Chris Henry 1983-2009

Rest in peace Slim... you will be sorely missed.

Long Time, No See

I haven't written anything on here in a long while.

One could say I've been busy.

But one could also say that I might be realizing that nobody actually reads this. However, I guess I should take the advice of my mentor, Gregg, and realize that this blog is more for just me writing and finding my style than anything else.

The NFL regular season kicked off last night, with the Pittsburgh Steelers defending their Super Bowl title with a 13-10 overtime victory over the capable Titans of Tennessee. I don't think we learned anything about how the rest of the season will play out. Big Ben Rothelisburger is still a good quarterback who finds ways to win...nothing more. He still takes way too many sacks, throws the ball carelessly too much, and apparently thinks he's better than he really is...just like everybody else. And maybe the Titans won't be quite as good as they were last year. But one big story is the injury of Troy Polomalu, a safety who the Steelers are only a slightly better than an average team without. He could be out 3-6 weeks, good news for the Bengals, and every other team Pittsburgh plays in the next month. Blitzburgh needs him, and there is no way they will repeat without him. Heck, I don't think they'll repeat even if they have him all year. But that's just me.

Oh, by the way, I know it's early, but Big Ben is on pace for 32 interceptions this season...I'm just saying...

I realize how late this is

They say that a win is a win is a win. I couldn’t agree more with this notion. In the days of victories that are deemed ‘ugly’ or ‘easy,’ I believe that sports fans as a whole have devalued many contests for one reason or another.
Likewise, I believe that a championship is a championship is a championship. As far too many overlooked what the Pittsburgh Penguins did in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals to win the NHL crown.
I’ll be the first to admit it; hockey is losing interest in the United States. Even I was a bit surprised when I found myself tuned into the deciding championship game of a sport that had locked out its players just a few years ago. But then I realized why I was so enthralled in the match-up that I honestly knew nothing about, because it was the big game of what is still a major sport. No, it wasn’t game seven of the NBA Finals or the World Series, and it certainly wasn’t the Super Bowl, but it was still a sport, one that should be appreciated and respected.
Not only should true sports fans have tuned into the last hockey game of the season if only just for the sake of watching a new champion crowned, but the game itself was amazing. The Penguins led 2-0 in the third period, even without star player Sydney Crosby for a short time in the second. But the Red Wings were determined to come back, scoring a goal of their own with just enough time to make it interesting.
And make it interesting they did.
In the final three minutes of play, there were more than several shots that could have tied the game. I thought for sure that Detroit’s surge at the end would be enough to force a thrilling overtime. However Pittsburgh’s goalie held strong, and finished out a wonderful 23 out of 24 save performance, although with some help from the bar on the back of the net. The drama continued until the final seconds, as a face off right in front of the Penguin’s goal and two ensuing shots on goal kept my breath held until the final buzzer sounded.
Then came the celebration; that’s what unifies all major sports. No matter if it’s football, baseball, basketball, or hockey, the pure joy displayed when it’s all said and done says it all. The Pittsburgh Penguins worked hard for the honor of being the recipients of the Stanley Cup, the franchise changed coaches midway through the regular season. For a team to do that and still go on to win the championship is rare in any sport.
As Crosby and the entire Penguin team hoisted their coveted prize, I could only think of one thing. The city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania seems to be dominating sports championships as of late with the Steelers in the NFL, and the Penguins in the NHL. Now, if only they could get the Pirates on board.
-Jeremy Sharp
6/15/09

Indiana Wesleyan University Summer Scholars Program

Okay, so even though it's only been two days since I arrived on campus, this group of 17 and our two wonderful RA's have already gotten so tight and we are all having so much fun. This is our group pic.

Update

Even though I'm not even sure that anyone cares, or even reads this blog, I thought it would be good to publish a post after a couple-month hiadous. My mentor said it was good to keep on writing a blog, even if it was only for my own eyes to read...which, at this point, is what it looks like.
Currently, I am preparing for a three-week stay at the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU), where I will be taking an intensive class on World Civilizations.
I continue working at The Brown County Press, tonight's assingment is a cheerleading camp at Georgetown High School. I'm still trying to figure out how to take pictures of this without looking creepy...find out if I accomplish this goal by checking out www.browncountypress.com.
After I get back from IWU, I hope to take advantage of a job-shadowing opportunity at WXIX Fox 19, where I will hopefully get a feel for what sports anchor Brain Giesenschlag does on a daily basis.
As per the inscruction of a counsler at IWU, I'm enjoying summer before I leave in nine days. Hanging out with friends should give me something nice to remember while I go to class five days a week...hmmmm, that sounds firmiliar. Finally, I'm reading Victor Hugo's classic: Les Miserables.

