- 05:52 AM
- 07/25/08
| Name: | Craig Zwirn |
|---|---|
| Member since: | December 15, 2005 |
| Last visit: | May 16, 2008 |
Atheist has posted no links and 238 comments to SportsFilter and hasn’t posted any threads or comments to the Locker Room.
Jason Taylor Traded to Redskins After losing two defensive ends to season-ending injuries on the first day of camp, the Washington Redskins traded a second-round and sixth-round pick to the Miami Dolphins for defensive end Jason Taylor.
posted to Football at 7:50 AM CDT
Crooked ref claims NBA fixes games Tim Donaghy, ex-ref convicted of betting on games, claims referees pressured to call fouls by league and sometimes do so on their own. NBA denies it.
posted to Basketball at 1:08 PM CDT
I remember my father a professional gambler winning sports bets while justifying his betting selections by saying stuff like the league wants a seventh game or too much money at stake for this or that to happen, or its not good for business for certain team to win by too many points. He use to say there was too much money at stake gambling to trust that it wouldn't influence if not to total outcome, at least the margins of victory.
Well I used to think he was just doing the conspiracy theory thing a lot regardless of how many times he was right.
Now I wish my father were still alive to see that he has been proven right and yes in horse racing, boxing, basketball, football and baseball his theories about cheating, and money being the real motivation for most of what happens were correct.
posted at 5:48 PM CDT on June 12
Kimbo Slice is Going Primetime A sport that was once derided as "human cockfighting" and banned in most U.S. states is airing live on CBS Saturday night. Mixed Martial Arts fighter Kimbo Slice will face James "The Colossus" Thompson in the first live bout on one of the big four networks, a sign the brutal sport has gone mainstream. "Anyone who thinks CBS will not come out of this with some kind of black eye is fooling themselves," says sports consultant Marc Ganis.
posted to Boxing at 8:13 AM CDT
I think this fight with Kimbo Slice is just a publicity stunt and does little to serve the interests of MMA trying to become a legitimate sport. The UFC has some great well trained athletes. Nothing will ruin MMA as a legitimate sport faster then allowing a street punk like Slice airtime before he has proven himself a main event fighter. Now if he actually starts having some success against professional fighters then maybe I will become a believer in his talent. All I see at this point is a youtube curiosity being set up against some fall guy to create a show similar to the WWE.
IMO the UFC (which is undoubtedly the premier MMA venue) is a contradiction. On one hand they want to be a legitimate sporting organization. On the other hand they have over promoted themselves and the fighters with a soap opera reality show, the stupid nick names and that ego centric Dana White, that they look more and more like the WWE everyday. When a fighter has had two pro fights and he already is getting a nickname like the assassin or the cripler, (oh don't they all have a nickname?) it just reeks more of drama than sport. Some of the stuff they do is counter productive, although in America, making the money is king and they seem do be doing that.
As for the danger, so far MMA fighting has proven itself safer than boxing. The rules do a decent job of protecting the fighters and I have no problem with grown men being able to do the sport if they choose, or spectators watching if they enjoy it. I do however think it says a lot about our society that this is such a popular form of entertainment. The fact that I do enjoy it at times makes me question my own intelligence. I guess it is one of those things we can't deny about ourselves as human beings. We are attracted to violence. We can't help but look when we see an accident. Morbid curiosity I suppose. If I am home I will probably tune in. I only wish Kimbo was fighting someone I knew was good like Couture, or Mir, or other decent quality heavyweight who could teach him a few things. Actually I think a smaller skilled guy like Quintin Jackson, or Anderson Silva would probably be able to defeat the lumbering Kimbo Slice. Remember the oldest question asked when evaluating a fighter? Who has he beat? Well in the case of Kimbo the answer is a bunch of back yard brawlers . Certainly nobody with a name.
posted at 4:07 PM CDT on May 30
Next up after Kimbo is Chuck Zito. Hey now that sounds interesting! Chuck Zito vs Kimbo Slice. Two legendary street brawlers duking it out. They should fight in a ring designed to look like an alley, and be allowed to use various weapons positioned around the designer ring like bottles, pipes, chairs, etc.
I could come up with some great fight cards. Steven Segal vs Jean Claude Van Damm, Jackie Chan vs Wesly Snipes...
posted at 4:20 PM CDT on May 30
Pistorius makes strides is his quest to compete in Beijing. The double-amputee won his appeal against the IOC in his hearing with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (previous SpoFi discussion on this topic here and here; note Amateur's graphic that suggests how far Oscar still has to go in competition).
posted to Olympics at 8:56 AM CDT
Well regardless of whether or not his artificial limbs give him an advantage, it seems as though that advantage is not enough.
