Geoff Decker’s whereIstand blog

One of the nice things about running is its simplicity. Want to get better at running? Run more.

Want to get better as basketball? Wait in a lay-up line. Work on your post moves. Dribble with your head up. Repeat. The drills go on and on, like a New England Patriots winning streak.

I mention this because I could have easily chosen basketball as my athletic endeavor. I was tall (6′6″) and strong and athletically gifted.

I was also completely unwilling to practice.

But the first time I laced up a pair of Asics 2000’s and hit the ground running, I found my passion. Running was the most free form of exercise and competition. I don’t need teammates, I don’t need opponents, I don’t need equipment. I’ve even made a case that you don’t need clothes or shoes (get drunk, find a local track, de-cloth, and run a quarter mile — you’ll get it).

Point is, this simplistic philosophy is retained when I think about stretching. Distance running, by nature, makes you less flexible (and less athletic). Think about it…think about what you’re doing for miles at a time. The same thing. Its not requiring the activation of fast twitch muscles. Just a steady use to complement a good aerobic fitness.

At least that’s my justification. And millions of other simplifiers, who leave stretching by the wayside and use those 15 minutes before and after to add on to their mileage.

This thought was only encouraged as my competitive career progressed. Consider: my coach and mentor at Marist College, Pete Colaizzo; my Captain and the team’s best runner, Kirk Dornton; and a legendary alumni, Bob Sweeney, who is now an American ultra-running champion . All of them are publicly acknowledge that they don’t stretch.

So this is the kind of troubled atmosphere my running career was raised in. These new-age runners, like whereIstand’s own BPR, are all about things like “injury prevention” and “flexibility”.

It takes the fun right out of running. Now, if you don’t mind me, I’m taking today off. For some reason my IT band is flaring up and I don’t why.

whereIstand Tags

• BrianR
• NewEnglandPatriots
• What effect does stretching have on a runner?
• What are the overall effects of running?

Say what you will about college football’s current system for deciding who the national champion is, but at least the Bowl Championship Series is acknowledging the debate that has waged since its inception.

What’s more is that Fox, the network that will be carrying all BCS games this season (and no doubt has a heavy hand in event promotion), is clearly supporting such dialogue. On their official web site for the BCS Games, Fox Sports posts articles relevant to BCS news — and its always controversial. Not the puff pieces that most “official” event sponsors generally boast.

Tim Cowlishaw, the Dallas Star columnist, writes about how the current system is continuing to “screw up college football.” There’s even a Q&A acknowledging that College administrators are not against changing to a playoff format.

This kind of open forum for discussing a widely criticized issue are the kind of things that sports need more of. Too much sponsorship titles and licensing rights clutter the sports arena these days.

Don’t believe me? Have you watched Sportscenter on ESPN recently? Or listened to ESPN Radio — you can’t go longer than 5 minutes without hearing a segment that is sponsored by “icy cold Coors Light” or the “On Star hot line”.

Kudos, Fox, for doing what ESPN, the “world wide leader in sports”, has been lazy about.

whereIstand Tags

• FOX
• TimCowlishaw
• ESPN
• Is the BCS an effective method for determining the national champion?
• Should college football institute a playoff system?
• What effect does ESPN have on sports?

1. Joseph Addai, Jason Witten, Torry Holt and anyone else who’s thinking of showing up one of these days for my fantasy team as I look to lock up a playoff spot this week.

2. The Green Bay Packer’s bounty incentives to stop opposing running backs, who’s defensive players may or may not have been playing just a little harder to stop Adrian Peterson, the league’s top back at the time, who was injured in their game. Coincidentally, my team faces off against the best team in my league…sans AP.

3. For CBSSportsline’s Gamecenter, only a slight step down from the NFL’s Gameticket. With instantaneous updates of all games and individual stats, a fantasy team owner with a league pass for CBSSportsline.com can constantly see how their team is doing. I’ve spent many a wasted Sunday afternoon firmly planted on my couch on this web site.

4. For the mid-week interruption known as Thanksgiving — 2 games, 4 teams, and countless fantasy statistical production. It offers a chance for team owners to break their fall from the previous Sunday’s high a little more tolerable. As any committed owner knows, we can only check our starting lineup so many times during the week. Wait…no we can’t. Which is why Thursday’s games are so crucial for our sanity.

5. An anticipated Tom Brady injury. Again referring to my matchup this week, the only chance of victory is keeping Brady in check….or out of the game entirely. Fantasy Sports ignites a vicious Machiavellian instinct in team owners that make us look at injuries in a different way. Instead of cringing at the angle at which a knee is bent and worry about the future career prospects of the player involved, we ponder the significance that the resulting injury will have on our league’s competitive balance.

