Isn't it ironic?

As you know from my previous blogs, I am from Illinois but currently attend Florida State University. If you've been following NCAA football at all this year you would know that the Florida State Seminoles will be playing in the Orange Bowl on January 1st in Miami. Who is their opponent you might ask? A little school from the MAC division that is known as Northern Illinois. Where I was born and raised in Illinois is fairly close to the campus of NIU and I can't tell you how many times I have made the trip to spent weekends with friends who currently attend this University. Since I know a lot of friends who go to Northern Illinois and the campus is only a short drive from my hometown, Its safe to say that I have probably been on the NIU campus 40 plus times in my short lifetime. Not only do many of my close friends attend NIU but my older brother does as well.
Since this is probably the only time these teams might meet while i'm attending FSU and my friends and brother are attending NIU I kind of find it ironic that these two teams would be meeting up to play for a bowl game this January. I hope the Seminoles can pull off this win over these Huskies so I can have bragging rights over all my friends back home and with my brother as well. If I didn't attend FSU I might have been at NIU as we speak right now, so I hope FSU can win this game to just add to my confidence that I made the right choice in choosing this school over NIU. Go Noles!

On to the next one...

As football season starts to wind down to an end, it is a bittersweet feeling that I get because I know that there won't be any exciting football games to go to every weekend, but that means that basketball season is underway as well. As I have mentioned throughout my blogs, I am a huge sports fan and love to play and watch just about anything you can compete in. Basketball is always an exciting time of year for me because it brings back so many high school memories of when I use to play. Now that I am a spectator from the stands, it still feels good to look out onto the court and relive all the memories I made in the past years.
The Florida State Seminoles had a pretty good season in basketball last year winning the Atlantic Coast Conference with some huge wins over the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils. The successful play of last season hasn't really carried over to this season though. The Seminoles lost their first game of the season to an unranked and less athletic South Alabama team. The Noles did lose a lot of key players from last season though and do have many new faces on the team this year. These new players are young and inexperienced and I think that this has something to do with the sudden downfall so far this season. The Seminoles did however go on to win their holiday tournament right before thanksgiving break and hopefully that type of energy they use to win that tournament will carry them throughout the season. Even though this young Seminole team might not be too hot this year, with this kind of youth and athleticism, this team can only grow for the next couple years to come. Go Noles!

Notre Dame

If you follow college football then you should be aware of the successful year that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are having. As I mentioned earlier in my previous blog, I have never been a fan of ND and have friends attending the school currently that keep on making sure that I know about their current success in this years BCS standings. Notre Dame finished the regular season undefeated and ranked number one in the nation and will get the chance to play either Alabama or Georgia for a shot at the National Title.
Even though I am not happy that Notre Dame has been successful this year, I am glad to see that they will have to play a tough SEC team in order to win the National Title. I keep telling my friends who attend ND that they haven't been tested at all this season with their schedule strength and I believe that they will have a tough time with who ever they end up playing in the National Title game. My friends think that they will have no trouble with any of these teams but I am confident that the SEC will walk away with the title and it might be a blood bath for the ND football team. I am looking forward to this game and hope that my predictions are correct so I can rub it in my friends' faces like they've been doing about how well ND has done this season. With this being said...Roll Tide and Go Dogs! 

FSU vs. UF

Over this thanksgiving break there was some pretty big sports rivalries that occurred in college football and some might say there was none bigger than the Florida State Seminoles vs The Florida Gators. This is my first year at FSU and I've always wanted to be a part of a big rivalry like this one, but I never imaged it would be this big of a deal. My dad came in this weekend to attend the game as well, because he wanted to experience the hostel environment like the one that occurred on Saturday in Tallahassee.
As I woke up early that Saturday morning to get ready to tailgate, I could already tell how great of an experience this game was going to be by the sounds of people getting loud and rowdy at the break of dawn. There streets were filled with Seminole and Gators fans as you walked around town. As we piled in the the stadium to watch our favorite teams compete, I knew it was going to be one of the most exciting games I've ever been apart of and been able to experience. As you probably know now, the Gators did end up winning the game, but it was a very intense and exciting game as the lead changed in the third quarter and the Seminoles fans felt that they were going to be able to close out the game as victors. Even though the outcome of this game was not what I was hoping for, it still was a very exciting experience to be apart of a rivalry this intense, and I look forward to beating the Gators next year...Go Noles!