Pistorius holds the 400-meter Paralympic world record of 46.56 seconds, but that time is outside the Olympic qualifying standard of 45.55.
The difference in his record time and the minimum time required to qualify for the Olympics is over a second. While impressive for guy with no lower legs it is an eternity from just qualifying for the Olympics in the event. It appears that if judged by performance alone he is not good enough, admirable as his accomplishment may be, it is a moot point if he cannot qualify. The fastest double amputee with all the technology is not as fast as the slowest Olympic qualifier.
Everybody's concern about an unfair advantage seems misplaced.
I do agree that medical technology, chemical enhancement, equipment improvements and other advancements are something sports will be dealing with for a long time when it comes to the record books and what is considered cheating. Lets face it, even something as minor as improvements in clothing or playing surfaces give the modern athlete an advantage over those who set records in the past and their fellow competitors.
posted at 1:06 PM CDT on May 16
UFC Fighter Knocked Out in Eight Seconds In a Colorado ring thronging with his fans last night, Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Houston Alexander was knocked out by James Irvin in eight seconds, the shortest bout in the sport's history. "Houston Alexander has been utterly exposed," Michael Rome declared on the blog Bloody Elbow. (See the video.)
posted to Boxing at 8:05 AM CDT
I have always said that good boxing is the best technique to have in any fight. Chuck Liddel is a mediocre boxer, great by MMA standards but really would not stand up a round against a Roy Jones or other top boxer. Once a decent boxer learns how to deal with the jujitsu and defend against kicks and takedowns then there really is nothing better than fast accurate hands. I saw the fight and Alexander got hit with a telegraphed superman punch right on the button, he hit the ground and was helpless for a few seconds while he got hit cleanly a couple of more times. No matter how embarrassed or how much he bitched about an early stoppage, the ref did the right thing in protecting him from undefended blows to the head, by stopping the fight. No decent boxer would have been caught by that punch which came with a warning a mile away. Even before the fight I said to my wife Alexander looked like a tight body builder flexing to intimidate his opponent. He was stiff and pumped up. Not good for fighting.
When top MMA fighters get caught by a punch like this or KO'd by Chuck Liddell, who hold his hands low, doesn't have real hand speed, and fights with his chin out, I always wonder how quickly a top boxer of the same weight would take out these guys. Sure they are good on the ground but a lot of MMA fighters and again I use Liddell as an example, utilize footwork, movement and the sprawl to avoid a takedown then most of these guys are wide open for good hands. There was another fight last night where the highly touted Tommy Spears got his ass handed to him by a better boxer. With all his strength, wrestling and ground skills, he was pummelled by a guy with reach, footwork and hand speed. I think it took about 30 or 40 seconds.
Don get me wrong I love to watch MMA but the UFC is like the WWF in the sense that they give everybody a nickname before their first fight. Everybody that wins a couple of fights in their division is a contender, and basically they build up every guy they promote in their own TV show as a top fighter when they have a pro record of 3 &1. I really get irritated when some guy who has fought 3 time and lost twice has a nickname like so and so the assasin. Geez maybe when you knock out 10 opponents you deserve a nick name like the assasin or the killer. Until then should are just Joe Schmo. The UFC is in danger of a little too much hype that may hurt their credibility as a fighting sport.
posted at 10:05 AM CDT on April 3
Ultimate Fighting Robs The Cradle Want to watch 6-year-olds in the Octagon? Welcome to Missouri, apparently the only state in the union that allows "youth fighting." Says one parent, "We're not training them for dog fighting...I'd rather have my kids here than out on the streets."
posted to Culture at 5:46 AM CDT
I aways get a kick out of the self defense angle. "A kid needs to learn how to protect himself"
From what? Nowadays the dangerous kids have guns and knives. They shoot up a school. They drive by and shoot from a car on the "streets"
MMA is of little help in self defense from dangerous people. It's adults that need to protect kids from the dangers of the street. When you allow kids to protect themselves in this day and age you get what we have now, a lot of kids with weapons.
As for full contact combat as a sport for kids, they should be able to study martial arts but not in a full contact combative situation. Now if they excel and reach the age of consent (18 years old) then they should be able to fight in sactioned adult competitions like UFC or whatever. My whole issue is as others have pointed out, the reason an adult cannot make some decisions for their kids is that kids are unable to consent from a legal standpoint. It is the whole premise of why there is no such thing as consentual sex with a minor, why minors cannot sign contracts. Kids have not reached an age where their ability to consent is recognized by law. Should a kid be allowed to attempt a jump over the fountains at Ceasars palace on a motorcycle just because he wants to or his daredevil dad says its OK? Isn't this child endagerment?
