5 BCS Bowls

The Nature of Sports Blogging

I started sports blogging a couple of months ago, and I currently blog on three different sites; Blogspot is my main home for blogging, and I also have Blogster and Wordpress. In the last two months I have written about 100 blogs, mostly on college football, and on the NFL. I have also written some blogs on wrestling, something I am interested in as well.

But I wanted to take a moment to just reflect on the nature of blogging, or in this case, sports blogging? Why do I do it…why do WE do it? For some, it’s just a way to voice an opinion to the world, or whomever will read it. For others, there is money involved, as some sports bloggers are hired to write for newspapers or different sites and such.

To me, I enjoy the idea of debate, and sports is the safest way to do that. Now some of you may not agree, because often times sports fanatics are the most brainless people in the world, but in the most extreme, the world of sports is just a part of humanity.

For those who read my blogs, I truly thank you, because it means I am not just talking to the wall. We all have things we think are important, and often times we disagree, but I hope that we can get to a point where IF we disagree, then we can at least do it with some respect.

I don’t say that as a perfect person, because I am at fault when my emotions take over. For example, some readers out there are fans of Notre Dame… you know where I stand on that if you have read my blogs. But even though I am not a Notre Dame fan, that does not mean that every Notre Dame fan is worthless in my eyes. If I get to that point in my life where I place my faults of a team on their fans, then I am less than an honorable man.

Heck, I am an Oakland Raiders fan, but I know we stink. I know Mr. Monty Burns is running things with an iron talon, and unless he changes, there is little to root for, but it is still my team. Good or bad, I have to still have a place for them. So I understand how others may feel about their favorite team, even when things are not going to great. One of the better examples I can share is with Green Bay, and their Packers.

I personally felt that the organization screwed Brett Farve by running him out, and making sure he would never set foot on Lambeau Field as a player ever again… dirty rotten scoundrels. But as angry as I was against the organization, there was no way I could say that about the fans, because that was their team. Good or bad, it was still their team, and they had to root for the Packers. As much as I would like to smile at their 5-5 record while the Jets are 7-3, that would only be prideful, because I understand that the Packer Nation stands by their team, which is greatly honorable.

But that’s the nature of sports, to support YOUR team as best you can, even when things are not going so well. No different with sports blogging either. When I talk about sports, I know that anything negative said might be taken out of context by a fan of that same team. If I said something negative about Alabama, somebody might take it the wrong way. If I said something negative about Duke Basketball, somebody might take it the wrong way. If I said something negative about the Lakers, somebody might take it the wrong way. But I also understand that this is the life of a sports blogger.

When I blog, I try to be as fair and respectful of teams as I can, but I am not so pure in thought that I can’t get upset about certain things in sports. I don’t like the way Notre Dame ditched their former coach, and paid their current coach for a less than impressive career. I don’t like the way Nebraska ran out their former coach because they expected to win National Championships every year. I don’t appreciate how Southern Mississippi kicked out their coach who only won bowl games and graduated players, because they felt it was time for a mid-card team to rise to national prominence.

I don’t like how Kentucky Basketball kicked out their coach who led them to a National Title, heck, there are a LOT of things I don’t like, and sometimes I get more emotional about that when I blog. But most times I try to keep a fair temper about me, understanding that the teams I may not like have strong supporters because those people live in that area, or went to school there, or have some strong tie with that team.

Sports blogging by a lot of folks is just a platform to claim why their team is better than anybody elses…that isn’t what I am here to do. I have loved sports for a long time, and truly enjoy the debates of what sports bring. I love talking about the BCS because it proves that no matter how you do it, it will never be perfect…simply because man isn’t perfect. I love talking about the NFL’s greatest running backs, because even though I have my thoughts, there are only my opinions. I love talking about wrestling because not everybody likes wrestling, but some do.

Sports blogging is my way of asking you to let me in your head, and debate some things with you. And if you allow me, then I am very grateful. We don’t have to agree on everything, but if we can just agree that we love sports, then I can live with that.