Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods, what an athlete and for the most part a pretty good role model. When I first heard news of the accident I was in shock. I got the message from ESPN through a txt. From there I got one from my brother and a few friends. I couldn’t believe my favorite athlete was in the hospital and at first word it sound serious. After I got out of the movie I was in my girlfriend and her family I made a send a few txt messages to my friends to try and get the latest. Some heard alcohol could have been a factor. I didn’t want to believe it. That ended up being false and then domestic abuse came about and the story about Tiger’s wife bashing out the back windows of his SUV. Why would she bash out the back windows when clearly she could have gone to the passenger side to get him out. I thought at one point that Tiger and his wife had an argument and as Tiger was driving away she smashed out his back windows and they got Tiger to lose focus and crash. Them having a fight now makes sense now because of the most recent news of Tiger having an affair with a women from L.A. for 2 and half years. Not to mention the voice mail Tiger sent here a few days before the crash.

Am I mad at Tiger? Yes, but he is a person too and people make mistakes. He will work this out with his wife and his family. Tiger will need to get some help but he will be just fine. Tiger will play again in January and once he wins that first event all will be forgotten. Sports is “what have you done for me lately”. Lets look at Kobe… All has been for gotten.

Women's Media Coverage

Media coverage for Women is not very good. We do not hear much about their sports on ESPN and such. The WNBA is hardly ever on television at all. But, when it comes to the NCAA tournament they get a lot of air time. All the games are on ESPN family of networks. Sure that is unfair to someone who does not have cable, but through out the season the Men have the same issues. During the season and during the week games for men are on the ESPN family of networks. There just is not that want or need to put women’s college basketball on CBS or ABC on a Saturday afternoon. Who will watch? No one. If a men’s game was on ESPN the same time as a women’s game was on CBS… The men’s game would win out 9 out of 10 times no question.

Men get the greatest opportunity because they produce, they produce money. Money is what keeps the sponsors and networks coming back. The other reason for so much media coverage during the NCAA tournament is due to the fact of upsets. Upsets happen every year and causes so much Madness. In the women’s game there is only that handful of teams who will win it all and there are usually never any upsets. It sets up for a pretty boring NCAA tournament. The men’s game has that Cinderella story, while in the women’s game we have barely have a good game.

LPGA and English?

For the most part I am going to have to agree with Jan Stephenson’s comments about Koreans and how English should be learned. Her quote about “Asians are killing our tour” (Shin and Nam, 2004, P. 224). I disagree with 100%. In fact they are running the tour from top to bottom. Sure there is Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Kristie Kerr and many other Americans. But the Koreans are winning week in and week out. Where I agree with Jan is with this quote “Their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak English. They rarely speak. We have two-day Pro Ams were people are paying a lot of money to play with us and they say hello and good bye” (Shin and Nam, 2004, P. 224).

I have seen this happen on a first hand account several of times. The past five summers I have caddied in the Jamie Farr Pro-Ams and also for a pro golfer two summers ago. I have been in groups where the Korean golfer rarely talked to the group at all. The golfers paying the big bucks had to approach the golfer first with questions. On the other hand I have seen Korean golfers be the first to approach the golfers. With that being said I also have caddied in groups where it was been an American golfer and they are so kind and full of joy. It is so much fun to caddie in a group like this. When I caddied for a pro two summers ago she was Korean and spoke okay English.

Williams Sisters and Racism..

I believe Venus Williams and her father drew the attention to themselves. They both knew after she (Venus) dropped out of the match people were very upset. But they still walked down the 20 or so steps to their seats on court level. There had to have been a different way to get to their seats, but they picked the way that would cause a scene. By doing this they flustered Serena Williams for the first two sets of her match. Yeah she came back and won, but she was trying too hard at first to try and quit the crowd. I also do not think it was necessary for the Williams father to put up the “black power” sign. He was trying to egg on the haters. I do feel the Williams sisters should go back to Indian Wells to compete. You have to be the bigger person and show you are bigger than the situation.