thanksgiving feast

What's one thing that everyone looks forward to during the thanksgiving holiday besides being with their family? All that food! I've been an athlete my whole life and burn a lot of calories during the week so I can put down a good amount of food without gaining too much weight. I love that I am able to eat good tasting food without having to worry about gaining weight because I know I would burn it off in a day or two, so I was really looking forward to a good thanksgiving feast this break. The night before thanksgiving dinner I went out to dinner with my dad and step mom to a Japanese steak house. Sushi is one of my favorite types of food, so I had to get at least one sushi roll with my meal.
The meal was a great success and tasted amazing, but my thoughts were still set on that big thanksgiving dinner that was still to come the next day. As we proceeded to leave the restaurant I began to feel a pain in my stomach. As we drove home the pains began to grow bigger and stronger by each passing minute. By the time we pulled into our driveway, my body felt like it was about to explode. Yup, you guessed it! Food poisoning  just my luck. As I spent the rest of the night in the bathroom and laying in my bed I couldn't help but think about all the great food that I might be missing out on due to this stomach flu.
The next morning I woke up feeling a little better, but I knew that there was no way that my stomach could handle a full course feast that I had been planning on eating since break started, and as dinner time came around it turned out that I was right. Even though I didn't get to enjoy as much food that I had planned on enjoying this break at least the my food poising passed quickly without me being seriously sick.

Professional Athletes paid too much?

Some people believe that Professional athletes in society today are overpaid for their contribution to the sport and some of them are overrated. I don't believe in this at all, I think most professional athletes are paid just the right amount of money. People who aren't professional athletes hear about how much these teams pay their players over the course of a few years and they think it's ridiculous.What these non-athletes don't realize is that these professional athletes won't be able to play the sport they love for very long before the sport starts to take a toll on their body and age and younger more athletic players catch up to them. These professional athletes are lucky if they are able to make it playing in the competitive world of sports for a decade, then their career is pretty much over. These athletes then have to change their whole career path that they've been working for their entire life, for some athletes the sport they play is the only thing they are really good at in life. Imagine if you worked your whole lifetime to get your dream job and then a couple of years later you are let go from this job and had to find a completely different career path, doesn't sound like fun does it? The money that these athletes make in their short career is most of the time the money that they will have to live on for their rest of their lives to support themselves and their family. When you take in account how short professional athletes' careers are, do you really think that they get paid too much?

Politics in the NFL

Whenever a professional football player does something to draw attention to them or their team either on or off the field, politics always step in and make sure that the image of the NFL is not criticized for the event that occurred. When a player is involved in some action that is not viewed as acceptable to society, the leaders of the NFL use politics to step in and make sure that everyone knows what actions will be done to assure that this player is punished and learns their lesson. The NFL tries to single on a specific player when situations like this occur because they don't want fans to stop following  or lose respect for the team that they love. The NFL wants to assure that they don't lose too many viewers and fans when an controversial event occurs and could potentially damage the reputation that the NFL has. As a fan of sports I've never really thought that the NFL could be punishing a player to save their reputation but now that I think about it more and more, and the amount of politics that play a role in sports, it actually makes perfect sense.

uNDefeated

I am currently following NCAA football and of course I've been rooting for the Florida State Seminoles, but I have also been keeping a close eye on the fighting Irish of Notre Dame. I'm from Illinois and I have a couple of friends who go to Notre Dame in South bend Indiana. These friends of mine are making it very clear that they are"uNDefeated" (as they like to use to ND symbol in the word) and that they believe that their school's team is better then mine.
Every week I've been cheering for the FSU Seminoles to win and hoping that the ND Fighting Irish would lose to one of the easy opponents that they've been playing all year. I've been unsuccessful with this wishful thinking lately but the Irish have been in some pretty close games that could have gone either way, but they somehow seem to manage to sneak away with a last minute win every time. I'm hoping that their luck runs out soon when they have to play USC as their schedule comes to an end because then I will be able to say that their team has the same amount of losses as mine (If FSU wins out the rest of the season).
Notre Dame is currently ranked number 3 in the BCS standings and Florida State is ranked 10th. A lot of sports analysts are saying that ND will not get a shot at the national title unless Kansas State (ranked 1st) or Oregon (ranked 2nd) lose a game. I was pretty excited when I heard this because I don't think that these two teams will lose any of the games they have left on their schedule, so even if ND goes undefeated they might not get a chance to play for the title. Hopefully Notre Dame loses to USC though, so they won't even be in the conversation of getting to play for the national title. I have my fingers crossed that they lose and go Noles!

