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College Sports Facilities

 

Look at these spectacular facilities in Division 1 College Football. Schools today are now making so much money in their football programs that they will gladly spend money in bettering their facilities in order to attract the best players to attend their schools. This alone shows how big of a busienss college sports really are. It is a big business where big dollars are spent to keep up. These nice, clean areanas of competition are where champions are made and the dollars follow too.

Outside Oregons Facility Doors

Nebraska Cornhusker Weight Room

Florida Gator Weight Room



Why Isn't Hockey at least A Little More Popular

Although I am no fan whatsoever, I still ponder why Hockey is not more popular in the States. I understand it is an "icy" game played with large padding but the game itself seems to be interesting. It of course will never rival the big three in football, basketball and baseball but will it ever gain popularity in the U.S? I don't know if it will.. what do you think?

 

NFL Draft

The annual NFL draft in April finished up this weekend after three long days of watching men talk and old football replays. Within the space of the blogworld we get to vent and talk about our troubles, and I act in the same way when discussing the off season of my beloved football. To show a real life event of what I mean when telling of the "blue" feeling I have within during the offseason one must only watch on draft weekend. People all over tune in to see where their favorite college kids go to play or who their favorite NFL team has newly acquired. Football season ends around December mostly, but we have the Superbowl in early February, meaning it has only been two months and we have to talk about the draft and team transactions because there is no games to watch. What a weekend it was and what a new NFL we will be watching in the year to come.

ESPN First Take Review

Having started watching the show a few years ago I started telling friends to give it a watch and they often started regular viewership themselves. The show includes Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith and a host of other sports writers, sports show hosts, and athletes. The discussion put on throughout the show has the depth and "realness" that many other shows don't even approach. It is an entertaining watch, and if one can handle anymore hectic screaming they should try it out. 

Alabama Vs. Auburn

The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers, the two big schools in the state of Alabama have been meeting on the gridiron for many years now. The game has been fought in different locations, Birmingham for a period of time, but it always brings the attention of the entire state to see what takes place any given year. It is "the rivalry" and those who know it well say it is the best rivalry in sports, period. As a fan I have no dog in this fight being a fan of other teams growing up but I find it comical and exhilarating because of the depth and energy put into supporting ones side. It is awesome how much support a university can have for them especially in ones home state. Other rivalries garner as much attention in other areas of the country but little has meant as much during the past four years with Bama taking home three Championships and Auburn one National Championship. College football has run through this state every year since my class entered college in 2009. It has been a fun ride so as far as I can see it we are living and a part of the best rivalry in college sports. 

The State Experience

Playing High School football in Alabama is a way of life in many small towns and bigger cities alike. On a Friday night there is nothing like sitting under the lights and watching the boys you have seen grow up together take the field and perform as one unit. Maybe it is because we do not have as much to do with our spare time as other parts of the country, I don't know, but it is instilled in many of us to have a deep appreciation for the Fall, the grass, and the clashing of those helmets.

Having been a part of a state champion runner up team in 2007 I have been able to taste the sweetness of the playoffs and the extra half a season that is the five games in order to reach the promise land. My teammates and I were defeated by Prattville 14-0 in December and it all came to a crashing halt. The ride that was the playoffs only deepened the closeness of the team and the memories we will have with us forever. The journey allowed us to extend life, at least to our football team, for one more week at a time. We saw what it is like to come so close but to come up short, which may have taught us all different things at the time. All of the events in life can teach us something, it just depends on how we are viewing the world and what we are ready to see. That team is forever in my heart and mind and will always remain tight the bonds and friendships built along the way.

Off Season Blues

Clemson, South Carolina on a random night in the off season of college football. Its so strange to ponder the idea that these places that hold such great beauty only home at most seven home games in a year. The off season can be so lonely for these works of wonder, singing my off season blues.

