A big splash was made last week in the NFL offseason. The Redskins traded a couple of draft picks to the Eagles for perennial pro-bowler Donovan McNabb. This is the first time in nearly 20 years that the Redskins have had a Quarterback that the consensus would define as "good".
I want to believe this move will work out for my beloved Skins. But then again, it looks like another typical Redskins offseason move where they pick up an over-the-hill veteran that doesn't live up to they hype. Regardless, there is no denying that McNabb is a better quarterback than former starter Jason Campbell.
The main reason I question the move is that if you have a quarterback of McNabb's caliber, a guy that has been to multiple pro bowls, five NFC Championship games, and a Super Bowl, you don't let him go for a second and third round draft pick...unless he is past his prime. Especially to a division rival.
I think the Eagles saw how injury prone McNabb has become. And behind an offensive line as subpar as the Skins', I don't see him lasting more than eight or nine games. But who knows, maybe head coach Mike Shannahan knows something I don't. And hopefully McNabb will come in with a chip on his shoulder and prove everybody wrong.
For the sake of Redskins nation, I hope that's the case.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Let the Madness begin..
This weekend marks the beginning of March Madness. The first two days of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament are, in my eyes, part of the best weekend in sports. I love the upsets, the comebacks, and the passion that is missing in professional basketball in the US.
A few years ago, I got to be a part of one of the biggest upsets in the tournaments history. Growing up Fairfax, Virginia, I lived about 10 minutes from George Mason University. Both my parents graduated from there, and as a kid I went to almost every home game because my dad’s business had courtside seats at the Partiot Center.
In 2006, George Mason was one of the biggest upsets of the year heading into the Sweet 16 after defeating perennial contenders Michigan State and North Carolina. Luckily for Mason, the Regional Semis were played in Washington, DC, a relatively short 45-minute subway ride from the school’s campus.
After Mason made it into the Sweet 16, I decided to make the trip home to Virginia to watch them play. I got really good tickets and got to go to both games they played that weekend, and stayed for about an hour after they beat the No. 1 ranked UConn to watch the players cut down the nets and celebrate with the thousands of Mason fans that made the trip out.
I don’t think I’ll ever experience another sporting event with an atmosphere as electric as Mason’s win over UConn. Every time they scored, the entire arena erupted. When Jai Lewis missed two free throws, and UConn had a chance to win the game in overtime with a three-pointer, you could literally hear the entire arena take a deep breath in and hold it while the potential game-winner was in the air. And of course, the explosion of cheers afterwards.
Like usual, I took the weekend off starting today to watch the games. Happy madness everyone!
A few years ago, I got to be a part of one of the biggest upsets in the tournaments history. Growing up Fairfax, Virginia, I lived about 10 minutes from George Mason University. Both my parents graduated from there, and as a kid I went to almost every home game because my dad’s business had courtside seats at the Partiot Center.
In 2006, George Mason was one of the biggest upsets of the year heading into the Sweet 16 after defeating perennial contenders Michigan State and North Carolina. Luckily for Mason, the Regional Semis were played in Washington, DC, a relatively short 45-minute subway ride from the school’s campus.
After Mason made it into the Sweet 16, I decided to make the trip home to Virginia to watch them play. I got really good tickets and got to go to both games they played that weekend, and stayed for about an hour after they beat the No. 1 ranked UConn to watch the players cut down the nets and celebrate with the thousands of Mason fans that made the trip out.
I don’t think I’ll ever experience another sporting event with an atmosphere as electric as Mason’s win over UConn. Every time they scored, the entire arena erupted. When Jai Lewis missed two free throws, and UConn had a chance to win the game in overtime with a three-pointer, you could literally hear the entire arena take a deep breath in and hold it while the potential game-winner was in the air. And of course, the explosion of cheers afterwards.
Like usual, I took the weekend off starting today to watch the games. Happy madness everyone!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Wizards Complete the Demise of DC Sports
Not a whole lot going on at the internship recently, just doing more play-by-play at basketball games. So this week I want to talk about the crumbling of the Washington Wizards this season, and the overall state of DC professional sports.
Of the three major sports, DC is now an embarrassment in all three. Since the Gilbert Arenas incident earler this season, where he allegedly pulled a gun on a teammate, the Wizards have fully entered rebulding mode, and have brought full-circle shame to the three major professional sports franchises in Washington, DC. Arenas was given a 6-year, $111 million contract last season, and was supposed to be the centerpiece of the franchise for years to come. Now he is sitting at home, suspended for the year, after pleading guilty to federal gun charges.
