Hoop Dream

In the touching documentary, "Hoop Dreams" it follows two technically-gifted basketball players from Chicago, Illinois named William Gates and Arthur Agee. They both share the dream of making it into the NBA. The documentary is able to make you feel all of the emotions that these kid's go through during their high school career. Both Arthur and William start out their freshmen year at St. Josephs high school where NBA star Isiah Thomas attended. Gates is fortunate enough to get a full blown scholarship and start as a freshman on the varsity basketball team.On the other hand, Agee is not as fortunate because he is only able to get some financial aid for his tuition, and he only makes junior varsity that year. Soon enough the film is focusing on sophomore year where a lot of drama occurs. St. Joseph stops helping pay for Authors struggling family tuition, so he is forced to drop out and has to enroll in a public school called Marshall. He makes their basketball and is able to once again prove how good of a player he is. William is able to continue playing for St. Josephs where people are already saying that he was the next Isiah Thomas.Sadly, he suffers a knee injury that will haunt him for the rest of his basketball career. He is able to make a comeback, but he keeps on suffering from knee injuries every once in a while. When senior year hits, Agee and Gates are both having a really good season and just keep on getting better by the start of playoffs. St. Marks is out quickly which is a big surprise, and Arthur leads his team to be 2nd in the state. By this point in the film, both boys are suffering with their grades, and need to bring up them up in order to attend college. William mustt score an 18 on his ACT test while Arthur has to go to summer school in order to graduate and attend college. Gates decides to join  Marquette University while Agee takes the path of joining a junior college which leads to him joining Arkansas State, a division one school.

Unfortunately, Arthur and William never made it to the NBA or European leagues,but they were still able to accomplish something far greater then being the next superstar. Through the film, Agee was able to use the money he made to buy a new house and help out his struggling family. He was also able to create a foundation that helps unprivileged children realize who their real role models are. Agee is able to explain how your parents are better role models then professional athletes, He also talks to kid's about how education is important because your never know if your dreams of making it to the NBA will work out. William Gates is now a father of four and is currently making a living off of being a pastor at his local church. Although neither boy made it to the NBA, they were still able too do remarkable things on and off the court!

The Impact Sports Have on Culture.

 Racism has been a huge problem in society for many years. We have come over racism in many different ways, but one of the biggest ways was through the professional play of sports. Jackie Robinson was one of the first black players to enter the MLB and be successful during a time when  most people believed that whites were superior to colored people. Through Robinson people were able to see how blacks can achieve just as much as white people and be as successful as non-colored men and women. The change in racism has been able to in cooperate culture through sports. Culture has been affected on many cations causing people to understand that not everyone's life is the same. That some people may speak one language on the field, but when he or she goes home they might speak a completely different language to their family. Teammates have been able to accept it over the years because they have gotten the first look on how everyone is equal. They have witnessed that everyone can achieve the same goals and do the same things even if your cultures are different. Sports have impacted our culture by accepting someone not like you by understanding that all races are equal.

 Professional sports still impact our culture by shining a light on the unexpected. For example top wide-receiver Randy Moss did not grow up in the best town living in Rand, West Virginia. Through college he was still able top play the sport he loved, football, and he was a top prospect for the NFL because of how good he was. Although he was a top prospect, people never thought that he would see the day where he was drafted into the NFL based on where he grew up and how he was looked up upon as a thug. Well he blew everyone's mind when he was drafted, and worked his ways into the record books. Professional Sports have shown us that you can't judge someone by where they come from before you give them a chance which has impacted culture tremendously over the years.

 Sports have also affected our culture in some negative ways. Initially, sports create superstars and sometime superstars can get out of hand. Once a running back for the Seattle Seahawks, now a free agent, Marshawn Lynch says what ever he wants to the press. As the Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl two years in a row, in his press conferences all he has been was rude. It's not good when one your top stars in your NFL franchise is not taking it serious when he talks to the public. All Lynch is doing is persuading the next NFL players that it is okay to be as cocky and rude as him.Subsequently, professional sports have helped our culture stay advanced. Although sports have caused many injuries, they have still been able to bring technological advances that have help modernize our culture. Doctors and scientists have been able to learn more about brain trauma such as concussions.


 How have sports impacted my life? The answer to that is drastically and I don't know where I would be today if sports weren't introduced into my life. I believe that there is no better feeling then letting all of my anger out by going for a jog. You have a purpose to run and with every step you let more and more anger out. Through all of my soccer teams; town, club, or high school I have made so many friends. Basically I have met all of my closest friends through soccer because we had a common interest which was going out there and getting the W. Sports have also caused me to get closer with my family. I might not like criticism from them about I how I play a sport, but at the end of the day your parents are just trying to make you a better player. On that note, it has caused me to get a lot closer to my family because of the support they show for me. They make me feel like an Olympic gold medalist as they cheer for me and my team in the crowd! Professional sports have done so much to improve our culture and who knows where would be today if it wasn't for them.

