Sports Then and Now

Jim Tressel and Terrelle Pryor are just among the latest to bring scandal to college athletics.

As college football scandals proliferate and deepen, this sports fan is beginning to feel as if we’re hitting bottom. It’s time to separate college athletics from professional sports.

My solution is simple. College athletics should be college athletics. No player should represent a school in any sport, if that player would not have been academically eligible to attend the school for which s/he plays.

Give athletic scholarships to all those who qualify both academically and athletically, and give them four year scholarships contingent on maintaining academic eligibility.

According to my proposal, any athlete wishing to play for a particular school would have to go through the regular admission process first. Only after being accepted on academic criteria, would an athlete then be eligible to compete for an athletic scholarship.

Such a policy would actually increase opportunities for athletes who are truly college material to play at the intercollegiate level, and to obtain scholarships to attend the best schools at which they can qualify. It would also eliminate the potential for abuse, since recruiting would be limited to athletes who are academically eligible, and since the athletic department would not have any influence over the admission process.

It is true that under this system the schools with the best athletic programs might be the schools with the lowest academic standards, but so be it.
Read the rest of this entry →

A two-team race between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets for most of the last decade, the AFC East may be more competitive in 2011. Both Buffalo and Miami have key youngsters and new veteran stars to level the playing field in the division.

After being signed by the Bills late last season, linebacker Shawne Merriman will look to make an impact on Buffalo's defense in 2011.

Since 2001, New England has eight division titles and is 3-1 in Super Bowls. The Jets have been the runner-up in the AFC each of the last two seasons. In fact, the division has been won by either the Patriots or Jets every year since 2001 except for 2008 when Miami won it.

The Bills will look to linebacker Shawne Merriman who they acquired off waivers last November as well as Alabama rookie defensive tackle Marcell Dareus to bolster their defense. A first-round pick in 2005 when he was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, Merriman has been slowed by injuries in recent years. Dareus, the Defensive Most Valuable Player of the 2010 Citi BCS National Championship game win over Texas, is projected to start. Buffalo finished tied for 27^th in the league in 2010 with just 27 sacks.

Merriman is looking to be of the same impact that he was from 2005 through ‘07 when he logged 39.5 of his 43 career sacks.

Reggie Bush brings his quickness, agility, and speed to the Dolphins' new-look rushing attack in 2011.

The Dolphins sport new running backs after signing veterans Reggie Bush and Larry Johnson. Bush is a gamebreaker with his speed and agility running and receiving. Johnson adds toughness.

Gridiron Grunts is fun and easy to use!

In this age of social media, fans are getting up close and personal with their favorite celebrities and athletes. We all know about Twitter and Facebook, but now NFL fans have their own social media medium. It’s called Gridiron Grunts.

You may ask, what is a grunt? A Grunt is an audio message that lasts 0-45 seconds. Instead of texting or calling your friends, you can send them an audio “grunt” from your smartphone (IPHONE and Android are now available!)

Sounds cool huh?

I was able to chat with co-founders Jeb B. Terry Jr and Ryan Nece, former NFL players and teammates during their time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, about their social medium application that connects you with your friends and favorite NFL personalities like Wes Welker, Philip Rivers and Chris Johnson.

ST&N: How was Gridiron Grunts born?

Gridiron Grunts: GRIDIRON GRUNTS™ started as a conversation over dinner. A colleague of mine and I were talking about business and football and we landed on the idea of selling QB cadences as ringtones. We believed that fans would like to hear their favorite QB saying: “Blue 80, Blue 80, Set Hut, Hut, Hut”, and other variations of course.

The GRIDIRON GRUNTS™ platform transformed from a ringtone marketplace into a fan engagement and sports media network allowing athletes to create and control their own media. Our goal is to help athletes manage their brand and content while connecting with their fans. GRUNTS™ accomplishes that by distributing authentic content without the filter of traditional media, straight from the source in real time. The athletes don’t have to worry about being misquoted or misinterpreted; their content is all on GRIDIRON GRUNTS™ for everyone to listen to.

The network also allows all users to GRUNT back and forth for free. It’s as if you are sending a voice memo or voice text to one or all of your friends at once.

ST&N: Did you both come up with concept while you played together in Tampa?

GG: No, the concept was thought of after we played. I was in the middle of getting my MBA at UNC Kenan Flagler’s business school when we started the business. Ryan and I have been great friends since playing together and we always bounce business ideas off of one another. I approached Ryan to get his thoughts and advice after developing the initial idea. He obviously liked the idea and joined Gridiron Ventures, LLC to help refine and build the business. Our Chief Creative Officer, Joel Cave, also has been involved from the beginning and is an integral part of our company.

ST&N: How did you get all these NFL players involved?