As you may have gathered from my little bio clip on the side of the blog, I am a diehard fan of DC sports. Growing up right outside DC in Northern Virginia, I developed a deep passion for the Redskins and Wizards (formerly the Bullets), and was excited when we finally got a pro baseball team a few years back.
Unfortunately, throughout my lifetime, these teams have experienced limited, if any, success. And as the NBA trade deadline approached this week, I had a feeling the Wizards were going to make some big moves to clear up salary cap space and gather a few draft picks. Sure enough, they sent three starters off in trades this week, including former all-stars Antawn Jamison (to the arch-rival Cavs, ugh) and Caron Butler (to the Mavericks). And if my gut is right again, they will void Arenas' contract in the offseason, and the Wiz will be left without a single superstar to hang their hats on.
The Nationals are still experiencing the struggles of being an expansion team. The Redskins haven't done anything significant in nearly two decades, and now the Wizards, who were predicted by many experts in the preseason to be a high (4-5) seed in the playoffs, have completely dismantled their core. Man, I'm bitter.
Could be worse though, I could be a UNC fan :)
Luckily, in DC we do have a pair of sports teams to be proud of. Last time I checked the Capitals were in first place in the Eastern Conference. But really, do people still watch hockey?
The Georgetown Hoyas are my college ball love, and have hung around in the top 10 for most of the season. But they were officially swept by arch-rival Syracuse tonight, and I don't think they have the depth to make a run in the tournament.
Woe is me....
Of the three major sports, DC is now an embarrassment in all three. Since the Gilbert Arenas incident earler this season, where he allegedly pulled a gun on a teammate, the Wizards have fully entered rebulding mode, and have brought full-circle shame to the three major professional sports franchises in Washington, DC. Arenas was given a 6-year, $111 million contract last season, and was supposed to be the centerpiece of the franchise for years to come. Now he is sitting at home, suspended for the year, after pleading guilty to federal gun charges.
As you may have gathered from my little bio clip on the side of the blog, I am a diehard fan of DC sports. Growing up right outside DC in Northern Virginia, I developed a deep passion for the Redskins and Wizards (formerly the Bullets), and was excited when we finally got a pro baseball team a few years back.
Unfortunately, throughout my lifetime, these teams have experienced limited, if any, success. And as the NBA trade deadline approached this week, I had a feeling the Wizards were going to make some big moves to clear up salary cap space and gather a few draft picks. Sure enough, they sent three starters off in trades this week, including former all-stars Antawn Jamison (to the arch-rival Cavs, ugh) and Caron Butler (to the Mavericks). And if my gut is right again, they will void Arenas' contract in the offseason, and the Wiz will be left without a single superstar to hang their hats on.
The Nationals are still experiencing the struggles of being an expansion team. The Redskins haven't done anything significant in nearly two decades, and now the Wizards, who were predicted by many experts in the preseason to be a high (4-5) seed in the playoffs, have completely dismantled their core. Man, I'm bitter.
Could be worse though, I could be a UNC fan :)
Luckily, in DC we do have a pair of sports teams to be proud of. Last time I checked the Capitals were in first place in the Eastern Conference. But really, do people still watch hockey?
The Georgetown Hoyas are my college ball love, and have hung around in the top 10 for most of the season. But they were officially swept by arch-rival Syracuse tonight, and I don't think they have the depth to make a run in the tournament.
Woe is me....
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Internship Blog: Week 2
Things have been relatively slow over the last two weeks at the internship, but I did get a few more opportunities.
What I thought I knew about keeping play-by-play for a basketball game, I was wrong. I had gone out and done play-by-play for a few football games before my internship officially started a little more than a month ago, and that wasn't so hard. Let me tell you, basketball is a whole different story. The game moves so fast that just physically keeping up is a challenge.
I went out to cover the Ashley-Hoggard doubleheader along with my editor a little over a week ago. My job was to keep play-by-play and stats for the girls' game, and interview players and coaches after the game to write a 300 word game story. You can find it here. (I don't know why my name isn't in the byline here, it was in the print version). Anyway I just wrote up the girls' game.
Since then I also got the chance to go out and interview a local Wilmington man who won a national contest through Facebook for a trip to the Pro Bowl last weekend. The contest was based through U.S. Cellular's fan page, and he was one of two winners nationwide. He was a pretty laid back guy, and you can check out the short blog post I wrote on him here.
