10 Sports Figures I'll Be Rooting for in 2010

Who I will be rooting for in this decade…

10. Josh Pastner – Head Basketball Coach – Memphis Tigers

In a world where recruiting violations and shady coaching moves are becoming the norm; Josh Pastner is doing it the right way. He is doing it through hard work because hard work is all he’s ever known his whole life. From walking on as a player at Arizona, to finishing school in under three years, to working tirelessly as an assistant at Arizona and Memphis it’s always been about one thing, the grind. No bravado, no ego, no shadiness just doing it for the love of it. He puts the team and the sport in front of his life.

Why? Because he loves it. He loves building up and selling a program. A part of him loves the recruiting trail. He loves the thrill of getting a commitment. He loves the fulfillment of a job well done.

That’s why he is known as one of the top flight recruiters in the game today and now that he is the head coach at Memphis he can finally put credence to that reputation. During his first year, he has the number one recruiting class in the country, something pretty remarkable. Mid major conference coaches are not supposed to get top recruiting classes unless of course you are John Calapari. He did it for the last decade at Memphis. Because in college basketball more than any other sport, you play for the coach. You commit more to a coach then you do a school.

Nowadays, it’s simply who can get me to the Pros and the big contracts. That’s what most of the big recruits are focused on. That’s why Dajuan Wagner came to Memphis, as did Derrick Rose, and that’s why John Wall followed Calapari to Kentucky. For all of Calapari’s deserved criticisms, you certainly can’t deny his ability to get top notch talent. When he left, many fans believed the days of seeing those types of stars in a Tiger uniform left with him.

Josh Pastner had other plans though. His one year at Memphis under Calapari and his years previous to that at Arizona under the legendary Lute Olsen gave him something precious. It gave him insight. Combine hard work and know how and good results usually follow. That’s how number one classes in America happen and that’s how great college basketball coaches happen.

This year Will Barton, who many consider the top guard if not the best all around player in the country, could have been like so many past players. Like Wall, Rose, and like Wagner, he could have played for the heralded Coach Calapari. He didn’t. He committed to Pastner. Sure, one top recruit certainly does not solidify Pastner on Calapari’s level. Still, it was a bold statement nonetheless; an “Oh hmm” moment in recruiting circles and the college basketball world. It was Josh Pastner saying yes, Coach Calapari built the Memphis name into something and I plan on keeping it there. I plan on outworking everyone for the top guys out there. Pastner certainly doesn’t have the prestige and cache in his name of a Calapari, a Krzyzewski, or a Roy Williams but he has something else. He has the mentality to overcome that.

There is something to say for having experience but there may also be something to say for being 31 years old, being fresh, and having energy. For a lot of the great Veteran coaches it can get stale sometimes. Every now and then you can get into a rut. Expectations are high and pressure is heavy at the top programs. Everyone is fighting to be the best and most prestigious program. Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, UCLA, the list goes on. Every fan base and school administration is craving the spotlight. It can be intense at times.

It didn’t hurt that Calapari left Memphis and dimmed expectations just a little. Fans were not as fired up. Memphis is not your average mid major program. It has been Final Four or bust for the last few years of Calapari’s tenure. Going 33-3 every year is great, but in Conference USA, that is what was expected. However, people now seem patient with what Pastner is doing. He is 20-7 in a rebuilding season with four of those losses coming to Kansas, Syracuse, Gonzaga, and Tennessee, some of the top teams in America.

So now we look into the future. We look to see if Pastner can keep winning the battles for players. It would go a long way to land hometown star Adonis Thomas (yes that is the greatest Basketball name in recent memory), one of the top players in the 2011 class. It would go a long way to keep him away from Calapari. It would go a long way saying to everyone watching that hard work and integrity still pays off.

It is a message that many people in the college sports world seem to sadly be forgetting these days.

9. Chris Collinsworth – Football Analyst

To be a great sportscaster to me it takes three things: Knowledge, experience, and insight. You need to know what you’re talking about, how to properly say it, and make sure what you’re saying is interesting to the viewer. Chris Collinsworth does this.

As a broadcaster and as an analyst I think he is quite good. One of the reasons I like Chris so much is because he does a cooky thing like you know actually saying things. It seems to me that a lot of those times he’s bringing something sensible to the table with what he’s talking about. There are few analysts that actually say anything anymore. It’s emptiness, it’s robotic, and it’s basic. The same mish mash over and over. You hear things like  “If you play tough defense you’re going to have a good chance to win” I’ve heard this analysis verbatim from at least five different football guys this past season (I won’t name names but I will simply refer to this as the Schlereth Synrome). It’s beyond elementary. It’s not exactly very eye opening or mind expanding stuff. It’s boring and dull in every sense.

