Playoffs

This time of year is such a wonderful time for many reason, but for a sports fan there are three. First the weather is getting nice so the fresh air is for sure a plus. Its the only time of year with 2 playoffs going on at the same time. The NBA playoffs and NHL playoffs. Or you can say the Black mans game and the White mans game.

82% of the NBA is black making it the "blackest sport" in America

3.9% of active NHL players are black making it so white that hockey fans have trouble naming one good black player

Some of the best athletes are competing over the next couple weeks against athletes of the same color.

I was thinking what would be more impressive. A all white NBA team winning the NBA Finals or a Black man winning the NHL Stanley Cup MVP.

What do you think would be more impressive?

13 is the Magic Number

In early January all 120 FBS Division 1 football programs signed their coaches. Many long-tenured coaches left their respective programs. For example Bobby Bowden of FSU and Mike Leach of Texas Tech to just name a few.

This year in hiring was unlike anyother. In 2010, black coaches made a historic stride forward. Six African-American coaches were hired this year to bring the number up to 13 total. This year alone doubled the amount of coaches. And brought it from around 3% to 10%. This number 13 may be unlucky to some, but for African Americans this is the most amount of Division 1 football coaches ever.

13 the number of head African American Coaches
107 the number of non African American coaches (nearly all are white)

A few years ago there were only 4 black coaches and before that 1 and before that 0. The start of black coaches making an impact at the college level hasn't happened yet, but has in other sports. The NFL and NBA have about 25% of their coaches African-American. Could the college ratio ever be so close the the professional? 25% of the college coaches would mean just about 30 coaches would be African American. Doesnt seem far off but the amount of time it took to get 13, so it may be a long time untill a quater of the coaches are African American.

Rooney...

As I was researching my JT topic last night about African American Coaches, I came upon an article about this rule called the Rooney Rule. What is the Rooney Rule?  The Rooney Rule is named after Pittsburgh Steelers owner  Dan Rooney and was established in 2003. With a goal towards balance minority candidates with other hires, the rule mandates that all coaching searches interview at least one minority candidate. As of 2009, there are almost four times as many African American head coaches in the NFL than there were prior to the rule. This rule applies only when a team conducts a search for a head coach. If a team decides to hire internally, they do not have to consider minority candidates. One example might be an interim head coach being promoted to head coach. A real-life example was Mike Martz’s promotion to head coach of the St. Louis Rams, as he was already on Dick Vermeil’s staff as offensive co-ordinator.

Our Bears coach Lovie Smith was the first African American to coach in the Super Bowl, playing Dungy and the Colts. Technically, Smith was the first African American to coach in the Super Bowl, as the Bears defeated the Saints for the NFC Championship just hours before the Colts defeated the Patriots for the AFC Championship.

What? who does it serve? Doesn’t this “rule”  take away the accomplishments of black coaches? Doesn’t it make it appear as though they are being interviewed due to a "rule" by the NFL, and not due to the sacrifices they’ve made along the way that put them into positions to be hired in the first place?

There isn't a rule for this in College football...
There are so many more Division 1 football teams then the NFL (120) and yet there are about the same amount of coaches. Shouldn't a rule like this be placed in College too because colleges are the breading grounds for NFL players and coaches...

The Madness that is March

March Madness concluded on Monday night with one of the most exciting games ever. This game consisted of two opposite teams. One of the teams: Duke, a power house program that is in the top 10 almost every year and championships are routine. The other team Butler. Butler who???? exactly  a team that has never gone to the elite 8 before and certainly never a national championship.
Everyone isn't a Duke fan wanted Butler. You could say the Nation was pulling for Butler. But the Dream would end short of a Championship. On Monday night they lost to Duke with the score of 61-59. Butler missed two game winning shots, but everyone thought that it was an amazing game.
Duke who was basically up the entire game, every time they would pull ahead with a 6 or 8 point lead, the bulldogs of Butler would come right back with some quick baskets of their own.
If Butler would have won the game they would have been the first mid-major to win it since UNLV in 1990. But many would consider that team anything but midmajor. They were 35-5 and had three players go in the first round of the Daft. And I bet you didnt know this but that won 103-73 over Duke. And that game gives UNLV the largest margin of victory in a Championship game. And they were a midmajor.

But this year was more then Butler going to the finals it was about all the upsets that happened in March and early April there were 21 upsets (I think) which seems like a lot and is a lot. And not only were there upsets, but some were huge!! March and Early April is the best time in sports, You have the NCAA Tourny, The Masters on CBS, opening day, the near end of basketball and hockey regular season. Its the closest thing the sports has to perfect. So March and early bring more madness then any other time of the year