Since then I haven't gotten anything published, but I've been tagging along with reporters to practice my play-by-play skills for basketball. As playoff season starts to heat up for basketball, I'm sure they're going to need extra help. Keep an eye out for me!
What I thought I knew about keeping play-by-play for a basketball game, I was wrong. I had gone out and done play-by-play for a few football games before my internship officially started a little more than a month ago, and that wasn't so hard. Let me tell you, basketball is a whole different story. The game moves so fast that just physically keeping up is a challenge.
I went out to cover the Ashley-Hoggard doubleheader along with my editor a little over a week ago. My job was to keep play-by-play and stats for the girls' game, and interview players and coaches after the game to write a 300 word game story. You can find it here. (I don't know why my name isn't in the byline here, it was in the print version). Anyway I just wrote up the girls' game.
Since then I also got the chance to go out and interview a local Wilmington man who won a national contest through Facebook for a trip to the Pro Bowl last weekend. The contest was based through U.S. Cellular's fan page, and he was one of two winners nationwide. He was a pretty laid back guy, and you can check out the short blog post I wrote on him here.
Since then I haven't gotten anything published, but I've been tagging along with reporters to practice my play-by-play skills for basketball. As playoff season starts to heat up for basketball, I'm sure they're going to need extra help. Keep an eye out for me!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Star-News Internship: Week 1
For most of the blog entries in this class, I will keep a running journal of sorts about my internship with the sports department at the Wilmington Star-News. For anyone that doesn't know, the Star-News is the newspaper here in Wilmington. If something else I find interesting comes up, I may blog about that instead.
First, I'll let you know a little bit about me. I am a senior planning to graduate in May with an English degree and a Journalism minor. My dream is to become a sports journalist in Washington, DC and cover the teams that I love. I grew up in northern Virginia just outside of DC and have been a sports fan my entire life. My favorite teams are the Redskins, Nationals, Wizards, Georgetown Hoyas and Virginia Tech Hokies.
As an aspiring sports writer, I really wanted to try and land an internship with a newspaper or magazine and get experience in the field before graduating. Working with the English department here at UNCW, I was able to get an internship at the Star-News by enrolling in ENG 498.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the internship. The term intern, to me at least, is usually associated with a college kid getting coffee and running errands at some corporate office, trying to work their way through the ranks. Much to my pleasure, this is not the case with my internship at the Star-News.
I am basically an unpaid reporter, and my editor will give me a story or two a week to go and cover. In my first week of the internship I had to go and cover a local high school basketball game in which the coaches were coaching the game barefoot in support of a charity that collects shoes to donate to underprivileged kids.
It was an exciting experience. I had done some journalism work for the school paper here at UNCW, but this was my first assignment in the "real world," if you will. I watched the game and interviewed each coach for about ten minutes afterward. I got my story in on time and, after a few minor edits, my editor said it was good to go.
The next day, it was on the front page of the sports section! I was so excited!
This week I'm going to be covering a basketball double-header at Hoggard High School, so I'll be blogging about that in my next entry.
First, I'll let you know a little bit about me. I am a senior planning to graduate in May with an English degree and a Journalism minor. My dream is to become a sports journalist in Washington, DC and cover the teams that I love. I grew up in northern Virginia just outside of DC and have been a sports fan my entire life. My favorite teams are the Redskins, Nationals, Wizards, Georgetown Hoyas and Virginia Tech Hokies.
As an aspiring sports writer, I really wanted to try and land an internship with a newspaper or magazine and get experience in the field before graduating. Working with the English department here at UNCW, I was able to get an internship at the Star-News by enrolling in ENG 498.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the internship. The term intern, to me at least, is usually associated with a college kid getting coffee and running errands at some corporate office, trying to work their way through the ranks. Much to my pleasure, this is not the case with my internship at the Star-News.
I am basically an unpaid reporter, and my editor will give me a story or two a week to go and cover. In my first week of the internship I had to go and cover a local high school basketball game in which the coaches were coaching the game barefoot in support of a charity that collects shoes to donate to underprivileged kids.
It was an exciting experience. I had done some journalism work for the school paper here at UNCW, but this was my first assignment in the "real world," if you will. I watched the game and interviewed each coach for about ten minutes afterward. I got my story in on time and, after a few minor edits, my editor said it was good to go.
The next day, it was on the front page of the sports section! I was so excited!
This week I'm going to be covering a basketball double-header at Hoggard High School, so I'll be blogging about that in my next entry.
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