Sports Bucket List

Sports can consume much of our time in the world we live in now, especially with television sports increasing entertainment and the economy we now live in. Although watching a football game on t.v is about like being a middle linebacker on the field today there is still nothing better than spending a day at the ballpark. In my twenty something years I have seen the Friday night lights in Alabama for my entire life, growing up in Birmingham, AL attending Spain Park High School. I have attended a number of Alabama, Auburn, and Clemson games and also seen a NFL games and other professional sporting events. In my life time there are certain places I want to visit and spend time at in order to take in the area so that it will forever be a part of me. Places like Wrigley Field in Chicago or Soldier Field where the Bears tear it up on Sundays. The tradition and love for the colors and men that play these games in cities all over the country and world are what makes sports magical for people everywhere. My bucket list would consist of spending days of my life with people I love having great times at new places all the while.

College Football in the South

Although we are still in April we in the south can feel the college football season coming on strong, with only three months away... about. Growing up in the south a kid gets to learn quickly about the traditions and loyalty built around ones team and they may cherish that idea til death. I have jumped around in my fan-ship from Tennessee through a national championship in 1998, to Clemson when my older brother accepted a scholarship on their football team for four years. That breaking of my love for the Tennessee Volunteers has allowed myself to find an appreciation in all of it now and just be a fan of the game. I of course root on certain teams but I do not find myself getting carried away in it like I might once have done. Now that spring ball is finishing up and summer workouts are to begin it seems like I should already be making plans for the next home game. Time always moves speedily and so it will be here before we know it, til then its basketball and baseball highlights like a rainy day in summer.

The NBA Playoffs are Near

With about a week remaining in the NBA regular season the playoffs are amongst us. The NBA playoffs are tremendously different than the playoffs in other sports.

When it comes to the sport of football, the south and its love for college football celebrate a "National Championship" every year because they play a "Leprechaun" that can't compete. In the NFL parity is throughout but that "any given Sunday" idea always comes into play. We see teams on both levels playing in the big game that are not expected and often times are shown why we did not ever expect them there.

Baseball too has a seven game series and it creates excitement extended for weeks at a time.
We see that big money can be paid and that team still do mediocre for seasons in a row. Baseball has its own "past time" way off being enjoyed, especially when we get a meaningful game seven, maybe Boston, New york.

Basketball, in the NBA is Lakers, Celtics, as well as Jordan and his Bulls. The Lakers and Celtics have 33 combined NBA titles. Of recent we have seen those two organizations fall back in the race, and witnessing Jordan put out the worst team on the court while in is front office position with his Bobcats.

Basketball shows us year after year the NBA and basketball in general is about the best! One player can dominate in ways that cannot be done in any other team sport. We will get to see the Heat make a run at another championship and we will most certainly see some game seven magic. Basketball, the game is proven immediately and to see the best at their top level this time of year is a treat.

NCAA Basketball Tourney before Final Four Weekend

Its April but March's madness is not yet over. This weekend we will see the last four teams fight it out to come away with the championship trophy. The past few weeks have been exciting just like they always are this time of year in the college basketball world. Millions of fans have had their brackets destroyed and marked all the way through by the time the weekends festivities tip off. Out of the nearly 9,000,000 brackets filled out in the ESPN tournament challenge not a single person has all of the games chosen correctly and not many more have all four of the final four teams correct.



 Instead of listening to all of the "experts" I chose to go a different path and use my gut feeling for every choice made in the completing of my personal bracket. I actually chose for Harvard, a fourteen seed, to beat three seed New Mexico, which I have flaunted around. Once the tourney began the losses started to add up and hope goes out the window until next year. As the days have passed I have seen my ranking move back and fourth from 100,000 to 700,000. The anguish that comes with investing time and brain into something you have absolutely no control over takes over some of us bracketeers out there. Currently I stand at 131,997 with 780 points and a 98.4 percentile before we head into the final four games to be played. My unpopular national champion choice of Michigan is still alive and also Louisville for now. Half of the final four seems to be a solid bracket in comparison to some of those around me who now scoff and change the subject when brackets are brought up. So before are brackets are beaten and bruised up just a little more lets all take not that its as random as the weather and that anything can happen in the madness of march.

