Mizzou celebrated its 99th homecoming last weekend but the weekend brought a lot more excitement than the normal Greek house decorations, and skits. For the first time ever ESPN's College Gameday visited Columbia. For years I have watched this popular pregame show religiously. As soon as I learned that Gameday was coming to Mizzou, I pleaded KOMU to let me cover it. Chris Gervino granted my wish. He Instructed me to do a package on the behind the scenes work of the show.
I could barely contain my excitement last Friday when I interviewed the entire Gameday crew. They answered my questions amazingly and are probably the best interview subjects I have worked with, especially compared to Gary Pinkel monotonous soundbites. I filmed the majority of my package on Friday and had nothing to shoot during the actual show. However, I woke up early on Saturday to watch the show from the press area. I arrived at 7:30 to the packed show and watched my second live College Gameday. Freshman year, when Mizzou battled Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship with the Tigers one win away from a birth in the national championship game., I drove to San Antonio and watched Gameday from the steps of the Alamo. However, this Gameday experience exceeded the first. I watched the majority of my favorite show the photo deck and watched as Lee Corso dawned the Oklahoma mascot a head. A decision he would later regret.
The best part of the experience was chatting with Chris Fowler. I have idolized Fowler because he lives my dream. He went from being a kid from Colorado with a dream to anchoring one of the most popular sports shows in the country. I asked him how he reached this level. He responded by encouraging me to make sure that I do not settle on my first job out of college. This experience can only be described as total awesomeness.
My great weekend continued when I covered the game itself against Oklahoma. The crowd was unlike anything I have ever seen. 71,000 people, shoulder to shoulder hungry for a win; hungry to end the years of faltering in big games, and faltering against Oklahoma.
The 71,00 fans cheered their Tigers as they pulled off the biggest upset in school history and if they conquer the Cornhuskers Saturday they will have a great chance of restoring the magic of that 2007 squad. The most challanging part of the weekend was not rejoicing when the Tigers won. I tried to contain my excitement but know I was grinning like I had just won something. Inside I jumped for joy and rushed into the center of the field to congratulate the players. However, I had to remain somewhat professional. The emotion I felt after that win and after that weekend is the way I wish I felt everyday when I wake up in the morning. I felt as good as anyone could possible feel. I had the best weekend ever.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Oversensative Society
Last night I was watching my fraternity's flag football game when controversy reared its ugly head. My fraternity battled another for the ultimate gridiron glory: the intermural flag football championship. Leading 6-0, one of our receivers made a spectacularly athletic catch in the end zone. However, the referee decided that he was out of bounds and the catch and the score was all for naught. One of the players said that was an awful call and the end result of this opinionated statement was the team's second unsportsmanlike conduct and resulted in a forced forfeit of the football championship. The first unsportsmanlike conduct occurred when the player who scored the first touchdown spiked the ball in excitement of the big touchdown.
Despite my rooting interest, this disqualification raises interesting questions. When did we as a society become so wimpy that athletic competitions are decided by sportsmanship and not athletic prowess. When did the feelings of the players and referees involved become more important than the competition itself. Our society now believes we should give every kid a trophy for merely participating in sports. We believe in no cut policies for high school sports teams. We live in the days when high school students can letter in speech and debate, band, theater and even student council. Let's say everyone wins who shows up and plays by the rules. These ideologies defeat the purpose of sports.
I understand the necessity of sportsmanship rules in sports, but preventing players from celebrating and spiking a football after a big play hurts nobody. Questioning a referees potentially bad call is well within the rights of players. In fact the referees being fallible is the reason the NFL and NCAA implemented instant replay. I'm obviously not suggesting the implementation of instant replay in flag football, but people should be allowed to complain if they believe a referee is making a mistake. The feelings of the referees should be the last thing considered in athletic competition. Immediately after Jim Joyce made an awful call costing Armando Galarraga a perfect game, a study was released saying he was the best umpire in baseball. I suspect this survey was doctored to boost Joyce's self esteem.
We need to return to the days when people were rewarded with trophies for merit, not for participation. We need to go back to the days when varsity athletes were the only ones rewarded with letters. We need to return to the days when referees were heckled for bad calls and players won games based on who had the highest score and not who played the nicest.
Despite my rooting interest, this disqualification raises interesting questions. When did we as a society become so wimpy that athletic competitions are decided by sportsmanship and not athletic prowess. When did the feelings of the players and referees involved become more important than the competition itself. Our society now believes we should give every kid a trophy for merely participating in sports. We believe in no cut policies for high school sports teams. We live in the days when high school students can letter in speech and debate, band, theater and even student council. Let's say everyone wins who shows up and plays by the rules. These ideologies defeat the purpose of sports.
I understand the necessity of sportsmanship rules in sports, but preventing players from celebrating and spiking a football after a big play hurts nobody. Questioning a referees potentially bad call is well within the rights of players. In fact the referees being fallible is the reason the NFL and NCAA implemented instant replay. I'm obviously not suggesting the implementation of instant replay in flag football, but people should be allowed to complain if they believe a referee is making a mistake. The feelings of the referees should be the last thing considered in athletic competition. Immediately after Jim Joyce made an awful call costing Armando Galarraga a perfect game, a study was released saying he was the best umpire in baseball. I suspect this survey was doctored to boost Joyce's self esteem.
