The Sports Chick Blog

 Geeks unite! Madden 09 is out!! Now odds are all those Madden geeks are not reading this blog b/c they’re trying to figure out every move, cheat, and code to the game, but I’ll write anyway!

So by no means is my brother a geek, but he like every other football player in America has to own Madden AS SOON AS IT COMES OUT! So when he did get his hands on the game the first thing we did when we got home was push that baby into the XBox and play away.

As he was going through all the 32 NFL teams I noticed that all the Head Coaches are listed: Tony Dungy, Lane Kiffin, Eric Mangini, blah blah blahhh! But when you scroll down to that team with the NE (yes New England) it says,

“NE Coach”

Umm excuse me, but it thought that cheaters are labeled by their names??

Anyway, dig a little deeper into the “NE Coach” and you find out that Billy-Boy’s name isn’t anywhere in Madden (or anyother outside the NFL merch) because he is not part of the NFLHCA (National Football League Head Coaches Association). And Madden has the rights to display player names and coaches names because of the NFLPA and NFLHCA respectively. The only other coach not to be a part of the NFLHCA is the messiah, Bill Parcells, but that is entirely because of his contract with ESPN… So what is Mr. No Sleeves excuse?

ps- I’m obligated not to use the fella’s name b/c of the NFLHCA **wink, wink**

 Something I really wanted to blog about was a suggestion from my Daddy. You see, every once and a while I’ll write a little bit about my personal life. If you read The Chick page, then you know that me and my family are loyal NY Jets season ticket holders. So with the new Jet-Giant billion dollar stadium being built, the teams are issuing PSLs: Personal Seat Licences. PSLs are meant for the corporate level. Let’s say you have a company that sells pool supplies, Jay’s Pool Supply. Jay’s business does pretty well in the Long Island area and has 78% of its clients are Mets fans. So Jay’s would buy two box seats at Shea Stadium with a PSL. So when Jay’s sells their Mets tickets to its best customers, they sit in seats with a little sign on the box bar that reads, “Jay’s Pool Supply.” Ok no problem there, but here is the issue with PSLs now.

In the new Jet-Giant stadium, the two teams with make it MANDATORY that fans buy a PSL for each seat they have. The PSLs will be anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000 PER SEAT! The PSLs for fans will only grant them the RIGHT to purchase seats, not to have them. For example, my Dad owns six seats in the mezzanine at Giants Stadium. To own the rights to have those seats in the new stadium, my Dad would pay $30,000 ($5,000 x 6 seats = $30,000)! On top of that, my Day would then have to pay another $12,000 for the tickets to the seats ($250 x 6 seats = $1,500; $1,500 x 8 regular season home games = $12,000). All the money my Dad would spend on tickets with the new MANDATORY PSL would be roughly two years of tuition at SUNY Cortland for me and my sister!

Also, the Giants are implementing a survey to see if fans would want to purchase PSLs. First of all, the survey is bogus! It’s just to say that fans have chosen their fate, when in fact a survey would be to cover the Giants ass! Second, no one in their right mind would ever agree to a PSL given the correct facts! Another reason a PSL is bad for fans is the will factor. Let’s say John Smith has had seats 1 - 4 in section 102 for Giants home games since 1950. The seats get passed down from generation to generation. Now Johnny IV is set to own the tickets when his sick Dad, John III, passes away. NOW you can only will tickets to a kin if you have a PSL for each seat! If Johnny III kicks the bucket tomorrow and doesn’t have a PSL for his seats, then Johnny IV is shit out of luck, and the tickets go to some schmo who has been on the Giants season ticket waiting list for 25 years!

Not just the Jets, Giants, and NFL, but the sports world is in a different age my friends. The game itself is not about the fans anymore. Sure fans fill the seats, but those seats are corporate owned, signage is pushed down the fans throat with company logos in bathroom stalls, and ticket prices continue to increase. Let’s take my Dad’s Jets tickets as an example again, the Jets record the past 5 years are as follows: 2003 - 6-10, 2004 - 10-6, 2005 - 4-12, 2006 - 10-6, 2007 - 4-12. Despite three losing seasons in the past five years, my Dad’s Jets tickets have consistently increased $5 per seat, per game EVERY YEAR!!