NBA Champions

Well, here we are again, celebrating the bi-annual holiday that is known as 'The Lakers Won The NBA Finals Day.' The 2009 version of the west side Lakers is probably one of the best teams of this decades, and it was great to see one of the greatest coaches in sports history win his 10th title.
I wanted to write an article that would congratulate the Lakers, give props to the Magic, but not spark a Kobe Bryant-Michael Jordan debate....but I think the only way to do that is to say nothing at all.

Goodbye

Going into this year, I had barely even been in a public school building. I had been homeschooled for my entire life. I guess I was a smart enough kid, but I still thought that succeeding academically would be my toughest challenge. Boy, was I wrong. I just found out yesterday what the absolute hardest thing about public school is.
Saying goodbye.
On Friday, the seniors at Southern Hills Career and Technical Center, as well as Western Brown High School, spent their last day at school. As I bid farewell to one of my favorite people in the world, Echo, at the end of the day, the thought of never people like her again became too much. I am not ashamed to say that I broke down into tears right there on the schoolbus.
I just want to thank the class of 2009 for making this year so great. My favorite seniors Echo and Cotton Candy are amazing, I love you guys, and I will never forget you.

Thanks once again...

The latest challenge we faced in my Graphic Communications class was showcase. This time, it was for real. My team (team SuperAwesomeNinja) led by Nate Robinson did a advertisement campaign for local musician Michael Rickey. We wrapped up the presentation today, and as of right now, we don't know who won. But nonetheless, I enjoyed working with Nate, Alexis Colliver, and Jeff Brunk. Thanks to you guys for making this a great couple weeks.

Thanks

Over the last few weeks, I spent my time at school working on a big Graphic's project. I was the leader of Team W.U.L.O (Wake Up and Live Organization) as we worked on a public service announcement about living life now.

After a lot of hard work by all involved (Amanda, Nate, Jeff, Travis, Steven, and myself), we made it through the presentation unscathed... and victorious!

I would like to thank my team for a well-deserved 98 on the project, we definitely proved that we could do it, and do it well. You guys are the best!

Bengals, Williams reach deal

It's now official. We've been hearing for a couple days now that the Cincinnati Bengals and former Dallas Cowboy safety Roy Williams were talking, but now we know for sure.

I really like this deal.

The Bengals now add Williams, a true boom or bust type of player, to their relatively full roster of safeties. Chris Crocker, Marvin White, Chinedum Ndukwe, Kyries Hebert, and Corey Lynch are already set to play safety for Cincinnati in 2009, and the addition of five-time Pro Bowler Williams should only improve depth and add competition in training camp.

I'm not blind to Williams' flaws, he has some injury problems (two broken forearms) last year limited him to thre games in 2008. Even when healthy, the former Cowboy still had his problems. The main knock against him is his pass coverage skills. However, he is still a player that amassed 19 interceptions over his first six seasons. Williams should fit in at the role that he will be asked to fill however, as a hard-hitting tackler. Now with a team that has seen its fair share of defensive backs that appear scared of contact, his 506 career tackles fill a hole.

I'm not saying Williams will be that ever-elusive 'final piece' of the puzzle, however he may turn out to be a corner piece.

Other news in Bengals-land, Cincinnati made a blockbuster trade today... for those who don't understand sarcasm, that was a prime example. St. Louis received backup defensive tackle Orien Harris in exchange for RB Brain Leonard. Leonard was the Ram's second round pick in 2007 out of Rutgers, and rushed for 303 yards on 86 carries (3.5 ypc) in his rookie campaign. He also caught 30 passes for 183 yards that year. Leonard spent nearly all of 2008 on IR. The newest Bengal may be used as Cedric Benson's backup, or maybe even fullback, where he spent some time in St. Louis.

This is a crime

We've heard that it was going to happen, but now it appears that it may soon be a done deal. Honestly, I just thought it was going to turn out to be a lot of talk, and nothing else. Never did it seriously cross my mind that it would actually happen. The day that it occurs (if it does in fact happen) will be a sad, sad day. One that I will look back on with nothing but disgust. I just found out the news last night, and it may just ruin the rest of my week.

The Super Bowl may be moving to London.

It came across the wire in England that the NFL's championship game may move to London's Wembley Stadium as soon as the year 2014. Honestly, my confidence in commissioner Roger Goodell would be shaken if this actually happens.

Ever since Goodell took over what I can only assume to be a football-shaped office, the league seems to be overly concerned with gaining popularity outside of the U.S. These efforts were hurt by the shutting down of NFL Europe in June, but greatly aided in 2007 when the league decided to play at least one game overseas every year. Back in 2005, the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers drew the largest NFL regular-season crowd in history with 103,467 attending the game...which was played at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.

