Roger Goodell

In 2006, a new era of administration began for the National Football League. Lord knows I could talk about Roger Goodell’s tenure as Commissioner of the National Football League for hours without getting bored. His reign as Commissioner has been dominated concussions and offseason arrests.

            Any time I think about Roger Goodell’s past six years of running the NFL, the first thing that comes to mind is physical play. Every week, after all of the Sunday games, its common practice to watch highlights and pick out which big hits will earn the players a fine. Goodell has made it well known that he wants player safety to be his biggest concern. However, he has gone overboard with his insurance of this. At least five times a season it feels like there is a new rule put in place to protect players, which results in a watered down version of the real game. The forefathers of American football would shake their heads at how sensitive Goodell has been towards big hits and player safety.

            It is well-understood how severe concussions are and how they affect the mental health of players after they retire. However, when players are being paid several million dollars per season, how many restrictions do they need to have on the manner in which they play the game? Instead of setting up a system to take the players’ money away, Goodell should be focusing on a health care plan for players for their post-playing days. Under Goodell, quarterbacks have become untouchable and receivers unhittable.

            Another area that Roger Goodell has chosen to focus on during his time as Commissioner is player conduct outside of the playing field. It’s no surprise that Roger Goodell has a history with working in public relations. Every time a player gets into even the slightest trouble off of the field, Goodell is quick to slap the player with either a fine or a suspension. These actions are without a doubt influenced by the media. If the media were not so focused on the gossip in sports, the commissioner would be less inclined to lay down punishment every time a player gets a speeding ticket. With these focuses being the center of Roger Goodell’s time as commissioner, it is no surprise that the NFL lockout lasted as long as it did last season when signing a new collective bargaining agreement.

Miracle

No movie encompasses national pride for Americans more than Miracle. At a time when things were tense between the Soviet Union and the United States, a major underdog American ice hockey team rose to the occasion and defeated the unbeatable USSSR.

            In 1980, if you had asked Americans how much they cared about hockey they would have probably told you to leave that to the Canadians. If you asked those same people about the Soviet Union, hockey would have been one the last thing brought up. Cold War would have likely been the center on conversation, so when the 1980 Winter Olympics came around, there was little to be excited for as far as hockey goes. Not only did hockey lack focus in the United States, the team was more of a makeshift group of college kids than a medal competing squad. And not only did the team upset the Soviets in Lake Placid, they went on to take the gold medal. Any American from that time who doesn’t believe that the win against the USSSR was one of the most prideful moments in American sports history is flat out lying.

            When Miracle was releasing in 2004, there seemed to be resurgence in national pride directly related to that victory. Americans from my generation who were not around to witness that glorious event were able to witness the upset via theatre screens. You would swear our generation had a hand involved with upsetting the Soviets. Facebook statuses across the country proclaimed American pride even over two decades later.

            Nationalism connected to Miracle is obvious. The film seemed to be made in an effort to spark interest in America during the Olympic games, not only for the Summer games of 2004, but also because it was the first games following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The United States needed something to believe in, even if it was in something that already happened. Teenagers at the time flocked toward the movie and claimed it as their own time period. It was widely heralded for its inspiration on not only athletes and sports fanatics, but also on an audience that had little to no previous knowledge of hockey in America. All across the country, United States ice hockey had regained popularity and won the hearts of Americans for a second time.                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Soccer, Nationalism and the Olympics

“Barca redeems the game from these criticisms, by showing that fans can love a club and a country with passion and without turning into a thug or terrorist.” –Franklin Foer, How Soccer Explains the World

           

            This summer, I spent six days in Barcelona, Spain and instantly, it became my favorite place on the planet. Franklin Foer obviously felt similar to how I did as he dedicates an entire section of his book How Soccer Explains the World to Barcelona and the Catalan struggle in Spain. The people of Barcelona are friendly and after reading this chapter of his book, I understand how the Barca fans would be some of the least violent patrons in European soccer.

