the way sabathia is pitching these days, mariokart fans will be calling him 150 cc - a level reserved for only the very best.
since joining the brewers, sabathia is 9-0 in 11 games started and has allowed more than 2 earned runs in just one of his past 10 starts, giving up 3 to the seemingly unstoppable cubs. his ERA has dropped to 1.43, which would be the lowest in the national league by over a run if he had enough innings to qualify. still not convinced? how's this for a clincher: sabathia leads the NL in complete games (5) despite having spent just two months in the league. (CORRECTION: sabathia actually has six complete games; the espn stats page i was referring to had not yet been updated.)
sabathia was not a deadline deal - he came over to wisconsin from cleveland in early july - but he is the kind of impact player that conniving general managers hope to pick up as the summer wraps up to make a difference in a pennant race. after sabathia threw what may still turn out to be a no-hitter tonight, the brewers are 10-1 in games started by their new ace and have a 5.5-game lead in the wild card. the rays may be the underdog darlings of 2008, but the brewers have to be the feel-good story in the national league.
at this rate, sabathia will be moving on to mirror mode pretty soon.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
sometimes, lightning does strike twice
no, i am not talking about usain bolt.
who is gilles muller? you probably have no idea. (but then again, you also probably don't know who kim kirchen and frank schleck are, either.)
unless, of course, you were watching the u.s. open on that fateful day in 2005. as andy roddick took the court against a 22-year-old from schifflange, luxembourg, little did he know what he was in for. three tiebreaker-determined sets later, roddick had lost his mojo and a small nation in europe had found a bit of non-GDP-related glory.
muller went on to lose to then-doubles partner robby ginepri - who is also half-luxembourgish - in 2005, and he faded pretty quickly from the international tennis spotlight. had he used up his 15 minutes of fame?
apparently not. today, after having won three matches in the qualifying tournament and held off laurent recouderc of france in the first round, muller overcame a 2-6, 2-6 start to come from behind and shock grizzled veteran tommy haas in five sets, using his strong serve and a willingness to try and paint the lines - he had 75 unforced errors in the match - to propel himself into the third round for the the first time in his brief flushing meadows history.
in the next round, he will face either californian sam warburg or 18th-seeded nicolas almagro of spain, neither of whom have been into the fourth round at the open. might the fireballer from luxembourg continue to surprise his opponents?
we here at poop on boozer will certainly be watching.
who is gilles muller? you probably have no idea. (but then again, you also probably don't know who kim kirchen and frank schleck are, either.)
unless, of course, you were watching the u.s. open on that fateful day in 2005. as andy roddick took the court against a 22-year-old from schifflange, luxembourg, little did he know what he was in for. three tiebreaker-determined sets later, roddick had lost his mojo and a small nation in europe had found a bit of non-GDP-related glory.
muller went on to lose to then-doubles partner robby ginepri - who is also half-luxembourgish - in 2005, and he faded pretty quickly from the international tennis spotlight. had he used up his 15 minutes of fame?
apparently not. today, after having won three matches in the qualifying tournament and held off laurent recouderc of france in the first round, muller overcame a 2-6, 2-6 start to come from behind and shock grizzled veteran tommy haas in five sets, using his strong serve and a willingness to try and paint the lines - he had 75 unforced errors in the match - to propel himself into the third round for the the first time in his brief flushing meadows history.
in the next round, he will face either californian sam warburg or 18th-seeded nicolas almagro of spain, neither of whom have been into the fourth round at the open. might the fireballer from luxembourg continue to surprise his opponents?
we here at poop on boozer will certainly be watching.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Kickoff to Election Season
You may know us, the editors of Poop on Boozer, merely as expert and witty sports enthusiasts, but in reality, we are so much more. Sure, we appreciate a perfectly executed suicide squeeze, but we also appreciate the bold emotionality of expressionist painting, the fragile pathos of La Traviata, or the subtle tones in a glass of finely aged brandy.
