By Nicholas Cicale (Assistant Sports Editor) |
April 15, 2012, 1:02 pm
The 2011 baseball season was amazing for American League hitters. With Jose Bautista, Jacoby Ellsbury, Miguel Cabrera and Curtis Granderson all knocking 30 balls out of the park and driving in over 100 runs each, the race for the AL Most Valuable Player award was bound to be a heated one. However, with so many similar stories between the four athletes, it’s safe to say that MVP voters were searching for someone who stood out from the crowd of hitters. It is here that they found Justin Verlander, a man who dominated the other candidates both on the field and in the media. The righty became the first starting pitcher to win the MVP award since Roger Clemens’ 24 win season in 1986, twenty-five years ago. But anyone who followed the 29-year-old Tigers ace at all throughout the season probably expected the outcome.
By Ricky Kent (Contributing Writer) |
March 2, 2012, 8:30 pm
Being a Jacksonville Jaguars fan in 2012 is the strangest it has been in a long time. This should definitely be one of the most active off seasons the Jaguars have ever had. Before the 2011 season had ended, Wayne Weaver, the man who brought the team to Jacksonville in 1995, announced that he was leaving the team after 17 years. Shortly after, Shahid Khan was introduced as the franchise’s new owner.
By Max Dickey (Staff Writer) |
February 3, 2012, 2:10 pm
National Signing Day, a 24-hour period in which college football fans and coaches all across the country hunker down in front of their TVs, anxiously check their phones, and relentlessly refresh their computer screens, occurred this year on February 1st. Each year, the decisions of high school athletes going on to play sports at the college level dictate how confident fans and coaches are in their football program’s future success. Getting the athletes they want can make Signing Day a day of elation, but experiencing the horrors of unsure eighteen-year-old athletes decommitting can lead to despair.
By Ian Thomas (Contributing Writer) |
February 22, 2010, 3:00 pm
image via knightnews.com
Before even stepping foot in any NFL stadium or combine, Tim Tebow is already making a bad first impression on the league. But is he untouchable? He is, after all, still in college.
Ah, Super Sunday. No one loves it more than I do, even if my team is watching from home this year. What could ruin such a special day? Someone trying to preach to you about the gift of life, that’s what. These people refer to themselves as “pro-life,” but I call them “anti-abortion.” The other way makes its opposing party seem to be pro-death, a willful distortion on the part of anti-abortion advocates.
Somewhat-overrated college football star Tim Tebow came on screen Super Sunday with momma ‘Bow to tell the story about how she was advised during her pregnancy to abort the future Heisman-winner because of serious medical concerns. Surprisingly enough, the commercial didn’t even drop the a-bomb, and except for the sight of Timmy’s face, wasn’t too insulting.
Funded by the conservative evangelical group Focus On The Family, the commercial was thirty seconds long and cost a reported three million dollars. CBS has faced criticism for agreeing to show the ad, as it rightly should have.
I’m not saying commercials must or should be crass and involve bikinis and beer, but frankly, the Super Bowl is like polite conversation: no religion or politics. Tebow broke both rules.
At The University of Florida, student-athletes must abide by a set of guidelines as determined by the university, as they must at any other school. According to the UF Student-Athlete agreement:
A student-athlete shall not be eligible for participation in intercollegiate athletics if the individual accepts any renumeration for or permits the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind.
But Tim Tebow is no longer a participating student-athlete since his pitiful performance at the Senior Bowl (with only fifty passing yards), so does this apply to him? In this writer’s opinion, yes, yes it does. He will probably be attending his alma mater’s Pro Day and (former?) Coach Urban Meyer will surely be spanking his prodigy’s buns as he crosses the white lines for the NFL combine.
Also, let’s consider that Tim Tebow has gotten a lot of screen time over the past three years, and is currently just about the most high-profile representative of his university.
It’s too much to ask for more than a week without hearing about Tebow, and even though he’s a known pushy evangelical, I wonder if he just couldn’t handle the minimal time out of the limelight.
And so, Judgment came sandwiched between beer commercials on Sunday, but it was nice to remember that there’s only one city in the whole country that likes hearing from this particular spokesman, and they live in a self-proclaimed “Swamp.”
Life goes on, but Tebow’s career probably won’t. I for one take some solace in that.
By Andy Pacheco-Fores (Views editor) |
February 19, 2010, 4:00 pm
A lot of people raised objections to a new Dodge Charger commercial when it premiered during the Superbowl, mostly along the lines of “it’s tacky, misogynistic, and lame.” So, inevitably, someone made a spoof of it to post on the internet. Here is that spoof, a “rebuttal” from the female perspective. And it’s, um, PERFECT. Seriously, if it was a real ad, I would buy whatever it was selling for my mom (she’s a third-wave feminist).
