There are few constants in sports – a Norv Turner coached team won’t win, Mark Cuban will piss someone off at some point, fans in the US will only show real interest in soccer once the country makes the World Cup finals, and the Cubs are destined to failure, most times never even putting up much of a fight, save for 1969, 1984, and most recently 2003. 

On the other hand, a team like the Boston Red Sox, would regularly bring their teams to the brink of victory only to have their dreams crushed in the most ritualistically diabolical manner possible.

And if you’ve ever had your hopes dashed so historically at the last second, you’ll know it’s like winning a race around the globe where the winner gets a full week locked inside a hotel room with Megan Fox, only to have Megan replaced with Snooki from “Jersey Shore” at the last second.  [Ugh.  I threw up in my mouth just writing that sentence.]

There is actually an equation that explains this phenomenon:

t + p = x,

where t is time and p  is persistence.  x represents an undetermined contentment quotient upon the ultimate outcome of your team’s season.

For instance, the more time you put in and the more persistence you show over time, the greater your happiness will be when your team wins.  This, of course, assumes that the team will someday win. 

Though an assumption that a team will win can be foolish as it is possible the team will never win.  [See: Chicago Cubs; any Cleveland team]  Still the damage to your psyche is negligible as long as you don’t add the one element that ruins everything – expectation (h).

Then the equation changes to e + t + p  = x/2 + ktb

so your ultimate happiness is halved relative to all that you’ve put in since nothing could live up to what you’ve built up in your mind as the end-all, be-all, plus ktb which is a kick to the balls, the emotional feeling you get when you are, in fact, kicked in the balls. 

Look at the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008.  They beat arch nemesis Boston in a thrilling seven games only to have their hearts handed to them by the Philadelphia Phillies.  Wouldn’t it have been better for them to lose much earlier, particularly since their fan base goes to bed at 8 p.m.?  They weren’t expected to do anything, until they started to do something. 

To reach the ring, to hold the crown, to feel the golden ticket only to have it wrenched from your hands leaving a golden paper cut is a horrible feeling; though it doesn’t hurt as much if you’re used to it. 

If your team has never won, you don’t know what you’re missing, though you’ve heard stories and seen celebrations.  But like Cinderella herself, until you go to the ball, you don’t know that it’s an open bar with nothing but top shelf libations.  You just know you’re sick of cleaning rat turd off your stepmother’s floor.

And it doesn’t hurt that much if you’ve experienced victory.  You understand that the downs contained some ups and could potentially have some again.  You can’t win them all (as much as Yankees fans will have you believe they can). 

Once you refrain from using the “e” word, your frustrations will be more moderate.  By now, Cubs fans have begun to wonder, “Maybe this is how it will always be, destined to fail.”  And that’s fine.  Expect that.  Go, enjoy the games, and get ready for football season.  If, by the (Mark) Grace of God, the team should happen to win, excellent – Enjoy it!

Oh, you can still get the tattoo of the team’s logo or name your kids after the team’s equipment manager or play-by-play announcer, but don’t expect too much, especially as the team progresses into the playoffs.  That’s just what the evil powers pulling the strings would have you do.  (Hm, did anyone else’s lights just flicker along with a boom of thunder?)

I quote the great Sam “Mayday” Malone when I say, “Have you ever had a pressure cooker fly by you at 100 m.p.h.? . . . Don’t.”

Such is the feeling of losing in historically dramatic fashion at the end of a season instead of early on.

But don’t let me sway you.  What about you, Mr. Orioles fan, are you content gearing up for Ravens’ season in May once you realize team owner Peter Angelos has not put a winning squad on the field?  Or would you rather keep to the schedule of watching baseball through the pennant race in September then transitioning seamlessly into football just in time to watch Ray Lewis and the gang chasing a division title?

It’s up to you.  I expect you to make the right decision . . . Oh, dammit, there’s that word again.  Now I’m vested.  Don’t let me down; this could be very traumatic for me.

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What are the biggest sporting events in the NFL every year? It can depend on your perspective and rooting interest.  These 10 are undeniably a major part of the American Sporting calendar every year.

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Whether it happens to be that long awaited home improvement project, saving for a summer vacation or preparing for retirement, I think we can agree that any worthy project will go through a “launch phase.” This phase consists of a time of dreaming, planning and targeting specific time-lines to hit as you begin to “execute” your plan. The same holds true in the college search for athletes and below are snapshots of general suggestions that might just help you along the way.

