LESAProject

Also seen at mvn.com/outsider. Wednesday night, we witnessed one of the very few things in the period of a year that we can legitimately say made our jaws drop, eyeballs pop, and hands cover our mouths. LeGarrette Blount made some horrific decisions that drastically changed the course of his NCAA football career (suspended for the rest of a much anticipated Oregon season) and NFL hankerings. Blount connected his knuckles with last night's jokester in the Oregon-Boise State game, Bryon Hout, after being overwhelmed with his unfathomable performance. When the loss finally hit him square in the noggin, the stomach, the heart, Blount ...

Last year, I spent 18 weeks waking up at 5:00 am each morning to train for one of the most incredible experiences one can have in their lifetime—running the Chicago Marathon. It had been on my bucket list for many years and after completing a half-marathon the year prior, I rustled up the courage to go for broke and accomplished my first marathon. As those of you who've also done it, it is an incredible experience I will never forget and hopefully do again.  As I think about all of those brave souls getting ready for this year's Chicago Marathon, I thought ...

Recently, a reader thanked me for choosing to walk down the "road less traveled" in my pursuit of presenting sports stories about the "good guys". It meant as much to me as any compliment I could possibly receive as it made me feel as though my quest to show the goodness of sports is being noticed and recognized. However, I took it not as an accolade about my writing skills as much as an acknowledgement that the high road still exists in sports despite this oft-crazy world that surrounds us. I met one such blazer of the high road at a recent baseball ...

    Have you ever found yourself scratching your head during an introspective moment, in an attempt to figure out how someone or some team grabbed the brass ring before you did? I have! It can be a low and frustrating inner debate, but in most cases the difference between success and failure can be a very fine line and the game changer was simply that… The other guy “found it” and you didn’t.   This is a very simple statement to make and the probable solution to a challenge that haunts a lot of us in many areas of our lives, but by ...

The A Glove of Their Own story is a simple one. It's all about giving and sharing and family and paying it forward. It's about the wholesome family values that we strive for each and every day and remain tested, yet unspoiled, because we simply refuse to let them slip from our grasp. The book, a children's story, has multiplied into a movement of giving that is being adopted across the nation by players, coaches, organizations, and parents to not only provide giving, but to teach giving. Metaphorically, A Glove of Their Own is the pebble that is tossed into the middle ...

It’s been a tough NFL offseason for me. From the time the Super Bowl ended then through the free agency announcements and NFL draft I’ve been waiting and anticipating the beginning of the regular season games. Due to the many mandatory furlough days I have been required to take this summer I have had too much time to reflect on this offseason as I lay on the beach. You see I have a small get away cottage on the Rhode Island coast. It’s always been a sanctuary for me. A place separated from my work-week grind; a place where everything else is forgotten. ...

Let me preface this article by saying that I do not nor have I ever used tobacco of any kind. Much has been said about athletes—baseball players specifically—being role models for youngsters. The current villain (steroids) is being dealt with severely by MLB and rightly so. While they are busy rounding up documents on every thug who has used the illegal substance, baseball players all around the league are using smokeless tobacco. I know, I know, they have used it since the sunrise of the game. That is not a viable excuse sir, and it will no longer do. It seems like only ...

It pains Pakistani Cricket lovers so much when they see and ponder the plight of their cricketing heroes and administration. Lack of discipline, responsibility, management, leadership and direction is pandemic. Blunders are made in board’s administration and team selection only to be repeated again and again on end without learning any lessons.Nothing on the horizon suggests that corrective measures are coming. If any action has been taken previously, if at all, then it is to shove the dirt under the rug or at best merely a quick-fix to get out of current quagmire only to hand reigns over to the future ...

Baseball has its A-Rod, golf has its Tiger, tennis its Fed. And now, track and field has its Usain Bolt. In a post-Olympic year, typically a down year in terms of interest, athletics enjoyed one of its most successful runs in recent memory. Ravaged the last two decades by doping scandals, inept marketing, and a disinterested media, the sport has survived only on the merciful life support of die-hard track fans and dedicated athletes. Then, in four-year intervals, the Summer Olympics would provide an adrenaline-like injection for a temporary boost. In Beijing, despite the anti-climactic no-show of sprinter Tyson Gay and hurdler ...

Folks used to say, "There is more than one way to skin a cat." Nowadays, the SPCA would condemn someone for saying that, especially if he is a professional athlete. Animal cruelty, they would chant while they carry their homemade banners with red paint sprayed on them, saying, "Down with the cat-skinners!" The meaning of the old saying is intended to tell us that the road to success can take on many different paths. Success can be preceded by losing a few battles. It does not mean, however, that the war will be lost. I take time to read B/R articles on my breaks. ...