There is also a difference between sports where injury is an accidental occurance, and sports like MMA or Boxing where the whole objective is beat your opponent unconscience, force him to surrender by way of a potential bone breaking submission, or choke him unconscience.
Personally I question the motives and judgement of any parent that would allow a 6 to 12 year old to participate in this kind of activity, but as a they say you can legislate against stupid.
posted at 4:10 PM CDT on March 28
Sorry for the spelling errors above. Please save the comments I am aware it should be unconscious. Just clicked to fast and got distracted before the edit ability expired.
posted at 5:43 PM CDT on March 28
The goal in MMA is not to injure an opponent, or render them unconscious but to win the fight
I don't know what MMA fights you are watching but it is absoutely the goal. The number one goal of every fighter that steps into the ring is to knock out the opponent. Let me spell this out. That means to hit him in the head hard enough to cause the temporary loss of consciousness. If this cannot be done then there is the option of choking him into it, causing a laceration which bleeds enough to get a doctor to stop the fight, or bending a joint to the point of breaking forcing him to tap out. I also disagree with the post about football players prefering to deflect a pass rather than hit the opponent. Most safetys in the NFL get paid to make big contact and separate receivers from the ball, or make them pay for coming into their zone etc. But in the case of football causing an injury is not the objective it's just the accidental result of hard football. In MMA the intent is to cause the lights to go out.
All you have to do is listen to fighters talk about their intentions before a fight and you will see that the object is absoutely to render the opponent helpless in one of the above fashions.
Surely the fighters are not trying to cause permanent injury but when they step in the ring it is literally hurt or be hurt. Please don't sugar coat it.
I like watching as much as the next guy. As long as the fighters are well skilled well trained professional adults with the ability for legal age consent. Watching seven year olds do it is just disgusting and frankly I would want my son getting hurt or would want him to hurt anyone else's child.
posted at 2:04 PM CDT on March 31
Belichick has been taping since 2000, Goodell tells Specter
posted to Football at 3:42 PM CDT
I thing this is the highest form of cheating. The integrity and security of having a closed practice or pre game run through is crutial. When I think back to the SB with the Pats and Rams I realize how much of an effect knowing the information had on the game, it sickens me.
I agree this diminishes the accomplishments of the Pats significantly. Think of all the close games that they won with an unfair advantage. Without those wins we may just have a good team not a dynasty. How many times were teams like the Colts beaten in a crutial playoff game by just a few points. All the difference in the world in my opinion. Even more reason to hate the Pats and savor their SB loss this year. I guess they couldn't cheat with all the scrutiny on them. It was probably the difference between their usual victory and this years defeat by a relatively average team.
posted at 12:06 PM CDT on February 15
One reason the tapes were destroyed might be to prevent them from being compared to the actual game film. For example- if the Pats had tape of the Rams pre game run through and knew the first 15 plays or had film of the goaline situations, and you could compare those tapes to the actual game film, you could then demonstrate how the Pats knew what was coming and show that by comparing the game film to what was known in advance by the Pats. If the Rams did in the game what the Pats had illegal film of and those plays were stuffed, well that would be pretty damning to the integrity of the game and everything accomplished by the Pats since the practice of illegal taping began.
Bellichek a genius or cheater? It is starting to look like he is a genius at cheating.
posted at 2:49 PM CDT on February 15
The NY Times real time blog of the Clemens hearings. The NY times blogs today's hearings. A follow up story from the Times is here.
posted to Baseball at 3:24 PM CDT
Clemens to me just seems to be unbelievable. To many others are implicating him and he is just squirming . Maybe he just wants to be remembered the way he does so badly he just cannot accept the result of admitting he used the stuff.