What am I talking about? I don't know. I've never had brandy. But I am dimly aware that there is some sort of political convention going on this week, and potentially next week as well. And in light of that, we at Poop on Boozer have decided to go with the flow and present you with:
POLITICAL FIGURES AS NFL ATHLETES
Barack Obama: Adrian Peterson. Like Obama, Peterson blew onto his sport's biggest stage as if from nowhere (Oklahoma is close enough to nowhere for our purposes), instantly garnering more attention than some of his more established counterparts. And while his flashy moves lead many to believe he has what it takes to be one of the all-time greats, and has already begun to establish his place in history, others claim that his fame is mainly due to one 296-yard performance that, like a 2004 convention speech, may not translate to present or future success.
Hillary Clinton: Brett Favre (off-field). One of the most recognized faces in her field, Hillary has been in the national spotlight for over a decade but has perhaps never dominated the headlines more than she has this summer (although she was pretty famous for being part of a title-winning team in 1996). However, she has also had some issues stepping aside gracefully when her time has come, refusing to relinquish her claim to the presidency even when it was clear that America had committed to going in a new direction. She currently works in New York.
John McCain: Brett Favre (on-field). Experienced, poised, and with the appearance of a true leader, Favre sacrificed his body for the sport that he loves, developing a Vicodin addiction after being subjected to the torture of NFL linebackers. Favre is often praised as a "maverick" and a "gunslinger" for his unconventional methods, but the question remains: do his many interceptions demonstrate that, as a decision-maker, he is no better than President Bush?
Next week: is Minnesota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty the T.J. Houshmanzadeh of politics?
What am I talking about? I don't know. I've never had brandy. But I am dimly aware that there is some sort of political convention going on this week, and potentially next week as well. And in light of that, we at Poop on Boozer have decided to go with the flow and present you with:
POLITICAL FIGURES AS NFL ATHLETES
Barack Obama: Adrian Peterson. Like Obama, Peterson blew onto his sport's biggest stage as if from nowhere (Oklahoma is close enough to nowhere for our purposes), instantly garnering more attention than some of his more established counterparts. And while his flashy moves lead many to believe he has what it takes to be one of the all-time greats, and has already begun to establish his place in history, others claim that his fame is mainly due to one 296-yard performance that, like a 2004 convention speech, may not translate to present or future success.
Hillary Clinton: Brett Favre (off-field). One of the most recognized faces in her field, Hillary has been in the national spotlight for over a decade but has perhaps never dominated the headlines more than she has this summer (although she was pretty famous for being part of a title-winning team in 1996). However, she has also had some issues stepping aside gracefully when her time has come, refusing to relinquish her claim to the presidency even when it was clear that America had committed to going in a new direction. She currently works in New York.
John McCain: Brett Favre (on-field). Experienced, poised, and with the appearance of a true leader, Favre sacrificed his body for the sport that he loves, developing a Vicodin addiction after being subjected to the torture of NFL linebackers. Favre is often praised as a "maverick" and a "gunslinger" for his unconventional methods, but the question remains: do his many interceptions demonstrate that, as a decision-maker, he is no better than President Bush?
Next week: is Minnesota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty the T.J. Houshmanzadeh of politics?
couching not-so-subtle racism in not-so-convincing rhetoric
this week, the LPGA announced that it will require its members to learn and speak english. and if they don't, they could face a suspension.
oh, of course, the LPGA had an explanation. as espn.com's bob harig details, LPGA tournaments are often dependent on local nonprofit organizations for their infrastructures, and much of the funding comes from the pre-tournament pro-am, which exposes young, emerging players to the professionals already on the tour. when the pros can't speak english, this makes this relationship awkward.
bullllllllllllllllllllshit.
i don't deny that the LPGA needs to cater to its business interests and to the sponsors that support it. but when's the last time you heard seattle mariners investors complaining because ichiro doesn't speak great english? can you imagine bud selig suspending all the players in the majors that can't sit for postgame interviews without an interpreter?
amateurs and fans learn to deal with the language barriers they encounter in the world of sports; that's part of the difficulty (and the beauty) of an international game. there is no doubt that the LPGA is an american organization and can certainly show a preference for english. and, in fact, they probably even have the right to require that english be spoken (although some lawyers may have something to say about that). but that doesn't mean that it should do this. rather than play up its international flavor (cf. nba and yao ming or mlb's bilingual "i live for this" campaign), the LPGA is taking the prejudiced route and squashing it.