Collinsworth is different. He expands, makes judgement calls, says things that are actually worthwhile. Also, he’s been doing this for a while yet it seems like he’s still enjoying it. It’s still fresh. It seems like he just has a passion for football. I respect that. You see people like Chris Berman nowadays and it just bums you out. You can tell he could care less anymore. There’s no pep left. Collinsworth still has some pep and you need that if you’re going to be a TV personality.

I also enjoy Collinsoworth because he’s the anti Joe Buck. He’s not arrogant, he’s not in for the money or the attention, the commercials, or TV shows. He worked for it. Doing studio shows for years and working his way up. Learning how every facet of the game currently works. Practicing and refining his craft. He wasn’t handed spotlight like Buck. I’m not going to go on an anti Joe Buck rant here because he isn’t worth the time but can we all admit to ourselves that Buck’s pretty bad at football. As a baseball guy, he might be great. I don’t know I’m not heavy into baseball so I couldn’t tell you. I can only judge from football and from what I’ve heard from Buck he just doesn’t cut it. He doesn’t understand the game and his constant attempts at dry humor are to a point now where it’s almost unbearable.

Nowadays, there are a lot of guys out there to dislike though. There are a few truly good ones but most of them are worthy of criticism because most of them fail to bring anything new to the table. To be honest though, they don’t have easy jobs. It’s not easy in any way to go in front of a Camera and trying to make a lot of these NFL players and games interesting. Most people couldn’t do it. So I do have respect for all of them for at least attempting it. You’ve got to have thick skin to be a sportscaster. In this day and age if you say one thing wrong you’re going to be picked apart and youtubed into oblivion. If I have an opinion on something and it turns out to be way off the mark…….nobody knows. Because I’m not on a major broadcast network talking to millions of people. It’s no easy task. So again, at the very least you’ve got have respect for these guys.

And how can you really criticize a person for enjoying what they’re doing and being successful at it. OK, so they may not be the best at what they’re doing but they’re really only trying to give their honest opinion. There is something to be said for that. To put yourself out on the line like that is actually quite admirable.

Plus you need guys to dislike and make fun of a little bit. If you had twenty Jim Nantz’s that rarely make mistakes or missteps it would get boring. You need guys like Emmit Smith to come along just for the pure entertainment and comedy it provides.

It also helps you gain even more respect for the guys that are actual hard working, quality dudes and I do have a lot of respect for analysts like Chris Collinsworth. He is an actual “commentator of the game.” He knows what he’s talking about and I enjoy listening to him and there aren’t many football guys I can say that about right now. He’s certainly one of the good ones. He’s a former player that actually made the successful transition.

Most former players don’t belong on TV. Playing the game and knowing how it works is one thing but analyzing it properly for an audience is a different animal. Most can’t do it, few can. Collinsworth can, and that is why I am rooting for him.

8. Adrian Peterson – Running Back – Minnesota Vikings

A sunny afternoon in January of 2004, the Army All American Bowl on NBC, that was my introduction to Adrian Peterson. I’ve never fallen in love (so to speak) with an athlete before or since but this was no football player this was a young animal, a beast with grace, a hungrylion on the prowl. I was 16 at the time and to see a kid not that much older then me blessed with these tremendous gifts was amazing to watch.

I saw a soft spoken young teenager who could barely utter more then a Yes Sir to interviewers go out and dominate. Dominate the best competition there is for a high school football player, the best players in the country. These were players who the most respected coaches in college football had been kowtowing to for months and they looked like JV afterthoughts that day. There was Adrian Peterson and there was everybody else.

He was the definition of a man amongst boys. He was the only player I’ve ever seen with my eyes that I thought could make a successful jump to the NFL straight from high school. His gifts, body, and physical maturation for his age were a true rarity.

Rules are rules though and Adrian would have to bide his time at Oklahoma for three years. Going in, I as many did, thought he had a legitimate shot at winning the Heisman Trophy as a freshman. He didn’t though, he finished second to Matt Leinart. Even though I didn’t agree with it I still understood it at the time. It would have been nice to have on your resume but Peterson had bigger things to get done. Sadly though, his next two seasons were marred by injuries and the promising college career never materialized. 

The injuries would rear their head come draft time. Most questioned Adrian’s durability because really there was nothing else to question. He was off the charts in every way but those pesky draft guys had to find something wrong and something to pick apart and make a fuss over. He was downgraded by some because he ran too hard? Yes, because he ran too hard. This was what the NFL draft “experts” were feeding us. They decided to disregard the fact that his collar bone injury was the result a freak dive into the end zone untouched not because of any person inflicting it upon him. Nobody inflicted injury upon Adrian Peterson, he was the Chuck Norris of football.

