NFL neglects traumatic brain injuries

The Seattle Seahawks’ star cornerback Richard Sherman bothers a lot of fans, and understandably so. He’s outspoken. He loves to trash talk. He knows exactly how good he is, and he’s not afraid to express that. The only problem is, he may be completely justified. Sherman went to Stanford University before being drafted to the National Football League in the fifth round in 2011. You can’t go to Stanford and not be smart, even if you’re there to play football. As far as his play goes, he’s become a player that has virtually no stats because quarterbacks quite literally refuse to throw to his side. He provides arguably the best coverage in the NFL, and he knows it. So he may be outspoken on social issues, but that’s no reason not to listen.

Most recently, Sherman has used the huge stage he’s been provided to express how he feels about the NFL. Over the recent seasons, concussions have been at the forefront of the media. Former NFL players with terrible brain damage from their time in the league have come forward and said that the NFL needs to better protect its players.

In week one of this season, superstar quarterback of the Carolina Panthers Cam Newton took several hits to the head in a game against the reigning Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos. Despite how bad these hits looked—and the distress that Newton seemed to be in—no concussion protocol was taken. Sherman has taken a serious issue with this.

Sherman spoke out specifically about the events in week one, noting that the NFL will never really take serious action about player safety because if they made the game safer, it would affect their bottom line. Sherman believes that Newton wasn’t taken out of the game because it would be bad for TV ratings.

“If you can increase their bottom line, then they’ll love you, they’ll do everything they can to put you out more, to market you, to make sure the fans buy your jersey … because it makes them more money,” Sherman said. “If you’re not making them money, then at the end of the day, they’re going to find somebody else.”

Sherman then went even further, saying that the fans are often confused about the relationship between the league and the players. He believes that the relationship doesn’t have to be a good one, and the NFL really doesn’t mind.

“At the end of the day, [the NFL is] going to do what they have to do to make their money and to make as much money as they can for the owners … That’s the way it’s always going to be,” Sherman said.

When comments like this come from one of the league’s biggest stars, it seems like it would be detrimental to the NFL, which is just the point that Sherman is trying to make. Comments like this might make fans and players hate the league, but no matter what people will tune in to find more reasons to hate the league. People will buy Sherman’s jersey in order to demonstrate that they agree with him. And jersey sales and TV viewers mean more profits for the NFL.

McGregor to make UFC history at Madison Square Garden

Conor McGregor is currently the biggest name in Ultimate Fighting Championship, and one of the biggest names in all of sports. Now, he’ll be fighting on what UFC president Dana White called the “biggest, baddest card ever” at the UFC 205. McGregor will be fighting Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title at 155 pounds in Madison Square Garden on Nov. 12. This will be the first UFC card in New York State since the legalization of mixed martial arts in the state.

McGregor has the chance to be the third fighter in UFC history to hold UFC championship belts simultaneously in different weight classes, as he is still currently the Featherweight Champion after defeating Jose Aldo in December 2015. Alvarez, however, has other plans.

As is tradition with this sport, the media attention and hype around the fight are just as important as the fight itself. And there has been no shortage of that. Alvarez, the veteran lightweight, went on record saying that the stare down at the media event was the least intimidating one he’s ever seen.

Alvarez has been trying to pick a fight with McGregor for months—and for good  reason. Alvarez understands that in order to be considered the best, he must beat the best, and the best right now is McGregor. McGregor, however, should be just as motivated.

The press conference between the two fighters provided almost as much entertainment as may come from the main event. McGregor predicted a first round knockout right to Alvarez’s face. Alvarez responded by calling McGregor’s featherweight title a “little boy belt.”

That is part of the sport: the theatrics, the trash talk, the money. It’s certainly a different kind of entertainment. As far as the fans are concerned, McGregor and Alvarez have no respect for each other. And they will settle their disputes the old fashioned way: in the octagon.