when it comes down to it, the LPGA has been around for 50 years, and despite featuring over a hundred international players - many of whom struggle with english - it hasn't lost all its sponsors and accompanying dough. so why go out of its way now to make the 45 south koreans and their foreign peers feel unwelcome and unwanted?
melting pot? more like a solid (golf) stick up the ass.
oh, of course, the LPGA had an explanation. as espn.com's bob harig details, LPGA tournaments are often dependent on local nonprofit organizations for their infrastructures, and much of the funding comes from the pre-tournament pro-am, which exposes young, emerging players to the professionals already on the tour. when the pros can't speak english, this makes this relationship awkward.
bullllllllllllllllllllshit.
i don't deny that the LPGA needs to cater to its business interests and to the sponsors that support it. but when's the last time you heard seattle mariners investors complaining because ichiro doesn't speak great english? can you imagine bud selig suspending all the players in the majors that can't sit for postgame interviews without an interpreter?
amateurs and fans learn to deal with the language barriers they encounter in the world of sports; that's part of the difficulty (and the beauty) of an international game. there is no doubt that the LPGA is an american organization and can certainly show a preference for english. and, in fact, they probably even have the right to require that english be spoken (although some lawyers may have something to say about that). but that doesn't mean that it should do this. rather than play up its international flavor (cf. nba and yao ming or mlb's bilingual "i live for this" campaign), the LPGA is taking the prejudiced route and squashing it.
when it comes down to it, the LPGA has been around for 50 years, and despite featuring over a hundred international players - many of whom struggle with english - it hasn't lost all its sponsors and accompanying dough. so why go out of its way now to make the 45 south koreans and their foreign peers feel unwelcome and unwanted?
melting pot? more like a solid (golf) stick up the ass.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
the sentiment is spreading
it seems that more and more people want to poop on boozer. well, at least, they seem to be interested in boozer and poop.
check out RockyBalboa's post on cougarboard.com. i'm not quite sure what this website is, either, but this user seems to want to see boozer "give a poop."
any thoughts, coach k?
check out RockyBalboa's post on cougarboard.com. i'm not quite sure what this website is, either, but this user seems to want to see boozer "give a poop."
any thoughts, coach k?
Monday, August 25, 2008
INTERVIEW: sports illustrated's pablo torre
for every 1,000 kids that want to be superstar athletes when they grow up, there's one child who says, "mommy! daddy! i want to be a sportswriter!"
okay, okay, maybe that's an exaggeration - even if rick reilly and bill simmons might want it to be true. but for those of us who fail to translate high school minutes into college and professional-level goals and buckets, there's always sportswriting to fall back on.
well, pablo s. torre is like the michael phelps of harvard sportswriters. just a year out of college, he has covered everything from the coney island hot dog eating contest to the NBA playoffs. and as the summer ramped up, and with the olympics right around the bend, pablo made the jump to TV as well, appearing on everything from CNN Money to EXTRA.
even though he will always be modest, this 22-year-old sets the bar for (former) sportswriters like us here at poop on boozer. read on to find out what the half-journalist, half-entertainer had to say.
POB: Just so we can get this up front, what are your feelings on Carlos Boozer?
I mean, he actually robbed a benevolent blind man. Let's just say that I no longer feel bad about Jason Richardson bouncing the ball off his dome and then draining a three in his face, one of the great in-game punkings of all time. Also one of the great follow-up quotes, from Richardson: "It's not a no-class act. It was streetball, and he should know that. But maybe he doesn't since he's from Alaska." It's funny because it might be true.
POB: You're just one year out of college, but you are writing for Sports Illustrated and are talking sports with some of the biggest names in television. Is this what ESPN was trying to sell when it aired Dream Job?
Cross-branding aside...yes? Believe me, I fully appreciate that I'm doing any of this as my first job right out of college. Then again, this question just prompted me to look up Mike Hall in Wikipedia, which doesn't bode well for my side of this allusion.
But make no mistake: I'm still the youngest staff member at SI and surely the lowest, uh, totem (Native American spirit animal?) on the totem pole. And I love an occupation that pays me to do the things I genuinely enjoy (e.g. write) while forcing me to travel the country, watch television at work/be on television and play mini-ping pong in my office. For what it's worth, my friends also enjoy having reason to call me pretending to be William "The Refrigerator" Perry.