Gather Information

Gathering information is critical to the successful organization of any worthy project. Building a college recruiting information base can begin as early as the ninth grade as a family hobby and increasingly grow into a highly organized, disciplined project by the end of the junior year.

Begin by gathering information on the student-athletes colleges of choice including team and coach profiles, statistics, ranking, and academic offerings. Continue to update and maintain individual e-files on these favorite college programs.

Develop your initial college list

This is where the fun begins! You have built an initial knowledge foundation about the college search and you have a pretty good idea of what you are looking for in a college experience. Now it’s time to develop a grouping of institutions that potentially meet that end.

Peterson’s College Search (www.petersons.com/collegesearch) is a great resource where you can input specific information about what you are looking for in a four year college experience and up comes a listing of colleges and universities that initially “match.” Investigate both the general and athletic college websites. From there you can begin to put together a more detailed list of coaches and their contact information.

Build your Team

Parents, prospect, high school/club coach, college adviser, guidance counselor and a personal mentor could all be part of your team in the college recruiting process. Each team player will have a specific role to play in order to ensure the prospect’s best chances in navigating the college search with confidence. Advance goals should be set with clarity and purpose that compliment the organizational structure of the recruiting process.

By selecting the team approach, the responsibilities are equally distributed to the area experts. All assignments should be clearly spelled out and communication between the team members should be frequent and consistent. This will help streamline the college quest and assist in avoiding any confusion that could contribute to unclear thinking, misdirection and potentially poor choices.

Define Yourself: The Profile

It is important to streamline your portfolio into a comprehensive and efficient format that stands above the rest. Keep your profile simple, neat and professionally formatted. Make the job of initial evaluation easy for the college coach by highlighting pertinent information including:

·         Personal and school contact information

·         Academic standing, awards, and test results

·         Physical characteristics

·         Athletic clubs and level, showcase tournaments, and elite camps

·         Athletic Statistics, Records, and Awards

·         Mission Statement

·         Coach’s Comments

Show your Stuff: The Video

A videotape, DVD or web stream are means of developing a first impression and trust me when I say that first impressions are remembered. Typically, a coach will roughly evaluate a recruit within the first two minutes of a video. They need to! Along with the hundreds of profiles, they are also being bombarded with hundreds of videos!

Make your video succinct, professional, and yet attention grabbing. Keep in mind that as individual collegiate sports differ, it is important to communicate with the individual college coaches about their requirements for DVD footage.

Develop your Plan

A knowledgeable consumer will have a clear edge in the pursuit of the attainment of any worthy product. I believe that the same holds true in the college search and I encourage families to make every effort and commitment to organize pertinent information regarding this process and to execute well-designed plans.

Develop timelines that will target general events in the beginning of the college search (making unofficial visits, maintaining your data base, and attending competitions) and continue with more specific events (compiling a video and player profile, communicating with coaches, and making official visits, etc.) as time progresses. This will increase the chances of “hitting targets” throughout the recruiting process.

Similar to a NASA Space Shuttle launch, the beginning phase of any college recruiting plan will be time consuming, demanding and require the greatest effort. That said, once you break free of that “gravity” and you remain persistent with your plan, you will give yourself the best chance in building and maintaining momentum toward your ultimate goal.

Tom Kovic is a former Division I college coach and the current director of Victory Collegiate Consulting, where he provides individual advisement for families on college recruiting. For further information visit: www.victoryrecruiting.com).

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No one wants to sit three hours in a refrigerator or be placed in jail for rooting too hard. Players don't want to be a move away from an ACL injury.

From Major League Baseball to World Cup soccer, some unfortunate teams call the world's worst stadiums home.

Whether the stadium fits 21,000 or 100,000, here are the 25 dumbest stadiums ever built.

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Here are some of the responses:

1. One student said he saw a depressed man.
2. A student said he saw a very aggressive man.
3. Another student said he saw a man who had been beheaded.
4. Another student said he saw a strong warrior.
5. A student saw a shield

And, the perceptions went on and on.

An article on the logo was read to them. The idea was to inspire them to see deeply, as we sometimes see different things in artwork.

We see the Oakland Raiders logo differently because what we see is often related to the experiences that each of us have.

Then, the students were told what the professor saw.

The professor saw the following:

• a helmet
• two swords
• a head
• a face
• a patch
• a shield

Possibly more symbols.

