LESAProject

My grandson is three years old. He said, "Mimi, I want the Cleveland Browns to win...I am pulling for the Browns." I said, "Grandson, I am pulling for the Oakland Raiders, so we will talk later, after the game on Sunday." What happened? Oakland lost to the Cleveland Browns, and the score was two times nine plus five in favor of the Cleveland Browns. It was 9-23, a victory for my grandson's team. Well, I am humbled because my three-year-old grandson was wise enough to pick a winning team, and Grandmama had to "eat her words." Now what do you tell the next generation of ...

What do Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Phelps, and Tiger Woods all have in common? They make up a very elite group of American sports icons. Of course, throughout history many other elite athletes have come and gone. But these six men can be considered true sports icons. Unlike ESPN, who ranked Secretariat in front of Mickey Mantle on their list of the 100 greatest athletes of all time, this list is excluding horses and other barnyard animals. Aside from being sports icons, what else do these six men have in common?   That right, they have all been involved in ...

Move over, boys. Here we come ... again. Sarah Thomas made history Saturday night at the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl by becoming the first woman to officiate a bowl game when she worked the matchup between Ohio and Marshall.  Thomas is one of five women officiating in major college football, the first and only female referee in Conference USA. Pizza Bowl spokesman Tim Moore said she was the first woman to draw an assignment for a Bowl Subdivision postseason game. "It was an honor," Thomas told the Associated Press while running off the field with her colleagues after Marshall's 21-17 victory in Detroit. OK, you male naysayers, I know what ...

First of all, this really has nothing to do with John Daly; I just needed to put a picture in, and I could not really find anything exactly right (or even close to what I wanted), so I just picked something. (Of course, there is a measure of appropriateness to using Daly for a discussion regarding alcohol and sports.) I created this for a class I took last semester at Cypress College, where I am a freshman Communications/Journalism. The name of the class is Sport and United States Society. The teacher is Margaret Mohr, a former assistant coach for the ...

The following is part of a weekly series in which writer Todd Civin presents the lighter side of the Boston Breakers of the WPS. The league prides itself in the down-to-earth nature and approachability of its athletes, and Civin believes that "Getting Silly with the Breakers" is an fun-filled way to create a comfortable bond between the fans and the professional athletes who are the Boston Breakers. A special thanks to Erica Hunt, the communications director for the team, as well as the players themselves for making this approach possible. In last season's series called "Meet The Breakers", I described Jennifer ...

As Roberto Mancini takes charge of Manchester City for his first game following the dismissal of Mark Hughes, there remains a bitter aftertaste in the way a British manager has been ousted in favour of a foreign import. Ahead of Sunderland’s match with Everton, Steve Bruce spoke about his counterpart David Moyes and the British management in general. His thoughts seem to be in reaction to the developments at Manchester City. "I rate David Moyes very, very highly—right up there with Martin O'Neill and, of course, Sir Alex [Ferguson] himself in terms of the best of British managers,” he told Chronicle Live. "I ...

Friendships Through Thick and Thin Forty-seven years ago, a young, handsome man said "Hello" to a slim, strutting young lady in the hallway of the Nabrit Science building on a university campus in the Southwest part of the United States.  A friendship started and it has lasted through thick and thin, gaps and breaks, in the lives of both people. The Bleacher Report names for these two people are JCI and Damali. Although the length of these two people's journey spans 47 years, there were gaps in their communication, one of which lasted for 26 years. JCI became a professional football player. He played for the ...

This has to be the greatest time of year, the Christmas season.  Football games have Santa Claus and everybody is sending a list off to dear old St. Nick asking for anything from a BCS bowl win to a national championship in basketball.  Yes, I know the kids ask for toys, but I am talking about us adult types, so without further adeu, I give you a recreation of my letter to Santa Claus.   Dear Santa, It's me again for I think about the 30th time in the last few dozen years.  You know things have been tough on the job front ...

If you are not pleased with your progress in 2009, several college students in Texas are willing to give advice. They have sent a message to the Oakland Raiders: "Play harder, work smarter." Here are a few quotes from students ranging from 18 to 30 years old.   Quotes for Oakland Raiders and Coach Tom Cable Casey : "To become a winner, you must be a champion among your peers. So practice harder than your peers and play/work smarter." Terry : "The key to becoming a winner in 2010 is to keep trying, keep our focus and not quit." Obama : "...a person must determine and compromise ...

A Kind of Christmas Story On Christmas Eve, a kind of story from 2009 that is about sports, but also really about overcoming obstacles. It happened in February of this year in a small community in the rural province of New Brunswick, Canada.  The sports part of the story was that a small high school basketball team, the Bathurst High School Phantoms won the New Brunswick Provincial Basketball Championship, handily defeating the Campobello Vikings 82-50 before an estimated crowd of 1500 fans in the University of New Brunswick gym. It might be well enough to leave at that, to say “good for ...