Bleacher Report - Articles by Darec Edwards

Kyle Busch: Hate him or Love Him

Darec Edwards — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:48:37 -0400

Kyle Busch, you may love him or hate him.

But right now, your love or hatred is for the good of NASCAR.

He and others such as Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart have helped popularize the sport and help make NASCAR grow even more.

In my opinion, NASCAR is one of the fastest growing sports out there and it shows no sign of slowing down. NASCAR is even extending outside U.S. borders by having a race in Mexico and by having a Japanese manufacturer in the sport.

All the chaos that happened at Richmond and all the way back in Atlanta is all for the good of NASCAR.

However, I'm not saying that booing a racer is good. I see it as a way of constructive criticism.

One of the ways Tony Stewart got publicity was that he always opened his big mouth. People hated him for that, but at the same time people loved him for that.

I'm sure it will be the same for Busch, but wrecking the most popular racer in the sport is not the way to start.

His story is still rather epic. He starts as an average racer that escaped from the once-reigning Hendrick rule to become the most thrilling racer yet. He can run high and low, but he needs to watch that yellow line. He is sill growing, and hopefully his cockyness will leave him when grows up and matures as a full-grown racer.

But when it is all said and done, Kyle Busch will most likely be another chapter in NASCAR's growing history, and maybe he could be the one who makes NASCAR as popular as Football, Basketball, and Baseball.

Who knows what this kid can do for the sport!

Dear NASCAR: Keep NASCAR American!

Darec Edwards — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:44:43 -0500

I love NASCAR with the 180 mph turns, trading paint with one another, and of course, the crashes. But there is one thing I don’t like about NASCAR and that is the fact that we have foreign cars in our races.

NASCAR, to me, has been the most American sport that I have encountered.

I mean, what is more American than having American pure muscle racing in a track and crashing with a few occasional fist fights here and there.

But having a foreign car company in our races in America, I just don't think that's right.

What is the point?

Last year team Toyota, which is based in Tokyo, Japan, could hardly muster up a top ten finish. It is bad enough that our economy is in the slumps as it is now, but letting a foreign car manufacturer in NASCAR, come on!

Our economy is weak because of all the pressure of foreign brands that are already taking many of the business away from our American manufactures.

We don’t need more commercials for Toyota during Daytona, we don’t need more cars in Bristol, and we don’t need more twenty and thirty finishes from Toyota.

NASCAR is derived from the good old south, back to the days when moonshine was made and basically established its own industry. After that, we had races on dirt tracks.

Then we had the great 1979 fight between Donnie and Bobby Allison and Cale Yarbough. Then the tragic crash of Dale Earnhardt, and now we have the second year since Toyota’s introduction to the once pure and American NASCAR.

I don’t want Toyota a part of NASCAR’s history, nor a part of American sport history.

PLEASE NASCAR, KEEP NASCAR AMERICAN!

Eli Manning: A True Champion?

Darec Edwards — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:29:38 -0500

When I saw Eli Manning as Super Bowl champion, all I could do was laugh.

How is it that someone can throw three interceptions per game during the 2006 and 2007 seasons, and then all of a sudden during the '07 playoffs start magically playing better?

He matched Rex "My play sure is" Grossman's interception to touchdown ratio of last year with 20 touchdowns and 23 interceptions.

But when Eli hit playoff time, he was outstanding, throwing six touchdowns and only one interception. (The interecption should have been a completion, but it went in and out of Steve Smith's hands)

I dont know about what other people think, but during the past two regular seasons, I saw a frustrated Eli lurking in his brother's shadow.

I don't think that he had any love or interest in the game of football. It seems that he would blow off practice by not giving 100 percent. He's the kind of guy that would tolerate film sessions, not love them, as some great quarterbacks have.

Basically, he didn't even try.

So what did he do when the Giants defense propelled them to the playoffs?

He started to actually play up to his full potential.

He realized that he had a team that could win some important games. Once he took his team seriously, he was able to go out and play well.

Just look at the difference in stats.

You hear of people playing poorly in the playoffs and blowing plays (Tony Romo anybody), but you rarely hear of people that suddenly have the light in their head turn on and start playing, well, amazingly.

It appears to me that Eli said, "Wow, maybe we could win a playoff game if I actually try."

So he tried.

Now, maybe it's just because I love the game of football too much, but I think that a true champion should be a guy who loves to practice, he should be the first guy to enter the practice facility and the last guy out of it.

Eli seems to me to be more of a slacker than a champion. He has no excuse for why he did as poorly as he did in the regular season. The Giants made it to the playoffs thanks to outstanding defense and a running back who could pass for a defensive lineman.

That is what I am going to remember when I think back to Super Bowl XLII, not the suddenly stellar play of the other Manning.

Why?

Because Eli Manning, in my eyes, is not a true champion.