Where should we watch the game?

Every Sunday, I watch the Jets. If you read my previous posts, you would already know that. While me watching the games is inevitable, where I watch the game can change. There is a lot of debate about whether it is better to go to a game or to watch it from home. I have only been able to go to two Jet games my whole life, so maybe I am not an expert in this debate, but I still have an opinion on it. I believe the best way to watch a game is at home, in the comfort of your own home (of friend's home), with the heat on and snacks ready to be eaten. However, I have a friend who is a season ticket holder for the Jets and he disagrees with me. I asked my friend to tell me why he would rather go to a game and here is his response:

Fans at a Jet games

"I go to Jet games for the experience. For tailgating before games, to feel the energy of the crowd. I want to be a part of the noise, part of the excitement. I feel detached from the games when I have to watch on TV. I always thought it's cooler to say "Oh, I was at that game" rather than "Oh, yeah I watched that gamed." Jets games are crazy and to be a part of the crowd is amazing. My seats have a good view so I can see everything that is going on. To say you are a season ticket holder is something prideful. I would go to a Jet game rather than watch one on TV eleven times out of ten."

Here is my argument:

Actors pretending to watch a football game at home

"Going to a Jet game is a lot of fun, once a year, twice max. The experience is one that I want to be a part of but not 8 times a year. For one reason, it is very tough to tell what is going on down on the other side of the field if your seats are in the endzone. The tickets are very expensive and there is no way I could afford season tickets, even if I wanted them. Also, the food is too expensive. Watching a game at home I get to be comfortable, watch other games during commercial breaks, eat free food that my Mom makes me, and be warm. While I have had an awesome time the two times I went to a Jet game (aided by the fact that they won both games), I'd still rather watch a game on a TV with friends or family.

What is your opinion?

Draft Day

The NFL Draft is in my opinion the 3rd biggest moment in the NFL every season, behind the Super Bowl and opening weekend. The amount of publicity and media attention the college athletes entering the draft receives is unbelievable. There are two big reasons for this. One being that college football is so huge in this country so kids my age that are star football players at big schools are already known around the country. Also, unlike the MLB or the NHL, whoever your team drafts is expected to come to play that very next year and help the team win; there are no minor leagues.

Now that I am getting to be close to the age of the people getting drafted I am started to realize how crazy the whole thing is. There are kids who are on SportsCenter everyday who are only one or two years older than me. One of my good friends goes to LSU and he sees the players on their football team around campus regularly. He was telling me a story once about how he saw Morris Claiborne at Quiznos. Claiborne is a junior at LSU and was a star CB for the football team and has declared for the NFL draft. He is expected to be a top 5 pick and my friend said it was a very bizarre moment when he turned to his friend and said "that guy is going to be a millionaire in a couple weeks." He is walking around campus with athletes who are going to be in the spotlight during the draft.

As for the Jets in this draft, I think they have a lot of needs. They need help in the pass rush, safety, linebackers, and offensive playmakers to help Sanchez. My dream scenario is for the Jets to trade up and pick Alabama RB Trent Richardson. However, if they don't do that I think they need to sure up the defense. Last season, the defense had obvious holes and if they can sure those holes up they will be much better this season. The best thing about draft day is this: every team is on a equal playing field and whoever your team selects in the first round, all the fans believe he is going to be the answer and lead the team to a Super Bowl.

The Decision

LeBron James during "The Decision"

While reading that title, a lot of sports fans will immediately think about LeBron James and how he announced he was going to play for the Heat on an ESPN Special titled "The Decision." This post is not about that. It is about a decision much more important than that and has changed my life. It is about how I decided I was going to be a Jet fan.

I am a huge Yankee, Islander, and Jet fan (as for the NBA I don't really root for one specific team). My Dad is a huge Yankee, Islander,and.... Giant fan. I became a fan of both the Yankees and Islanders from watching games with him on TV when I was young and from going to games with him. So why did I not follow in his footsteps and become a Giant fan, also? When I was young, around 1st or 2nd grade, I was already a die-hard Yankee and Islander fan, but I never really was crazy about the NFL, kind of ironic considering now my favorite team in all sports is the Jets. Since I did not really have a rooting interest at that time, I would watch the Giants games with my Dad and not really care. And then one day I went to school and talked to my best friend, Sean. I noticed he was wearing Jets paraphernalia. It was so long ago so I can't remember what exactly it was but I think it was either a hat or t-shirt. So, that day after school, I got home, walked up to my parents and told them I was going to be a Jet fan. And the rest is history.

Now, since that time the Giants have been to 3 Super Bowls, winning 2, and the Jets have yet to make a Super Bowl appearance in my life time. So do I ever wish I was a Giant's fan like my Dad? Absolutely not. And unlike a few Jets fan, I don't root against the Giants, I will root for them when they are not playing the Jets. My dad does the same for the Jets. Now, with the Jets being a big part of my life I have Sean to thank, for making my decision for me.

Game Day.

Sundays during NFL season, nothing else can compare. After a week of reading articles about the upcoming game, setting my fantasy lineups, reading predictions of the game, I can finally watch the games. What the NFL does better than any sport, is they have most of their games on the same day; so game day is special, a holiday a sorts to fans like me. If the Jets win, I can be happy and optimistic for the week that follows; if they lose, the week that follows feels like it takes forever and I can't even turn on ESPN to watch the highlights. I'm sure a lot of hard core NFL fans know the feeling.