GG: We got the current roster involved by tapping our own personal networks of both players and agents. We also went to every major NFL event and spoke with anyone that would listen. We have had success attracting athletes because it is a no risk proposition for them. We provide them with the means to communicate directly to their fans in an easy and unique way. All an athlete has to do is speak into his phone and press submit. His GRUNT is then pushed to every one of his subscribers immediately. This is an opportunity for players to conduct their own postgame interviews on their own time.

Read the rest of this entry →

With Practically Every Sport Going On, This Season Is The Best In Sports.

Sports is in it’s grand stage. There’s only 26 games left in the Regular Season for Major League Baseball, the NFL Preseason is finally coming to an end, College Football is ready to renew rivalries and start traditions, and even the pride and passion of High School Football is about to be unleashed. What can get better than this? That’s right, nothing.

We’ll start with Major League Baseball. Normal, regular fans only get excited when September comes. Granted, Opening Day is widely anticipated, but the excitement dies down after the first few weeks. Once the Calender turns to the 9th month, however, is when the games begin. Division Races are at full stride, which means players are giving it their all to push their team just a little bit further. For the Philadelphia Phillies, the fans, know their team is the best. They always believe that. Now is the time, for the fans belief, and the team’s skill, to collide and meet face to face. Questions pop up everyday. Can the Phillies hold off the excitement and win it all? Can Milwaukee finish off the NL Central? Who will win the AL East? Will the Defending Champs be left out of the postseason? It all comes down to these 26 games. Then, it matters most.

Preseason, Spring Training, Spring Practice. Sorry if I just put you to sleep. Do the leagues realize, that no one cares about these games?! Sure, it helps make cuts and gets everyone in the groove of things, but for the fans? It’s torture. Don’t worry, because the Preseason saga is finally coming to an end. I can’t believe how much excitement this 2011 NFL Season brings after the lockout. What’s better than 16 hard fought games by your favorite team? A Super Bowl Ring. That’s the goal of every single team out there. The only problem is, there’s 31 teams in their way.

College Football, is my favorite sport. The players aren’t in it for money, (excluding the violators) their in it 100% for winning, and for their school. It’s not just 32 teams in it for the title, it’s more than a hundred! Granted, it’s mathematically impossible for some teams to not win it all, but the fight is still there, and that’s what I love about the game. Rivalries, Traditions. Michigan vs. Ohio State. Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, Florida vs. Florida State, etc. Every game matters most, and the College Football season easily adds to the excitement this fall. Read the rest of this entry →

Just because Andrew Luck is the best player in college football doesn't mean he will win the Heisman Trophy.

Excitement is high as the kickoff to the 2011 college football season is finally upon us. After all the off-the-field scandals of the past several months, it will be nice to finally be able to talk about action happening on the playing field.

Since many with far greater insight and knowledge of college football than I have spent the last several months analyzing all BCS teams and ranking them for the upcoming season, I don’t see the need to just regurgitate information you can find elsewhere, but I do want to kickoff the 2011 season by looking ahead and making five “bold” predictions for some of the things I anticipate will happen in 2011.

Prediction 1: A team from the SEC will not win the BCS Championship

Considering that a team from the SEC has claimed each of the last five BCS championships I guess you can say that I am starting out with a pretty bold prediction right out of the gate.

Don’t get me wrong, the SEC will continue to be the epicenter of college football, but given the deficiencies in each of the top programs, it is difficult to believe that any one team can withstand the brutal conference schedule to come out unscathed. It is certainly possible that a one loss SEC team could reach the BCS title game, but that will only happen if other teams across the country falter. But given the parity in the SEC, I think it will be a challenge for any team to even complete the season with just one loss in this tough conference. Read the rest of this entry →

The first Chicago College All-Star Game was played on August 31, 1934.

It was 77 years ago today that nearly 80,000 people packed Soldier Field for the first game of what would become a popular forty year series of football games pitting the best of the recent college graduates against the defending NFL Champions.

The brainchild of Chicago Tribune Sports Editor Arch Ward, the first game was played on August 31, 1934 and though the game ended in a 0-0 tie, it set the stage for an annual exhibition that eventually drew more than 100,000 fans.

Many of the greatest players in college and NFL history were part of the series over the years and the game wasn’t always a walk-in-the-park for the NFL Champions against the young NFL rookies. In fact, two of the first three games in the series ended in a tie and in 1937 Sammy Baugh led the College All-Stars to their first victory in the series.

The game was played annually through 1976 when declining crowds and the reluctance of coaches to lose their star rookies for the beginning of training camp led to the end of the series.

However, what still remains is a legacy of classic games and memories of a time when NFL exhibition games did have value and meaning and newcomers could make an immediate impression against the best stars in the league.

For more memories from the Chicago College All-Star Games, check out this in depth article that was originally written for Sports Then and Now in 2009.