The Heat Went Streaking

Any Person interested in sports more so than just the casual viewer is aware that the Miami heat have just recently finished a run off of 27 games in a row without a single loss. Besides the fact that they have the polarizing  "Big Three," with Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, the Heat are also the defending NBA Champs taking every teams best shot night in and night out. ESPN and the media took note, as with everything else Miami Heat, of the run early on admiring the teams play when the streak reached into the teens. The beginning brought a series of games when Lebron James seemed like he couldn't miss and shot nearly sixty percent from the field for nearly six consecutive games. Wade and Bosh and a number of others have been overlooked because of the all time great play we have seen from James. The steals, ball handling, and the dunks have become custom from the guys in Heat uniforms the past few years, but we have not seen the level of play and consistency in a single sport in a good number of years. The NBA season is a long and tiresome ride of 82 games where teams often play every other night. They say that they days are long but they years are shot, which is no different in the streaks case. Although media coverage day after day made the steak seem like it lasted a year we now can look back on the two months of win after win in great appreciation while realizing they actually failed triumphantly in their effort to do what was thought impossible.

The 1972 Lakers have the streak of 33 straight wins that the Miami Heat were in desperate search of. We can look back to see that the NBA has seventeen teams compared to thirty now. One could see they has Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain on their roster, albeit near the end of their careers. Many of the top basketball players in the world were in the American Basketball Association (Julius Dr. J Irving) creating somewhat of a watered down or diluted NBA at the time. The Lakers streak and The Heats streak are two of the greatest in basketball history and to compare them would only downplay the significance of them both. All fans will have their own opinion but today were talking Heat.

The Miami Heat have the best basketball player on earth as well as a few more that are not too far off the list. Lebron James can do amazing things on the court that we have never seen. He is tops in the league in more categories than one player should humanly be. He has used the gifts he has been given and added hard work to strengthen his game over the years and is at the pinnacle of the basketball world. The Championship ring has opened his game up and allowed him to play more free and thoughtless while performing his art of choice in basketball. The 27 game win streak gave us the platform to celebrate the greatness of a player in the now, while he is in front of us. Hate it or love it the Heat are the face of the NBA and have people interested because it is exciting to see what they can do with potential greatness. One of the brightest men in the NBA, Shane Battier, gave a speech to the team that not much has yet been heard of. Apparently he gave a Hollywood like performance talking to his team after win number 1 and told them to "touch the fans" saying that the fans "wanted to be touched emotionally and inspirational and that they as a team had that capability." Teammates have commented and said that they fed off of the message he channeled to them and they had run with it.





The level of play in athletics today is at a high and is only going to continue to grow. Although the Miami Heat needed no more coverage of their recent streak it is nice, and only reasonable to reflect on what we have seen and appreciate the effort and determination we saw from mega rich athlete men who chose to band together and take on the whole league piece by piece every night during the streak. To understand how hard they worked we can look at the week and a half since the streak ended to a deflated Chicago Bulls team to see that they are beginning to rest James, Wade and others because of the tests they put their bodies through during "the streak." So in regard to the effort and entertainment throughout the season from the Heat team I add one more 'salute'. Now to hammer down their legacy they will prepare for the playoffs and a possible third straight finals appearance.

