Jaybrams.com

Originally submitted September 9, 2007 for ENGL 1310 @ Dallas Christian College. Emphasis added for website, copyright follows guidelines at bottom of the right sidebar.

There exists an odd phenomenon between American Football (hereafter referred to as “football”) fans and World Football (henceforth “soccer”) fans: Both feel their style of football is more the “real” sport, and both fail to realize that the sports share common roots. The inventor of American football, Walter Camp, was strongly influenced by William Ebb Ellis who commonly is credited with creating Rugby, a sport birthed directly from soccer (Bellis). Which fans, then, have a stronger argument for their beloved sport?
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Popularity: 13% [?]

Category : Essays, Football, School, Soccer, Sports

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I have never seen anything like that in my life…. what an insane football game.

25-24… Boys win…

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Category : Current Events, Football, Sports

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I’m not going to say much… but i’m a man of my word… so there is the stupid bird.  Check facebook to see the ugly face i’ve gotta look at for the next three weeks until UK wins again…

 Rick is under the impression that USC played well last night. but I will take the typical fans stance and say we gave the game away… Woodson disappointed quite a bit… After setting a record for most consecutive passes without an interception, he had 3 turnovers last night leading to 21 points (2 fumbles and and an absolutely brutal interception)… yet in the fourth quarter had the defense made ONE stop, they’d be in position to tie the game at the end…

In other words, if as rick says “it was just kentucky” than he oughta be shakin’ cause USC didn’t exacly look sharp either.

I still think UK’s offense is pretty darn good, Woodson just crumbled under pressure… But geeze, their pass defense is horrid.

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Category : Football, Friends, Sports

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Little history lesson for you about my life… I’m just now in college (if you’re just figuring that out, you don’t read the site enough). So, my college teams of choice vary from sport to sport and from year to year. I’m the ultimate bandwagon fan when it comes to college athletics and I’m proud of it!

The University of Kentucky has long been one of my favorites in basketball. This was ingrained in me from my father who grew up in Kentucky. I’ve never had a reason to cheer for them in football until this year. They are ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 1984 ( I was 3 ) and in the top 10 (currently #8) for the first time since 1977.

Led by Andre Woodson, who Steve Spurrier recently compared to THE USC great Carson Palmer, UK has one of the most impressive pass attacks in the nation, but to this point they haven’t played any solid defenses. This week, they face the #1 Pass defense in the nation in Spurrier’s other USC… the Gamecocks of South Carolina. Which just happens to be blogging buddy Mr. Stillwell’s alma mater… well well well… time for a little wager…

If, by some chance SoCAR pulls off an upset, I will begrudgingly display the ’Cock’s logo (see below) on this site. However, after UK humbles good ol’ ball coach and crew… rick will replace “jeeves” (his mini cooper) with the UK version. Here’s the kicker… The loser must keep up the winner’s logo until the loser’s team finally wins… Rick is definitely taking much less a risk because his ‘Cocks play a pansy UNC team next week, while UK will face LSU followed by Florida. In other words if UK loses tomorrow I’ll have too keep this stupid bird on my site until 10/27 when they play Blake’s Bulldogs… Here’s to the Wildcats!

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Category : Football, Friends, Sports

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You may need to pick up some safety goggles soon… wouldn’t want all the dust we’re about to leave you in to get in your precious little eyes.

FC Dallas has signed Denilson…. heck yah. No need to google search him, just watch below. He’s arrived and is ready to start training and is just waiting for his work visa to go through before he’s on the pitch. I’m excited…

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Category : Soccer, Sports

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The last time I was at work was August 10th and I have enjoyed my time off, but alas, I have returned. This may come as surprise to most of my readers cause generally bloggers are kind enough to say “i’m going on vacation.” The problem is I figured that I would post as normal during my 11 days off because I was at home for 8 of those days.

I guess I just wasn’t inspired.

Blogging has become more a part of a way to get through the work day than anything else, so perhaps a vacation from work translated to a vacation from blogging. I barely was on the comp at all really. It was nice… so, let me hit some quick highlights:

* In my brief time on the net I decided to look for professional athletes that have a blog. Not many out there, but I did find this: Alyssa Milano on Baseball. My wife says she’s actually a pretty good writer…

* Most of the week was family oriented. Our eldest starts 2nd grade next week so it was kind of a “One Last Hurrah” kinda week. We went bowling at the Main Event, Skating, and the highlight of the week for the family: Fossil Rim. I’ll probably post a handful of pictures from the Fossil Rim trip soon, but basically it’s a hands-on wildlife experience. The animals come right up to your car and often stick their heads in your window. It can be a little freaky, but it’s fun. Here’s my 7 yr old feeding a giraffe:

* The wife and I went to Corpus Christi for the weekend. We had talked about going Deep Sea Fishing, but decided it against it for a variety of reasons; not the least of which was the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin and the imminent threat of Hurricane Dean. Instead we went to the Texas State Aquarium, which was less than expected, but not bad.