POB: What has been the most fulfilling and/or entertaining story you have covered in the past 12 months?
Hmm. So many great and absurd experiences, from spring training to the NCAA Tournament, but I'd say four things really quickly, if I may.
First: the essay I wrote for the magazine about Division I-AA/FCS football off of the I-AA title game last December in Chattanooga, Tenn., two months after starting at SI. Not even so much the writing, but the reporting, which somehow involved me meeting a girl from Appalachian State on the plane from Atlanta who then invited me to their tailgate, which then led to me drinking moonshine from a generic glass jar in a parking lot.
Second: the week I spent in Las Vegas leading up to the Manny Pacquiao-David Diaz title fight in June. Besides the fact that this was apparently "work," boxers afford you a level of access otherwise unseen in pro sports. When I say that I was in the bathroom with Pacquiao when he took his drug test, that's actually not an exaggeration. (Plus, the Boston Celtics were hanging out in his locker room.)
Third: an SI.com "bonus" I wrote about a high school wrestler and his father. So very much the opposite of any story about fantastically successful and wealthy athletes. It took forever to get it out, and it's certainly not one of those national stories that'll drive web traffic, but it is one of those things where you feel an authentic connection with the subject.
Fourth: working on Gary Smith's forthcoming anthology for SI Books. I was commissioned to write the epilogues for half of the stories in it, which meant tracking down a lot of obscure people that were only known to any of us through those SI articles. Just trading e-mails with Gary and retracing his footsteps was an unbelievable seminar in reporting. Talking to Richie Parker on the phone and dialing number after number to find people who might know Jonathan Takes Enemy, for example, was basically like stepping into a movie. As good as Gary is as a writer--and he's the best, I would say--the due diligence he does is almost unfathomable.
POB: Talk to us about your first time on television. What was that like?
I didn't think about TV at all when I started at SI. It just didn't know it was on the radar of possibility. In July, though, I was asked to be on the Fox Business Network for about a five-minute segment for a "Money in Sports" package we ran that I contributed to. It was live TV--so there's always that fear of totally humiliating yourself in front of, I guess, America/the world--and I had never done TV before (even my little brother was on a public service channel commercial once). So I wound up "studying" in earnest for the first time since graduating from college and calling upon, as humiliating as this is in and of itself, four years of high school debate, which did sort of help.
Since then, our PR department and these news programs have apparently liked me enough to keep sending me out there on an at-times unsettlingly regular basis, especially for the Olympics. It helps that our offices are across the street, literally, from NBC and Fox's studios, and only blocks away from CNN. I like all of it, and the TV and radio producers I've worked with so far haven't yet been totally repelled by my tendency to make awful puns. (Thanks, NPR!)
POB: Who is the coolest celebrity you have met thus far?
For whatever reason, I don't think I really get starstruck. Though I did send in a Gawker Stalker tip about Josh Hartnett once after we watched "There Will Be Blood" in the same movie theater. But I digress.
Does Brian Scalabrine count as a celebrity? I interviewed him after a game during this year's Eastern Conference Finals as he ate pasta from the post-game spread and he was as gracious an athlete as they come. In my adventures on TV--and purely on the This-Is-a-Good-Story scale--I'd say it's a tie between Bill O'Reilly and Russell Simmons, who wound up in the green room with me at one point. Also, Anderson Cooper basically ignored me in an elevator at the CNN building, but I probably would have ignored myself.
Wait, scratch all of that. I randomly met Dikembe Mutombo walking through the cafeteria of our building when I was an intern. "Star-struck" (star-roundhouse-kicked?) does not do that experience justice.
POB: What tips do you have for young journalists trying to follow in your footsteps?
First, it's completely disingenuous for me to give advice to anyone. I am 22 years old and started working at SI 11 months ago, to the point where answering "I'm a journalist" while meeting people at bars only stopped being kind of hilarious a few weeks ago. Last month I was in the kitchen of our office, toasting a bagel, and a person on our copy desk graciously asked if I was still an intern. And for this TV stuff, it's the stuff that's written that really garners attention at our office.