This type of sentiment isn’t seen as much as it was in the past. Athletes are taught to win with class and to lose with dignity. That’s not the way this sport works, however—UFC thrives on disrespect. These athletes aren’t exactly people that parents want their children emulating, but that’s exactly why it’s so entertaining.

McGregor and Alvarez work on fear, intimidation and defending their honor. That’s not saying that there is no room for respect between athletes, but the way these men operate makes for an entertaining showdown. Some people love the way the sport works, some people hate it—there doesn’t seem to be much of an in-between.

The only thing that’s for sure is that this fight between McGregor and Alvarez is not to be missed.

New England Patriots juggle quarterbacks

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is currently serving a four game suspension for deflating footballs. If you are a Patriots fan, odds are you believe that “Deflategate” is a witch-hunt orchestrated by National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell to take down one of the league’s best organizations. If you’re a fan of any other team in the American Football Conference East, odds also are that you don’t know how or why, but Brady isn’t playing the first four games of the season—and you’re not asking any questions.

This suspension has led to an interesting situation in terms of the quarterback position for the Pats. Brady has been their franchise quarterback since 2001. Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick hasn’t had to worry about who was taking the snaps in 15 years—excluding in 2008 when Brady suffered from foot injuries. That all changed at the beginning of this season—except that it really didn’t.

One huge theme that Belichick preaches to his team is the phrase “next man up.” When one guy goes down, the guy behind him gets his chance to do the job. It’s the Patriot way. Cue Patriots’ quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. The 6 foot 2 inches 226-pound player out of Eastern Illinois University was the next man up to take Brady’s spot. Those are some of the biggest shoes to fill in the history of the game, and he did just that.

Against the Arizona Cardinals and the Miami Dolphins, Garoppolo threw for 496 yards and four touchdowns for a total quarterback rating of 119. This is practically unheard of for any quarterback in his first two games.

By the second quarter of the Miami game during week two, however, things worsened for the Patriots. Garoppolo suffered an AC joint sprain while playing against the Miami Dolphins. The “next man up” was third string quarterback Jacoby Brissett, the first black quarterback to start in Patriots franchise history.

Brissett came into the game against the Miami Dolphins and did exactly what he needed to do. He held his own and allowed the Patriots’ running game and defense to take over, leading to another Patriots win.

Week three was much of the same. Brissett completed more passes than not, and ended with a respectable passer rating of over 70. This, however, is where it gets interesting. Team doctors reported that Brissett suffered an injury to his right thumb in the 27-0 win.

As one would expect, the media was all over this. Reporters and analysts have made speculations ranging from signing a new quarterback to get them through their next game against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Oct. 2 to putting in wide receiver Julian Edelman, who played QB in high school, under center. If winning a game with Edelman at QB doesn’t scream “Patriots,” then I don’t know what does.

It seems that neither of those options have any actual legitimacy. The Patriots say they’re only going to sign another quarterback as a “last resort,” leading experts to believe that their efforts are being focused on ensuring that Garoppolo, Brissett or both are ready to go against the Bills. This seems to be the case—but only time will tell.

The only thing that seems to be for certain is that Brady will be on a mission week five, and the whole league should keep their heads up. The only thing more dangerous than the Patriots is the Patriots with Brady, and he’s got something to prove.

Team USA delivers disappointment at Hockey World Cup

A part of a two-article series, read the first piece here. The United States men’s hockey team was disappointing, to say the least, at the 2016 Hockey World Cup. There is no getting around that.

On the way to going 0-3, the team got shut out by a weaker Team Europe, worked up and down the ice by Team Canada and—to top it all off—lost to the Czech Republic. Not a great look for American hockey. But here’s the thing—America will be just fine. This isn’t nearly as bad as it looks, and U.S. hockey is trending upward.

One huge damper on Team USA was the creation of Team North America, consisting of the best American and Canadian players under the age of 23. Throughout the tournament, they had been the most fun to watch and the U.S. could have benefited from some of those guys. They’re fast and creative with the puck, which is the exact area where Team USA lacked.

