EGHS Sports Literature Weekly Articles

Tuesdays With Kirstin

A scattered rainbow of emotions was illustrated over the past week or so in sports. However, other than the random uprises and happenings, its been pretty uneventful lately. We’ve got a ways to go in football till February when the superbowl concludes the season. Teams are on their final legs. Basketball is just beginning along with hockey. Golf is on and off depending on the weather. These are the main sports that get media attention right now.

For some, death has faced us. Mike "Mad Dog" Bell, a former professional wrestler was found dead at the age of thirty-seven. The documentary: “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” illustrated his struggle with substance abuse. Coincidentally he died at a Rehabilitation Center. Justin Levels, a mixed martial arts fighter and his wife Sarah McLean-Levens were found shot to death in their Laguna Niguel condominium in California. It couldn’t be distinguished as to whether it was a murder or a suicide. Sammy Baugh, a quarterback for the Redskins died at age 94 on Wednesday. He made it to the Hall of Fame, leading the league in passing, punting, scoring and interceptions from the beginning of the NFL.

Matt Cassel, starting quarterback for the Patriots has been coping with the death of his father. Despite this misfortune, he never considered the idea of missing the Patriots game six days after his father's death. He was driven by his father to keep playing and pushing forward. As a result of this effort, the Pats were led to a decisive win against Oakland Raiders. The score was 49-26. Cassel had a career high of four touchdown passes even though he had taken time off from practice last week to be with his family. Now he is rated sixth-rated quarterback in the AFC. Cassel sends an important message to the world about life and death saying, "I've overcome a lot of adversity and I think it's taught me to keep pushing forward, and keep moving on, and don't listen to people who are negative and work against you," He also said, "Just continue to surround yourself with people that are positive and can help you and things will turn around for you."

There has been a good amount of outbursts for varying reason among athletes and coaches. John Daly hit a wide shot on his ninth hole causing him to walk in to some forest for his next shot. Brad Clegg tried to take a picture in close proximity and Daly smashed the spectator's camera into a tree. He will probably be disqualified for this.

Mississippi Coach Kennedy was charged with assault after punching a cab driver and calling him names such as “Osama Bin Ladin”. Kennedy denies everything in court.
Frank Walker of the Baltimore Ravens was accused of spitting on Mitch Berger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Frank denies it. This scenario seems to happen a lot in football. But Why? I don’t understand why people act so immature.

Coach Zorn of the Redskins recently had an outburst saying he was the worst coach in America at a weekly team meeting. Team members like Pete Kendall disagreed with Coach Zorn, saying he was not the worst coach. Kendall also said that it was his first year coaching and that there is a lot of responsibility and despite the bumps in the road teams will become stronger.

Washington Red Skins middle linebacker London Fletcher spoke out to the public recently to defend his right to be in the Hall of Fame. Fletcher says, "I don't know if it was because I wasn't a first-round draft pick, I don't do some kind of dance when I make a 10-yard tackle, I don't go out and get arrested," He continued, "I believe in playing the game the way it's supposed to be played. You line up each and every week, each and every play, and you go out and get the job done. You look at my body of work and I've done that for 11 years, but because I'm not going out causing a lot of controversy, holding a private meeting with the coordinator saying this, this and this, causing a lot of strife on my team, I don't garner a lot of attention." Fletcher is the leading tackler in the NFL for this decade, never missing a game in his entire career. He is also considered to be the MVP for the Redskins as well. And he’s been elected eight times. So why don’t they elect him one of the two middle linebackers that make the Hall of Fame?

This week in sports shows that you never really know how things are going to turn out whether you are involved in the game or not. Whatever hand we are dealt, we must stay postive and surround ourselves with others who share this outlook.