We need to return to the days when people were rewarded with trophies for merit, not for participation. We need to go back to the days when varsity athletes were the only ones rewarded with letters. We need to return to the days when referees were heckled for bad calls and players won games based on who had the highest score and not who played the nicest.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Real World is Coming
In just a two months I will graduate from the University of Missouri. This should be an exciting time, but i am filled with nervousness and anxiety. The bad economy has limited the number of jobs available and with the constantly changing journalistic atmosphere I begin to worry how the careers and the job market will change even after I land a job.
After failing to land a job or internship, I am fearful that I will not find a job in my desired field. When i finally master Avid newscutter, I hear that most newsrooms use Final Cut pro, making my years of training in Avid less useful. If I cannot find a job what will I do for a living? I am good at playing poker but can i really be a professional poker player.
Despite the above doubt, i remain optimistic that I will be able to find a job. I have years of experience of my desired field of sports play-by-play in a variety of sports including volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastics. These sports help me because they are sports that not a lot of people have experience announcing. I am a great sports producer and as earlier mentioned, I am very good with avid. I am working to better my anchoring skills.
Also my multimedia reporting experience gives me a wider range of competencies than most applicants. I know audio and photo editing software. I have experience with web design and writing for the web. I also feel like my reporting skills are strong enough, even though that is not a job I wish to pursue.
The future is in doubt. I have no idea where I will be 3 months from now. This is a scary and exciting new world that I am ready to enter into.
After failing to land a job or internship, I am fearful that I will not find a job in my desired field. When i finally master Avid newscutter, I hear that most newsrooms use Final Cut pro, making my years of training in Avid less useful. If I cannot find a job what will I do for a living? I am good at playing poker but can i really be a professional poker player.
Despite the above doubt, i remain optimistic that I will be able to find a job. I have years of experience of my desired field of sports play-by-play in a variety of sports including volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastics. These sports help me because they are sports that not a lot of people have experience announcing. I am a great sports producer and as earlier mentioned, I am very good with avid. I am working to better my anchoring skills.
Also my multimedia reporting experience gives me a wider range of competencies than most applicants. I know audio and photo editing software. I have experience with web design and writing for the web. I also feel like my reporting skills are strong enough, even though that is not a job I wish to pursue.
The future is in doubt. I have no idea where I will be 3 months from now. This is a scary and exciting new world that I am ready to enter into.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
NASCAR Is Not a Sport
NASCAR's popularity has always bewildered me. According to USA Today, ESPN's broadcasts of NASCAR races have declined in popularity this year, but still attract a larger audience then the wonderful sport of Hockey. My problem with NASCAR is that it is not a sport.
When watching the season premiere of South Park last night, I laughed because it made fun of NASCAR fans as poor and stupid. While I am not as brazen to lump all NASCAR fans into these two categories, I am unable to understand the excitement of watching cars drive in circles for 4 hours.
NASCAR is dreadfully dull. It is a marathon of left turns that only requires a person of two feet and two hands to operate the car. If I wanted to watch cars drive fast, I could set up a lawn chair on the median of 1-70. There would be new cars each time and an equal number of crashes.
The sport itself requires no athletic ability. It does require the ability to withstand a hot car for hours and turn left at high speed. However, I contend that anybody who has driven a multiple state road trip during the summer in a car with no air conditioning is qualified to be a NASCAR driver. The most athletic guys in the alleged sport are the pit crews, who perform maintenance on these cars in seconds, and really decide who wins and who loses.
While people complain about poker not being a sport, it takes a great deal more intellect then the left turn extravaganza, and a t least some knowledge of how to play the game. Anyone who passes a driver's test has the ability to be a NASCAR driver, while navigating the turns may take some practice, any person could gain the ability to excel in the sport provided they had a proper practice facility.
NASCAR requires little skill and athleticism. It is nothing more than left turns for 4 hours and anyone can do it. It is uninteresting and not a sport.
When watching the season premiere of South Park last night, I laughed because it made fun of NASCAR fans as poor and stupid. While I am not as brazen to lump all NASCAR fans into these two categories, I am unable to understand the excitement of watching cars drive in circles for 4 hours.
NASCAR is dreadfully dull. It is a marathon of left turns that only requires a person of two feet and two hands to operate the car. If I wanted to watch cars drive fast, I could set up a lawn chair on the median of 1-70. There would be new cars each time and an equal number of crashes.
The sport itself requires no athletic ability. It does require the ability to withstand a hot car for hours and turn left at high speed. However, I contend that anybody who has driven a multiple state road trip during the summer in a car with no air conditioning is qualified to be a NASCAR driver. The most athletic guys in the alleged sport are the pit crews, who perform maintenance on these cars in seconds, and really decide who wins and who loses.
While people complain about poker not being a sport, it takes a great deal more intellect then the left turn extravaganza, and a t least some knowledge of how to play the game. Anyone who passes a driver's test has the ability to be a NASCAR driver, while navigating the turns may take some practice, any person could gain the ability to excel in the sport provided they had a proper practice facility.
NASCAR requires little skill and athleticism. It is nothing more than left turns for 4 hours and anyone can do it. It is uninteresting and not a sport.
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