Thursday, November 15, 2012

Life after Football

I wake up every morning and there isn't one inch on my body that doesn't hurt.  But that is the price I payed when I decided to play football.
I have broke my wrist, tore my MCL, had concussions, and most recently tore my labrum in my right shoulder.  These things bother me every day and don't get me wrong I love football but I am afraid for my future.  I want to be able to walk or exercise when I'm older or even be able to move.  I want to be able to be active with my kids and not have my brain turn to mush and forget past events.  When I think about it, it is crazy what I sacrifice for the game of football, and it's only Division 3.  The time I have put into it, what I've put my body through, and the sacrifice I've made being away from my family.  But with all these sacrifices come great payments.  I have won two conference championships, which many people won't ever have or even know the feeling.  But most importantly I have adopted hundreds of family members with the Tiger football family.  Alumni, and my present team mates that I have now.  And I am grateful for them and the opportunities that they have presented to me or will in the future.  I just hope my health doesn't get in the way of it.

Nut Cutting Time

I'm sure everyone is aware that Wittenberg is trying to cut various departments in order for the school to save money and avoid even worse economic issues.  To put it bluntly Wittenberg has to cut something and it is not gonna be athletics.
And here is why, every sport no matter if it is football or if it is cross country it brings in students which in turn gives the school money.  So take for example the football team, they have at least 60 recruits a year, and that may be a low number.  That equated to how many thousands of dollars for the school, and even if those students transfer they are still getting some money from those kids still.  Then you take a look at the Dance major, and no offense to the dance majors but there may be 4 dance majors.  Now look at events how many home games to athletic teams have and how many dance recitals to we have? Huge revenue difference there.  Also with sports, with our teams being as good as they are they host additional playoff tournaments too, so there is even more money there.  So don't blame Wittenberg athletics for Witt losing money, that is just not fair.  It is just that those departments are making enough money and when push comes to shove, someone has gotta go.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Election Hangover

So now that all of the annoying commercials on TV and on your YouTube videos will now disappear, what will happen next?

President Obama's reelection Tuesday night happened rather quickly ending around 11:30 PM and soon after that we learned of other changes around the nation.  Marijuana was legalized in two states and gay marriage was legalized in four more.  But that may be all the significant change we see.  Republicans retained the House and the democrats won the Senate.  So they key question now will be can the President create poilicies that both sides agree or will he become more moderate in order to get anything done.  More political stalemates can really hurt our country.  But after this election and after seeing things on Twitter and talking to others, I don't ever remember seeing people opinions so divided.  We need to come together as a nation and figure some things out before we get ourself too deep into some shit.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Loss of Royalty


Early Wednesday morning reports flooded in of the passing of legendary football coach Darrel K. Royal at the age of 88.
Royals most significant years were spent in Austin coaching the University of Texas Longhorns.  He paved the road for what the Longhorn program is today.  In 20 season he won three National Championships (1963, 1969-1970) and 11 Southwest Conference titles, now the Big 12.  He compiled a record of 167-47-5 making him the the winningest coach in Longhorn football history.  He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1996 University of Texas renamed their stadium to Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium.  
Royal also patented the wishbone offense.  The wishbone offense put less stress on the offensive line by inserting a fullback into the backfield.  The wishbone eventually led to the invention of the option offense.  Which the Longhorns used to win 2 of the 3 national championships in Royals tenure.  
The Longhorns will honor Coach Royal by wear decals on their helmets with the initials DKR on it and will line up in the patented wishbone offense in their first offensive play.  The Longhorns will take on Iowa State at noon on Saturday.