But if I can say one thing, it's that I got into this by way of writing and luck. I'd sent clips from The Crimson to SI when I applied to be an intern in the summer of '06, and after it was done they invited me back, with a sobering warning that is sure to unsettle parents of dutiful Harvard sportswriters everywhere: "I don't care what your grades are, or where you went to school, just whether you can write." (To paraphrase Conan O'Brien's incredible Class Day address: While interviewing Carlos Zambrano, let's just say that my senior thesis on statistical and theoretical approaches to child homicide doesn't come up much.)
I just consume the genre I work in and--by the natural order of things--the folks I work for, which I've read for sheer literary value for years and years. It's just that the job now can also be increasingly multimedia-based, with right-place/right-time opportunities in stuff like TV and radio. Needless to say, upon arrival here I did not foresee fill-in host Laura Ingraham insinuating that I was un-American on The O'Reilly Factor.
POB: Finally, if you had to poop on someone or some team today, who would that be?
As we're still in Olympics mode, I was going to say the Chinese women's gymnastics team. But that's just a terrible idea in every conceivable way.
okay, okay, maybe that's an exaggeration - even if rick reilly and bill simmons might want it to be true. but for those of us who fail to translate high school minutes into college and professional-level goals and buckets, there's always sportswriting to fall back on.
well, pablo s. torre is like the michael phelps of harvard sportswriters. just a year out of college, he has covered everything from the coney island hot dog eating contest to the NBA playoffs. and as the summer ramped up, and with the olympics right around the bend, pablo made the jump to TV as well, appearing on everything from CNN Money to EXTRA.
even though he will always be modest, this 22-year-old sets the bar for (former) sportswriters like us here at poop on boozer. read on to find out what the half-journalist, half-entertainer had to say.
POB: Just so we can get this up front, what are your feelings on Carlos Boozer?
I mean, he actually robbed a benevolent blind man. Let's just say that I no longer feel bad about Jason Richardson bouncing the ball off his dome and then draining a three in his face, one of the great in-game punkings of all time. Also one of the great follow-up quotes, from Richardson: "It's not a no-class act. It was streetball, and he should know that. But maybe he doesn't since he's from Alaska." It's funny because it might be true.
POB: You're just one year out of college, but you are writing for Sports Illustrated and are talking sports with some of the biggest names in television. Is this what ESPN was trying to sell when it aired Dream Job?
Cross-branding aside...yes? Believe me, I fully appreciate that I'm doing any of this as my first job right out of college. Then again, this question just prompted me to look up Mike Hall in Wikipedia, which doesn't bode well for my side of this allusion.
But make no mistake: I'm still the youngest staff member at SI and surely the lowest, uh, totem (Native American spirit animal?) on the totem pole. And I love an occupation that pays me to do the things I genuinely enjoy (e.g. write) while forcing me to travel the country, watch television at work/be on television and play mini-ping pong in my office. For what it's worth, my friends also enjoy having reason to call me pretending to be William "The Refrigerator" Perry.
POB: What has been the most fulfilling and/or entertaining story you have covered in the past 12 months?
Hmm. So many great and absurd experiences, from spring training to the NCAA Tournament, but I'd say four things really quickly, if I may.
First: the essay I wrote for the magazine about Division I-AA/FCS football off of the I-AA title game last December in Chattanooga, Tenn., two months after starting at SI. Not even so much the writing, but the reporting, which somehow involved me meeting a girl from Appalachian State on the plane from Atlanta who then invited me to their tailgate, which then led to me drinking moonshine from a generic glass jar in a parking lot.
Second: the week I spent in Las Vegas leading up to the Manny Pacquiao-David Diaz title fight in June. Besides the fact that this was apparently "work," boxers afford you a level of access otherwise unseen in pro sports. When I say that I was in the bathroom with Pacquiao when he took his drug test, that's actually not an exaggeration. (Plus, the Boston Celtics were hanging out in his locker room.)
Third: an SI.com "bonus" I wrote about a high school wrestler and his father. So very much the opposite of any story about fantastically successful and wealthy athletes. It took forever to get it out, and it's certainly not one of those national stories that'll drive web traffic, but it is one of those things where you feel an authentic connection with the subject.