Being a Bucs fan, I liked this. Sitting at number 4 I thought Adrian Peterson would drop to us and we would of course see this miracle, thank the heavens, and scoop him up. Cadillac Williams and Adrian Peterson as a perfect one two punch. However, Bucs management and Jon Gruden did not share my thoughts. They opted for Gaines Adams instead and Peterson, the most talented player in the draft, would fall all the way to number seven. It was the Vikings who came to the realization that they were ones who were blessed with this Miracle.

With a little chip on his shoulder and incentive, Peterson did what he’s always been doing, he ran too hard. The same thing that many in the media were chastising him about before the draft was the same thing that helped him become one of the most dominant rookie rushers of all time.

And he hasn’t stopped or slowed down yet. Has he had his problems? Yes, every player does. He fumbles a bit too much, he disappears sometimes in games, he’s not a true threat in the passing game but you know what, you take the bit of the bad with the substantial wealth of greatness that he provides. Because the simple fact is that nobody wants to face him. Ask the countless Cornerbacks that he’s obliterated, or the countless Linebackers he’s run by, or the Defensive Coordinators that can’t find answers on how to stop him. He is simply a beast. When he is in his AD zone there may never be a RB past, present, or future that can compare to him.

Some people are just born genetically superior and Adrian Peterson is one of those people. Search for the highlight of him running over William Gay during this year’s Steelers game. Listen to his intense scream after he finally gets tackled. See the look in his eyes, it’s otherworldly. There is something deep within this young man that we don’t see very often and it’s something few people have. It’s another level of rage and it needs to be appreciated and feared at the same time.

But for how long will it last? That’s the question. It’s a well documented short shelf life for Running Backs, especially these days. As I glanced over USA Today’s All Decade performers a few weeks ago it seemed like a list of ghosts for the RBs. Priest Holmes, Tiki Barber, Shaun Alexander, etc. Some guys who were great for about 2 or 3 years and then disappeared and vanished. The only one who was really able to sustain it from the beginning of the decade to the end was Ladanian Tomlinson and right now he’s not a very hot commodity.

30 is a scary age for an NFL player and that age is excruciatingly more terrifying for RBs. Your legs just don’t have the juice anymore. You can be a 34 year old humongous DT and get away with it but if you’re a 28 year old Running Back you better be looking over your shoulder. You better be watching out for that blazing 21 year old kid coming into the league whose got the juice in his fresh legs and still has the agility as well. 

So for how much longer can Adrian Peterson sustain greatness? I hope for at least seven or eight more years. That rage and determination never dies. It’s always inside you. I want to see him exceed expectations and defy the doubters. For all the people who said he would burn out because he ran too hard, I want him to say “This is the way I play the game if you don’t like it then get out of my F’ing way.”

Adrian Peterson has never played scared and that’s why we should love him. In the NFL, I see too many guys with alligator arms these days, I see Randy Moss taking full games off and wasting his talent, I see too many veterans brushing off training camps because they don’t want the hard work. And then I see Adrian Peterson training his butt off and it reminds me of everything that an NFL player can be. He is a guy given gifts and using them to the fullest.

I root for Adrian Peterson because he has only been handed one thing in his life, talent. A lot of guys are handed talent but most never fully utilize it; AD has. He’s been faced with a ton of adversity in his life. His father being in jail for an important chunk of life, the death of his brother, having to be a father to his children at a young age, there’s been a lot. And what did he do? He made it. He’s now a premier name in the premier league in sports. He’s now one of Nikes top athletes and he can be seen on magazine covers on an almost monthly basis.

Good for him. I can’t tell you how great it is, to see a kid make it. Because there were a ton of kids from that 2004 All American Game that I watched that never made it. They got lost in the shuffle, didn’t live up to lofty expectations, and gave up and got taken over by others along the way. Adrian didn’t. He defied his critics and gave fulfillment to his supporters and that should be greatly appreciated.

Keep Running AD, as hard as you possibly can.

7. Terrelle Pryor – Quarterback – Ohio State

Change! People Fear it. It makes them feel a little unsafe, anxious and uncertain. That could explain why many of them lash out when confronted with it. Vince Young found that out when he entered the NFL and Terrelle Pryor found that out last year during his sophomore season at Ohio State.

Coming into the 2006 NFL Draft, Vince Young couldn’t have proven he was a more worthy top pick. He had just single handedly dominated one of the most epic games in college football history. Every single ounce of accolades that dripped his way was quite deserved. He had just showed the trait that every person claims to be most important in a Quarterback. He showed he was a winner.

Of course, immediately following all of this, the questions and criticisms started to inevitably arise. Admittedly, it was fair since all top prospects go through the same thing every year leading up to the draft, especially Quarterbacks. These are 21 and 22 year old kids about to be paid millions of dollars. It’s only right to value their worth and to question if their abilities will translate to the pros. Teams need to know what they’re investing in.