What ever happeneed to...

What ever happened to letting your game speak for itself. It seems like all you see in professional sports these days are athletes celebrating and being cocky about a good game they had or a good play. I find myself always getting upset at athletes who need to do a celebration after a good tackle or when they knock down a 3-pointer in basketball. These players are celebrating what they are paid to do, you don't see police officers doing a celebration dance when they arrest a bad guy, that's because that is what is expected of them, it's they're job. I feel like these athletes need to act like they've made a good tackle before or knocked down a big shot instead of doing a celebration after every good play they make. It's one thing if the athlete has just made a game winning shot or scored a touchdown the end the game in overtime. Even if your team has just won the Superbowl, world series, or NBA playoffs, but I think professional athletes should actually act professional for once.

Klose

I found a picture of Kobe Bryant where there is a definition of a made up word Klose. This word is a play on the word close, but the C is switched with the letter K to stand for the K in Kobe's name. The definition is 1. To shut; conclude 2. to end games and demoralize opponents. This is on half of the page while on the other half Kobe is looking at his fingers as he counts how many championships he has won. I have always been a big fan of good players in whatever sport it comes to, but when that player shows signs of cockiness I start to lose all respect for them.
Another reason why I'm not a huge fan of this ad is because it shows younger athletes and children that look up to this professional as a role model that acting like you're better then others is okay. I know that I am still a kid myself, but when I see ads like this that I think might effect the way my child in the future is raised, I go into protective father mode and sometimes get frustrated at the media for allowing ads like this to be shown. Due to these reason's and build up frustration that I have towards the media and cocky professional athletes I believe that I am going to make a adbuster out of this picture of Kobe Bryant. I am not sure exactly what I am going to do yet, but I'm sure an idea will come to me soon.

#TheReturn

Kobe is known as one of the greatest basketball players to play the game and that is currently playing the game till this day, and if you have ever seen his Kobesystem commercial you could see how cocky of a player he really is. I love to watch Kobe play basketball just like any basketball fan because I like to see players do well at their particular sport, but I'm the type of player who lets my game speak for itself instead of me being cocky and trash talk. That's probably why I believe this Kobesystem commercial is absolutely terrible. It makes Kobe look like a totally selfish and stuck up player who is totally full of himself. This commercial is set up to be a success group that is there to see Kobe who they think can help them become more successful in life because Kobe has all the answers and is the most "successful" basketball player.

Like I mentioned earlier, I like my game to speak for itself and that's probably why I am a huge fan of Derrick Rose. Derrick is the most humble basketball player I think you would ever meet if you heard him in his interviews talking about his recent success in the NBA. I does help that I am also from Illinois, so that might explain why I am such a big fan of Rose. If you follow the NBA you would know that Derrick tore his ACL in a playoff game last season. Derrick was the raining MVP a season before he was injured and he was the main leader and captain on the Chicago Bulls team. With a player with the talent and leadership that Derrick has goes down, the whole state of Illinois was in shock, their best player might never recover from a injury like this. This commercial of Derrick Rose shows the whole town of Chicago just freeze as they watched Rose clench his knee in pain when he went down in the playoffs. Then the town starts to move again as they can hear the slamming of weights in the background as Rose is training harder then ever to make sure his knee is stronger than it was before the injury. This commercial is just inspirational, this athlete had everything he ever wanted in life and it was almost taken away from him with a terrible injury, but that's not going to stop Derrick from trying to come back stronger, faster , and better then ever. Watch out America, watch out for #TheReturn.