(Speaking to that, the Adrian Peterson injury two weeks ago caused more guilty smiles from fantasy owners than seeing their ex-girlfriend gained a ton of weight on Turkey Day and is no longer attractive)

6. More than anything, Thank you, fantasy football, for allowing us to enjoy the NFL on a new level — sure you’ve isolated us from our girlfriends and ruined any chance of rea life production on a Sunday afternoon, but each week you deliver satisfaction. You deliver with value-added game tangibles like end-of-the-half desperation hail marys, meaningless field goals and even more meaningless late game drives by teams being blown out. ¼/p>

whereIstand Tags

• GreenBayPackers
• Can fantasy sports become an addiction?

You know who looks the worst in this most unconventional of negotiation processes that Alex Rodriguez is involved in? The Yankee fan, and, more specifically, me.

In the last month and a half, Yankees fans have had to change their opinion of A-Rod according to what headline splashes the city’s New York Post on a daily basis. Is he money-hungry or misled by his greedy agent? Is he loyal or a savvy businessman? Is he MVP-caliber or a choker?

Let’s recap, shall we?

Monday, Oct. 8 — New York Yankees officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Speculation begins immediately. Is Torre gone? Will A-Rod opt out of his contract? Will Torre’s status affect the free-agency of old-school dynasty cornerstones, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera? Will Petitte return for another year? Will Mike Francessa finally admit he knows nothing when it comes to handicapping his favorite team?

The healing process began with a need to fault someone for the series loss. The easy way out was Rodriguez, who wasn’t awful by any means, but struck out too often (6 K’s in 4 games to lead both teams) and couldn’t hit in the “clutch”.

I didn’t blame A-Rod. What on earth did he have to do with Chien-Mien Wang, the Yankees ACE, giving up 12 earned runs in less than 6 innings over the span of two losing efforts? When your staff’s best pitcher throws like that, Murderers Row would have a hard time keeping up.

And what about Derek Jeter? He hit .176 and didn’t draw a single walk. Not one walk! His OBP was .176!! He gets a free pass?

My point is, during the next couple weeks of the playoffs, I exonerated A-Rod…freed him of any fault. He is the league MVP, after all — let’s not forget about his superb regular season performance that propelled the Yanks to the playoffs in the first place.

Then this happened.

Sunday, Oct. 28: Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s agent announced A-Rod is opting out of his contract…on the same night that Boston wins the World Series. Talk about adding insult to injury.

A-Rod essentially says goodbye to his career in a pinstripe uniform, ignoring warnings from Yankee brass that there’ll be no negotiation if there is an opt out.

“We don’t want him,” Hank Steinbrenner was quoted as saying.

“Good Riddance” is what you heard from the city of New York. A-Rod, the talented soul who tortured our souls for four years was finally off our hands. It was a bumpy ride, but no hard feelings. You go your way and I’ll go mine. Don’t think twice, it’s alright.

But then this happened.

Boras misjudged the market. It turns out teams aren’t willing to pay A-Rod $30 million a year. A-Rod regrets his decision, and consults with top Wall Street execs and the second richest man in the world, and re-negotiates to sign a 10-year, $275 million deal, sans Boras.

Gulp…

Welcome back A-Rod!

whereIstand Tags

• WarrenBuffett
• NYY
• AlexRodriguez
• MikeFrancesa
• Should Alex Rodriguez sign a contract extension with the Yankees?
• Should Alex Rodriguez win the AL MVP?

it probably won’t. But there he is, agreeing with me that the Pats will go the distance.

We stand alone, like two pioneers of bold analysis, ignoring convention.

wIs blogger Kyle thinks its easy to claim they’ll go undefeated. Umm, one team has gone undefeated in league history. I’m going to play devil’s advocate and say it might be kind of hard to go undefeated.

Afterall, that’s pretty much what conventional media is saying these days. But not Don Shula. He wouldn’t touch the issue so he started his own, claiming the Pats would deserve an asterisk if they go undefeated, saying that ‘Spygate’ has “diminished what they accomplished.”

Nothing about that makes sense, by the way. Say what you will about the Pats previous Super Bowls, but its unlikely that the Pats are using any kind of video surveillance to steal defensive signs. It happened, after all, in the first game of this season.

No, the Pats seem very legit and they’re causing even the most hard-nosed football players to kiss the ground like its their mommy when the game is over. I was convinced the Pats would go 16-0 after Zach Thomas, the Hall of Fame Dolphins linebacker, said he’s never seen anything like the Tom Brady/Wes Welker/Randy Moss offense. He was at a loss for words. This from one of the toughest, most stoic guys in football.

So I’m left to wait and see what will happen this weekend to my beloved Buffalo Bills, winners of four in a row, when they face the inevitably unbeatable New England Patriots.

whereIstand Tags

• KeyshawnJohnson
• kylesmith
• NewEnglandPatriots
• BuffaloBills
• Will the New England Patriots go undefeated during the 2007 regular-season?