What I learned this semester
When I first got the topic of writing sports I was excited to write about a topic I was so passionate about. I am so passionate about sports that no other form of entertainment comes close to what I want to do with my time. Most people have a favorite artist or musician I do not due to the fact that all my focus is on sports. I used to blog for the state paper in high school so I was interested to see how much my writing had improved. I also was interested to see if writing could be academic if it was about sports and not about a topic that is more educational.
I liked the idea of being paired in groups of similar interests. My group was just as passionate as I was about sports however they could be critical. I feel if the groups were mixed the group would be too critical and would take away from the writing.
I think I showed the most improvement by the time the presentation came around. I truly knew what it was like to write out a script and then edit and edit some more. I felt the video came out well and it satisfied the length. I also felt the script covered the topic very well and there were not useless details or fluff thrown in.
I felt I improved editing wise more than writing wise. I felt I was a good writer but now I need to improve my editing techniques. I noticed I needed to use more commas and everything can always be improved with proper editing. Writing is never finished and a fresh set of eyes will always help.
I feel like I improved and the process was sped up by being passionate about what I wrote about. As an undergrad student I felt I had to do research about something I was not passionate for. It would take longer to see positive results because I was not really into the material. This semester I was very much into the material and it helped me gain a critical eye of not only myself but the media in general.
With Social Media and the Internet the life of a college athlete will never be the same as 20 years ago
Imagine this situation when you were in college. After 18 years of hard work you were rewarded with a scholarship to continue to play the sport you love. You know you have a lot of hard work to go before you become a professional athlete so you will need to work on your game in college.
All of your friends who you graduate high school with will go onto college as well. College is supposed to be the best four years of your life, it is time to grow and a time to become more confident in yourself. College teaches you to balance your time better than any way possible. On top of classes you will have practice and games. This will make it even harder to balance your time but don’t you deserve to have a fun just like everyone else?
Now imagine you become so successful as a freshman that you win the highest individual honor in collegiate sports. With this Heisman trophy, you will be a part of fraternity for the rest of your life and will always be introduced as a Heisman trophy winner. In a span of one announcement you will go from normal college athlete to college celebrity. You think that the honor will be great and you can handle the new found fame, but now there is paparazzi following you on dates, at basketball games, and each and every move that you make. This is a social media generation so no matter what you do if someone gets a picture or video of it will be on the internet to scrutinize in a matter of seconds. You will need to reassess your life and how you interact with people in the real world all because of the internet and the media. All of this reassessing your life is even before you can make a dime playing the game you love because if you get a dime you will be deemed ineligible by the NCAA.
After all these rules to follow in order to keep yourself eligible it is impossible to have a true college experience and to be a regular student. Obviously non student athletes need to follow rules but they do not face the consequences that a college athlete faces and college celebrities face. However these athletes should know they will be held up to certain standards once they sign their letter of intent to play a college sport. College is not the same as it was 20 years ago. Some may not like the fact that is true and wish they could get the same college experience as their non athlete friends but sometimes in life if you are blessed with one ability you need to sacrifice in some other aspect of life.
With an Arod ban looming should Pete Rose still be banned?
With a suspension looming for Alex Rodriguez and a possible lifetime ban, it has brought up the attention on the career of one of the all-time greats Pete Rose. Rose received a lifetime ban for betting on baseball which he didn’t admit until years after receiving the ban. Rose wasn’t betting against his own team and was not point shaving which would make the situation much worse. He was betting on his own team; he was not purposely losing to win money like the 1919 White Sox did. Rose the all-time hits leader is still recognized as the hits leader,but he is excluded from baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Rose has come out and said that Arod should fess up to what he has done to avoid the lifetime ban. Arod has cheated the game by using performance enhancing drugs and he faces some steep consequences for it. Arod who could have been considered one of the best players of all time ruined his reputation by being involved with PEDS. This Arod suspension really puts into perspective of how Rose really did not do anything to deserve a lifetime ban. He was not point shaving like the 1919 White Sox and Shoeless Joe Jackson. He was not cheating the game by using drugs. All he was do was believe in his team so much that he would bet on them. The ban should be lifted, but the commissioner Bud Selig is so old-school that we won’t see it lifted while he is in office. Selig needs any news to draw attention away from the Biogenesis scandal and I believe a lifting on the Rose ban would be right for the sport. There is no one being inducted into the Hall of Fame because of the black cloud that hangs over the game so this is ample opportunity to induct the all-time hits leader into a place that he should be in the first place.
CougarBobcat23 