Sports Takes Category

When I was eight, my parents moved us from the San Francisco Bay Area to a small Colorado mountain town. Don’t ask me why, it’s a long story… Anyway, apparently, one day after we’d been in Colorado for a few months, I came home from school and announced, “Carlee’s dad is starting a girl’s hockey team and I’m going to play!” My parents were surprised to say the least. Not only had I never played hockey before, but I could barely skate. Still, I did join the Lady Blades hockeyRead More

  The NBA’s All-Star Weekend is the highlight of the season for the NBA. It’s a weekend-long party exhibiting the best individual players the league has to offer. All-Star weekend is typically highlighted by two events, the Slam Dunk Contest and the All-Star Game. This year’s party in New Orleans will be remembered for the great offensive showcase during the All-Star Game and the Slam Dunk Contest which was simply offensive to viewers. The Slam Dunk Contest is often complained about. The two most common complaints are that there areRead More

Now that the 2014 Olympics are in full-swing, you might have some decisions to make. Between the live-streams on NBC Sports Live Extra, the coverage on NBC, and still more coverage on the NBC Sports Channel, it can be a little overwhelming when deciding what events you want to watch. But, I’ll make it easy for you. If you’re like me – which, let’s be honest, you should be – you only want to watch the sports that make you go “HOLY BALLS! That was SO badass!” Ain’t nobody gotRead More

This weekend was dominated by Brits and Seahawks. Massive forehands and aggressive blitzes. Beating the favored team and… beating the favored team, in both cases. In tennis, Great Britain took the Davis Cup tie over the United States with only one player ranking inside the top 100. How? They hit the ball really really hard. On Friday, James Ward shocked the crowd at Petco Park by defeating the much higher ranked Sam Querrey. The match that needed to be won by the United States was lost, and there was noRead More

Eww. That was one horrible, one-sided, bore of a football game we were all forced to endure on Sunday. Super Bowl XLVIII, for all its hype and seemingly endless storylines, straight-up flatlined. It took all of 12 seconds and one offensive snap for the Broncos to be on their heels and the Seahawks to be on the attack. And after Manny Ramirez‘s errant snap fluttered over Peyton Manning’s head and into the end zone for a safety, for all intents and purposes, the game was over. The writing was on theRead More

It’s that time again, when multiple American sporting events collide to make February ‘National Sports Patriotism Month’ (that’s my phrase, consider it copy written). Allow me to break down the national contests YOU should know about…   1/31-2/2 DAVIS CUP TENNIS: USA VS GREAT BRITAIN Normally I wouldn’t include this event as being something you should check out, since I am the only one in America who ever watches Davis Cup (usually by myself, in a dark room). But these are pretty special circumstances. For the first time in tennisRead More

Alright. So, the dust has settled, the weak have been eliminated, the Crabtrees have been insulted, the Bradys have been bested, and here we are: right where we thought we would be back in August. Broncos vs. Seahawks. The two #1 seeds. The two teams that many have thought were the class of their respective conferences since before this season began. We couldn’t possibly ask for a better matchup: the league’s #1 offense against the league’s #1 defense. The veteran, record-setting QB against the fresh, young swagger of the SeattleRead More

Spaniard man vs Swiss man in a tennis match. Without saying anything else, you’re thinking of Nadal vs Federer. Well sorry to disappoint…. because the Swiss man of the moment is none other than 28 year old Stanislas Wawrinka, beating Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final, and breaking the stranglehold of the Big 4 who have dominated tennis the past several years. So, how did he get here? What makes him so good? What is in the drinking water in Switzerland that makes people such good tennis players? Okay,Read More

It was one hell of a Championship Sunday. Here are ten things we learned last weekend. Check back later this week for more Super Bowl coverage! Let’s start with the game between the Broncos and Patriots. #10 – Brady vs. Manning has more to do with teams and locations than individuals. As is always the case when Peyton and Tom Terrific meet, the media focused all week on Manning v. Brady instead of Broncos v. Patriots. While everyone knows by now that Brady now holds a 10-5 record against Manning,Read More

It’s weekends like this upcoming one that make being a sports fan wonderful. In one game, you’ve got two of, if not THE two greatest quarterbacks of all time fighting for a chance at one more ring to help finish cementing their legacies. In the other, you’ve got two of most exciting and dynamic young quarterbacks in the game, eager to begin creating theirs. It’s also worth noting that the four remaining teams were by most accounts, the favorites to make it this far at the beginning of the season,Read More

What a season it was. The SEC’s reign of BCS terror ended, as did the atrocity of the BCS itself. We had a second consecutive freshman win the Heisman Trophy, we had a 2,000 yard rusher, and we had a neat, tidy, undefeated National Champion. In the final version of the BCS, we had almost everything wrap up in a perfect, uncontroversial manner. We had the usual drama: inexplicable losses, statistically improbable victories, superstars being superstars, and everything in between. So, as we kiss a long-overdue goodbye to the BCS, andRead More

The final installment of the BCS National Championship Game could shape up to be one of the best, largely because it’s got everything you want in a great sports setting: two schools with championship pedigrees. Jimbo Fisher’s Florida State Seminoles were ranked 11th in the preseason before climbing into the top-5 in week eight and eventually overtaking Alabama (thanks to Auburn) for the top spot in week 15. The Auburn Tigers, coached by Coach of the Year Winner Gus Malzahn, could theoretically be viewed as the underdog, if it weren’tRead More

Muhammad Ali is the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He fought 61 bouts in 21 years, winning 56 times, 37 times by KO. He was an Olympic Gold Medalist in 1960 and was the heavyweight champion of the world 1964-1967, 1974-1978, 1978-1979. He was also the most controversial athlete of his time.   He knew he was the greatest, saying: “I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was” He could talk down any opponent, saying things like: “I’m so fast that last night IRead More

          AFC STANDINGS                              NFC STANDINGS DENVER BRONCOS (13-3)                       1.  SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (13-3) NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (12-4)      2.  CAROLINA PANTHERS (12-4) CINCINNATI BENGALS (11-5)                3.  PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (10-6) INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (11-5)                 4.  GREEN BAY PACKERS (8-7-1) KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (11-5)                  5.  SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (12-4) SAN DIEGO CHARGERS (9-7)    Read More

Well, the playoffs are set, coaches are getting fired, and 20 NFL teams have turned into spectators for the rest of the NFL season. Much will be written about the upcoming playoff matchups, but before we discuss what is to come, let’s first look back on some the biggest stories of the 2013 regular season that was…   The Biggest (Positive) Surprise Team: Carolina Panthers While the obvious choice here would be the Kansas City Chiefs rebounding from a dismal, 2-14 season in 2012, there are other teams that haveRead More