Unemployed

As I open my eyes to start the day I feel a sudden panic, and I can feel my heart stop as I glance at my alarm clock. My alarm didn't go off and I only have 20 minutes to get to work on time. I sprint into the bathroom as fast as I can and start to get ready for the day as quick as my body allows me to move. As I exit the bathroom and open my closet doors, it hits me that I forgot to do laundry last night and have nothing clean to wear to work. I reach into my hamper and throw on the clothes that I wore yesterday, hope no one notices. My mind and body are still moving at 100 miles per hour as I move into the kitchen to grab something to eat for the drive to work. As I swing the fridge door open and see that there is no food left I thought this day couldn't get any worse, I was wrong. I jumped in my car and tried to rush to work when I got stuck in traffic due to all the construction going on. To make matters worse I was cut off by a small sports car that almost caused me to hit the car in my next lane as I swerved.
Finally I make it to work, only 10 minutes late, and I can see a note on my desk that says my boss would like to talk to me. As I sat outside her office waiting for her to get out of a meeting I couldn't think why she would want to see me. Sure, I've been late to work a few times since I've started, but who hasn't. I've done everything I'm suppose to do and I've done it pretty well if you ask me. As I get called into her office she hands me an envelope as soon as I sit down and she says, "your services are no longer needed, you can clean out your desk and you're free to go". I sat there in shock for a moment before she said something to bring me back to reality, I asked her what the reason was, but she couldn't come up with a legitimate answer. That's when all hell broke loose, "I am having the worse day ever and now you're telling me I'm fired for no reason?!" is what I screamed at my ex-boss. I stood up to leave the office before I freaked out anymore but I did manage to flip over her coffee table and chairs before I walked out. I walked over to my desk and started to clean out my stuff but then I realized that I didn't even want this stuff to begin with, so I started throwing all my supplies all over the office at the people that I disliked the most. I made sure to chuck my computer threw the office window of my ex-boss as I made my way to the parking lot to enjoy the nice silent ride home. It was a long, hard, stressful day and after all the drama I faced, its sad to say, I am now currently unemployed.

Hard Ball

Growing up I was always obsessed with the sport of baseball, it was always the sport that I was drawn to from the beginning. I think it was because I was pretty good at the sport my whole life and just enjoyed the game in general. that's why I wasn't surprised when I fell in love with a baseball movie as a child. I don't recall how young I was when I first saw the film Hard Ball, but I know I was fairly young. The story consists of a older man who is not having the best of luck lately with his gambling addiction and is in a tight spot for money to repay his bookies. The man is offered a small coaching job of little league baseball in a troubled neighborhood. The story has a lot of ups and downs that portray the hard times children might experience growing up in the ghetto. The team as a whole overcome some really tough times, on the field and off, but in the end they are there for each other and continue to overcome obstacles in their way. I fell in love with this movie and to this day it has always been my favorite film of all time.
This type of film can be very inspirational to children who don't have a lot growing up in a troubled neighborhood or with parents who aren't really there all the time. The movie goes into these children's lives way past the aspect of baseball and you can really feel the fear and troubles that these kids face. There is also a great aspect of friendship that develops as the movie goes on and brings the team closer together. In the beginning of the film it showed the team practicing where they did whatever they wanted and caused fights with other teammates constantly, but towards the end of the film they grow close and act like a family when times get rough. Stories like these are what audiences look for when they go to watch a movie, they want to be inspired and believe in hope, just like these kids did.

Batman

Who do people count on the safe the day when something tragic happens or when a crime has been committed? The government? The authorities? Not in this story. The citizens of Gotham city rely on the hero batman. Bruce Wayne plays a hero character in the batman series and comes out of retirement when the town of Gotham needs him the most. Bruce has to try and stop an enemy named Bane and his army that is try to take over Gotham and overthrow all authorities, including the batman. Bruce encounters many obstacles while trying to take down Bane and his army in order to save the town and people that have been loyal to the batman for years.
 It's stories like the batman series that give the people in the audience what they want to see. People are obsessed with a hero like figure that helps innocent people and fight bad guys constantly. There are several movies that follow this same theme structure that have became quite popular. Some examples include: Superman, Ironman, The Avengers. People love to watch a movie where a "good guy" is faced with a situation that seems impossible to overcome, but in the end they always find a way to save the day. the audience pretty much knows the outcome of the movies before it even starts, yet they still buy the ticket or rent the movie so they can witness the film themselves.

The Black Hole

I've never been a huge fan of the NFL team the Oakland Raiders, but whenever I see them on TV or someone wearing the jersey, it takes me back. I can remember the first time I watched my older brother put on the raiders jersey for his practice, it wasn't the Oakland Raiders jersey, but it was a Bartlett Raiders jersey. Bartlett is a small town in Illinois where I was born and raised and the Bartlett Raiders is the towns pee-wee football organization. My brother is two years older than I am so he started playing football before I even knew what the sport was really about. As I learned more about the sport, I ended up followed my brothers footsteps and joined the Bartlett Raiders. Many of my life long friends to this day were teammates that I met from the Raiders and we have shared many memories together growing up. If I would of never joined this football team I might not have met these friends and my life could of been a whole lot different. It's safe to say that this pee-wee organization has had a significant impact on my life since the day that I joined. Whenever I watch NFL football on Sundays and see the Oakland Raiders or just see a fan displaying the jersey it always triggers my childhood memories of the first time I saw my brother put that jersey on and how my life never seemed the same since.

