Conclusion

Here we are, Thursday December 9th, 2010 and tomorrow is the last day of the semester. It feels like yesterday that I was standing in front of the class explaining how I went about setting up and designing my blog.
Although this semester seemed to fly by quicker than any other, I feel as though I am walking away with a great deal of knowledge about sports in the global market. Aside from rugby and soccer, I did not have a great background with global sports. However, I strengthened my knowledge about hooliganism in soccer, as well as the issue of racism in England. I was able to get a grasp on the game of cricket as well as hear from Dr. Cho about how globalization opened doors for him. I was also able to express my hatred for the self proclaimed "King" in the NBA through in-class discussion. Looking back, this was a great course and I really enjoyed it.
As far as blogging goes, I really wish I could find a way to stay on top of it. About a year ago, I was doing this same thing with scrambling around trying to earn the desired blog points, however, instead of 2:00 PM it was more like 2:00 AM. I must say, I was doing just fine until Dr. Spencer had to travel the world and go to California and New Zealand!
As for future classes, I would change the blog and journal requirement format. We altered the original idea and said we would turn in blog and journals weekly. Nonetheless, that turned into, when you have them done, turn them in. I would recommend collecting the evaluation forms and grading on a given day of the week, and stick to that day. For our class, that could be Thursday and if someone didn't have their blog completed for the week, they would not receive the credit. This may seem as a more strict idea than what we were going by, but the blogs themselves are not difficult. The only hard thing is sitting down to write them.

World Cup to Qatar???

Hearing the news of Qatar winning the bid for the 2022 World Cup over countries like Australia and the United States was astonishing. I'm sure several of you were asking, "where the heck is Qatar"...or something along those lines. Well, to get an idea of how big the country of Qatar really is, click here: http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/QA. This link shows the size of Qatar in red compared to north-west Ohio and south-east Michigan.

Just viewing this map makes me wonder how a country of that size can host a world event like the World Cup. Although good things can come from Qatar hosting the event, the fact that they got FIFA's vote is surprising. How can a country smaller than the state of Ohio accomadate the mass number of players, media members, and even fans traveling to the World Cup? Where are the various stadiums going to be? These few questions alone aid me in saying Qatar should not host the event. If surrounding countries will be used to accomodate stadiums, hotels, and such, Qatar should simply not have won the bidding.

As recent as this past World Cup, South Africa was looked down upon for building and renovating stadiums for the World Cup while the stadiums would never be used afterwards. With this issue making the news and various discussions, just how did Qatar really pull this off versus countries that can run and host the World Cup, comfortably, if you will. The picture on the right shows one of Qatar's solor-powered stadiums that will be used in 2022.

I am very interested to hear what others have to say about this topic as this blog is open for discussion.

Transvestite Sues LPGA

Lana Lawless, 2008 women's world champion in long-drive golf recently sued the LPGA. The reason for doing so, Long Drivers of America, which overseas the competition, changed the rules to match the LPGA which does not allow transvestites. After Lawless was ruled ineligible to compete, she wrote a letter asking for permission to compete in women's qualifying tournaments, and was denied yet again.

Once a man for 52 years of her life, Lana Lawless underwent gender-reassignment surgery in 2005. As already mentioned, she won a women's golf event three years later before being ruled ineligible by gender. Is this right? She is a female (now), she competed before...How do you feel?

Personally, I feel as though Lana has no right being in the LPGA and I find it very weird she won a case and eventually changed the ruling. The LPGA should have stated in the rules, only women at birth are eligible. Lana has a competitive advantage over other female athletes in the LPGA as she was born and lived as a male with testosterone. Nonetheless, it should be interesting to see where this issue goes from here.

NFL introduces Ed Wang

Ed Wang is a offensive tackle who played college football at Virginia Tech. Interestingly, Wang's brother is currently playing football at Virginia Tech. However, with the 140th overall pick in the 5th round of the 2010 NFL draft, the Buffalo Bills selected Ed Wang, the first full-blooded Chinese player to enter the NFL. Although several players in the NFL have heritage roots from Asia, like Hines Ward, Wang is the first NFL player to be 100% Chinese.

I find it very shocking that the NFL did not have a truly Asian-American player in the league until this year. Wang opened a door for many high talented oriental football players in believing that one day they can accomplish the dream in making it to the NFL. I relate this to the Yao Ming topic that we discussed in class with him entering the NBA. Although very few Asian players followed Yao to the NBA I believe we will see more Asians in the NFL after Ed Wang shows his success in the league.