Another one of my favorite teams, the NY Yankees, are opening a new Stadium next year. The Yanks said when the plans were first announced that to treat the fans to a better game the amount of seats in the lower level will be switched to the higher amount of seats that are in the upper level. Therefore, more fans can view a great game from a better view. Good way to twist things! They are making the fans think that more lower level seating is FOR THE FANS, but in fact the Yankees are turning those $5-10 seats in the nose-bleed section into cash cow $100-$250 seats behind the plate and down the lines. Now you tell me who this benefits? The fans or the wallets?

So do me a favor fans, next time your favorite lifts that championship throphy and says, “this one is for the fans!” Boo like all hell! That championship is really for the sponsors, millionaires who go to the games in suits and ties, companies who but thousand dollar suites every year, and for the corporate office that pushes the fans out of the game!

 Since I dislike both the Giants and Patriots, I decided to do a little experiment and watch the Super Bowl like half the worlds population … I watched as a female, and not a football fanatic. After experiencing the Super Bowl like a “girl” I’ve realized why my fellow females HATE THE SUPER BOWL!!

We were forced to watch two teams we could care less about (the score being 7-3 most of the game didn’t help either!), watch a Halftime show featuring a singer that is 20 years older than my Dad, and the biggest dissappointment of the night was definitely the commericals! As each commericial went by I thought “well hopefully this one is better,” but no they were terrible!

Each commercial made me wonder why the hell would a company spend millions and millions of dollars on 30 seconds of pure crap! Now there were a few “haha that was cute” commercials such as, the Bridgestone squirrel scream, and the Rocky themed Budweiser. But other than that the commercials were the worst I’ve ever seen! click here to see the misery for yourself! However, my favorite of the night was the NFL sponsored spot of the Super Ad. It featured Houston Texans Ephraim Salaam and Chester Pitts. The NFL had various players tell stories from their NFL careers and the best story would be featured in an Ad. The Texans story was cleary the best, and funniest! Click here to see it!  

After the NFL Super Ad aired my experiment ended. I realized that no matter how much I hated my NY Jets rivals, I was still a football fan! I still got the chills during the National Anthem, and during the touchdowns! Football is a sport that thrills those who thrill it. The commercials never got better, and by the 4th quarter I was back to my old form and watching the game for the game. The Manning to Tyree pass within the last minute of the game was one of the greatest Super Bowl moments I’ve seen! So congrats to the Giants (and to my friends and family who are Giants fans). I only hope that your Super Bowl 42 win will make you heckle me and my fellow Jets fans less, but I’ve lived under the shadows of NYC for too long and I know it’s only gonna get worse! So LET’S GO JETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winning two World Series in a span of seven years is pretty impressive, but maybe the Florida Marlins did it with luck. It seems that at the end of every MLB season there is a story about the Florida Marlins dealing/losing their top players.

Word has it that this year Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis are on their way out of town. Supposedly for a heavy spending teams. According to Jon Heyman of SI.com, “The Dodgers, Giants and Angels are all expected to be major players for Cabrera … should also draw interest from the Red Sox and Yankees, among others. Both those teams, plus the three California clubs, have the type of young talent to make a blockbuster deal for Cabrera; however, the big question is which one of the five is willing to give it up.”

The question is who will spend the money necessary? Florida isn’t looking for any “new” players, but they are looking for money. Florida has one of the lowest payrolls in MLB and need to get the money to spend the money.

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As a Yankee fan I have to stomach the fact that the Boston Red Sox just won the 2007 World Series. So congrats Boston (and yes my fingers were crossed when I said that!). But If you flick on Sports Center and watch their coverage the World Series there is another baseball story weaved in and out of the Boston coverage.

“A-Rod has opted out of his contract with the New York Yankees … leaving him a free agent.”

Now any Yankee fan who has truly studied and watched the team this year would have to know that this day was coming. In fact I placed bets with people that A-Rod will be slugging in Wrigley Field under Sweet Lou as a member of the Chicago Cubs. But shame on you A-Rod/Scott Boras! Shame on you for making your big exclusive announcement during the bottom of the 8th inning in game 4 of the World Series! This was not exclusive!

