Gripe about skills competitions

This past weekend was the NHL all star game. The day before as always was the skills competition. Growing up i loved watching this event. Ray Bourque going 4-4 on the plates. Al Iafrate shooting 102 with a wood stick! that was fun to watch. Now, eh not so much. Lets start with the fastest skater. First of all i would never wish injury on anyone but what is the league gonna do when someone loses an edge and goes barreling into the wall? Secondly I don't think too many people care how fast you can go around the rink. That's not an actual game skill. If they started on a goal line and went full ice and had to weave around a cone or 2 or catch a pass somewhere fine that's more interesting. Moving on to the passing challenge. This one I actually like. It has skill with that cross ice sauce pass into the little net. That takes skill and its fun watching them try and try. I'm gonna skip over the other 3 events because yes I'm bitching about them but i want to make a point about skills comps in general over all the major sports and i only wanna use the hardest shot as my point maker. Zdeno Chara currently holds the record at 108.8. But since hitting that mark he has not been in an all star game. That part I'm ok with. I'm not trying to say vote him an all star just so he can defend his title. But i think that the defending champ of all these records as long as they are still in the league and not injured should be at the skills comp to defend their title. Which brings me to the other major sports. Baseball only real skills competition is the home run derby. This has become the most boring thing to watch on TV next to the NBA all star game. Growing up it was swing til you get 10 outs. Any swing that didn't result in a home run was an out. The 99 derby with Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa was the best thing baseball has had at the mid summer classic. Now the event is timed. Again baseball also does not let the previous years champion defend their title unless voted onto an all star roster. Ill skip over basketball because their skills competition is dumb except for the dunk contest which hasn't been good since Vince Carter. Yes that includes Dwight Howard and his superman dunk. That brings me to the NFL. I'm gonna bet most of my followers were unaware that the NFL even has a skills competition on the same weekend as the Pro bowl. I figured it out only 5 years ago. I did a quick search and found videos of past years. This competition is legit. Every drill involves effort, skill and stamina. There is a drill where a QB has to hit a moving target at different yardages for points. This takes some major skill. I know because i still cant hit my buddies on a simple "go to the Chevy and turn around" pass. However if you haven't yet noticed a theme to this post here it comes. The NFL pro bowl and by virtue the skills comp, is the biggest waste of time of all the 4 major sports. Here's why. Its the week before the Super bowl. Which means that technically some of their "best" players will not play because they will be preparing for the Super bowl. Now correct me if I'm wrong but it used to be held 2 weeks or maybe even the week after the super bowl, meaning that those who played in the super bowl have the option to participate. It also used to be held in Hawaii. Now its in Orlando. That brings me to my final gripe about all star games and skill competitions, With the exception of the NFL for reasons just mentioned about date of game. If your selected to an all star team you should shut up and participate. Its a fan thing. Fans pay hundreds of dollars to see their local teams play night in and night out and they pay even more to see an all star game that features the best in the sport. By snubbing the game the player in my eyes in snubbing the fan. Don't give me shit about "family time" or "i need to recover and rest" that's bull shit (Alex Ovechkin) because if this was a break for the Olympics your pampered ass would be the first one throwing on his countries jersey and happily playing more then one extra game during that break. To wrap up this rant, all star games are useless and un necessary and most of the skills competitions are getting that way. just let the winners of the events come defend their title without having to be voted into the game. It would make for a better product.


Cheers,
Brad

Welcome to the blog

Hello everyone, this will be the blog that will now go with the podcast. I plan on updating this in between episodes as well as when there is a thought on my mind about something in the sports world. I apologize for the length of this post but as you know its been a while in between podcast episodes and i wanted to update you all as to why. First off i want to thank everyone who listens and follows the show. I never thought id have this kind of overwhelming support. I want to thank R&B Flooring for being our first sponsor of the show. Without that support its hard to legitimize what i am trying to accomplish. Having this measure of success this quick was very shocking to me and therefore i was overwhelmed trying to come up with weekly shows that stayed relevant and on topic without sounding preachy. It had now been almost a month since our last episode and i promise you a new one is coming in the next week. Over the course of this podcast i have asked you the listener to engage with me on various topics to help me get content for the episodes. This has gone both well and not so well. I decided to revamp the show so to speak and focus more on just delivering my opinion and that of who ever i have as a guest on the show. Should you want to engage with me on a topic i still very much highly suggest you do so. our facebook page is open for comments and DMs so feel free to drop me something and ill gladly engage in a back and forth. Who knows we may even take it live on a show. Going forward my hope is to get you new podcast episodes every other week. That is where this blog comes in. Obviously the sports world happens on a day to day basis. So i will try to have something on here in between episodes to help bridge that gap. Ok, if your still reading that does it for the pleasentries and now on to the good stuff.

Pats are back in the super bowl!!

So if your like me, you have probably just calmed down and had your heart rate return to normal after that AFC title game. My god. But once again it was shown that we are watching greatness and history right before our eyes. Tom Brady once again proved he is hands down the greatest quarterback to ever play football. Bill Belichick showed he is the greatest coach to ever have walked a sideline. I heard someone in the Boston media say last week that we are living in a time that will never be replicated in pro sports again. That got me thinking. Wow. Brady was drafted in 2000. Played his first season in 2001. That means for 18 straight season, ok 17 since he tore his ACL in 2010, we have been watching history being made. This is just a little comparison. The yankees have 27 World Series titles. None since 2009. But from 1996 until 2009 they had 5 titles. That is a span of 13 years. The Montreal Canadians have won 24 Stanley cup titles (23 with NHL 1 before the merger with NHA) none since 1993. Their longest reign was 1971 to 1979 in which they won 7. To do what the Patriots have done for 18 years is beyond comparison. I know i left out some other teams from other sports but you get my point. There has always been a generation in any sport that has had 1 or 2 guys that do things no one else will. But to have the same coach and player do it together is unheard of.

That being said. This is it. If or i should say when the pats win title number 6 in Super Bowl 53 that will be the end of the pats dynasty and their almost 2 decade strangle hold on the NFL. There are some real good young and hungry teams in the league now. The talent is spread wide. Take a look at who the pats are playing in the Superbowl. The LA Rams. They have someone who is being hailed as the next Bill Belichick. Sean Mcvay. This guy has a brilliant football mind, and on top of that hes only 33! Their defensive line is probably the fastest in the league at getting the QB. That's not a slight at JJ Watt its just truth. Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh are in my eyes the best D-Line tandem in the league. Now i know a lot of people regard Suh as a dirty player my self being one of them. But have you heard anything about him since hes been in LA? I haven't. I wonder if that's because hes now in a system designed to win. In Detroit well come on need i say more. In Miami they were never gonna out shine New England. Now hes in LA and they have young core thats hungry and ready to win. Im doling out this praise for them but yet i don't think they have what its gonna take to beat the pats.

This post has already gone longer then i expected but once i get going there's usually no stopping me. As i said earlier i will use this blog to have more up to date takes on sports in between podcast episodes. Thank you all for listening and now reading. i hope you've enjoyed this as much as i have. Stay tuned its only gonna get better.

Cheers,
Brad