Fourth: working on Gary Smith's forthcoming anthology for SI Books. I was commissioned to write the epilogues for half of the stories in it, which meant tracking down a lot of obscure people that were only known to any of us through those SI articles. Just trading e-mails with Gary and retracing his footsteps was an unbelievable seminar in reporting. Talking to Richie Parker on the phone and dialing number after number to find people who might know Jonathan Takes Enemy, for example, was basically like stepping into a movie. As good as Gary is as a writer--and he's the best, I would say--the due diligence he does is almost unfathomable.
POB: Talk to us about your first time on television. What was that like?
I didn't think about TV at all when I started at SI. It just didn't know it was on the radar of possibility. In July, though, I was asked to be on the Fox Business Network for about a five-minute segment for a "Money in Sports" package we ran that I contributed to. It was live TV--so there's always that fear of totally humiliating yourself in front of, I guess, America/the world--and I had never done TV before (even my little brother was on a public service channel commercial once). So I wound up "studying" in earnest for the first time since graduating from college and calling upon, as humiliating as this is in and of itself, four years of high school debate, which did sort of help.
Since then, our PR department and these news programs have apparently liked me enough to keep sending me out there on an at-times unsettlingly regular basis, especially for the Olympics. It helps that our offices are across the street, literally, from NBC and Fox's studios, and only blocks away from CNN. I like all of it, and the TV and radio producers I've worked with so far haven't yet been totally repelled by my tendency to make awful puns. (Thanks, NPR!)
POB: Who is the coolest celebrity you have met thus far?
For whatever reason, I don't think I really get starstruck. Though I did send in a Gawker Stalker tip about Josh Hartnett once after we watched "There Will Be Blood" in the same movie theater. But I digress.
Does Brian Scalabrine count as a celebrity? I interviewed him after a game during this year's Eastern Conference Finals as he ate pasta from the post-game spread and he was as gracious an athlete as they come. In my adventures on TV--and purely on the This-Is-a-Good-Story scale--I'd say it's a tie between Bill O'Reilly and Russell Simmons, who wound up in the green room with me at one point. Also, Anderson Cooper basically ignored me in an elevator at the CNN building, but I probably would have ignored myself.
Wait, scratch all of that. I randomly met Dikembe Mutombo walking through the cafeteria of our building when I was an intern. "Star-struck" (star-roundhouse-kicked?) does not do that experience justice.
POB: What tips do you have for young journalists trying to follow in your footsteps?
First, it's completely disingenuous for me to give advice to anyone. I am 22 years old and started working at SI 11 months ago, to the point where answering "I'm a journalist" while meeting people at bars only stopped being kind of hilarious a few weeks ago. Last month I was in the kitchen of our office, toasting a bagel, and a person on our copy desk graciously asked if I was still an intern. And for this TV stuff, it's the stuff that's written that really garners attention at our office.
But if I can say one thing, it's that I got into this by way of writing and luck. I'd sent clips from The Crimson to SI when I applied to be an intern in the summer of '06, and after it was done they invited me back, with a sobering warning that is sure to unsettle parents of dutiful Harvard sportswriters everywhere: "I don't care what your grades are, or where you went to school, just whether you can write." (To paraphrase Conan O'Brien's incredible Class Day address: While interviewing Carlos Zambrano, let's just say that my senior thesis on statistical and theoretical approaches to child homicide doesn't come up much.)
I just consume the genre I work in and--by the natural order of things--the folks I work for, which I've read for sheer literary value for years and years. It's just that the job now can also be increasingly multimedia-based, with right-place/right-time opportunities in stuff like TV and radio. Needless to say, upon arrival here I did not foresee fill-in host Laura Ingraham insinuating that I was un-American on The O'Reilly Factor.
POB: Finally, if you had to poop on someone or some team today, who would that be?
As we're still in Olympics mode, I was going to say the Chinese women's gymnastics team. But that's just a terrible idea in every conceivable way.
Be Like Mike
It happened so subtly, accompanied by so little fanfare, that you may not have even noticed it. In fact, it took a torn lateral meniscus in the left knee of Osi Umenyiora, suffered as he rushed the quarterback in a meaningless preseason contest, to bring the issue into the spotlight:
Michael Strahan has retired from the NFL.
