I'm Baaaaaack

The new school year started today and so I'm returning my nose to the grindstone.

Stay tuned for full colorful Hawkeye football coverage all semester long...

Gettin' Pumped: the Joe Hotek Story

Analyzing Lapchick

For my sports reporting and writing class I had to read Richard Lapchick's piece, 2006-07 Racial and Gender Report Card. Lapchick discusses how professional sports organizations, such as the NBA, MLB, NFL, MLS and WNBA, handle the employment of races and genders across the board -- meaning not just the athletes, but the coaches and the front office as well.

Lapchick opens the piece talking about Jackie Robinson and his historic beat down of the racial barrier in professional baseball. This part of the piece was the most interesting to me because I feel like baseball is second only to soccer on a global stage of popularity and thus, I figured it would have received the highest grade for racial equality. But then Lapchick gets into how the popularity of baseball continues to flounder in the African-American community. Baseball, as with all other sports, has its demographics. Fact of the matter is, inner-city kids can't play baseball because there is nowhere to play. It's not like they can just start a pick-up game in the middle of a busy Manhattan street like it was the 1920s.

As far as addressing gender equality in a league like the NFL, well, good luck. Dan Dierdorf said on NFL Network's countdown of the top 10 ex-NFL coaches who should have stayed in college, that the NFL, "is a league for men," which he said in reference to Southern California coach Pete Carroll. He went on to explain how Carroll wasn't a good NFL coach because NFL players don't like to get hugs coming off the field when they do something great, they don't like the rah-rah enthusiasm for which Carroll is known. They are brutes and respond only to brute-like behavior. Bill Cowher, Bill Parcells, and Mike Ditka were great NFL coaches just in the sense of imagery. They looked like leaders of men. Their scowls will be forever remembered by the men who played for them.

Lapchick also makes reference to Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview at least one African-American for a vacant head coaching position. It is a bit pretentious that The League has to require teams to interview African-Americans for head coaching jobs. They should just do it because of the quality of the candidates, not because of skin color and meeting guidelines. I like the Rooney Rule and so do the Pittsburgh Steelers. Props to you, Mike Tomlin and the entire Steeler organization. If I could choose one coach to play for in the NFL right now, it'd be Tomlin for sure.

Having said all of this, here is where I stand on the subject of racial and gender equality. Lapchick uses the phrase "players of color," in his opening few paragraphs when referring to racial equality in Major League Baseball. This sickens me. The fact that Lapchick, or any other person for that matter, even used the word color in reference to another human being is ridiculous.

I'm not being racist here. Quite the contrary, in fact. I'm saying I don't see an African-American or Hispanic-American as "a person of color." I see them as another person. The color of a person's skin is of the most feeble significance to me. The whole notion of white people and minorities leaves the door open to racism, which is what I feel Lapchick fails to address. I realize Lapchick is shooting for equality here, but aren't we all people equal in the sense of livelihood?

Caucasians are not a majority and minorities are not a minority. When will our nation learn to discard these labels?

We are all in this together. End of story.

Fiesta Bowl chatter

It's been a hot topic in Big Ten country, particularly here in Iowa City: which Big Ten team will get the nod as an at-large bid into the BCS, Iowa or Penn State?

I know why Iowa deserves the bid. So I'm going to tell you why Penn State doesn't.

The Nittany Lions are a good football team, no question. It's hard for any team to win 10 games in a season.

But...

• Iowa is ranked higher (9th) in the latest BCS standings than Penn State (11th).
• Penn State lacks a signature win. Sure, the Nits crushed Michigan State, Minnesota and Michigan down the stretch. But the Gophers and Spartans are average teams and a win over Michigan doesn't mean as much as it used to considering the Wolverines get the Big Ten cellar all to themselves this season.
• Penn State's non-conference schedule is less than impressive: Akron, Syracuse, Temple and Eastern Illinois of the FCS. Iowa has beaten two bowl-eligible teams from BCS conferences (Iowa State and Arizona).
  
• The Nits got smoked by Ohio State -- in Happy Valley, mind you. Iowa limped into The Shoe and took the Buckeyes to overtime without Ricky Stanzi, before falling 27-24 as a result of conservative decision making by the Iowa coaching staff.
• Finally, and most convincingly, the Hawkeyes not only won the head-to-head showdown but they did it AT Penn State. The Nits could have a beef if Iowa would've nipped them with a last second field goal like they did in 2008, but other than the first five minutes of the game the Hawks were in complete control. Penn State had minus-4 total yards in the second quarter and turned the ball over four times in the second half alone.

What more proof do you need, Fiesta Bowl reps? We're all waiting by the phone.

Tweeted Out

I don't really care to, but let's talk about Twitter for a few minutes.

Twitter is a social networking Internet sensation that relays information from one of its millions of users to everyone else that is a follower of that person -- as long as it is less than 140 characters.

Is twitter a good thing then?

