Category: Sports (Page 41 of 51)

Will we get an epic Super Bowl?

November 28, 2011 /

The NFL has been on a roll. Recent Super Bowls have produced incredible games, unlike a generation ago when it became an annual blowout. After getting past the nasty labor dispute this offseason, the NFL season hasn’t missed a beat, and we might be heading for an epic showdown in the Super Bowl. Just imagine a matchup between the Packers and the Patriots!

First, you have a battle between two quarterbacks who define this era in the NFL. Tom Brady is the current king of the hill with three Super Bowl titles and amazing stats. He led his team to an undefeated season and then suffered his only significant blemish to his resume with a loss to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. With Aaron Rodgers you have a quarterback who many believe has surpassed Brady as the best of the NFL. Rodgers capped an epic run last season with an incredible performance in the Super Bowl against the Steelers, and now he’s leading the Packers to a potential undefeated season.

Next, you have two high-profile franchises. While being a small-market team, the Packers are one of the legendary franchises in the NFL who reclaimed their glory with a title last season. With New England you have the team that has dominated the past decade behind Bill Belichick, who many consider to be the best coach of his generation.

Finally, you have two teams that represent the modern NFL with the emphasis on scoring over defense. The game has changed as the NFL tried even harder to protect the quarterback. With these changes, guys like Brady and Rodgers have an even easier time, which then translates to huge stats. But fans love offense!

A matchup between these two teams would be an epic event.

Sports

R.I.P. Joe Frazier

November 8, 2011 /

The great Joe Frazier has passed away at the age of 67 after a battle with cancer. We had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Frazier two years ago. He told us about his epic battles with Muhammad Ali and George Forman and also playfully hinted that he would have beaten Mike Tyson.

Frazier was a class act and he couldn’t have been nicer when we interviewed him. Yet he had to endure years of outrageous taunts from Ali and the bitterness stayed with him for years. But recently that changed according to ESPN:

Frazier, who in his later years would have financial trouble and end up running a gym in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, took the jabs personally. He felt Ali made fun of him by calling him names and said things that were not true just to get under his skin. Those feelings were only magnified as Ali went from being an icon in the ring to one of the most beloved people in the world.

After a trembling Ali it the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked by a reporter what he thought about it.

“They should have thrown him in,” Frazier responded.

He mellowed, though, in recent years, preferring to remember the good from his fights with Ali rather than the bad. Just before the 40th anniversary of his win over Ali earlier this year — a day Frazier celebrated with parties in New York — he said he no longer felt any bitterness toward Ali.

“I forgive him,” Frazier said. “He’s in a bad way.”

Frazier is one of the true boxing legends from its Golden Age and he will be missed.

Sports

G-Form shin pads will amaze and protect you

October 28, 2011 /

shin padsWhen I first heard about G-Form’s new line of sports protective gear, I immediately visited their website to see if they made anything for soccer players. After all, while it’s good to have some sort of protection to help reduce the chance of bone breaks, typical shin guards (at least the ones that don’t cost a pretty penny) tend to be somewhat bulky, and I was looking for a more form-fitting substitute. But while the company insists that such a product is currently in development, there haven’t been any updates in nearly a year. G-Form does make a pair of all-purpose shin pads that are designed for impact sports, however, so I decided to give them a try instead.

What makes G-Form’s products so unique is the material that they’re made from. By utilizing Reactive Protection Technology (RPT) featuring the amazing PORON XRD material, the padding absorbs over 90% of the energy from high-speed impact. This lightweight and flexible material conforms to your body and instantly firms up to form a protective shell upon contact. It sounds too good to be true, I know, so instead of just taking their word for it, I decided to do a little test of my own involving a hammer and the usually fragile underside of a CD. While the unprotected CD cracked upon the first strike as expected, when I covered it up with a G-Form shin pad, I could hit it as hard and as many times as I wanted without so much as a scuff on the material.

The pads are also really comfortable and less intrusive than your average shin guard, and the fact that you can throw them into the washer machine is a big plus. But if there’s one criticism, it’s that while they’re easy to get onto your leg, they’re a pain to get off because the padding is hard to maneuver over your ankle. Besides that minor flaw, however, G-Form’s shin pads work every bit as well as advertised. They may seem a bit pricey at $50, but once you see them in action, you’ll know that it was money well spent.

 

Gear, Sports, Stuff to Buy

Will the NBA season ever get going?

October 19, 2011 /

Are you getting restless yet? Perhaps the NBA isn’t quite as popular as the NFL, but a work stoppage will still piss off most sports fans.

It’s unfortunate for NBA fans since we’re coming off an incredible Finals which saw Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks upset the most hated sports team in recent memory.

The Miami Heat were rolling towards a championship until they started celebrating early and blew game two. Then we had the LeBron James meltdown, as he consistently disappeared in the fourth quarter and seemed to completely wilt under pressure. Cavs fans felt vindicated, as the rest of the country saw what Cavs fans saw the year before when LeBron checked out against the Celtics.

Can LeBron come back and salvage his image? There are reports that he’s finally been working on a post-up game, but we’ll believe it when we see it.

Can Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh carry LeBron is they make it back to the Finals? Both guys played like champs but were let down by the self-proclaimed king.

Can Dallas repeat the magic? It’s hard to imagine Dirk Nowitzki and the gang replicating their run, but they have to be up there as one of the favorites.

Can Kobe reclaim the mantle as the best player? He had a tough year as he battled through some injuries.

And speaking of Boston, are they too old? Will Danny Ainge make another disastrous trade to destroy their season.

These are just some of the fun storylines we should be looking forward too.

Sports

2011 Chicago Marathon: Making the best of a bad situation

October 14, 2011 /

For eight miles, everything was perfect. For the next 18.2 miles, nothing went right.

I came through the first mile marker of the 2011 Chicago Marathon at about 8:05 and comfortably held a steady pace for the next seven, soaking in the energy from the incredible crowd, taking in the view of the city and thoroughly enjoying the start of my first marathon. It was a pristine morning, with the race’s 45,000 participants treated to 64-degree temperatures and a gorgeous blue sky, and my goal of savoring the moment early on instead of obsessing about my time had thus far unfolded as planned.

I crossed the eight-mile marker in just about 64 minutes and prepared to settle in for the next 12 miles, hoping to start shaving some time off my pace before hitting the final six-mile stretch. I knew I’d need to have something left in the tank to finish strong, having topped out four weeks earlier with a 21.5-mile training run, so I was planning on listening to my body to see just how much I could safely push the pace.

I didn’t like what my body had to say.

The good news? My shoulder felt fine. Actually, it felt great. I had a case of subscapular bursitis crop up the previous weekend (NOTE: the injury has since been diagnosed as nerve compression), and while it was a painful injury, I learned during a six-mile run on Thursday and a slow two miler Saturday morning that it actually felt better while running. Hoping to prevent any late-race soreness, I slapped Icy Hot medicated strips onto three different spots of my back, just to be safe. That may very well have been my first mistake of the day.

The bad news? My legs weren’t feeling nearly as good as my shoulder. At a time when I should have been finding a mid-race groove, my legs were tired. Too tired. Certainly too tired for mile 8 of a 26.2-mile race. I knew I would be pushing my body to an extreme that day, but I wasn’t ready to do it yet. Okay, I thought, I’ll just maintain pace for now and hope my legs recover in time for a strong finish. They didn’t.

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