However, to see the way Vince Young was painted by the media in the months leading up to the draft was very disheartening. It was sad to see the difference in how Matt Leinart was treated in the pre draft process and how Vince Young was treated. Did race play a part? Unfortunately yes in some way it did. To what degree will depend on who you ask. While every media and personnel person was searching for reasons why Matt Leinart would be great; they would spend as much if not more time looking for flaws that would cause Young to fail in the NFL.

When Vince reportedly scored a 6 on his Wonderlic test it was a field day. It was a simple rumor that blew up to levels it shouldn’t have been blown up to. Old stereotypes where thrown out by many so called “respected” journalists and it was just very hard to watch and absorb.

To see Young scrutinized about every single facet of his pro day from his weight, to his speed, to his mechanics was tough to take. I understand the breaking down of the prospects and analyzing them but there was an obvious double standard that was hard to deny. Leinart was the consummate winner, Jay Cutler had the golden arm, and Vince was simply the stupid kid that couldn’t throw right. It made you think about what the media’s agenda is when prescribing us heroes.

It makes you wonder why a year earlier, the media didn’t pick apart Alex Smith who possessed many of the same flaws that everyone claimed Vince Young had. Smith, also a spread system quarterback with limited arm strength and questionable mechanics, was instead praised for his athleticism and his winning ways. There were reports of him wowing scouts and having what some called “the greatest workout by a QB ever.” They were all right. Smith, Cutler, and Leinart all turned out to succeed and be great Pro QBs while Vince was a bust.

Actually it was the exact opposite. Vince has done nothing but do exactly what that National Championship game told us he was going to do. HE WINS. The wins are a little uglier now because the level of defenses he’s playing against is a step up in the NFL but regardless he’s still winning. I enjoy that he takes a special satisfaction in embarrassing his hometown Houston Texans for passing him up at the number 1 spot. I like guys that play with a chip on their shoulder.

If winning is indeed the penultimate on what we judge QBs for, then it would be near impossible to judge unfavorably against Vince Young. Because he is not a great athlete; he is a superior athlete. A superior gifted player that can cause nightmares and embarrassment for any defender he’s up against.

I tell the story of Vince Young because I hope we have learned from it. I hope we realize that the NFL game is changing now. Simply, for no other reason then it has to. The college game is changing, the high school game is changing and eventually whether the NFL likes it or not they will have to adapt end evolve. Spread offenses are the rage on every level. Big Time Dual threat quarterbacks are starting to outnumber Big Time Dropback passers coming out of high school. We see it now with the Wildcat formation. We may see it down the line with more spread offensive tendencies and we may even see the day of two quarterback systems in the NFL.

The fact is the white kids with the great arms are opting for a baseball future more and more. It’s rarely said but it’s a simple fact. And now we’ve finally come to a point where black kids are allowed to play quarterback now. It’s a shame it had to take this long; it wasn’t like that 25 years ago though. If you were black and you’re team wasn’t running the wishbone you probably weren’t going to get a fair shake at QB. There were aberrations like Warren Moon and some others but that wasn’t the norm.

Stereotypes played a role and those players had there abilities second guessed and doubted because of their race. Some of those same stereotypes were the ones that reared their ugly head and Vince Young had to face just a few years ago. It’s sad they are still around but it’s just the truth. It would seem as of late that things were righting themselves.

I thought maybe we had moved on. Then we saw it again at the midpoint of last year’s college football season. You saw Ohio State and college football fans backlash against Terrelle Pryor last year. This kid stinks he can’t throw, he’s dumb. It broke my heart on a level. Do I think Ohio State fans are racist? No not at all but the idea of a great black quarterback does still in fact rub some people the wrong way because we aren’t used to it. It’s still a little new and still is a little taboo in some ways for fans. I know college fans are just simply ornery and not patient by nature, especially the ones at the bigger schools, but I saw some of the things being said on message boards, and on the talk shows, and you could tell there was still a level of racism there.

And so what did Pryor do? He won. He went 11-2 in his first year as a full time starter. He won a Rose Bowl just like Young did his sophomore season. He enters his junior season with Heisman and national championship expectations, the same as Vince Young had. All he does is win just like Young because they are both superior athletes. The parallels and similarities are almost eerie. They don’t win because they’re black or white; they win because they are great players. Winning is color blind as we the fans should be as well.

Terrelle Pryor can be great but he’s still a young kid. We need to let him grow into his body and let him hone his skills. We need to patient with him like we are all other top QB prospects. I still see the people who say that Terrelle Pryor won’t make it at the QB position in the pros. The same people that said Young wouldn’t make it either. The same people that every draft year are quick to pull the trigger on every black quarterback and move them to running back or wide receiver. Those same people are living in the past though. They have to wake up and realize things are different now. Things are changing.