I say no. Why?

Because any idiot who knows how to spell and type can put something online and claim it to be true.

Take me as a real life example.

I don't use twitter, but I do use facebook (which, as far as I'm concerned, is just twitter with pictures). A few weeks back I posted a status update from the opening of a Notorious B.I.G song entitled "Juicy," where Biggie dedicates the album (Ready to Die, 1997) to teachers "who told me I'd never amount to nothin'," and to the people who apparently "called the cops on me when I was just trying to make some money to feed my daughter."

Proof that social networking like facebook and twitter are useless.

I didn't drop out of high school and no teachers told me I wouldn't amount to anything. I don't know what it's like to have my neighbors call the cops on me because I'm "hustlin'." And I certainly don't have a daughter to feed. I know nothing of life in the projects.

So why take my word for it?

"But ... it's on facebook!"

And now you have the Tiger Woods ordeal.

Twitter reports have been coming out since Thanksgiving Day and everyone has a different story. Essentially, twitter is like an online hen house for millions of people to gab it up.

How much of the Tiger situation do we know to be actual truth?

Some feeds say his wife chased him with a golf club. Others that he was drunk or going to see his mistress.

So how can people tell the difference between actual reporting and gossip?

Start with the source.

If I wanted to real low-down on this whole Tiger Woods situation, I would probably trust espn.com golf columnist Jason Sobel before I trusted my cousin who lives in Florida. Sobel has credibility as a golf writer. Holland just lives in Florida and goes to high school.

However, if Holland could somehow tweet a direct quote he got from Tiger about the accident it could be played off as just a kid talking trash on his twitter account.

This media can reach readers who don't know the difference between gossip and reporting, but in the end it's really all up to the person.

If they choose to believe Rick Reilly's twitter page over Sobel's if they both report on Woods, then that is their choice.

The media can't tell a person what to believe just like they can't tell that person how to live their life. It is the media's job to relay information.

The interpretation of that information is all on the reader.

I'm not saying Twitter is all bad. It can be used for "good."

Take the elections in Iran last year. Twitter was a huge hit after the country banned facebook in order to silence the protests of the rigged election. Via twitter, the rest of the world got first-person accounts of what was happening in the hostile country.

Twitter made it impossible for the Iranian government to spin what was happening there.

So chalk one up for twitter.

Getting to know James Vandenberg

For the first nine games of the 2009 season, redshirt freshman quarterback James Vandenberg was simply known as Ricky Stanzi's back-up.

Hawkeye fans were introduced to Vandenberg in Iowa's 17-10 loss to Northwestern on Nov. 7 after Stanzi suffered a high ankle sprain in the first half. Needless to say, Vandenberg was caught in no-man's land. An unprepared quarterback up against a hungry and improving defense is a recipe for disaster, especially under the pressure of defending an undefeated record.

Obviously Vandenberg's 9-for-27 performance hurt the Hawks that day. Not many fans had any faith in the young gun slinger heading into the Horseshoe to make his first career start.

Then Vandenberg proved why he holds 12 Iowa High School football passing records against Ohio State.

He started the game a perfect 6-for-6 passing. His first incompletion? A dropped pass in the endzone by Trey Stross.

The Keokuk native ended up throwing for 233 yards and two touchdowns against the Buckeyes' defense, a unit Kirk Ferentz said might as well be in the NFL.

So he will he fare in his second start tomorrow against a Minnesota defense that ranks ninth in the Big Ten in interceptions (9) and last in sacks?

If he has time to throw, Vandenberg is going to torch the young Gopher secondary.

Reflecting on Ohio State

I've finally gotten past the Iowa-Ohio State game from Nov. 14. It hurt.

And if hurt me, I can only imagine how the players felt especially considering how far they had come. Erasing a 14-point fourth quarter deficit in just over 10 minutes against a team of Ohio State's caliber in Ohio State's house (the Houseshoe?) would be tough for most teams.

Lest we forget, Iowa wasn't supposed to be in this game. Remember?

The Hawks were a 17-point dog. Somebody in Vegas went to the bank.

Iowa plays to the level of its opponent. Indiana and Arkansas State. Ohio State and Penn State. Call them antonyms.

But forget about Vegas.

What killed Iowa on Saturday?

Turnovers -- Iowa three, Ohio State none.

Conservative coaching -- Iowa had scored 14 straight, held Ohio State's offense and got the ball back with a time out left. They ran the ball once, got nothing and ate the ball. Apparently Kirk Ferentz doesn't know who Herm Edwards is. And I quote, "You play. To Win. The Game."

But one thing killed them more.

Execution. It's fair to say the play calling was no good. Still, how many times did Adam Robinson get dropped for a six-yard loss in the game? Just once, in overtime. How many times did James Vandenberg -- who flippin' balled out, by the way -- get dropped for a 10-yard sack? Just once, in overtime.

Damn. That just makes it hurt worse!