Reportedly A-Rod turned down a 5 year / 135 million dollar contract extension from Steinbrenner & Co. Mark Feinsand and Bill Madden from the NY Daily News write, ” ‘It’s clear he didn’t want to be a Yankee,’ Hank Steinbrenner told the Daily News last night. ‘He doesn’t understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where the owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field … I don’t want anybody on my team that doesn’t want to be a Yankee.’ ” That is probably the greatest quote I’ve ever heard/read from a senior member of Yankees mangement this year.

By A-Rod turning down the extension he has basically said that championships don’t matter to him. All that matters is the money. So shame on you A-Rod for tainting the great pinstripes, you will never win a championship with the attitude of money first, never! Good luck with your swimming pool of 100 dollar bills, and if you thought the boos at Yankee Stadium were bad when you sucked in 2006, just wait ’til you come back in a Boston Red Sox uniform! (Which is now what I think will happen)!

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2007/10/28/2007-10-28_hank_steinbrenner_says_goodbye_to_arod.html

If there was one person that was the face of the over 50 male Yankees 1990’s dynasty it was former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Mayor Giuliani was constantly seen in his great Yankee Stadium seats right next to the Yanks dugout. He was constantly seen with a Yankees cap, and truly reflected the inter-locking “NY” during the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Fast-forward to 2007 and the current White House race. Rudy is one of the front runners to represent the Republican party to become the next President of the USA.

However cantstopthebleeding.com, has reported that during a recent campaign stop in Massachusetts, Rudy proclaimed that he is rooting for the Boston Red Sox to win this year’s World Series. WHAT?!?!?!

Ok, I understand trying to win votes, but Rudy will lose every Yankee fans vote with this recent proclamation.

http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/?p=11416

 Tiger Woods has just signed a new deal with Gatorade to develop his own sports drink. His compensation for the new deal is … $100 MILLION!

With this chunck of change Tiger has now surpassed 1 Billion dollars in endorsements, making him the first ever athlete to do so.

“Gatorade Tiger” will be available in March with flavors such as cherry, citrus, and grape.

So maybe if you drink one, your golf game will be better right?

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LPGA pro Michelle Wie’s agent, Greg Nared, had quit after only 1 1/2 of work. Nared was hired by the William Morris Agency to manage Wie’s career, if you want to call it a career.

Wie has been slowly heading in the direction of Anna Kournakova-ism. She has a pretty face, good and bad press, and an even worse game. Most recently Wie finished 19th in a 20 player field at the Samsung World Championship. And that event seemed to be the final straw for Nared.

Nared quietly endured the heavy criticism that followed Wie during her most tumultuous year. He was the in middle of her biggest controversy at the Ginn Tribute in South Carolina in the spring, conferring with her on the 16th tee moments before she withdrew. Wie was 14 over par through 16 holes when she quit, and it appeared as though she was trying to avoid the LPGA’s “Rule 88,” in which nonmembers are ineligible for one year if they shoot 88 or higher.

Wie then showed up at Bulle Rock two days later to practice for the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, and Annika Sorenstam harshly denounced the move as disrespectful. (more…)

The Mitchell Report is gonna name names, and not just minor league baseball players we haven’t heard about. Supposedly the report will have “big names.” According to various reports the Mitchell Report will rock the sports world. If the players were smart they would “Giambi” the stituation, say they’re sorry and move on. This way when the report is published the public won’t be all up in arms!

The other side of everything is this, will the media stop toying with the public! Tell us when the report is going to be published, not how big the story will be! GIVE ME NAMES! (more…)

I’m a woman, and I’m in the sports industry. The Breaking News today that New York Knicks GM Isiah Thomas was convicted of sexual harassment of a high ranking Knicks Executive is disturbing. More and more we hear about stories that female professionals in the sports industry are harassed, and that’s a scary realization. Whether accusations are true or not doesn’t matter; it’s the fact that in the year 2007 Harassment is still an issue and that needs to stop. Women in the sports industry are as equally qualified as men to do their job. Once that is realized by all, then maybe we can all move along with our lives. (more…)