Archive for
on October 6, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I’m going to let you in on a little secret — being a sportswriter can take the fan right out of you.
At least, it has for me.
Cover teams long enough, deal with athletes and coaches long enough, and slowly but surely, the fandom drains right out of you. I don’t cheer for any teams. I don’t pull for any programs. I just don’t have it in me anymore.
But the Minnesota Vikings are doing their darnedest to change that.
You probably think this is all about Brett Favre, and while it’s true that the old guy is really something special, I’ve never been a big fan of his. He isn’t the reason why I’m on the verge of cheering for the purple and gold.
No, the reason I’m really coming around to the Vikings is because they play fun. Some teams play fast. Some play hard. The Vikings play fun.
They just seem to be out there having a great time. Now, I suspect that’s because they take what they do very seriously. They put in the time at practice. They put in the effort in film. They do all the grunt work behind the scenes so that when they hit the field, they can let it fly.
It’s like Olympic gymnasts. What they do looks effortless, like any of us could do it if we just try. But the truth is, most of us can’t even do a cartwheel.
Listen, I’m not saying the Vikings are the best team in the NFL. Heck, they might not be among the three or four best teams. But after watching the Vikings beat the Packers on Monday night, I realized how exciting they were. Watching Jared Allen and Percy Harvin, Adrian Peterson and Kevin Williams, Bernard Berrian and the rest of those guys is fun.
This is a fun and exciting bunch, fun enough to make a fan out of anyone, even yours truly.
on October 3, 2009 at 12:01 am
Former Oklahoma State and Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier has turned his competitive juices to mixed martial arts.
He made his debut in the sport last week, more than a year after his wrestling career came to an unceremonious end. He suffered a severe kidney problem after his weight cut before the 2008 Olympics and was unable to compete in Beijing.
Now, Cormier is back in the fray.
Jenni Carlson: What was it like to be competing again? Obviously, a different sport, but still a competition.
Daniel Cormie: It was awesome. To have those competitive nerves before the fight. To have those butterflies walking to the cage. Then to actually get that feeling after a year of doing no competitive thing … as soon as that cage closed, I was OK. People say, “DC, how were you so composed in there?” It’s because I know that I’ve competed my whole entire life. The funny thing is, I’d never been in a cage before.
JC: Really?
DC: Not even in training. We trained in a ring.
JC: With the decision to go to MMA, did you give yourself any sort of out? Like, try it for a month or two and see what happens? Or were you all in from the beginning?
DC: You know, I kind of thought like that a little bit, but if I’m going to do something, I have to commit to it a hundred percent. And I did. I went out to California and trained hard. Training isn’t a problem. I did that my whole life. But getting hit initially was like, “Whoa.” But then after you get over that, the initial shock of that, it’s really not that hard.
JC: Those first few punches, you’re probably thinking, “Hey, ref, where’s the whistle?”
DC: As a wrestler, I’ve got that good ace in the hole; I just take them down. Guys start kicking my tail too much, I take ‘em down, and once they’re down, it’s harder for them to really compete with me because of my ability to hold guys down on the mat. But you’re got to be really careful with the submission holds. I really don’t feel those yet as well as I need to. As I progress in my career, I’m going to have to feel them better, but right now, I think I’m doing pretty good where I am.
JC: When you progress in your career? You mean, like, when you’re six months or a year in? You’re in the infancy of this.
DC: I’m a baby in this thing. I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback on my first fight. It was on national TV. I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback on my ability to stay composed. That goes back to wrestling with holding up under pressure, but I’m not stupid. I’m not a delusional person. I’m not going to sit here and say I’m a world beater because I’m not. I’m just really learning. In time, I think I will be pretty good at it. Like wrestling, I didn’t step onto a wrestling mat like I was a natural. It takes some time. That ended up working out pretty good for me. I’m committed to this sport, and with the commitment I’ve shown to wrestling, if I do the same thing, I’ll be OK.
JC: So, what’s next?
DC: I’m trying to fight again before the end of the year. It’s awesome because you train hard and your compensation is so over the top. When you were trying to go to wrestling competitions, you couldn’t find sponsors. Now, you’ve got people just throwing sponsorships at you. It’s just insane.
on October 1, 2009 at 11:30 am
Wonder if Blake Griffin is starting to believe in this Clippers Curse idea.
The former Oklahoma standout has officially been a member of the Los Angeles Clippers for all of three months, and already he’s had not one but two injuries.
Perhaps you remember that Griffin was sidelined earlier this summer. He strained his right shoulder during a summer league game in July. He was on track to return to action when the Clippers opened training camp earlier this week.
That injury just seemed like a blip on the Clippers Curse radar. After all, the team best known for futility has had far worse incidents. Take Danny Manning, for example. The slam-dunk, No. 1 pick in the 1988 draft went to the Clippers, and 26 games into his pro career, he suffered a knee injury. He was never the same after that.
So, that shoulder could’ve been worse for Griffin.
But then last week, he was participating in an informal workout session at the team’s training facility. He had a knee-on-knee collision with teammate Craig Smith.
Smith was completely and totally unscathed.
Griffin injured his left knee, bruising his patella and leaving his patellar tendon sore.
That meant that when the Clippers opened camp Tuesday, Griffin could only watch from his elliptical machine.
Maybe we should’ve seen this coming. On draft night, after all, news about the biggest day of Griffin’s life was dwarfed in Los Angeles by the death of Michael Jackson. What should’ve been big sports news in Southern California became an afterthought.
Clippers Curse? Alive and well? Strong as ever? It sure seems that way.
There is no doubt that Blake Griffin is a strong, strapping young lad. He can carry a lot on those broad shoulders. Adjusting to the NBA and living up to expectations should be no problem for Big Blake.
This Clippers Curse might be a whole other story.