Many of these players, like Buffalo Sabres’ center Jack Eichel and Toronto Maple Leafs’ center Auston Matthews, will be on Team USA when they are of age, without a doubt. The young Americans on Team North America were electric, and that’s the future of the game. Pair those guys with veterans and pure skill players like Chicago Blackhawks’ right wing Patrick Kane and the U.S. will be in good shape.

That’s not to say that our roster absolutely shouldn’t have put up better numbers, but the scores of the games don’t necessarily reflect how close the games were. The U.S. heavily outshot Team Europe. Furthermore, Team Canada—widely known as the greatest team in the world—had the advantage of playing in front of their home crowd. Moreover, the Czech Republic game was played after the U.S. was mathematically out, so the effort may not have been there—which, admittedly, isn’t a great excuse.

Regardless, U.S. hockey is on the rise. The men are changing the game and the whole world is closing the gap on Canada. American coaches and pros are working every day to develop the game and to make it more accessible, which is a foolproof method of improving the sport.

Chicago Cubs 2016 season their best in a century

It has been 107 seasons since the last time that the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Let that number sink in. 107. Their last championship came in 1908. Since their last championship, 12 Amendments have been added to the Constitution. The Titanic was built, set sail, crashed, was discovered and a motion picture was made about it. Five states have been added to the Union, and Haley’s comet passed earth—twice.

Since 1908, the Cubs have been lovable losers. Some Chicago fans blame the curse of the goat, some say that it’s destiny and that they’re never meant to win again. Most baseball analysts will tell you that they simply weren’t that good.

Chicago loves to love the Cubs. They’ve been Chicago’s team for decades. Even their mascot, Clark the Cub, is lovable. The only thing that isn’t lovable about the Cubs is that they’ve essentially been losers for the past century. But that’s all beginning to change.

The Cubs are an absolute force of nature this year. They’re solid at every single position, with National League Most Valuable Players candidates as well as Cy Young candidates. They’re the best team in baseball—and it’s not even close.

With the Arizona Cardinals loss to the San Francisco Giants, the Cubs were the first team to clinch a playoff spot. Their run differential is impressive, with an incredible +227. They’re not just beating teams—they’re embarrassing them.

But, as we all know, baseball is a weird sport. It’s a sport where players even admit that they’d rather be lucky than good. It’s a season-long 162-game chess match. Winning a World Series, it seems, takes an aspect of magic. It takes equal parts luck and skill. In baseball, it’s not about how good your best player is, it’s about how bad your worst is.

This is the reason that this may be the year of the Cubs. They have the superstitious, magical aspect that it takes to win a championship in this sport. For example, the Cub’s bullpen plays a pretty dangerous game of chicken every single inning. When a foul ball comes hurling toward the dugout, all the pitchers that are not in the game see who can sit still and not flinch from the ball the longest, which has resulted in a couple bruises.

But it can be hilarious. It’s fun to watch, it brings the players together and it’s a perfect example of the X-factor it takes to win. It seems as though the Cubs have just that. Who wouldn’t want to see the most loveable losers in all of sports actually win? Hopefully 2016 is the year the Cubs’ curse is broken.

CM Punk: from WWE to UFC

For years, the name CM Punk brought to mind one of the biggest stars that World Wrestling Entertainment has ever seen. In his 15-year career, CM Punk is a seven-time world champion, three-time WWE Heavyweight champion and one-time World Tag-Team Champion, in addition to being recognized as having the sixth longest reign as WWE champion at 434 days. In the world of professional wrestling, CM Punk is a star. He wanted to see if his skills in the ring translated to the octagon, however, for his first fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday Sept. 10.

Punk was set to fight Mickey Gall at the UFC 203, and as is the case with many of these fights, there was a lot of hype and trash talk for what amounted to be a pretty uneventful evening in the octagon.