Green or Gold

The number 33. If you're Celtics fan, the first thing you think about is the great Larry Bird. If you're a Lakers fan, then you probably thought of Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Both of these players wore these numbers and were historically great NBA basketball players. In Klosterman's essay 33 he wrote about how the rivalry between these two teams in the 80's was one of the biggest in sports. Klosterman also connected this rivalry  to race in America during this time as well. He said that most African-Americans were fans of the Lakers because almost the whole team consisted of black males.On the other hand, the Celtics had three white males starters in a league that was mostly dominated by African-American athletes. Klosterman didn't stop with race though, he believed that these two teams represented everything from religion to politics and everything in between.
In the poem The End of Practice there was a dream that was described in great detail of the ending of what seemed like a high school football practice. From saying a prayer with the team, listening to the coach give his end of practice speech, and to the locker room full of players who are exhausted from a long day of work.
These two stories show how communities can come together to support a team, but they might be supporting more then a team, whether they know it or not. I feel like supporting this team only defines us in part, because it's just a sport. Some people might think of supporting a team as something more but at the end of the day, you're just a fan. But there are also different levels of fans, there are people who go all out and believe in everything the team stands for, and there are fans who just enjoy cheering and could care less if their team loses a game.I also believe that in rough times in a city, state, or even nation wide, that supporting a common team or sport can help bring a community closer together and help overcome tough times. I feel like a great example of this is every four years at the Olympics. I feel that the Olympics help bring a sense of pride and hope to our nation every time they air. This feeling of pride is the reason why communities support teams in the first place, they want to be able to say, "that's my team that won". Whether you're team is the one in the green uniforms or the gold uniforms, you support that team for a sense of pride and hope.

Da Bulls

Dear Chicago Bulls Organization,
I can remember the first time I watched the Bulls play on television and was just amazing by what I saw. I was a young child and my dad was watching the game in the living room and invited me to sit down to watch it with him. He was always watching basketball on T.V. and I never really understood why. That all changed the day I watched the Chicago Bulls.
I was in awe of how amazingly smooth and athletic the bulls player played that game. I remember one player standing out the most, number 23. He was a tall African-American who seemed like to be the leader of the whole game, he had complete control. As he would dribble the ball around defenders and make shots or pass to wide open teammates, he just made it look effortless. Since that game I became much more interested in the game of basketball, and especially the Chicago Bulls.
As I started to follow "Da Bulls" more and watched the games with my dad, I learned that number 23 was a guy named Micheal Jordan. My dad referred to him as "The Greatest Player Alive".
I just wanted to thank the Chicago Bulls Organization for getting one of the greatest players in NBA history so I was able to witness him play growing up. If it wasn't for Jordan being on the Bulls, then I might not have gotten into basketball at all. I would also like to thank the organization for recently drafting Derrick Rose to the Chicago Bulls. Watching Rose play just reminds me of Jordan controlling the game and making in look effortless.
I look forward to continue being a Chicago Bulls fan and support the organization for many years to come. Good luck and GO BULLS!

Professional Athletes, Fans, and Everyone In Between

Some people grow up loving a certain sport because they might have saw that sport being played by a professional athlete, or they might have been taught that sport by a loved one, or maybe they just followed the sport because everyone else does. Whatever the reason for following a sport, it is usually because you have some kind of sentimental connection that lead you to the sport that you love. The article Participates Versus Spectators started off on how a particular sport might have been introduced into a persons life and the way you looked at the sport then compared to today. Growing up it's all fun and games, literally. Kids enjoyed playing sports or on a sports team because they enjoyed the excitement of the games or the friendships they made. There was never any real competitive nature in the game when we fell in love with it. The writer of this article explains as the years go on and if a person's talent level doesn't continue to improve or they don't feel the game is as fun as it use to be, then more and more athletes stop playing. If this isn't the case, then an athlete will continue to compete either until they make it professionally or get stopped by other road blocks on the way. Many players will still continue to play sports in club teams or intramural teams if they choose to.
The author then talks about how these athletes might not always continue on playing the sport(s) that they love, but they might remain a spectator of that sport. Many athletes will continue to follow the sports that they love and watch it either professionally or on the college level. Technology continues to improve which makes it easier and more convenient to fans to follow along with their favorite teams. Spectators are the main reason that professional athletes are able to play a sport to make a living, without fans following the teams and sports they love, athletes would be out of a job.
I felt that I was able to relate to everything that the author mentioned in this article because I am such a huge sports fan and have been following sports since I could remember. The way the author moved all the way from youth sports to professional and Olympic athletes really made me think of my childhood years and how I grew up with sports. I think this thought process is going to be a key concept when I am trying to right my first paper coming up. Bringing up all of these old sports memories and being able to convert them into a story is going to help me a lot.  