Through 13 weeks of the NFL season, Wang is yet to start a game. However, he has played in the last four games and is beginning to look like a great fit at left tackle for the Buffalo Bills.

LBJ to the C-L-E

Thursday, December 2, 2010, the self-proclaimed "King" returned to his old house in Cleveland. This was being talked about as though it was for the NBA Finals. Lebron James was praised by Clevelanders for 7 straight years before he turned his back to "take his talents to South Beach."

Lebron's hour long special, "The Decision" used to announce to the WORLD where he would call home for the 2010-2011 season was nothing but a back stabbing to the people who loved him most. From "The Decision" in July until the Homecoming Game in December, Lebron's name was in the media day-in and day-out.

The issue with Lebron was brought up many times in class and everyone wondered what he would do during his return. Is he going to show up? How will he react to the crowd? Will the Cavs be aggressive on a foul? Well the answer was simple, nothing. The Cavs showed up for the first quarter and got the crowd going wild. However, the crowd more-or-less died down while they watched what Lebron did for 7 years in wine and gold, take over. Without playing in the 4th quarter, Lebron's stat line read, 38 points, 8 assits, 5 rebounds. Although these are exceptional numbers, the media continued to express how he "embarrassed" Cavaliers fans. However, Cleveland fans should know best, that is just typical Lebron and the only other time we have been "embarrassed" with Lebron dates back less than a year ago during game 5 of the Celtics series.

The picures above show how not only I responded to Lebron's actions, but Cavaliers fans in general, at the game.

The NFL as a Global Market

As many people may already know, the NFL continued its tour in England yesterday by sending the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos to Wembley Stadium in London. This has gone on for several years now but I still have one problem with this although it has many benefits...you can't watch this game! While many of us were able to watch the Star Spangled Banner Sunday, CBS cut right back to the Miami Dolphins/Cincinnati Bengals game.

Now, as already mentioned, the NFL has sent one game for the past few years to England in an attempt to globalize the league, but us Americans cannot view this game. The league is trying to spread to another market but why are we not aloud to watch the game and analyze its effort in globalizing American football? Another reason I am not a fan of globalizing the NFL is for the sake of the home team. Yesterday, the 49ers were the quote-on-quote home team even though they played in London. This takes one home-field advantage season game away from the 9ers and more importantly the 49ers fans. However, the league's effort in globalizing the NFL deserves an A.

The NFL set up a giant tailgate outside Wembley Stadium to give the fans the great American experience that comes with football. Set up 6 hours before kickoff, the London fans were provided with Coors product beer, hambergers, a performance by the 49ers cheerleaders, and NFL merchandise. Mark Cruick-shank, a Broncos fan out of Aberdeen, Scotland attended his third consecutive NFL game at Wembley Stadium and was quoted saying, "Americans know how to do it right...its an even not just a game."

Given a few different stands on globalizing the NFL, it is up to you to decide...should the NFL continue to travel to England?

Why #6?

In class, one specific question has come up several times...why did Nelson Mandela wear a #6 jersey during the 1995 Rugby World Cup? Playing rugby for a few years, I have said in class from time to time that rugby jersey numbers are worn based on the position you play. #6 falls into the category of a "pack" member or forward. Similar to a linemen in American Football, the "pack" participates in the scrum in rugby and are the more rugged, dirty, tough"er" guys (I was a back, not a forward). As far as numbers within the pack goes, numbers 1 and 3 are worn by props, who are on the outside in the front row of a scrum. Props are lined up outside of the hooker who wears number 2. Second row players, or "lock's" are numbered 4 and 5, leaving the loose-forward "flankers" wearing numbers 6 and 7, and simply enough the "number 8" wears jersey #8. All of this is simplified in the picture.

Now, knowing Nelson Mandela wore a jersey that a usual flanker would wear, why was he given such number? As for the South African Springbok's, captain, Francois Pienaar played flanker and wore #6. The only logical explanation I can think of is, Captain Francois gave President Mandela his own jersey and we are blowing this out of proportion. However, I do believe there is a symbolic explanation for this. Francois Pienaar being the captain of the Springbok's and leading his team to win the World Cup gave his President his jersey to help and lead their country out of apartheid. The picture below is President Mandela presenting captain Francois Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup after beating the All Blacks (ironic that South Africa given their circumstances played the New Zealand "All Blacks) in the finals in 1995.