Entries Tagged 'Sports' ↓

To the surprise of virtually no one, Ohio State University quarterback Troy Smith was the runaway winner of the 2006 Heisman Trophy, honoring college football’s best player, awarded at a ceremony in New York Saturday night.

Smith received 801 first-place votes and won the Heisman by 1,662 points — both the second-best marks in the 71-year history of the award.

Arkansas running back Darren McFadden (878) finished second, Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn (782) was third and West Virginia running back Steve Slaton (214) was fourth.

Only O.J. Simpson’s 1,750-point victory in 1968 was more lopsided than Smith’s.

The 22-year-old Smith is the sixth player from Ohio State to win the Heisman and first since tailback Eddie George in 1995. And it’s the school’s seventh Heisman — Archie Griffin won two in 1974-75 — tying Notre Dame and Southern California for the most.

Meanwhile, Miami HEAT guard Dwyane Wade has been chosen as the 2006 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, for symbolizing in character and performance the ideals of sportsmanship. Wade, who captured the 2006 NBA Finals MVP after averaging 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.67 steals in the six-game series against the Dallas Mavericks, helped the Miami HEAT earn their first NBA Championship.

The Sportsman of the Year issue hit newsstands last Wednesday, December 6. Wade will receive the award in New York this Thursday night, December 14.

I took a trip across the Hudson to Giants Stadium in New Jersey Saturday, to see the New York Urban League’s Whitney M. Young Classic, the annual college football game between two historically Black colleges.

I don’t know how many years this game has been a regular fall event in the New York area, but it has been at least since I was a kid (and that was ages ago). It used to be played at Yankee Stadium between Grambling State University and Morgan State University, but years ago other schools started getting involved. The location moved to Giants Stadium when George Steinbrenner stopped allowing football to be played on his baseball field while the Yankees were still in playoff contention.

This year, like last, Hampton University from Virginia faced the Morgan State squad out of Baltimore. I don’t know how many alumni the schools have in this area but there was a significant turnout, not all of who came to see the game. For the uninitiated, a Black college football game is really an excuse to tailgate in the parking lot before and after the game, and a chance to see a “battle of the bands.”

A friend of mine invited me to attend this event. The company he works for has a luxury box at the stadium, so we saw the game the way the high rollers do. But before the game we caught up with his family and their tailgate party out in the lot. By comparison, theirs was a very modest affair. Just a simple grill and some lounge chairs. Some of the other folks out in the parking lot were taking no prisoners.

Across from us were some folks with their entire setup under a large, screened-in canopy. In another direction was a guy with two large kettle shaped barbecue pits. Others had packed their supplies in U-haul trailers, pickups, SUV’s and RVs. And there were several places where guys had brought their dj equipment and set up large turntables and humongous speakers (you know Black folks). But the funniest sight, as we were driving around looking for his family, was of two brothas sitting in huge living room style recliners. Those little fold-up lounge chairs weren’t good enough apparently. Big-ass La-Z-Boy loungers. Lawd geezus!

Through most of the first half the stadium was barely full (it never filled up completely), but as it got closer to halftime, people started drifting in from the tailgate parties.

The battle of the bands was actually between three bands. Hampton, Morgan State and a local group of middle and high school students, the Brooklyn Steppers. Just as they did in the football game, Hampton appeared to be the winner, but the Brooklyn Steppers took second in my opinion, with Morgan State a polite third. They gave a pedestrian performance in this reviewer’s opinion.

After the game—Hampton won easily, 26-7—their band put on a show in the parking lot on the way from the stadium to their bus. It must be wonderful to be that young and full of energy because those kids worked their butts off all day, playing before the game, during the game, at halftime and then afterwards.

I’ve posted a few pictures here.

The sports world has been buzzing this week with further news of illegal substance use by celebrated athletes.

Saturday the results of a second drug test on 2006 Tour de France champion Floyd Landis confirmed the elevated levels of testosterone discovered in an earlier post-race test. Landis has been fired by his racing team and may be stripped of his title, in a sport that has a long history of allegations of performance enhancing drug use.

This comes almost a week after the revelation by American sprinter Justin Gatlin that he too had tested positive for testosterone use, banned by the international track federation as a possible performance booster, following a race in April. If this is confirmed he could face a lifetime ban from track and field competition. Gatlin is a co-holder of the World Record in the 100 meters.

Major league baseball has kept up its connection to drug scandal news. On the heels of last weekend’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony, speculation has arisen over next year’s eligible candidates, who include former St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGuire. McGuire ended his career under a cloud of suspicion over alleged steroid use. Those rumors were exacerbated by his unwillingness to comment openly during Senate hearings on steroid use in sports earlier this year.

All of this while baseball tries to figure out what to do about current home run king Barry Bonds, who while unproven as an illegal substance user, has been the subject of numerous investigations.

The list of alleged or confirmed banned substance users in sports goes on and on: Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Lance Armstrong, Ben Johnson, to name a few. But for as long as we have been discussing this issue, and sports leagues and governing bodies have imposed rules, regulations and sanctions, the problem has continued. Those who have tried to bend the rules have grown more clever in their attempts to mask their substance use. So why does the problem persist?

As much as I am no fan of drug use, I also loathe hypocrisy and that issue rears its ugly head all over this problem.

First, let’s be clear. We are not talking about “street” drugs. These athletes are not accused of using crack, heroin, marijuana or any of the other types of narcotics that are illegal under state or federal law. Most of the substances that sports leagues ban are otherwise legal drugs. You or I could get a doctor to prescribe many of them if they were deemed necessary. It is the fact that they might otherwise boost an already good athlete’s ability to perform above their competition, and thus gain an unfair advantage, that makes them “illegal” under sports rules.