I have said many times to friends and family, watching the Jets is the highlight of my week. I look forward to it so much and can not be pulled away from the game once it starts. Only problem is, I'm usually miserable during these games. Yes, there is the rare occasion when the Jets win in a blowout and they have the game under control from the start. But, most weeks they play a close game that comes down to the wire, to a play or two. For anyone who has had the "pleasure" of watching a game with me, they know I get very into the game. I yell at the TV a lot, whether it be in excitement or frustration. My remote for my TV has taken a beaten as I have thrown that across the room plenty of times. Over winter break, I watched the Jet-Giant game with my girlfriend, who is a Giants fan. The Giants won and the game was very frustrating as the Jets wasted plenty of opportunities. This was the first time I watched a game with my girlfriend, and most likely my last because I doubt she will want to have to sit through my antics again. However, despite all the frustration, yelling, throwing of objects, stress, I still absolutely LOVE to watch the Jets and I will watch every game for the rest of my life. Why? Because of the thrill, because of the high I get when they have a big win (playoff game against the Pats 2 years ago).

I think that is what makes sports so great. In the NFL, there are 32 teams, and at the end of the year only 1 is considered a winner. So odds are, as a Jet fan, I'm going to be disappointed at the end of the year. Unfortunately, I have yet to see the Jets win a championship, but once they finally get to hoist the Lombardi trophy I think that all the pain and anxiety I go through most weekends will be outweighed by the extreme satisfaction and bliss I will get from them winning it all. I think that is what happens to gamblers too, they know they will probably lose, but the thought of winning and the rush of winning is too intriguing to me that I can't stop watching. I love game day.

ALERT! ALERT!

My phone vibrates. I begin to wonder if it’s a text, call, email, or even an ESPN alert. An ESPN alert, for those who don’t receive them, is an alert sent out from ESPN.com that sends sports information to people’s cell phones through text message. They can be alerts from breaking news, to scores of your favorite team. In class, we read about how more people have become tethered to their phone, and I believe this is another reason why.

Yes, I know not everyone follows sports or gets these alerts, but from my experience, I get ten of these a day sometimes. I get an alert for every time the Jets, Yankees, or Islanders score in their games. I get an alert whenever ESPN has breaking news in the NFL or MLB also. It may be excessive, but I love being up to date on sports and this is a great way how. I love it when I’m out, away form the TV, and I can figure out that Mark Sanchez just threw a TD (or INT which is the case a lot), or that Derek Jeter just hit a home run.

Smart phones and these alerts have changed the way people can follow sports. Now wherever I am I can figure out anything there is to know about my favorite teams. Not even the alerts, but I can go to ESPN.com on my phone, or I can download apps that serve the same purpose. When I use my phone, which has over a million capabilities, you can safely bet that it is for one of two reasons, either I am texting or getting information about sports. 

ESPN Alerts sent to an iPhone

The Power of Athletes

What is it about athletes that make people worship them so much? Or even actors or musicians for that matter. Is it because we are jealous of their fortune and fame? Do we envy them and wish to be in their place? If in the same room is Derek Jeter and the world's greatest chemist, I would bet, especially in America, that most people in that room would try to talk to Jeter. Simply because America as a whole values his particular skill set more than that of the chemist. Right or wrong, that is simply the case.

I feel that this obsession can be tied into something we discussed in class, social capital. Athletes nowadays have so much social influence it is unbelievable. Millions of millions of people follow their favorite athletes on Twitter, like them on Facebook, watch their YouTube videos. Athletes are now being paid to endorse products in their Tweets. Michael Vick, Eagles QB, has tweeted promoting McDonalds Monopoly game. Newspapers are paying athletes to tweet about their articles so their millions of followers will then in turn read the paper. And with all the social influence, social capital, these athletes have, people DO read articles simply because they posted them on the timeline, or mentioned them in Twitter.

Whether or not this is a good thing is yet to be seen. It is always dangerous for people to have such large social capital for no reason other than being great at a certain sport. There are times where this can be a bad thing. An example I talked about in a previous post is when Rashard Mendenhall tweeted about Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. He questioned who was actually behind those attacks and spoke down about the Americans who were celebrating Bin Laden's death. Millions of people read that outrageous tweet just because he is an NFL running back, despite the fact that he is obviously out of touch with reality and a bad American.

We just live in a culture right now where athletes possess an incredible amount of social capital. Is it a good thing? Who really knows, the only thing that we do know is that with the increasing presence of social media in our everyday lives, that social capital will only continue to grow.

Broadway Tim

Tebowing

Tim Tebow is now a New York Jet. As a fan, from a strictly football perspective, I'm still not sure whether or not to be excited about this or to be a skeptic about it. There are obvious ups and downs of this trade, but that is not what this post is going to be dedicated to. What this post is going to be about is about religion in sports. What role, if any role at all, should it play? As most people know, Tim Tebow is a very religious man and he brings that aspect of his life onto the field. Whether it is the camera catching him praying, or "Tebowing" on the sidelines, or him thanking God in his numerous post game interviews, it is impossible to watch Tebow without being made aware of his religion.

Personally, I have no problem when an athlete thanks God for being blessed to play a certain sport, but I think a line needs to be drawn. For example, it's ridiculous to see Tebow, or any other athlete, praying to God in an important part of the game in order to help his or her team win. That is over the line. No one should be praying to God to help them win something as small and petty as a sports game. This is setting a bad example for young athletes who then feel the need to have God help them win games.

Despite not being a religious person, I know that God should not be used to aid someone in sports, He is way above that. Now, I am not calling Tebow a bad person for doing that, obviously through his numerous charitable efforts it is apparent he is not. But as a sports fan, I also find it annoying to have his religion being thrown in my face whenever he talks. If you listen to him speak, he gives all the credit for his success to God, not his hard work of he and his teammates, he throws it back on God. While that may not be a bad thing, it gets annoying after awhile. We get it Tim, you believe in God and thank him for what you have been able to accomplish; no need to say in five times every minute.

Having said that, welcome to Gang Green Tim, I hope you can help win us a couple ball games.