So is America ready to embrace a great black quarterback? I think so. We were close with Mike Vick before that got messy and I think we are ready now. I think we’re at a point as a society where it no longer matters what your judgments or feelings may be deep down inside.

You watch people like Vince Young and Terrelle Pryor now and you just have to be awed by their abilities. You have to be awed by the excitement they provide. I’m rooting for him because I like underdogs faced with adversity and whether we like it or not, black quarterbacks are still underdogs. Football is simply a microcosm of society. There is racism in football just as there is racism in society. Hopefully people like Vince Young and Terrelle Pryor can succeed and be great and open the door for acceptance of everybody simply just based on their talents.

6. Sidney Crosby/Alex Ovechkin – Hockey’s Present and Future (And Hopeful Saviors)

Where Hockey ranks right now in the Sports Lexicon is very low, almost near the bottom. When I was a younger, it was the big 4: The NFL was 1, the NBA and MLB were battling for second best, and the NHL was 4. Now it’s the big three and after that nobody is really sure. The last NHL strike and year off was, as everybody predicted, terrible for the sport. It was almost the demise. It killed interest, fans rebelled, the sport nearly died. It couldn’t have come at a worse time either. With the spread of the internet, media, and television; other sports were able to have their voices heard.

Pokers gotten big, the UFC has played on the 25-45 year old muscle man, Tapout t shirt wearing, wannabe tough guy demographic and rode it to amazing levels of success,  NASCAR has went from rural interest to national interest, and all these other sports have come along and taken away Hockey’s thunder.

Right now Hockey is on life support, barely breathing. There are very few household names and nobody has any idea where the games are being broadcast on TV. It’s bad right now but there is a glimmer of hope. There is a glimmer because Hockey at its best is extremely exciting. It has everything: grace, raw toughness, athletic greatness, emotion, everything. If marketed the right way it can come back. It needs a star(s) like a Gretzky to help it get back into the American psyche. Sure hockey will probably always be big in Canada but in the USA we are a star driven sports culture and society. We turn to ESPN to tell us who is great and who we should idolize and care about. Tiger, Favre, Manning, Brady, Kobe, Lebron, A-Rod, etc. We like the big names.

So Hockey has to play on those big names to make the come back. Once it gets the attention back then it can focus on why the simplicities and intricacies of the game are so great. Until then though, it needs to build attention off of its two main guys, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. Those are its two best and most marketable guys. It needs to build a rivalry amongst them. It hurts a little bit that those two aren’t USA products (Crosby being Canadian and Ovechkin a Russian) but nonetheless we can accept their greatness like we did for Gretzky and all other great non US players.

NHL marketing savvy with these two we’ll go along way into how successful the league can be but it’s going to need some breaks. Proper TV deals are going to need to emerge in order for them to showcase these two stars. The media needs to accept these guys and their greatness and push them onto the American public the right way. Crosby and Ovechkin might be the best at what they do regardless of sport but they are going to need the platform to showcase this. I’m rooting for the NHL and their stars.

I’m rooting for them simply because I remember when Hockey meant something to me, when it meant something to America. I remember sitting in my grandma’s house as a kid watching the New Jersey Devils 1995 Stanley Cup Champion videotape and being thrilled by the highlights superimposed over Van Halen’s “Runnin With The Devil”. Hockey can be one of the big four again. All it takes is the media and American public accepting it again and realizing the greatness of Ovechkin, Crosby, all the players, and the game itself.

5. Chris Peterson – Head Football Coach – Boise State Broncos

It’s easy to for a lot of people to dislike and criticize some of the big coaches in the college football world lately. Pete Carroll dashing off to the Seahawks, Urban Meyer’s indecisiveness, the Mike Leach/Craig James situation, Brian Kelly leaving his team high and dry amidst a perfect season for the riches of Notre Dame, Jim Leavitt allegedly choking a player, the list can go on and on. It’s been bad publicity after bad publicity. Add into that every single thing Lane Kiffin is doing and it’s hard to look at any of these guys with integrity anymore.

The sad part is everything that Lane Kiffin is doing may be what it takes now to be successful. Recruits want to play for him. His brash ego sells to the youth who see the Chad Johnson’s of the world and think that could be them someday. He sells to the recruits who are bashed in attention and glory without ever proving anything because that’s exactly what has been given to him. They relate to each other. Kiffin at USC scares me because if he is successful it can set a very dangerous trend and there is a good chance that Kiffin will be successful. Remember we were asking the same questions about Carroll when he first got there coming off a less then successful NFL coaching campaign.

That is why we need somebody like Chris Peterson of Boise State. Because it’s hard not to look at what he’s done with that Boise State program and have anything but utter appreciation and respect for it. Going 49-4 is outstanding and hard to do regardless of what conference you’re in. To keep that level of consistency year to year is tough even for the big schools.