* We went to celebrate our 8th anniversary.

* School officially started for me this weekend. The first class is online: Comp I, which for week one includes 70+ pages of reading from an English Comp book (exciting) and an essay. I’m about halfway through already because I’d like to stay ahead; I have a second class starting Thursday on campus.

* On the 6.5 hour drive home, we heard Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry” at least 6 times, four of those were in the morning. Did you know at any given time on Sunday mornings you can listen to 4 different “top 20 countdowns?” And did you know Casey Cassum (sp?) is still doing one?

* One Fantasy Football Draft down, 2 to go.

* We saw The Boune Ultimatum. Good good stuff. The character transistion in this one is top notch, but I wont give it away. And for those of you who rarely enter book stores, the author of the books (yes, they’re books) already has the fourth book out: The Bourne Betrayal. I’m not going to read it, but I hope they make it a movie.

Later folks…

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Category : Culture, Current Events, Eh... Whatever, Family, Football, Me Dang It!, Movies, Music, Photos, School, Sports

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Rather than talk about is he juiced or not, asterisk or not, fair or not… I would like to compare last night’s moments with what I still consider the top moment of my baseball watching era (1990-present (i was 10 years old the year Cecil Fielder hit 51 HRs and that is my earliest real baseball memory): Cal Ripken setting the all-time consecutive games streak in September of 1995.

In ‘95, not only was the commish on hand, but so was the President and Vice President of the United States.Last night, Pedro Gomez was on hand. Seriously, the commish wasn’t there, his predecessor wasn’t there, Senator George Mitchell wasn’t there, and the president certainly wasn’t there. Heck, the Govanator Arnold Schwarzenegger was at Beckham’s debut, but didn’t make the trek to see this…

In ‘95 I watched Cal’s entire game, including an unprecedented and still unmatched 22 minute standing ovation.His trot around the stadium with an ear-to-ear grin is timeless… The game is STILL the highest rated Baseball game ever shown on the ESPN networks (including last night’s game). Last night, i went to sleep after watching his second at bat, and really i only watched that at bat cause i knew he was guaranteed to get to the plate in that inning. After a nice single, i slumped off to bed, not really caring if i missed anything.

So, i’m glad its over. I’m not an anti-Bonds guy, the whole thing just seems tainted and trite.Think about how you look at the 98 season when McGwire and Sosa had the famous chase for 61. We were all glued to our sets and absolutely soaked in every home run. The grumblings about roids were there, but no one cared enough to make a big deal about it. Baseball was back. McGwire finished with 70, Sosa with 66 and Bonds with an outstanding 37 home runs — But cut bonds some slack, cause he was only 33 and obviously not in the peak of his career. We all know how the majority of baseball players don’t hit their stride until their late 30s *cough*sarcasm*cough*.

Now, i look back at that time and i think of what a fraudulent year that was. I’m still a huge McGwire fan and think he’s gotten the worst treatment in all of this, unfairly so, but I can look at the latter part of his career and see that it was fraudulent.

That’s pretty much how i feel about this record, and even though i’m not a huge A-Rod fan, i’m pulling for him to stay healthy.

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Category : Baseball, Culture, Current Events, Sports

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xGames 13 finished up this week… man… 13 years… I remember year one pretty vividly and they just keep getting bigger and bigger. X Games X (10) introduced us to skateboarding’s ”Big Air” which is just insane in my opinion: Riders could choose between two ramps: a roll-in of about 80 feet to a 70 foot 3 inch gap, or a roll-in of about 65 feet to a 60 foot 9 inch gap. Both ramps kicked to a 27-foot 3-inch quarter-pipe. Sending the riders upwards of 50 feet in the air.

This year, someone nearly lost their life. Jake Brown nailed his first trick over the 70 ft gap (the first to successfully land a 720 over the gap) but his board started wobbling up the quarter pipe. He ended up dropping 40 feet and landing on the flat surface at the bottom of the ramp. It’s all over YouTube if you want to see the ESPN coverage, slow motion and all of that and hear the announcers struggle for words… “I can’t believe he nailed the 720″  is uttered as Jake lays unconscious… anyway, here’s a vid from the crowd… you see those things that go flying? Those are his shoes… He is now out of the hospital and walking with a cane, amazingly very little initial damage considering the fall. No telling the lasting effects of the internal damage.

