Boom Baby, It's Ryder Cup Time!

This week in sports, there has been only one topic people should be talking about: The Ryder Cup. Okay, maybe the replacement refs in the NFL can be mentioned as Bubba Watson did poignantly in a tweet Monday night.  The Ryder Cup is one of the few times in golf that athletes can perform as a team, which brings out some of the best in them. Though they are competing against each other every week on tour, many of these golfers are quite good friends, as seen in this hilarious music video with Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Ricky Fowler, and Ben Crane. We never get to see them doing anything but competing against each other. We learn to accept these men as just individuals, because so much of the time that is how we see them. However we watch the NBA, NFL, and MLB in part to see the camaraderie and teamwork between the athletes. The Ryder Cup shows us the best in the sport working side by side to side as teammates, playing for their country.

 It is not often that athletes have the opportunity to perform for their country. Every two years we meet new athletes that are competing for their country in the Olympics, but often these are unfamiliar names and faces that are forgotten once the Games end. In the Ryder Cup we see the worlds best golfers, who we watch each week all year long, playing for their country, something that cannot be said for most other sports. Playing for an entire nation(or continent in the Europeans case) alongside your countrymen brings out a new pressure of not letting down your country or teammates. This creates a great amount of drama and has every golfer (and fan) on their toes for each shot; of their own and their teammates. 

At the 2010 Ryder Cup, we had one of the most dramatic finishes in the events history, with Europe winning 13 1/2 to 12 1/2 over the United States. The match came down to the final hole, with Graham McDowell sealing the victory for the Europeans. In recent years the Europeans have gotten the best of the US winning 4 out of 5 events. This year the Americans will be seeking revenge with a team loaded with fresh faces. Keegan Bradley, Jason Dufner, Brandt Schnedeker, and Webb Simpson are all coming off impressive seasons and bring a lot of depth to the US side. The US also has the familiar faces of Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Dustin Johnson, and Steve Stricker to anchor the squad. Rory McIlroy looks all but unstoppable and paired with Graham McDowell they should be a tough tandem to beat but I am looking for the US to pull out the overall victory by a score of 14-12.

By putting the best players on earth together, fighting for their team and country for four days, it brings out the best the game has to offer. We can only hope it will bring moments of emotion and excitement out of the golfers that we have waited two years to see. So take a break from football and the MLB playoff race this weekend, because Boom Baby, it's Ryder Cup time!

Weekly Debate: Stay Home or Attend the Game?

More than ever before, NFL fans are having to make the tough decision of whether to stay in the comforts of their home to watch their favorite team play or pack a stadium with 65,000 of their closest friends each Sunday. With the advances of television quality, increased availability of NFL Games on cable, and rise in popularity of Fantasy Football, many former season ticket holders are rethinking their choice to make the journey down the their hometown stadium on Sundays. I am here to tell you that if there is ever an option to go down to one of the eight home games your favorite team has each year, don't hesitate.

The reasoning behind wanting to stay behind is obvious. Comfortable couch. Big screen HD television. NFL RedZone to follow each member of your fantasy team. But that is available for each one of the eight away games the team plays. When the option is there to attend a game in person why not take it up?

There is absolutely nothing like watching an NFL game live. From the tailgate, to the fight songs, to the post game celebrations, NFL games will always be better in person. This past weekend a group of friends and I traveled up to Philadelphia for the Eagles vs Ravens game Sunday afternoon. A highly anticipated game for all involved as the two teams only meet once every four years and each team had come into Week 2 at 1-0. The experience began with a tailgate in the parking lot hours before kickoff. The excitement in the air even this early in the day is palpable. After some food and drinks in the parking lot, the main event begins. The atmosphere is electric from the opening flyover until the final kneel-down. Nothing compares to singing a fight song arm-in-arm with complete strangers after every score. After shuffling out of the stadium, the group walks a few hundred yards to the newly constructed Xfinity Live; a congregation of indoor and outdoor restaurants and bars where the entire Eagles Nation comes to celebrate the recent victory, while catching the West Coast games on the big screen TV's throughout the complex. The day is finished off the right way, with a cheesesteak from Geno's in South Philly.