Prior to the fight, Gall made it clear that several other UFC fighters expressed to him that they wanted him to ‘win decisively.’ Gall said he wanted to prove that WWE fighters can’t just waltz into the octagon expecting to have any success—he even publicly told TMZ that he was going to beat up CM Punk violently in the fight. And as it turns out, he did just that.

The statistics sheet for the fight was something that Punk cannot even come close to comparing to his WWE records. Gall landed 20 significant strikes compared to Punk’s zero. Gall only needed one takedown to submit Punk with a rear naked choke, just two minutes and 14 seconds into the first round. Two years of training and tons of drama all led up to just over two minutes of a very lopsided fight. In mixed martial arts, fans don’t always get what they pay for.

Despite this rather embarrassing loss, Punk says he will be back in the octagon, regardless of UFC President Dana White’s comment that Punk “probably shouldn’t have his next fight in the UFC.”

But can you really blame Punk for wanting to give it another try? In the two minutes and 14 seconds that Punk spent in the octagon with Gall, Punk made $500,000. That’s roughly $4,000 per second. You can’t exactly blame him for wanting to come back—no matter how bad he lost.

Punk was not the first WWE star to give the octagon a try. Fellow WWE star Brock Lesnar tried to convert his professional wrestling skills into the octagon and became the UFC heavyweight champion in 2011. Recently, however, Lesnar allegedly tested positive for anti-estrogen—a banned substance—after his most recent fight at UFC 200.

Perhaps a WWE star will have the ability to have a successful UFC career in the future, but until that day comes it seems that the skills required in the world of WWE don’t exactly translate to the octagon.

Women’s soccer kicks off with strong start

The Geneseo women’s soccer team is looking to follow up their impressive run in the 2015 season. This will be a tough task, though, considering they went a respectable 11-5-1, with only three in-conference losses all year. The Knights had a very exciting preseason, taking a trip to Brazil in early June to travel and play against some heavy competition in one of the world’s biggest soccer countries. This preseason trip not only let the women see some exciting competition, but it also brought the team together and got the freshmen acclimated with the team. Chemistry is what separates the good teams from the great ones, and trips like this create that chemistry.

“The freshmen are adjusting fine. There’s nine seniors and nine freshmen, so we’re all going out of our way to make them feel as comfortable as possible,” senior back Patricia Galan said.

Before kicking off their season in the Flower City Classic at the University of Rochester on Friday Sept. 2, the women worked to up their game throughout their preseason—without injuries.

“We worked hard, we played hard and we stretched a lot, which was huge for us,” Galan said. “Avoiding injuries will give us our best chance to win late in the season.”

In their 2016 season opener, the Knights tied the game against Rochester. This game proved to be a great way to shake the dust off and see what some of the rookies have to offer. Ultimately, it was junior forward Audrey Reid who scored the goal within the fourth minute.

To follow their game against the University of Rochester, the women were able to take down Union College in their second game of the Flower City Classic tournament. Geneseo beat Union by a score of 3-0—all scored by seniors—which included the work of forward Erin O’Connor, midfielder Emily Green and midfielder Laurie Knapp.

This tournament was a great way to set the tone for the season. It gave the coaching staff and team veterans an idea of what exactly they’ll be working with for the upcoming regular season.

“We expect to win SUNYACs, at least,” Galan said. “And the goal is to make it to the NCAA Tournament this year, which is really exciting.”

The women’s home opener is on Thursday Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. on the new turf. They will be taking on Nazareth College, a team that had their number last year, beating them toward the beginning of the season by a score of 3-0.

The Knights are definitely looking to put last year’s loss behind them, especially since their first season game is at home. Other notable upcoming games this season include an in-conference with rivals Buffalo State, SUNY Fredonia and SUNY Cortland.

With the tremendous senior leadership and an eager class of freshmen looking to make their mark, the Geneseo women’s soccer team’s 2016 season is one that certainly has potential to be both successful and memorable.