Sanity Hearing

What's Up With Teddy Bruschi?

For what it is worth, here are my thoughts on Teddy Bruschi coming back and playing for the Patriots.

Everyone I hear or read seems to want to make a huge deal about, "His kids and his family."  This just seems ludicrous to me.  You are not part of his family, you are not his child, or his wife, or even his second cousin, so how can you proclaim to know what is best for his family.  I imagine that to someone playing at the level he is at, with the amount of money that he already has in the bank, that to Bruschi playing football is what is important to him.  I have met plenty of people in my life who love to work, love to be busy, and would never be happy just sitting around.  My guess is that Bruschi's family realizes that playing in the NFL is a life long dream for him, something that means an incredible amount to him, and passing up any opportunity to continue doing that would be an incredible blow to Bruschi psychologically.

From what I have heard about his medical condition it seems like Bruschi is no more at risk playing football than he is walking down the street.  If that is the case, then I can't understand why you would not let him back out there to play. 

Why Being a Sports Fan is Good for Society

Last night I was sitting in the computer lab of the law school waiting for my 7:30 p.m. Civil Procedure class to start.  I had finished the reading for the class and had finished the reading for Constitutional Law the next morning.  I had burned up the meager motivation that was left in my emotional tank to do work and I had given blood earlier in the day so I was feeling a bit woozy from the excited anticipation I usually have for Civil Procedure.  I decided it was best to stop reading, get my books together, and surf the ol 'net for fifteen minutes or so before class.

In plain view of the insane law nerds with looks of desperation and soullessness on their faces as they stared into a list of results on Westlaw or Lexisnexis, I sat flipping through cartoons on Slate.com, later moving on to Sierratradingpost.com to see if there were any deals on sunglasses (there were, but I restrained myself).  At some point two guys walked into the lab and began having some sort of heated conversation.  The one student was saying he was 36 and made some general condemnations of the legal fraternities and what he percieved as the non- serious students.  What then struck me was that the student made a comment about people being excited about the Patriots winning the Superbowl.  He said mockingly, "People are talking about how 'we' won- most of these guys wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire."

Now that made me stop and think.  What is wrong with getting excited about a major league sports game?  You see a broad range of people from plumbers, to accountants, to world leaders at all kinds of sports games getting excited about teams they have nothing to do with-- are they "wrong" some how?

Now, I want to say the following with the caveat that I have never been very good at sports.  I have run a marathon, done a triathlon, and I honestly really enjoy running, swimming, biking-- lots of non-traditional type sporty things; however, I probably could not throw a baseball terribly well even at 24.  But given all that, I still really got into the Red Sox, went to the U.S. Open one year, I enjoy going to hockey games, get excited about the Superbowl even when the Patriots are not playing-- and I think that is a good thing, even though I could not emulate these guys at anything but a very minor level (case in point- see my high school football career).

Mind you- I am no rabid sports fan, but I generally think that sports provide a positive experience in our society and culture in the same respect that music, art, and theater, just as a few examples, do.  Many sports are more than simply violence, they are an exhibition of skill, but no one could deny that many sports bear some resemblance to some form of battle- even if in a distant form.  Many sports provide a chance to showcase humanity's strengths and weaknesses on a grand scale without anyone getting killed or seriously injured (usually).  You see great talent, leadership, creativity, and teamwork.  You also see, cheating, violence, and selfishness. 

Personally, I think more often than not we see how the positives win out and it reaffirms some part of us that believes in the positive traits of humanity.  As Hugh MacLeod has mentioned in his blog about marketing, people really want to believe in humanity and if you can sell them a product that helps them to have that belief they will have an irrational devotion to that product- that's the same thing I am talking about with sports.  I am sure that in sifting through the staggering multitude of legal cases or evaluating the various positive trends you may be able to find some sort of faith in the human spirit, but based on my limited experience- you are more likely to find the opposite.  I think this is actually true for a lot of people.  In our day to day jobs, we encounter situations that frequently make us question whether society has taken a wrong turn and is speeding towards the metaphorical cliff.  The truth is, I think the answer to where society is headed is both extremely complicated in a sense that traditional forms of academia and logic are not equiped to evaluate, but I also think that figuring out the answer can be both exhausting and depressing.

Sports may be just one thing among many, but they are a chance for many, like myself, to believe that there is some hope for humanity.  I have the same feeling listening to good musicians or reading brilliant authors- when I read them it allows me to see through the curtains of doubt about life and just feel a sense of hope and connection.  I have rarely felt that sense from any case I have ever read, grade I recieved, or assignment I wrote. 

So maybe my view is simplistic, maybe I am a mediocre student, maybe I am one of those non-serious students that fellow was talking about, but I think anything that brings people together and allows them some stress free hope for humanity regardless of their economic status or education level...well, in my book that's a pretty good thing.

Go Patriots.

so Shame On You

In high school I played football, which was somewhat amusing because prior to high school I am not sure I had ever even watched more than 10 football games in my entire life.  No one in my family was really a huge sports fan, so my own interest in sports did not really gel until I developed an interest own my own. 

Growing up I was fairly big for my age, so in high school football seemed like a good choice simply because, from what I had heard, being big was an asset to a football player.  So for two years I was a tackle on the Loomis Chaffee junior varsity football team.  I did not always enjoy practice, but I had a great time, and I started to really like football- in fact as far as high school, some of my best memories are of playing J.V. football.  One afternoon some student actually snapped a photo of all of us on the practice field after a rainy day, and the picture even made it onto the cover of the student handbook for two or three years- I was a celebrity!