Moving on to something that Dr. Spencer talked about just before class ended last Thursday about the N Word and there being a speaker saying it should be eliminated. I would agree with that, the N Word should not only be used by whites but not by the blacks. I do not understand why all of a sudden it is okay to say this in the black community. When ever I am near or around two or three blacks talking the N word is dropped about three or four times. I do not understand. Also whites are discriminated against as well. Racism works both ways.

Athletes asked of too much

Being an athlete draws a lot of attention to yourself. Especially if you are Michael Jordan or LeBron James. When someone like Michael Jordan becomes famous they expect them to do things they are not educated in. For example many were upset when MJ would not support a candidate for Senate from North Carolina. Why? Why should he have to pick to endorse someone? I thought his job was to play basketball not to speak politics. If Michael Jordan wanted to be involved in politics then he would have gone to school for it. Getting someone involved in something they are not educated in can be hurtful because they may not have a clue on what they should say. If giving money to various charities is not enough than people have high standards and expect WAY tooooo much from athletes. What about going to speak to sick children or help co host an event? Athletes do their fair share of those activities. It only makes sense to have someone involved in something they are educated in. It seems that politicians or organizations are maybe trying to use athletes; “If Michael Jordan is supporting me than so should you” type thing. I do believe sometimes athletes are asked of too much sometimes. And it is always the famous athletes who are getting criticized. They are human too, they have families and life’s to live outside of their sport. There is only so much that someone can do. There are bigger things in life to worry about people.

Jason McElwain (J-MAC)

It stinks that people have to be born with a disability. Why does this happen? Why can’t everyone be equal, but different ? I am blessed to not have any physical or mental disabilities. The story I would like to talk about is about a young man who caught everyone’s attention just three years ago. His name is Jason McElwain or “J- MAC” and he has autism and that enabled him to play sports at a high level. As at very young age J-MAC had trouble interacting with other kids, but was able to develop social skills by his teen years. J-MAC loved basketball, and became the manager of his high school’s team in New York. He accepted the fact that he was unable to compete, but being around the game very helpful to J-MAC. It was not till February 15, 2006, the last home game of the year, that J-MAC got to show off his basketball skills. J-MAC played in the last four minutes of his high school’s division title game. He made a total of six three pointers and one two pointer for a total of 20 points a game.
When I first heard this story I probably watched it ten times on ESPN and then on Youtube. It was just an amazing story with a truly sweet ending. This just shows nothing is impossible, reach for the stars no matter what stands in your way. A few weeks after the game J-MAC met former President George Bush. There is also a book that has been written by J-MAC called The Game of My Life. There is also a movie in the works, which will be produced by Magic Johnson. The time line for the movie is still in the works as contracts and scripts still have to be finalized.

Homecoming Symposium

For the Homecoming Symposium I attended two events, Michael McClave of IMG and Jordan Strack of WTOL/BCSN. I went to see Michael McClave because he works in the golf division at IMG and the golf business is what I am looking to go into. Going to see Jordan Strack was just for fun and to see how he got his career started at such a young age at 24. I will be telling you about my experience with Mr. McClave of IMG.
Michael McClave got his undergrad in Accounting from Bowling Green State University and continued his schooling at BG earning his MBA.M.ED in Sport Administration. During college Mr. McClave was very pro-active in getting experience. He worked for the Cleveland Browns and also interned with IMG. He later was hired by IMG after posting his resume on Monster.com and had an inside connection at IMG.
At IMG his main job is to invoice all clients and their agreements, which means who sponsors his clients. He has to analyze the contracts of his athletes and collected funds from customers and his clients. Mr. McClave is responsible for making payments to his clients, projecting revenues on a quarterly basis, understand tax laws and treaties of other countries and communicate with managers regarding clients and they upcoming obligations.
I learned that IMG was formed with a hand shake with golfer Arnold Palmer and founder Mark McCormack, which started a contract. I also learned that IMG got rid of their football, baseball and hockey divisions. They then picked up college sports to replace those three divisions. Another fact that I learned was IMG represents 1,200 athletes, models and celebrities. I liked the fact that I was able to learn about another job in the golf business and this opens up my horizons. Also he was able to give us advice on finding a job and to dream big. I would have liked to hear more about other jobs at IMG that are in the golf business, but other than that it was a great time.