“FC Barcelona could have easily gone the other direction. It could have been a caldron of radicalism, violence, and grievances. But the roots of Barca’s cosmopolitan nationalism run too deep. They are part of the national culture and part of the club’s founding spirit.”

            Foer provides many examples of how poorly treated and suppressed Catalonia was in the 1920s. The Catalan flag, which is widely flown today, and language was banned. With all that conflict, you would expect more hostility and anger from citizens of Barcelona. Instead, they show great pride in FC Barcelona and carry on about their lives. Spanish culture means more to the people than holding a grudge against fellow Spanish metropolitan Madrid, where all of the suppression came from.

            After conflicts like this, what better way to bring different regions of a country together than the Olympics? It’s one of the few times in a decade where a country can unite and pull together for a common cause. Countries can bond over soccer during the World Cup and Euro Cup, but the Olympics draws in more than just soccer fans. Often times, it draws in more than just sports fans. The people of Catalonia can sit together with the people of Madrid and watch Spain show its national pride for the entire world to see.

            I can’t help but take the side of the Olympics being a great thing for nationalism. During the NBA season, there are a countless number of egotistical players in the league I can’t stand to watch. When the Olympic basketball team assembles, I can’t really find a reason to dislike any of the players because they are spending their offseason representing the United States of America on a global platform. Michael Phelps is another great example of how nationalism works well during the Olympics. When Phelps was on his historic run not long ago, every American stood by and passionately rooted on the American swimmer for the simple fact that an American got the job done. What other event can unite people like that? The answer is none. Many countries have a handful of regions or sometimes up to 20 separate regions to pull together. The United States has 50 states that each have their own unique culture, but pride in being an American is put on display every four years for the Olympics.

            The counter to this belief is something I am looking for here in the United Kingdom. After spending three weeks in England, I am curious to see how the Scottish feel about the neighbors to the south during the Olympics. I’ve already heard the testament of an Irishman who claims Scotland is a wasteland. Now I will be curious to see in the coming weeks if the Scottish feel the same about the Irish or about the English. National pride is a beauty isn’t it?

Who to Blame

Over the past decade, any casual sports fan can tell you that there has been a drastic change in the way sports media operates. No longer do you mostly see descriptive narratives of games from the night before. Instead, every other page of the sports section will give headlines that make you think you picked up a copy of People. But whom should we blame for this culture change in sports media? Should we blame the media for constantly feeding us gossip? Or should we blame the fans for continuing to consume massive amounts of it? Needless to say, it’s a complex matter.

            Most people would say that today’s media is to blame for the gossip content spread throughout the sports world. The media is definitely the easiest scapegoat to look at. You have bloggers and analysts trying to one-up each other by monitoring social media sites such as Twitter all day. Eventually, anything an athlete or executive posts online is turned into a blog post or podcast about speculation on what the post could have meant. Often these interpretations are inaccurate and cause a big stir for no reason. Athletes have to constantly sensor themselves out of fear of what could end up on ESPN just an hour later.

            ESPN, while great and entertaining, sits at the center of this entire debate. The problem with a 24-hour sports network is eventually you will run out of fresh content, which is where rumors come in. From experience with covering sports for The Daily Reveille, I know how hard it can be to produce relevant story ideas on a regular basis. When you run out of ideas directly related to the sport itself, you have to turn to the personal lives of the athletes and coaches you are covering. In that sense, you can say that sports media is highly over saturated with content. ESPN is a perfect example of this oversaturation. The network constantly loops the same story over and over, so their sports contributors are forced to stalk athletes’ lives in search of a story worthy of making the news. However, sports networks can’t operate without fans.

            If the media is an engine, then fans are the fuel. It doesn’t matter what ESPN or Sports Illustrated uses as content, fans continue to consume sports media at an excessive rate. Even savvy sports consumers such as myself are guilty of watching and reading content that has more to do with gossip than the actual logistics of the game. It’s just the nature of a fan to want every bit of information available about their favorite teams and players. We want to know if Jordan Jefferson is staying out of trouble or if Tyrann Mathieu is hanging out with local rappers. Just as sports writers do, fans stay glued to social media sites to see what an athlete has to say. If the athlete posts something vague or unclear, the cycle of rumors begins again which is where many people will turn to ESPN and other sports news sites. When media figures are asked questions about their opinions on those matters, many fans accept these opinions or theories as fact. That is where a different subject of debate in the lack of media literacy comes in to play, and simply put, the vast majority of sports fans are media illiterate.