The other symbols the professor saw were:

• alef
• dalet
• continuity
• openness
• two double-edged swords
• increased ability of the other senses when compared to the patched eye
• a paradox in the finite and infinite represented by alef (similar to an A)
• selflessness represented by dalet (similar to a D)

More Insight

Later, after a Calculus II student participated in the exercise, the student said, in so many words:

"My optometrist told me that the pirate covered one eye not because he was blind in it or he had lost the eye, rather by covering one eye, the other eye focuses quickly and adjusts for better night vision.

"This was done so that the pirate would be ready for war even if it occurred at night."

I thought. This is profound.

No other logo in the NFL has a design that is loaded with various symbols inspiring many interpretations. How smart the designer of the logo must have been? How brilliant for Al Davis to select and retain such a powerful logo which can easily represent a powerful lesson.

Your Lesson

As a member of the Raider Nation you probably see the logo as the fine symbol of a team with a rich history.

There is more than meets the eye.

One young lady broaden my understanding, and convinced us that even more research needs to be done to get the interpretation of the Oakland Raiders logo.

She said that we needed to contact the artist and ask the artist what he or she intended to communicate.

So, one of the male students who was fascinated by the discussion of symbolism said he was going to do a project and contact the Oakland Raiders' office and request more information on the logo.

Once this young man's project is completed, no doubt there will another article giving us deeper insight into the meaning of the cherished logo of the Oakland Raiders.

Is the logo unique? Yes.

Are other NFL logos loaded with depth and wisdom? Not really.

Is Al Davis a genius to have maintained this fine logo for the franchise? Definitely.

Now, what do you see in the logo on your cap, barbecue pit, t-shirt, wallet, cup and more?

Why not write what you see in the comment strand.

Who knows? What you see may inspire the Oakland Raiders to "Just win, baby."

Go Raiders!

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Considering that this is Elin's only interview on the matter, it looks like Tiger has gotten off pretty easy. It makes you wonder if Elin actually told People what was really on her mind.

We all know what Elin said in her interview, but let's take a look at what she should have said.

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I have met Nolan Ryan, Craig Biggio, Jay Novacek and a plethora of Dallas Cowboys. I have been in the garage area with Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and many more. Heck, I saw Elvis in concert as a kid but that’s a completely different story.Needless to say, I’ve been fortunate in the ways of sports.

In the fall of 1991 my first son, Joshua, was born and he brought with him all the joys a son could bring. My son brought Little League baseball back into my life and a renewed vigor for sports, if for nothing else, for the perceived job to carry on the love for his fathers favorite teams.

This seems like a right of passage, to have your boy right beside you on game day, to inject those team colors into his veins so he bleeds blue and silver, or red,white and blue; and whatever colors Mark Martin is carrying on his car.

My son and I went to Longhorn games and I made sure he was at the game Emmitt Smith broke Walter Payton’s rushing record against Seattle.

I got caught up in the all the hoopla and almost, and I mean almost, lost sight of the little moments that make such things special: the eight hour drive up there, just me and Josh, the jokes and conversation and the pure thrill of my sons emotions during those games.

My second son, Tyler, was a Valentines Day baby, complete with the red hair and all. Tyler was to be my second case of sports overload, another son to impart my wisdom on, and to insure future generations of Texas sports. However, we soon found out that Tyler was born with a very rare Neuromuscular disease, Nemaline Rod Myopathy. This is when my perceptions on many things, including sports, changed.

I started to notice more than ever, professional athletes complain about the smallest of things: their ill regard for what was actually going on in the real world and in many cases, their waste of physical talents that many will never get to know.

Of course, this is not true of all athletes and certainly, selfishness and waste have a lengthy history in professional sports. In many ways, I set some of these athletes on a pedestal and chose to ignore their behavioral problems; overlooking the inherent cheating as long as my teams were better than yours (Is winning all that truly matters?).

But when you have a child that will never have the opportunities that many of these people squander, it tends to open your eyes to the business of sports and trust me, that’s not the end you want to look at. (They lack moral courage—heart regardless of pain)
It makes you lose sight of what sports really are, as you learn what true courage is all about.

My son Tyler, reminded me of what is really important in the short time we have here on this planet. He fought through multiple life threatening Pneumonias. He has smiled when I was the one who cried and at times, it was Tyler who was comforting me when it should have been his father comforting him. My son has shown courage beyond courage in the game of life and I came to find contempt for professional sports.