If you look at what is at stake here, there seems little motivation for anybody else to implicate Clemens, compared to the motivation Clemens would have for denial. I have made up my mind. Guilty
posted at 5:41 PM CDT on February 13
Pedro Martinez, Juan Marichal filmed at cock fight A video of Martinez and Marichal at a cockfight was posted this week on YouTube and it showed the two laughing before releasing the roosters. They took part as honourary "soltadores," the word used to describe the person who puts the animal to fight. The fight takes place in their home country, the Dominican Republic, where cockfighting is legal and popular. It is banned throughout the United States
posted to Culture at 6:12 AM CDT
Its so much easier to love dogs than chickens, cockroaches and other animals. That was Vicks mistake, he did it to lovable dogs, and along with the fact that he did his crime in the USA where it is a crime. Bull fighting, cock fighting and other similar activities are legal in some countries. So to me, if you are a professional athlete or ex pro athlete, doing something legal in another country whether it be chasing prostitues, or smoking weed in Amsterdam or attending cock fights in the Dominican Republic so be it. As long as when you are in the USA you abide by the laws here. Who cares.
The do-gooder - PETA types should take up their cause with officials in the Dominican Republic instead of bagging on two guys who like to watch cock fighting.
The attention of animal lovers would be better directed at McDonalds or KFC who kill em by the millions. Oh I forgot they are. I think I'll go eat a chicken for lunch as all this talk is making me hungry.
With all the problems in this world, millions of humans dying of starvation and genocide it sure is easy to not give a shit about chickens.
posted at 11:31 AM CDT on February 8
posted to Football at 9:07 PM CDT
The Giants were giant killers on Sunday. A lot of the what ifs I have read make me want to remind everyone that.
Everybody knows Defense Wins Championships.
Football is a game of inches/
The Giants led the league in sacks and pressure on the QB.
Any player will tell you that the team that makes the big plays when they have to wins.
Manning deserves the MVP because - In the first quarter he engineered a drive that almost took up the whole quarter resulting in a score and keeping the Pats offense on the sideline for almost a quarter. During that drive he made numerous 3rd down conversions with excellent on target passes. He played relatively mistake free. In the fourth quarter after the Pats had scored what looked like the winning touchdown, he stepped onto the field and with under two minutes left was asked to lead his team down the field and score a touchdown. Every good player dreams of this scenario. With a world of pressure he did exactly what was required.
The play - the Pats did everything perfect. The applied a ton of pressure on Manning, and the had the receivers covered. Despite that Manning makes the play of the game and escapes the pressure, gets the ball off and throws it to a covered receiver but in the only place possible to avoid a interception. The receiver makes a great catch and then has to fight off the defender to hang on to the ball keeping the drive alive. Then Manning throws a perfect touch pass for a touchdown. How do you not give him the MVP. The defense as a group were great but if you are going to single out one player for the MVP it's got to be Manning.
One question. How did the defense of the Giants let Moss get behind everybody with a couple of seconds left? Brady throws that ball a little sooner or 5 yards further and the Giants loose with 9 seconds on the clock.
I loved the game, and I have seen every Superbowl and think this was the best. Especially since the Giants beat the Pats in exactly the same way the Pats usually beat their opponents in the close ones. Great play combined with what seems like luck, but is really just making the plays when you have to. Priceless. Now the Pats just become one of three teams to go
18-1 for a season, but of course they are the only one of those teams that managed to have their one loss in the Superbowl. The other two teams were champions. Not even close to being the best team ever. They weren't even the best team of 2007. That distinction goes to the Giants. 18 -1 is a great season if you win the Superbowl. Without the championship ... it a wait until next year choke.
posted at 10:46 AM CDT on February 6
You may have misunderstood my point or maybe I did not express it well. I believe the Patriots are a great team but not the best team ever not even close. They may have had a good argument had they won but they didn't. My point being is that they were inches away from imortality only to fall into the category of good but not nearly great. The champoinship is everything where greatness is concerned in football. Without it 18 wins are irrelivant because they didn't win when it counted most.
I am no Giants fan but they earned the right to be called the best team in football for 2007. So if the Giants are the best team in 2007 where in History does that put the Pats? A good argument for the second best team of 2007 and certainly for the past 6 years they have been the most consistent winners
I will reiterate Football is a game of inches and this game was inches from going either way. The Patriots were beaten physically in that game even though they played well. Saying they choked isn't meant to diminish the fact that they were beaten by a better team on that day, but lets face it. They were unbeaten during the season playing a 10-6 wild card in the Superbowl, they had the lead with under 2:00 to play and couldn't stop an offense that was rated nineth in the NFC (forget about how much weaker the NFC was considered than the AFC). Lets just say the Giants played fantastic and the Patriots who were playing for sports immortality just couldn't put the game away with it all on the line. Choke may not be a good choice of words but I just couldn't think of another one.
posted at 12:17 PM CDT on February 6
Bill Parcells is pretty savvy. If he traded him it was probably a good time to do so. Of course Parcells doesn't usually go for the Hollywood types.