It’s Peterson, along with guys like Bronco Mendenhall of BYU, Kyle Whittingham of Utah, and Gary Patterson of TCU who maybe aren’t getting the credit they truly deserve. It takes their teams going undefeated to really show off just how stellar their programs really are. Their ability to take lesser guys, teaching them how to be fundamentally great players, and keep them motivated for every game is pretty remarkable and maybe a little underappreciated. That is the essence of a great coach. Can I coach my players to be great young man and sound football players who bring their A game regardless of the situation.

Under Peterson, Boise State has always shown up on the big stage. Fiesta Bowl (Oklahoma), Fiesta Bowl (TCU), and every game against a BCS opponent, they bring it. I’ve seen USC sleepwalk through games, I’ve seen Texas play lackadaisical, I’ve seen all the top teams have games against lesser opponents were they’re just not into it and could care less but I’ve never seen that from a Chris Peterson Boise State team. Have they lost games? Yes, not many though. The fact is sometimes things don’t click and your opponent just has your number. You can’t win them all. Still, every Friday night game I’ve seen them in they smack teams. They show no mercy. They don’t let anyone breathe and I love that in a team.

Not only are they thoroughly dominating everybody but Chris seems like he enjoys his role and it rubs off on his team. There is no more evidence of that then their Fiesta Bowl victory against Oklahoma. The trick plays at the end were great and you can tell that Coach Peterson and his team were just relishing the moment and having fun with it. It was backyard-esque, it was a Sean Payton onsides kick at the Super Bowl, it was pure guts and it was exciting. This maybe the reason why you saw the powers at be stick TCU and Boise State together this year in the Fiesta Bowl. Call it a conspiracy theory but maybe those top programs expressed that they no longer wanted to be the butt of Boise’s jokes.

The sad part is that they may never get opportunity to prove it for a national championship. The WAC is just not respected enough and no matter what Boise does, the TV representatives will probably never trust them to bring in the ratings needed. It doesn’t seem to matter to them though. Peterson and his program will continually do what they’ve been doing for the last few years. They will keep winning and dominating.

Now that they will probably have their first preseason Top 5 ranking ever adds some pressure. It’s going to be an interesting dynamic to watch and see how they deal with it. I bet you will still see a solid, sound, and focused team game in and game out. They may get picked off once or twice but they will still always come to play. That’s why you root for teams like Boise State and coaches like Chris Peterson. They are doing it the right way and they’re in it for the right reasons. 

That’s why I am rooting for Chris Peterson. That’s why you root for guys like Bo Pelini at Nebraska, Jim Harbaugh an Stanford, Gene Chizik at Auburn, and Jimbo Fisher at Florida State, just to name a few. That’s why you root for guys like Turner Gill to get opportunities at big time schools. These coaches are showing that you don’t have to be loud and arrogant to build a program up to prominence. Because the people at the top schools don’t like to get beat by the Stanfords of the world. Pete Carroll doesn’t like getting hammered by Stanford, Oklahoma doesn’t like to look foolish against Boise State, and so on.

The top guys at the top schools need a slap in the face every once in a while by some these so called lesser schools. That’s why you have guys like Chris Peterson to help show that there is a world that exists outside of Florida, USC, and Texas. They are there to show that putting in the work and getting better as a program by having a strong foundation can go a long way. They might not have the wealth and resources of the big time schools but they do have a belief system, values, and a firm plan for success in place. That is why they have been successful and why I expect them to remain successful for however long Chris Peterson is there.

4. Tim Lincecum – Pitcher – San Francisco Giants

The steroid era helped baseball. It’ the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about but it’s a fact that can’t be ignored. Mark McGwire brought baseball back. Homeruns brought baseball back. He brought it back from a strike that put a black eye on the sport and put it back into the Headlines. From that we learned, not everything is what it may seem. It was fabrication. Most of our idols and superstars were simply an extra large package with medium substance. They let us down in the end.

Now, we are left wondering where we go from here, who can we trust? Those are the questions the media is asking. The fans may not be asking the same questions. Attendance and ratings have been steady throughout this entire ordeal and most fans have treated the steroid talk with more joking then concerning. We’ve accepted that maybe Canseco was right and the fact is that most everyone was probably dirty in some way or another. It’s a black cloud but its something the sport can get over. So how do we move on from it?

We move on with players like Tim Lincecum. He is a player whose talent is real and true and someone whose skill you can believe in and appreciate. He’s not guts nor glory, he is simply ability. He overwhelms you not with intimidation because of his stature but with intimidation because of his gifts. He has some of the best stuff out there right now and that’s we need to get back to rooting for. It’s true domination because of true skill.

We need to root for god given ability again. That’s how you get over the steroid era. We need to appreciate true greatness instead of being amazed at embellishments. Tim Lincecum is the type of player that makes baseball fun to watch. He’s loose, he’s fun, but he is also very talented; as are many of today’s younger players coming up.