Not that he necessarily wanted them, but Strahan would have had a hard time jockeying for headlines as he left his NFL career behind him following the 2007 season. Newspapers, blogs, and the first half hour of every episode of Sportscenter this past summer were dominated by another prominent "retirement:" that of Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.
Just as Favre deserves all the criticism he receives for the way he played coy with the media, orchestrating his presence as a perpetual top story while pretending not to want media attention, Strahan is to be commended for the grace and sincerity with which he entered a life of retirement. While Favre dragged us all along with him as he proved incapable of making a decision with any conviction whatsoever, texting his BFF Rachel Nichols whenever he wanted to return to the headlines, Strahan made his decision and stuck with it, accepting that retiring from the NFL meant that his life was now a nonstory. And while Strahan is now "open to returning," just as Favre was, the two players' motivations could not be more opposite. While Favre torpedoed and eventually abandoned the team he claimed to love for all those years, Strahan appears to be considering a return only because it may save a team he truly does care for.
Even the circumstances under which the two players retired highlights the differences between their style of play. Strahan had the guts and the knowhow to go out on top, following a Super Bowl victory that his defense won almost singlehandedly. Favre, on the other hand, tried to leave on the heels of yet another ill-advised interception, a significant element of his playing style that the media always seemed to forget to mention.
Now, in what has been one of the most exciting offseasons in recent memory, the two players have reaped what they sowed. Favre found himself in a no-win situation: accept a buyout from the Packers and prove that his love of football could be bought from him, play turncoat against the franchise that turned him into an icon, or play spoiler to the career of Aaron Rodgers and the future of the Packers. Strahan, on the other hand, cannot lose: either he stays retired and proves that, unlike some, he meant it when he said he was done, or he comes back and stands as the guy the Giants could always count on when they needed him. Favre, who always masqueraded as a classy guy, has revealed his selfishness to the world, while Strahan, who truly is one, has nowhere to go but up.
Oh, and by the way: the QB that Umenyiora was chasing when his ligaments gave out on him? None other than New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre.
Michael Strahan has retired from the NFL.
Not that he necessarily wanted them, but Strahan would have had a hard time jockeying for headlines as he left his NFL career behind him following the 2007 season. Newspapers, blogs, and the first half hour of every episode of Sportscenter this past summer were dominated by another prominent "retirement:" that of Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.
Just as Favre deserves all the criticism he receives for the way he played coy with the media, orchestrating his presence as a perpetual top story while pretending not to want media attention, Strahan is to be commended for the grace and sincerity with which he entered a life of retirement. While Favre dragged us all along with him as he proved incapable of making a decision with any conviction whatsoever, texting his BFF Rachel Nichols whenever he wanted to return to the headlines, Strahan made his decision and stuck with it, accepting that retiring from the NFL meant that his life was now a nonstory. And while Strahan is now "open to returning," just as Favre was, the two players' motivations could not be more opposite. While Favre torpedoed and eventually abandoned the team he claimed to love for all those years, Strahan appears to be considering a return only because it may save a team he truly does care for.
Even the circumstances under which the two players retired highlights the differences between their style of play. Strahan had the guts and the knowhow to go out on top, following a Super Bowl victory that his defense won almost singlehandedly. Favre, on the other hand, tried to leave on the heels of yet another ill-advised interception, a significant element of his playing style that the media always seemed to forget to mention.
Now, in what has been one of the most exciting offseasons in recent memory, the two players have reaped what they sowed. Favre found himself in a no-win situation: accept a buyout from the Packers and prove that his love of football could be bought from him, play turncoat against the franchise that turned him into an icon, or play spoiler to the career of Aaron Rodgers and the future of the Packers. Strahan, on the other hand, cannot lose: either he stays retired and proves that, unlike some, he meant it when he said he was done, or he comes back and stands as the guy the Giants could always count on when they needed him. Favre, who always masqueraded as a classy guy, has revealed his selfishness to the world, while Strahan, who truly is one, has nowhere to go but up.
Oh, and by the way: the QB that Umenyiora was chasing when his ligaments gave out on him? None other than New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre.
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