Second, over-the-counter, prescription drug abuse is a growing national problem, not just among athletes, but among the rest of us. The pharmaceutical industry has thoroughly convinced us the solution to our problems can be found at the drug store. Can’t sleep? Take a sleeping pill. Need to stay up all night? Pop an energy pill. Want to lose weight fast without having to go to a gym? Take a diet pill. Every man over 40 who dreams of having the sex drive he had at 20, knows the holy trinity of Viagra, Levitra and Cialis. Talk about your performance enhancing drugs!

In fact watch about a half hour of television in the evening and you will see commercials for a wide variety of “solutions”: Lipitor, Nexium, Rogaine, Zyrtec, are some of the common advertisers. My doctor has told me he has no shortage of patients who self-diagnose through these television ads and want him to prescribe medications. These commercials almost always include the tag line, “Ask your doctor about (insert name of the drug).”

Is it any wonder then athletes also seek solutions to their competitive problems through drugs? They have been raised in the same environment as everyone else. They are receiving the same subliminal messages we all are. To the argument that athletes are dependent on their bodies and should not risk their health in this manner, well yes, but they also have a narrow window within which to earn a living off that body. Most sports stars are considered over the hill by age 30 and need to get as much mileage as they can in just a few years before opportunities diminish. That’s not an excuse to use performance enhancers, but the short-term gains may seem to far outweigh the long-term health considerations.

To my mind, appealing to people from a health standpoint is the only way to really address it adequately. Americans love the militaristic jingoism of a “War on
Drugs” just like the “War on Terrorism” or the “War on Crime” but history shows we’ve lost or are losing all of those wars.

We also love to point the figure of blame at “those people.” In this case it’s the sports community, but in other instances it has been inner city (read: Black) communities, people in show business, liberals, hippies, or anybody else we want to make the scapegoat. Some of the biggest critics have themselves been the biggest hypocrites and prescription drug abusers.

But in reality, it is all of us. America is a nation of drug users and unless we recognize that very simple and basic fact, we will never really begin to deal with the problem.

Instead of punitive laws or rules, we need to be teaching people about the real long-term negative health repercussions of drug dependence and providing effective drug treatment programs to help those who are addicted, whether to prescription or street drugs. We need to begin at an early age teaching people the value of proper diet, exercise and rest as a way to a healthier lifestyle. Cracking the whip, getting tough with offenders and imposing new sanctions, has never worked and will only result in another generation of people who don’t understand the consequence of their actions but who will work diligently to circumvent the rules.

This weekend, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York will hold the induction ceremony for the class of 2006 hall of fame honorees, including 17 former players and officials from the Negro Leagues. We first reported on this back in February because of a personal involvement in the story.

Today’s New York Times sheds further light on the history of Blacks in baseball prior to Jackie Robinson breaking the Major League Baseball color barrier in 1947.

Before the summer is out it may be time to make a trip up there.

I’ve got a secret I haven’t shared with very many people. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, I guess. It’s part of who I am. It’s just that when I try to talk about it, I get strange looks from people who can’t understand how I could possibly be one of them. But silence = death and I can be silent no more. It’s time to come out of the closet.

I’m a frustrated outdoorsman. Even though I haven’t had a chance to do much of it in recent years, I’m into camping, fishing, and I have a burning desire to try hunting. I have been skydiving and don’t rule out other outdoor activities either. There, I’ve said it.

I love peace and quiet, the serenity of being surrounded by trees, smelling fresh air and feeling dirt under my feet. When you live in the most urban of urban jungles, New York, getting in touch with nature means sunning yourself in Central Park. Honey, that ain’t nature.

No, I’m talking about going somewhere where your cellphone won’t get a signal. Where there aren’t one hundred thousand other people with the same idea. Some place where all you hear are the sounds of birds and insects, and at night the only light comes from the moon, if the sky is clear.

I’m an upstate New Yorker by birth, and even though I grew up in a small city, we were close enough to wilderness to go camping in the summer as kids. Dad took us fishing in lakes and streams and when I got older, we also went deep-sea fishing for blues off Long Island Sound. That was some of the most fun I’ve ever had.

From time to time I’ve asked my brothers if they were interested in going fishing and maybe getting their kids involved, you know, kinda trying to pass along the experiences we had with our Dad. But to date nothing has ever happened.

Something Keith wrote a few weeks ago rekindled my thinking on this topic. In high school, I was on the football and track teams and while I won’t pretend I was a great athlete, playing sports had me in the best physical condition of my life. I now get to the gym several times a week and while I’m in great shape for my age, frankly I’m bored by the workouts. In high school just the regular routine of practice and competition kept me in shape. It was a workout for a specific purpose. What I need, and want now, is a focus to my physical activities.

New York City offers a lot of diversions, but they’re all “city” things; theatre, restaurants, museums, shopping, etc. All things I enjoy, but I’m also drawn to less common activities and unafraid to be the odd man out. Growing up, I was the lone Black kid who knew anything about ice hockey.

Now I find myself fascinated by ESPN Outdoors and the hunting shows on OLN. I’m on the mailing lists for several catalogs. I read Field and Stream and get emails from bike manufacturers. While some people dream of exotic trips to Paris or the next Black Pride event, my fantasy vacation involves bowhunting for whitetail or sitting in a marsh awaiting a flock of southern migrating geese or maybe getting a backpack and a bike and traveling across country.

But any time you come out, you’re left wondering if you’re all alone, and this is no exception. I’ve been told my whole life Black people aren’t supposed to do such and such (usually by other Black people), and certainly Black gay men don’t do physical or athletic things (not unless we’re dancing or naked). Thinking outside boxes of our own creation is scary for some. Thus finding community around my interests remains a challenge.