It’s the younger players who hold the key in establishing integrity back in the sport. Establishing the notion of competing and being the best you can be by doing it the proper way. Not because this guys cheating so I have to cheat to keep up. We need to eliminate that. The best should succeed because they are the best and not have to feel they have to compromise their honest potential. The days of steroids and lies need to be left in the past. Tim Lincecum and players like him are the future and we need to embrace their actual capabilities.

3. Aaron Rodgers – Quarterback - Green Bay Packers

They say following a legend is one of the toughest things to do in sports. You can never really live up to expectations. You’re the afterthought, the younger brother that could never be as great as your older sibling. It’s a tough spot and very few can thrive in it. I think Aaron Rodgers is the exception to the rule though.

After doing the best that he possibly could during the entire Bret Favre debacle, Aaron Rodgers was finally able to step up after years of waiting and show off his talents. He has never had it easy in the league, starting off with the day he entered it.  With more then twenty teams passing on him, Rodgers was made to look like the player that nobody wanted. Add to that he was going to a team that was in love with someone else and it only added to the severity of the situation.

Tough times help build character though and Aaron Rodgers has been through enough to know that by now. He has been through the growing pains and he now sits on a step ready to emerge from the shadows of Brett Favre. As does the entire Green Bay Packers organization.

They now need somebody to help lead them out of this Favre mess so they can put it in the past. They need a person strong enough like Rodgers who is up to the task of doing that. For years the Packers were simply synonymous with Favre. Now it seems there is more balance and more levity within the organization. You have great players all over the field and the Packers truly are one of the most talented teams in the league.

They are also a character team. It’s easy to root for guys like Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings, and Ryan Grant. They’ve all worked for it. They don’t make the game about themselves like a Brett Favre would, opting instead to do it as a team. Greg Jennings may become one of the top 5 WRs in this league in the coming years but you rarely hear a blip from him. He goes about his business, gives it his all, and gets better every passing day. There is something rewarding about that. It’s classy.

That’s how I think this Packers team can be defined. They are blue collar and they are classy. Most importantly they are good! This core of players can be very good for a very long time and I for one am rooting for them. I am rooting for a team that’s paid its dues. I’m rooting for a fan base that had the idol they supported and loved for so long come back, suit up for the enemy, and spit in their face. I’m rooting for the idea that even when you’re faced with tough circumstances, as Aaron Rodgers can attest to, you still have the ability to overcome and succeed.

 2. Kevin Durant – Forward – Oklahoma City Thunder

Every time I see Lebron James dance it gives me the chills and not in a good way. It gives me the chills because I see a Superstar trying his hardest to be one of the guys. It’s over the top, it’s too much. It comes off to me as extremely phony. The Hey were just having fun out here and I’m just another one of the guys approach is nice in theory but in this case you can tell it’s bogus. You can’t have it both ways. LeBron James has proven that he wants to be the Messiah and the biggest name in basketball if not all of sports. So to go out and do the dancing stuff it just looks like mixed singles. It’s not needed.

It’s not needed because you can be a great player without having to constantly call attention to yourself. You can be a quiet superstar. Chauncey Billups doesn’t dance, Chris Paul doesn’t dance, Steve Nash doesn’t dance, Brandon Roy doesn’t dance. Why? They’re about the game, they’re about winning, they’re about succeeding as a team; they’re not about themselves.

This constant notion of LeBron being focused on how he is going to be perceived and what his image is; it can be too much to take sometimes. This oneupsmanship is not needed.

I couldn’t have been happier when I was watching a Bulls-Cavs game earlier this season and Joakim Noah finally stood up and called out LeBron for this stuff. There’s a line of having fun and having energy out there and then there is going too far. I love what guys like Dwight Howard are doing in the game today. His antics are fun and they are a welcome addition because he knows the context of what he’s doing and how to fit in properly. LeBron doesn’t. That’s why I feel we should maybe take a step back from the LeBron hype machine a bit and start respecting some of the quieter talent in this league.

There is no better example of this then a player like Kevin Durant. He’s the type of player we should be heaping with praise in these times. A quiet, extremely gifted young player who substitutes style with substance. Kevin is a player who pushes showmanship aside for the betterment and the success of his team. There are so many young talented players in the league right now that will never get the respect and attention of a Lebron. They don’t make fusses about contracts or the lack of pieces around them. They simply try and go out, work hard, and be the best player they can be for their teams and that’s the way it should be.

In a day and age when it seems the top players are simply worried about their image and their own legacy; maybe we should remind ourselves that teams win championships. Let us remember that great players can only be great with the help of others. That in the end, no matter how big they are, they are simply one of five working towards a goal as one.