Five, Four, Three...

A typical basketball game consists of five players competing against five other players. That is how this junior college basketball game started, but it's not how it ended. The Thunderbirds were an all-Native American team that started the game with five players on the floor, and no substitutes on the bench. Their opponent were a bunch bigger and more athletic team called the Lumberjacks'. The Lumberjacks' also had more then five players on their team. Given these circumstances this game should of been a walk in the park for the Lumberjacks', but it wasn't.

With four minutes left in the game the Thunderbirds were leading by four points when one of their players fouled out of the game. With 1:06 left in the game, another Thunderbirds player was fouled out, and the score was tied at 81-81. The Lumberjacks ' made a costly turnover down the stretch that gave the ball back to the Thunderbirds who managed to get the ball in the basketball playing with only three players on the court. It was remarkable that an undersized, less athletic, and out numbered team could pull off this amazing victory to advance to the next round of the junior college basketball tournament. If you would like to read the whole story, click HERE.

A poem by James Wright, titled Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio was the next story that I read. This poem was a re-telling of James' memory of his hometown High School on an October night where friends and family fill the stadium to watch a football game. This poem describes all the different faces James would see in the stands during the game and people from different towns as well. He also described how fathers of players would rather be there to support their son rather then at home listening to their nagging wife.

I believe that these two stories do a great job at describing the community in which the story takes place and the time period as well. While reading these stories you can really visualize what the author is describing and can tell weather the community supports the sport or could care less about the sport. Both of these readings were re-tellings from sporting events that the authors experienced growing up. Chuck Klosterman acknowledge that he did do some research to help piece his story together and collect all the correct facts, but both of these stories were just memories transferred onto paper. Football and basketball were the two sports that were described in these readings and they are some well known sports around the world. Even if a country does not participate in playing these sports, they have probably heard of them sometime in their life. There were also many cultures that were mentioned in these readings including Native American, Polish, and African American as well. 

I like how in the first reading (Three-Man Weave) the author interviewed players and coaches that might have been involved in the game and that even though they felt confident about their memory of the game and statistics, they weren't always right. One player recalled having 35 points in the game when he actually scored 33. The Lumberjacks' coach said he thought the "Iron Five" shot 78 percent from the field when it was actually 61 percent. I thought it was a great job by Chuck Klosterman to search for all the stats and facts because even if you think your memory is correct, it can always play little tricks on you.

I think that the first essay might help me while writing my paper because it's similar due to the fact that it's based off my memory and I will need to do some research to help make sure all of my facts and re-callings are accurate.  I also liked the format that Chuck used to write his essay, he opening up with information that gave his readers a general idea of where the story took place and gave a visualization of the setting and everyone involved. Then he got into the details of the game which made it much easier to follow and understand after already knowing about all the small details that might have been overlooked. I think this was a great idea to help the audience follow the story easier and I think I will use this format in my first paper.

Bros For Life

I was sitting on the cold bleachers on the morning of my brother's first flag football game. I remember sitting next to my parents and watched my brother Derek as he would blow past the defensive line and sack the quarterback several times throughout the game. It was inspiring to see my brother do so well at this sport that I didn't know much about at the time. Derek is my older brother who was a great athlete at a young age. This was one of the first sporting events that I have ever been to, and it was one that I will never forget. That game had a huge impact on the way I looked at sports for the rest of my life.

After I saw how much success and excitement my brother got from playing this sport made me want to start playing right away. From that day on I was involved in every sport that I could think of. Growing up I have played football, basketball, baseball, golf, hockey, racket ball, and many more. These sports weren't just a hobby to me, they were a lifestyle; Everyday I woke up and thought about what sport I wanted to play that day or how I could get better at that sport.

My brother Derek has always made a big impact on my life, but seeing him succeed in sports has made me want to follow in his footsteps. I never thought that after attending my brothers flag football game that sports would make such a huge impact on my life. But I am forever thankful for my brother introducing me to one of the things that I love the most to this day...SPORTS!