            In the end, if I am forced to point the figure at who or what has caused the gossip culture in sports media, I point my finger at the Internet. The Internet has made everything in the sports world global and immediate. Fans can now follow a game in real-time on the Internet, eliminating the need for game recaps in the newspaper. To fill that void, we end up with information about what players did following the game or other storylines irrelevant to the game. The emergence of social media has recreated sports media as we know it. Players can now cut out the middleman and communicate directly with the fans. Rumors are created on Twitter faster before an event is even finished. Players can go on controversial rants, supplying the media with all the content they need to fill hour-long blocks of television and pages of content in the newspaper. The Internet has bridged the gap between media and fans created endless options on who to blame for the excessive gossip in sports media. The content will likely never change, but the responsibility lies on the consumers to decide what to tolerate and at what rate to consume the content at. Consumers have to become savvy enough to figure out what Internet outlets to believe and to decide what is relevant to them as a sports fan.

LSU vs. Arsenal

When touring Arsenal’s stadium last week, I couldn’t help but directly compare it to the work I do at LSU. As part of the many tasks I do for the Athletic Department, I give numerous tours of Tiger Stadium each week to hundreds of people. I was eager to see how Arsenal conducted their tours and to hopefully get ideas for things I could do to enhance the experience of tours in Tiger Stadium.

            The moment we stepped inside of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, I could tell the similarities would be few and far between. The brand new stadium was incredibly modern compared to the college football cathedral I’ve grown accustomed to. Instead of a tour guide, we were handed audio guides that featured videos, commentary and even a little music. Not to say I wanted a tour guide to show me around a team’s stadium that I knew close to nothing about, but I know that a guide who has a true passion for what they are talking about can truly enhance a tour experience. A great tour guide can convert a neutral sports watcher into a big fan after an hour. In just about every room you walk through in Emirates Stadium, there is a trophy showcasing the past success of Arsenal. Tiger Stadium features only three trophies, which are those of LSU’s three national championships and are displayed in one room. One thing about Emirates Stadium that made me miss Tiger Stadium is how new and cozy everything looked yet the stadium only held a capacity of a little over 60,000 people. Tiger Stadium has the grimy, haunted and rough feel that I love about the tradition in LSU football. The stadium, which currently holds over 93,000 people, feels more of a monster football monument and I love it. LSU does not build a brand new stadium to accommodate new demands. They simply expand and renovate the venue that thousands call home on Saturday nights in the fall. The biggest difference between the two tours is that LSU’s tours bring you through the typical game day experience that players and recruits get while Arsenal’s brings you through the executive and high roller areas. Arsenal’s tour shows you the areas the players go through and use before games, but I never got the true feeling of a game day atmosphere when walking through.

            While these two tours were very different, the essence of them was the same. Tradition of excellence is the main theme, and that is constantly reiterated along ever step of the way. In Emirates Stadium, you are consumed with the color red, reminding you that you are walking on Arsenal’s stomping grounds. The same goes for Tiger Stadium. Purple and gold overwhelms you in every room. Both stadiums have murals of past and current players plastered all over the walls to show you the heroes that have molded the teams’ history. As the fairly boring guide at Arsenal did, I too drill into each visitor’s head how important history and tradition is to my team. On any given day, I might be giving a tour to businessmen who have no interest in LSU or college football, and after I drop a little knowledge on them, they often say excited they are to watch LSU’s next football game. I can’t even consider myself a casual soccer fan, but now I see how those businessmen feel. I’m excited to watch Arsenal this upcoming season and pull for the Gunners while all of my friends root on Chelsea and Manchester United.