There’s no need to dance to be one of the guys all you need to do is simply be one of the guys. Don’t force it. You can go about your business and be successful without the hype and the self attention. Kevin Durant proves this as well as many other talented unheralded young players in the league. We should be looking to them as our role models. We should look to the guys that don’t have a complex about being the biggest athlete in the world, just simply the best athlete that their team needs them to be. The beauty is in the simplicity.

Lebron James will win a championship one day when he has a quality team around him. He is going to have to learn a few things about what it takes to win as a team. Your singular talents will only take you so far. We can all learn a lot from the subtle style of play that Kevin Durant plays with and Lebron James is one of those people.

1. The Fans

Yes, I am rooting for the fans, simply because they deserve it. They are what make sports. They are the essence. Players come and go but the fans remain. They have paid their dues, gone through highs and lows, and experienced every facet of emotion. They have seen almost everything.

Without them there are no sports. It’s the tree falling in the woods and no one there to see it saying. If there is no one there to appreciate the greatness of these athletes then there would simply be no point. Athletes need to have the support and attention of the public. Accomplishing something for yourself is great but on some level, every human needs to show their accomplishments off and have them cherished.  So it is with that I now plead with the fans to support these athletes.

We are now in a society that builds up and tears down these players only to keep the interest, attention, and the dollars flowing in. That’s what sports media is nowadays. With the internet and round the clock sports channels and coverage, the microscope is large and the scrutiny is overwhelming. We see now that most of these great athletes we are building up to Superhuman proportions are crumbling before are eyes. No one is able to live up to the surreal expectations anymore.

We are all human. No matter how genetically gifted a person’s body may be they all have mental weaknesses and personality flaws. They all make bad judgments and mistakes. The only difference is they do it right before our eyes and are then subsequently picked apart because of it.

Many men cheat on their wives but many men aren’t Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant. We for some reason hold them to a higher standard because they are our entertainment. When they fail it is a shock to us. In a way we can’t believe they are human like us. So we pick them apart and make them out to be villains. It makes us feel better about ourselves so we downgrade them. Building up and tearing down. The star making machine of the major sports media is a dangerous thing.

There are neither heroes nor idols left anymore. It used to be that you didn’t know who exactly Wilt Chamberlin was sleeping with or what this baseball player was snorting. That’s not the case anymore. Every little story is nationwide news now. We know far too much about the ins and outs of the lives of these players. We see every little fault and then we judge and criticize it. It eventually eats away at them and then they stumble.

When they stumble we judge. It’s only human nature. We’ve become very negative minded and judgmental as a fan base recently. You go through sports blogs and shows and it’s all Monday morning quarterbacking and second guessing. Maybe it’s because these athletes are giving us a lot of ammo because that is certainly the case. However, maybe we are overreacting. Maybe we have to take a look at things from a different perspective to really change things. We might have to ask why someone did something a certain way instead of being so quick to point the finger. Rationale is needed. Instead of pointing the finger let’s take a step back and ask why, why did this event play out like this.

Example. Pats-Colts game last season, the 4^th down call. It set off a firestorm of debate the next day. Some rational people looked at why Belichick would attempt such a move and then there those that simply said it was stupid based on the circumstances they could see. It is happenings like this that separates the reasonable and conventional thinkers from the people who are quickest to make black and white statements. Sports aren’t black and white so are thoughts about sports can not be black and white either. We have to weed out the people that are quickest to judge because with them still involved sports won’t grow.  

Now that the internet is so popular there is a lot of space and room for judgments. Now, everyone’s opinion can be heard. The fans now have a voice. We need to use that voice in the right way though. We need to be less ready to jump out and criticize athletes and sports figures for their behavior. Because we have to realize that Window is wide open now and we can see everything. We are going to have to take the good with the bad. Humans have their good and their bad sides.

As fans we always seem to be quick to judge first and then slowly forgive later after feeling like we may have judged too harshly. It’s a reflection of the American society we live in today. We have to change this and start looking outside the box we are presented. We have to look at why Plaxico Burress felt the need to carry a gun, why it’s so hard for Brett Favre to leave the Hero spotlight we’ve create for him, how come Barry Bonds was such a media recluse, why do all these athletes do what they do? It’s an analysis in the psychology of it all.

Fame, money, success, and constant scrutiny can do crazy things to a persons mind and we have to take this into account when looking at our athletes now. We’ve created a tough culture for them to survive in. Now, they are going to need our full support to survive in it. It’s not easy at the top and at the pinnacle. These players are putting themselves on the line to showcase their abilities for our entertainment. The least we can do as fans is have some respect for that an show gratitude. The fun seems to be lacking in sports lately. Great moments are overshadowed by great scandal because controversy sells more then joy. So lets enjoy sports again, lets have fun with it, and lets be a little more vocally supportive rather then critical.