Navedo, Angel. "How Sports Transcends Culture." Bleacher Report. NYJetsFan.com,, 21 July 2008. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <http://bleacherreport.com/articles/39574-how-sports-transcends-culture>.

Villains in Sports

    In the article, " Super Bowl XLIX is Between Lex Luther and The Joker," the author, John A. Tures compares the two Super Bowl teams to two different villains that are well known. Lets start with the Patriots, Tures compares them to Superman's arch enemy Lex Luther who never gets caught. That is in reference to how the Patriots have been accused of spy gating and deflating footballs. He also talks about how the Patriots did not fumble a lot compared to the season last year, so they must of done something to the footballs then too, or how they ended up getting a top running back to return to the team mid season. On the contrary, the Seahawks are compared to Batman's enemy the Joker. John Tures talks about how they are crazy by the way Marshawn Lynch talks to the media, what Lynch wheres to press conferences, how they compared their victory over the Packers to one of Martin Luther King's speeches, and how Wilson praised god for the victory.
     Now, we all know that everything John  Tures wrote was a load of bologna. Yes, the public loves to eat off of fresh information that could ruin the reputation of big team's in the NFL, but who doesn't love some gossip. Tures may be right in some aspects, but can the Patrtiots and Seahawks be personified as villains...not really.Sports do not contain villains, but they do contain teams that want to reach a common goal which is winning. Take a minute to think about if all of the Patriots accusations were switched with the Jacksonville Jaguars, nobody would blink an eye and I would not be writing this article right now. Since the Patriots are a top franchise, reporters try to make big deals to make big bucks, if the they investigate on the deflate gate issue then that story will be on every ESPN channel. If they make an article about how rude Lynch was or  how religious Wilson is then people will read it.
     In the end, there are no villains in sports or cheating teams in sports because its all a game with in itself and that game is what the media wants. The media wants to know and speculate every accusation because it is thrilling and amusing!

Deflate Gate Being Taken Too Far?

Tom Brady talks about the Deflate Gate issue during a press conference last week.

  The general argument made by the associated press in the article, "NFL: Ref checked AFC title game footballs properly," is that they talk about how the procedures of the football check will be changed for the Super Bowl. The press wrote that, " Super Bowl referee Bill Vinovich and his staff will be looking over a lot more footballs this week."The press is saying that the protocol for inspecting the footballs have to be done right so they are blown up to the right PSI. They are also stating that these referees will double check or even triple check to make sure their inspections on the footballs prevent another deflate gate controversy. One of the major moves the NFL is doing to prevent any controversy is by checking all of the 54 footballs instead of just 12 of the footballs and the NFL will also take all of the footballs into custody this Friday to be inspected even further. To end, the press obviously is in agreement with these new customs that have been proposed by the NFL and respect their decision to make stricter procedures.

  In my view, the press  and the NFL are wrong because I believe this whole entire situation has been taken a bit too far. More specifically, I believe that the Patriots may have deflated some of their footballs to a lower PSI that is needed which was wrong, but the NFL is defiantly taking more drastic measures then it is needed to prevent this from happening again. This situation did call for some altercations about how the procedure is completed, but it didn't call for a whole entire different procedure to be made up.Another example to support my cause is that both the Patriots and Colts franchises have always respected each other. After the football situation was discovered, Colt's players did not seem to show any emotion and they stated that the Patriots won the game because they were the better team. If the team that just lost the game that would of gotten them to Super Bowl, you would think they would of been furious by the deflate gate situation, but they clearly weren't. Although the press might object on how too many steps were taken to fix this problem, I maintain that this situation was made into a bigger deal then it actually was, that there is no need for the new procedure, and that the Patriots won the game and that's that. Therefore, I conclude that the deflate gate was taken too far and it could of been resolved in just a few steps and not a whole entire new procedure.

Super Bowl XLIX Bound!!

    Whose ready to watch the best football game of the year! 32 teams battled to get the chance to play in Super Bowl XLIX, but only two teams made it to Phoenix, The New England Patriots and The Seattle Seahawks. I'm not only excited  for one of the best games to played in centuries, but I'm pumped for awesome food, and the crazy emotions. I'm a beloved Patriot's fan and can't wait to see this game because Russel Wilson v.s. Tom Brady, I mean you got a legend in the making and a legend who has been throwing touchdowns since 2001. What's better then watching the game while eating your life away, well basically. Buffalo wings are a common Super Bowl tradition, and this year I will be letting myself to some savory Buffalo Wild Wings. They defiantly serve the best wings around, blowing Wendels off their feet. I'm also really excited for all of the screaming and cheering during the game. My neighbors are routing for Seattle so we bought an air horn for every time the Patriots score just to annoy them! All in all its going to be one of the best Super Bowls of all time.