But despite how much I like J.V. football, I always wanted to move up to varsity.  It was an achievement in my mind that seemed incredibly important and I am sure my mom and everyone else remembers me rattling on about trying to make varsity.

Junior year I finally got my shot to make varsity.  I went to preseason in one of the hottest weeks in August and practiced three times a day for a week and a half and when it was all over- I made the team...sort of.  I made the "swing squad," which essentially meant I was still a starter on JV, but a practice player on varsity.  In the end, I wound up spraining my ankle in a J.V. game and despite the fact the Varsity squad went on to win the League that year, I did not dress for enough games to get my varsity letter.  It was a real disappointment, something that took me a long time to get over.

At the end of the season, I heard a rumor (which I subsequently believe is accurate) that one of the seniors on the team had taken steriods.  What was most disturbing about the rumor was not just that it cast some doubt on our winning season, or that this guy had been one of our captains- a real team leader, but for me what was most troubling was that this was the starter in my position- the guy I had gotten clobbered by all season in practice.  Granted, practicing against a guy who is bigger and better probably makes you stronger, but as a 16 or 17 year old kid your motivation is severly curbed when your chances of starting or even dressing for games seems remote, because the starter seems so far ahead of you.  When it became apparent this guy had been taking steriods, it seemed to me like the playing field was unbelievably uneven.

Looking back, getting my varsity letter was not a tremendously big deal, although- who knows maybe I would have been more inspired to play in college if things had gone better in high school.

The perspective that I take on the recent steriod scandal in baseball is heavily colored by my experience in high school football, for two reasons.  First, I know what it is like, on a very small scale, to be a player competing against and playing with an athlete taking steriods.  By allowing the steriod user to get away with what he is doing he not only makes it harder for those he is competing against to make achievements through honest hard work, which of course puts pressure on them to engage in steriod use as well if they want to succeed.  Which brings me to my second point, the widespread acceptance of steriod use in professional sports definitely does translate to young athletes emulating their sports idols.

The recent scandal in baseball is unforunate for essentially the same two potent reasons I just described.  1.  Forcing other players to compete against steriod abusers makes success even more challenging than it already is and as a result places pressure on them to abuse steriods as well.  2.  Abuse of steriods by prominent, high profile athletes makes steriod abuse seem more acceptable and allows the taint on competition it creates to saturate sports down to the most fundamental levels.

Barry Bonds and the other baseball players need to be punished and punished harshly.

I was thinking I could make an elaborate post about the Red Sox winning, but I almost feel like either I can't do it justice, or that it's time to just let it be over or something. In the end, I feel that this picture just says it all:

ESRUC

The Curse IS Reversed.

It's pretty amazing. Mostly I am just stunned.

So they did it. The Red Sox beat the Yankees to win the ALCS in a totally unprecedented comback win from a 3 games to none deficit. I think even the most marginal Red Sox fan is truly inspired.

Last night I was out at McFadden's in Providence for the end of the game, which was absolutely packed to the brim with fans. For once during the commercials I had little or nothing to say because I was so nervous that something would happen- I just wanted the game to be over and know for sure that a Yankee comeback was averted. And then when it was finally over it was amazing. It was like New Years eve for Red Sox fans- I hardly knew what to do- hugging people, high-five-ing total strangers, honking and waving to other cars in the street on the drive home. It was inspirational people.

For those of you reading this from out of state, or who are not sports fans, or whatever, rest assured that once the World Series is over this page will return to its normal Non-sports dominated theme, but it seems like right now living in New England means being excited about the Red Sox. The other day I said to someone that the Red Sox were making history, to which someone responded that baseball is not history at all. I suppose they are right to an extent, but I will say this: right now is a very turbulent time in the world full of uncertainty and adversity- terrorism, a terrible election, our country is at war, plague, economic recession, but despite all of that sports have the power to inspire. I realize that baseball like any professional sport has come to mean more than just a high school football game, but nonetheless it has the power to inspire a larger group of people across wider economic and social boundries than any other medium.

At school yesterday someone wrote on the board of one of the classrooms, "Faith is believing in something even though you know doesn't make any sense, GO SOX." I think the real inspiration of the Red Sox, as I said before, is what it stands for. Most of us are not the Yankees of the world, we are the Red Sox- the ones that people counted out and came back when our backs where against the wall.

Quotes of the Day: Adam:"congrats to the Sox for stickin it to the man though."
Derek:"I'm like an exhausted toddler."

Quote from Wonkette today:

"Flu shot shortages, provisional ballots, the Red Sox and Yankees going to game seven: "This is the kind of behavior you see that leads to riots and uprisings," says one psychology professor. Yeah, imagine if the Cubs were still in it."

Forcing Game Seven

I was going to write about going back for Alumni Weekend this weekend, but the truth is that I can not. I am sick with Red Sox fever. I am truthfully not a huge sports fan, but it is difficult not to get sucked in to the tremendous come back fight that the Red Sox have made against the Yankees. So unfortunately, I cannot make any posts about any of the other stuff going on my life for the time being. What is most amazing to me is that while the Yankee fans become restless and cranky, throwing balls and batteries on their own homefield last night, the Red Sox fans are truly inspired despite the fact that this was an unprecendented come back from way behind.

Quote of the day from Derek: "I have never been on ecstasy, but I imagine this is what it is like."

I can't freakin' Believe It....

At 1:30 in the morning...they stay alive somehow.