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Category : Culture, Current Events, Sports

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So, I’ve not done some things I could’ve been doing… like Futbol updates… so lets play catch up with all the sports stories in the world today:

* NBA * If you don’t know the story, stop reading this won’t make sense to you. I watched the press conference and I must say I have never seen David Stern like this. He usually comes across very strong willed and high in character. You can tell not only does he feel very betrayed by this (as he admits) but he feels lost and scared. For a while he was the top commish in all of sports, but his “brand” is going to take a huge hit with this and it will be interesting to see how this goes from here. Thank God i’m not a gambler.

* NFL * Vick is a prick. ‘Nuf said.

* Futbol and Beckham * Futbol fan or not, i’m sure you’ve heard the hype. Let me say a few things:

1) Lee Corso is an idiot. Filling in for Mike and Mike he claims “soccer is a dying sport” … What he meant is “I’m a one horse pony and know nothing about any sport except college football and even that is debatable. So, much like racism, I will slam a sport based solely on my ignorance.”

2) Not all Sportscenter anchors are as stupid as Lee, but anything they say about soccer needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Most claim there is no way this hype helps propel soccer’s popularity. A more accurate statement was issue by the oft annoying Mike Greenberg “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

3) Beckham’s hype will NOT win the non-fan to soccer and will only boost the casual fans interest minimally. But what his arrival has done is set a precedent for YOUNGER talented foreign players to play in the MLS, which will put pressure on American players and our product will improve. This has already shown in some areas. FC Dallas has signed 3 young players from South America, including Juan Carlos Toja who scored in the MLS All-Star game and are now in talks with Denilson, another Brazilian who was one of Arsenal’s most promising young players. For those barely following me, Arsenal is one of the premier clubs in the English Premier League, which is considered one of if not THE top league in the world. In an interview posted at FC Dallas’ Blog, Denilson points to Beckham’s willingness to play here as a determining factor for him even considering coming over. And recently Toronto FC’s British Stud Danny Dichio stated (paraphrased) that the MLS is getting a bad wrap back home (England) and the league and play is much more technically sound than the common view overseas.  This is where Beckham’s arrival will help MLS in the long run, and I’m excited about it.

4) The league continues to expand, and i’m not sure if this is a good thing yet. There are still very few sell outs around the league and I fear they are being too aggressive. Baseball, Hockey and Basketball have all experienced watered down quality of play because they expanded too much, I’d hate to see that here. They are looking to be at 16 teams in about 2 more years. 16 should be the cap for a while, but I fear they may push beyond that. Please, slow down!

* FC Dallas * New guys, Ray Burse-GK and Ricardhino (brazilian) - AMF/FW, excite me very much. Lets keep seeing good things from these guys.  No one bought me tickets to the SuperLiga so I’ll have to watch it all in spanish.

* Telefutura * This is a national television station and the camera work and graphic work are absolutely horrible. If anything is going on near the far side of the field, their score graphic covers it up. Perhaps if the camera man moves the camera two inches up, we’d be able to see what was going on. And the channel is the darkest i’ve ever seen.

Questions? Comments? Criticism?

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Category : Basketball, Culture, Current Events, Football, Soccer, Sports

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I fear there will only be three updates to this with the following headlines in order:

06/29/07 -”Young US Team Thrashed By Argentina”
07/03/07 - “Young US Team Thrashed By Paraguay”
07/06/07 - “Young US Team Wins: Too Little Too Late”

After an alright first half last night, we totally fell asleep / apart and Argentina just beat us down 4-1 (i got tired of putting the score disclaimer at the bottom). Couple of reasons why:

1.) We’re fielding a team with very little national experience and it shows. They did not know how to respond to Argentina’s halftime adjustments and there was no teamwork at all. Soccer is a “feel” sport… you have to be able to feel your teammates next moves. There is something akin to set plays like in basketball, but its not just barked out… it’s eye contact and body language. Chemistry. There is none right now.

2.) Argentina has one of the best squads in the tourney. I’ve been able to watch about three games (all in spanish), which included Brazil, Mexico, and Paraguay, and right now it certainly looks like Argentina can take it all.

3.) Argentina adjusted, US didn’t. The first half was *fairly* even in the midfield and our defense responded when challenged. Argentina came out wider and more aggressive in the second half and we did nothing to stop it.

4.) Anytime you can replace Messi with Tevez (two of the best strikers in the Cup since Brazil is kinda in the same boat we are), you’re going to cause people problems.

I was really hoping for a tie… I didn’t expect a win, but maybe a 1-1 draw. If we’re going to move on we’re going to have to get at least a win and draw in our next two outings (monday night vs Paraguay, Thursday vs Columbia), and even that might not be enough.

I have so much more I could say… perhaps i should start a soccerblog for these long soccer posts… but then again… this is my site and i’ll post what I dang well please.

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Category : Current Events, Me Dang It!, Soccer, Sports

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