NFL vs THE FANS

As the NFL draft around the corner this lock out seems to linger over the american fans head. Its become clear that the NFL would risk losing its fan and damaging the a 9 billion dollar idustry just what appears to be greed. I dont know the ins and outs of it nor do i despute the owners are great bussinessmen, how else would could they afford a team, but i am an avid NFL fan. I know more about the NFL then most people and love the Dallas Cowboys to a fault. All and all i am a football fan in the fullest extent; I buy jerseys, attend games, have the NFL package on direct TV, hell i have interior in my truck custom silver and blue leather with tom landrys face airbrushed in the dash with the superbowl trophies, so little to say my fan hood could not be questioned but this  locked out has turned me off. I hate to think what this lockout has done to the every day fan if some one would lives and breaths this sport refuses to buy NFL gear. When you see the NFL trying to hold out with the intent to miss game to make the players fill the pressure in thier pocket books, It makes you think that they could care less about the fans when we are the ones who make the sport. I am in the Navy so there are very few things that i can hold on to being that i am gone most of the time. 6 month deployment, work ups, certs, inspection, training cycle, under manning, budget cut, is just the work side, and the constantly gone from your family is the hardest part. The NFL gives me a since of normality being that i watched as a kid with my family it gives me somthing to hold on to. This lock out pits the NFL against the players and worst of all the fans. The draft is going down and i want to take patrick peterson or von miller even though they are a little out of the range of the cowboys draft slot, but none matter who they pick if they dont settle the "millionaires vs billionaires" then it wont matter. Look at what happened to baseball after 1994, the whole sport almost went bankrupt. I rest my case

Unit 2

Blog Unit 2

The ethics of performance-enhancing drugs is a subject that is border line out of control in today’s sports. Barry Bonds grand jury trial is going on right now for perjury in relation to doing steroids. Manny Ramirez is retiring this week for testing after testing positive for the third time. The list goes on and on in football and baseball mostly and If you watched baseball in any compactly then you’ve seen signs like “Babe Ruth did it with hot dogs” when it came to Barry Bonds breaking the home run record. The argument has been made WWE style wrestling but kind of a horse of a different color in that it has a pre determined out come and is all just choreographed moves, so the steroids are just for size and visual for the fans.

            The two sports I am focusing on are football and baseball and feel that they should be mentioned in different breaths because they are two very different situations. Baseball had the steroid era that had no specific time frame but is center around 1996 when Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa were jacking home runs what seemed like every game, but this was after the work stoppage of 1994 that a lot of fans lost interest. It you would like to read about it to expand your perspective the here is the link http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/313375/how_steroids_saved_baseball_pg2.html?cat=14.

In many way the performance enhancing drugs has made the sport more fun to watch but less creditable to judge.  While as a baseball fan you have to appreciate what this era did for the sport you also must frown at the people that tainted the sport. These baseball icons became villain over night thanks to BALCO inquires and while there records stand they must have the asterisk that says “tested positive for steroids or other performance enhancing drugs”.  These player have made us suspicious of any player playing at an elite level; Albert Puljos is playing at a level never seen before and has done so for years and when they tell his story people put in that he hasn’t test positive YET. The drugs take away from the sport and taint our record books.

Football a different story because it has gotten more popular every year it seems and never has had the fall off that base ball had in the 90’s. It just seems that football fans and voter don’t care about the steroids or performance enhancing drugs at all. Two years ago Brian Cushing got voted defensive rookie of the year after testing positive for steroids and suspend for the next season. There was a revote after they found out he had tested positive and he still won. Julius Peppers did the same thing and Shawne Merriman was voted to the pro bowl the same year that he was suspended for taking the drugs. So while it is not right, it is not as cut and dry as baseball. One player can’t and won’t determine the game. One line backer on steroids is doesn’t not change the game; one pitcher (Rodger Clements) on steroids and have all the difference in the world.