How Michael Jordan Changed Sport Forever

The Famous Jump-man

Mike Turns 50
Michael Jeffrey Jordan has just recently celebrated his 50^th birthday which was displayed all over ESPN and worldwide sportscasts during the entirety of his birthday week. Many sports fans may have been turned off by the week long discussions about his legacy, his current lifestyle, as well as the possibility of him returning at his elderly age; by basketball standards. During MJ’s birthday week Charles Barkley, who is still in the public eye daily working for NBA on TNT, also celebrated his 50^th birthday. Charles is mentioned as one of the fifty greatest players of all time and we did not hear a word about his date of birth. The reason I mention Charles is for somewhat of a comparison to Mike, which gives us an example of the magnitude he had and continues to have on people all over this earth. Michael Jordan is something more than just a great athlete and legendary basketball player, MJ is closer a mythical figure with powers greater than any other human being can understand. Michael Jordan visualized actions and moves in his mind that we had never before seen, he molded himself into a tremendous athlete and competitor in every facet of his life. While MJ will never be forgotten, his half a century birthday celebration gives us a chance to give thanks to all he has done over the course of his life.

The Rise

            Michael Jordan is one of the most popular beings on this earth for a number of reasons but most of all it is his hard work and ever relentless mindset that has allowed him to be so successful throughout his life. Mike didn’t make his high school basketball team his sophomore year and it had a profound impact on his determination and work ethic. He made up his mind to never be outworked again when he decided to devote all of his time to perfecting his game. He could be found skipping class frequently and sneaking into the gym to get up as many shots as possible. During his career he was quoted as saying, “The reason I succeeded in my life is because I’ve failed repeatedly and learned from my failures.” Michael, from an early age, took his hardships and suffering and turned them into fuel for something positive, which shows extreme wisdom for a pimple faced high school kid. Michael eventually made the team and took a scholarship at North Carolina University in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he played for the legendary coach Dean Smith. After college he entered the 1984 NBA draft where he was selected number two overall by the Chicago Bulls. Michael signed a contract with Nike during his rookie year and he displayed the first of many popular shoes, the Air Jordan 1. This shoe was outlawed by the NBA because their color was black when only white shoes were allowed at the time. This rule didn’t prevent Jordan from modeling the shoe on the court each night, but it did cost him $5,000 every single time he touched the floor in them, and remember that there are eighty-two games in the NBA regular season. Nike used this in their Marketing campaign to elevate the status of the shoe portraying that it gave him the upper hand on other players. The Air Jordan brand would continue to rise in popularity and eventually established the “Jumpman” figure displayed on every item of his now. Mike would go on to win six NBA championships, five NBA player of the year awards, fourteen time NBA All star appearances, eleven time all NBA selection and countless other awards with the Bulls which helped cement his legacy as the greatest to ever do it.

Air Jordan

How MJ Changed Basketball and Sport Forever

            Michael changed the focus of a team from the largest player, the center, to that of the most gifted scorer and all around ball player. He brought a balanced game with his shooting ability, his slashing to the hoop, defensive prowess, and also his force down low with the bigger guys in the league. Jordan’s style of play made the NBA reconsider everything it had established before he came along. The league changed defensive rules not allowing defensive players to hand check beyond the perimeter as well as not allowing defensive players to spend more than three consecutive seconds in the lane. MJ helped so many athletic guards like him be able to operate more freely and get to the hoop easier to add to their point totals and overall productivity. These changes to the game brought more scoring and offense which in turn presented larger crowds and higher incomes to players and the NBA as a whole. When Michael first began his career the short shorts in the NBA were still a fad, which he quickly helped change when he pulled out the longer and baggier shorts style. Night in and night out Michael would play against the greatest competition in the entire world and often times the guys he is playing against would be sporting his brand by wearing his shoes if not more Jordan items. Today there are countless players who have tried to model their game after him, such as Lebron James and Kobe Bryant who are considered two of the greatest in today’s game. Michael changed basketball in more ways than could be quantified, but he also changed the way an athlete can market himself entirely. Nike helped MJ pave the way with his brilliant marketing campaign making people everywhere believe they could “play like mike” if they just wore his particular brand of sneakers. It was a risk that Nike took to focus so much on one individual and that one decision changed how marketing in any business would be approached forever.   So in celebrating Michael Jordan’s 50^th birthday we get to remember his greatness on and off the court as well as show appreciation for the path he made for every single athlete that ever played sport.  

The Greatest of All Time