My oldest son, Josh, began playing football in the seventh grade and it became one of his greatest passions. From the time his younger brother was born, until Josh started playing in Junior High, I had forgotten what the true meaning of sports was and what had to be sacrificed to achieve your goals.


Josh has never been the fastest or the biggest on the many teams, but what he lacked in athletic ability, he made up with intelligence and heart. From the very first practice in the seventh grade through his last game of his senior year, he never missed a single practice or game. When Josh was a freshman, he broke a bone in the top of his foot, never said a word, came home, iced it and elevated it and played on. That same year he played basketball on the same broken foot and never complained.

As a junior in high school, he was playing iron man football, both offense and defense, which in many cases, is essential in a small town. Late in the season he received a vicious shot while playing defense and reported he had “a sore back.” He continued to suit up for practice and play with fervor in games.

We later found that he had broken a few vertebrae. He never once let onto those around him about how much pain he was in.Once again, he played basketball immediately after the football season and played some second base for his one and only year of high school baseball. By this time, the wear and tear was getting to him and he slept on ice and spent several hours per week with his physical therapists.

For the months leading up to Josh’s senior year, we had a Orthopedic Surgeon work with him. We had MRI’s done, x-rays taken, and had him on electronic stimulation as he continued a grueling schedule of physical therapy.

We consulted specialists to find out if he could play his Senior year. In the course of this, it was learned that he has Schermanns disease which affects his back and contributed to an imbalance in his hips. I do believe that even if the Doctors had advised against him playing one more year we would have had to lock him in his room to keep him away from the field. We were assured that he could do no more damage to himself and it would be all about how he could handle the pain.

I can hear parents now: you should of disallowed it, forbade it, and just told him no.
Let’s put it this way, when you have one child that is totally incapable of realizing many of his aspirations and dreams, you cannot deny the other one his.

Anyway, Josh made it through two a days and prior to the first game he developed turf toe, which is quite painful. I watched him grimace coming off the field, I watched him limp behind the coach’s back and then I watched as he experienced what all the pain and sacrifice was for.

In the third quarter he was playing his usual swing or some might say tight end depending on the formation. He ran what can best be described as a modified post route where he turned straight up between the hashes. There was a defender right on his hip and the ball was thrown right over his right shoulder, he made the catch and raced the next thirty yards into the end zone.

That was a 55-yard play that invigorated the team and propelled them to victory. That was the day it all came together for me. That was the day I witnessed true moral courage and why people give so much for something they love.

I’ve heard and used the line about living vicariously through our children, about glory days long gone that get to be relived through our kids successes, but I could truly never do such a thing because I could never see myself with the courage my two boys have displayed.

Earlier this year at the Athletic Awards banquet, Josh received the Iron Eagle award, given to the player that overcame adversity and exhibited true courage. That award was more precious in my eyes than being named to the Honorable Mention Academic All State football team.

My sons are my heroes and if I’m ever half the men they already are then that would be something.

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The following are the top 10 funniest sports characters ever portrayed on film....

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According to Elin, she only wanted to tell her side of the story, and she has no desire to live her life in the public eye.

So she sat down with People magazine for several hours in order to clear up a few rumors and perhaps get some closure.

Don't read People magazine? No problem!

Here is Elin Nordegren's interview in a nutshell.

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On Monday, August 23, Deadspin.com obtained the financial records of the Marlins covering the 2008-09 seasons, and the fallout was not pretty.

When the Marlins approached Miami-Dade County officials for financial help in constructing a new baseball facility, they contended that the Marlins only break even financially year after year, the centerpiece argument for obtaining local government funding.

In fact, documents show the Marlins could have covered a substantial amount of the new stadium’s construction themselves and still turned an annual operating profit.

Documents obtained by Deadspin.com revealed that the Marlins had an operating income of over $50 million in the last two fiscal years.

Further documents that were recently revealed have shown that the Marlins paid out a "management fee" of $5.4 million over that same two year period to a company called Double Play.

According to the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, Double Play is owned by both Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and Samson, effectively paying themselves for the period shown.

Loria and Samson have been crying poverty to anyone who would listen over the course of the last several years. The leaked documents prove otherwise, and now both men are scrambling to explain to the public why they should be entrusted with their fans' hard earned money to provide sound entertainment value.

You can follow Doug on Twitter, @desertdesperado.

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