What can't be obtained from a couch each Sunday is an experience. That is what fans are paying for. They are paying for more than just what happens between kickoff and the final whistle. That is why fans take up their entire Sunday for these games. That is why most NFL stadiums remained packed each weekend.  So when your neighbor offers you tickets to the game next weekend, don't pass them up. Unless however, you live in Cleveland, Jacksonville, or St. Louis. Then find a new city to live in.



Be sure to vote in the poll to the left.

Hope is a Dangerous Thing

The 2011 Eagles season was a mess from Week 1 on. After preseason expectations were set high, the “Dream Team” crashed and burned. With four games remaining, they had a 4-8 record and nearly all Philadelphia fans had lost hope. For 12 weeks, Eagles fans had given up hope on this team, expecting losses. They had cut emotional ties with games and were able to prepare themselves for what lay ahead each week. Then they won back-to-back games. Rumors began flying that if the right pieces fell into place, the Eagles could make the playoffs after all. All of the sudden, Eagles fans that had long since given up on their team, began to believe again. This hope is what once again let Eagles fans have their dreams dashed. In the past 13 seasons under Andy Reid, it seems that every year, there is a point in the season at which the fans seem to think to themselves, “We can actually do it this year,” and every year that team lets us down. It’s not just that they let us down. It is the way they do it. There might as well be a recipe for Eagles’ seasons of late: Begin the season hyped to win division. Struggle throughout the middle portion of the season (usually when the “Fire Andy” chants begin). Somehow put together a few big wins in a row so that an entire city is back on the bandwagon. Then crush their dreams with a late season loss or in 2011’s case, with another team (the Giants) taking the division away from them at the last moment. Just add water and repeat.

            This year it is another Philadelphia team that is poised to follow this recipe. The 2012 Phillies season has been anything but hopeful. The season began with their two most iconic players, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, on the Disabled List. When Roy Halladay went down in the first month of the season, fans let themselves believe, “If we can just hold on until the All-Star break.” With three of the teams best players missing, no one stepped up to fill the void left by the missing players. Cliff Lee struggled to through most of the first half of the season without a win and when the trade deadline came the Phillies were “sellers,” and Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino were dealt. Season over. Nothing that Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Roy Halladay could do with this roster would put them in a position to make the playoffs. “Not so fast, my friend.” Since losing back-to-back games to the Cincinnati Reds on August 20^th and 21^st, the Phillies have gone 14-4, the best mark in baseball over that span and have lost just two games since September 1^st. In the midst of a six game winning streak the Phillies are gaining ground on the second wild card spot everyday. On the 21^st of August when the Phillies run began they were 10.5 games behind the 2^nd place wildcard spot (held by the St. Louis Cardinals). As things stand today, they are a mere four games back of St. Louis and closing fast.

            As a Phillies fan I can’t believe that on September 12^th I find myself staying up late, “scoreboard watching” to see how far out we will be at the end of every night. The Phillies, like the Eagles do every year, have the city believing in them again. Hope is a dangerous thing to mess around with.  With ESPN.com giving the Phillies just a three percent chance to make the playoffs on September 12th, it is still an improbable feat, but with the run the Cardinals made last season, it seems possible. In all likelihood, the Phillies will fall short of their goal of returning to the playoffs (probably losing on the final day of the regular season with Ryan Howard striking out. Okay maybe I am just cynical…). In all likelihood, the Phillies will take a chapter from Andy Reid and the Eagles, and give us as fans hope, only to destroy that hope in the final moments of the 2012 season. I don’t know what is worse: accepting defeat early on in the season or becoming totally invested in a team then losing. But here is to hoping the Phillies prove me wrong and break the mold. Because, I mean, they are only four games out…