Doesn't sound like overseas interest needs any help.

There's another side to this story. Roger Goodell denies that any Super Bowl in the near future will be played outside of the U.S. saying that the league "has never looked at London or Mexico City" as a host of the big game.

The newest rumor that the NFL is outsourcing its championship game came from the BBC on Friday, saying offcials in London were engaged in "substantive talks" with the league about hosting the Super Bowl. Ever since the Giants and Dolphins kicked off the annual England event two years ago, this kind of talk has surfaced and resurfaced every few months.

This year's version of the NFL overseas game will feature the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers; you can be sure that it will once again spark this debate on sports talk radio shows that have nothing better to talk about.

Tomlinson's test

If the NFL was the food pyramid (the original one, not the new one) players like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Adrain Peterson, and Larry Fitzgerald would be at the bottom. They would be the bread, the base; the foundation of the entire league.

Ladainian Tomlinson would be right there with them.

For the last eight years, L.T. has been one of the most dominant players sports has ever seen. Since coming into the league in 2001, Tomlinson has carried the ball more than 2,500 times for nearly 12,000 yards, while scoring 141 touchdowns. Since his rookie year, the annual Pro Bowler has lost only 5 fumbles, and averaged more than 4.5 yards per carry.

Simply put, L.T. has been the best.

But last year, Tomlinson had his worst season as a pro since 2001, his rookie campaign. Injuries were the primary reason L.T. wasn't his usual dominant self, but some wonder if the 30 year-old is following in the steps of so many runningbacks before him, who lost production when they hit the big 3-0. His situation was made even worse over the offseason, when some speculated that he wouldn't be back with his career team, the Chargers, after contract disputes and the emergence of backup Darren Sproles.

I think it's sad that potentially the best runner in NFL history could be on the decline. If he is, then I think it will be further proof that the lifespan of runningbacks in the NFL is shrinking quickly, because if L.T. is nearly done at 30, everyone else will be too. But if L.T. still has some gas left in his tank...opposing defenses better watch out.

BCS: Under Investigation?

Apparently, college football's Bowl Championship Series is so unfair that it's illegal. Kind of. The truth is, congress is taking a look at how the NCAA determines it's champion.

All fans of sports and Andy Rooney remember last November, when the current President of the United States told CBS news program "60 Minutes" that he thought the current BCS system should be revamped, saying he would prefer an eight team playoff.

Honestly, I'm as against the BCS as anyone. However the government getting involved in any sport is one step closer to the government controlling everything. When sports are mixed with politics, bad stuff happens. Stuff like this.

"It's like communism," Rep. Joe Barton of Texas said of the situation ""meaning that it will be very difficult for any bowl, including the current BCS bowls, which are among the oldest and most established in the game's history, to survive."

"You can't fix it," he continued. Barton also suggested that the "C" should be dropped from the name because it doesn't produce the real champion. "Call it the 'BS' system."

Haha. I've never heard that one before.

The BCS isn't perfect; no sport's post-season is. Wildcard teams in the NFL like Pittsburgh and the New York Giants have proven that any team, no matter what their regular season was like, could get hot and win it all. This could include a team that didn't even make the playoffs.

I simply think the fact that just because college football's way of crowning a champion might be a little less acurate than others is no reason to go all the way to capital hill the same way the likes of Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire did.

What I do best

I will never forget it. It was late April, 2005. I was only 13 years old; just starting to really get into sports. Football was my favorite; I dreamed of playing wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, but I was just starting to realize that I didn't have the wheels to do it. I had always liked writing, I had (and still have) the September 22 2002 issue of Sports Illustrated. That issue has an article in it called 'How Good Can Randy Mosss be?' by Michael Silver, and it was that piece that got me started on sports journalism.

At about 10 o'clock that morning, I began searching the AM dial on my radio for a way to listen to the NFL Draft, because there was no ESPN in my house. As the draft started, I instantly fell in love with the concept, the excitement, and the overall event. By the next year, I was a draft junkie. I searched every corner of the internet for the latest draft news and rumors, I made countless draft boards and mock drafts. It consumed my life from January to the very second it was over.

That was just the begening. Little did I know that my innocent fasination with the NFL Draft would eventually lead me down the path I am on now.

So how did this happen? I went from a draft enthusiast to wanting to make it my career. This led me to email a certain national sports writer named Gregg Doyle (who at the time was co-hosting a local radio talk show) and ask how I should go about doing this. Doyle was soon let go form that postion at the radio station, but partially through him, I became friends with his co-host, Mo Egger, who continued to be on the air. Egger would have me on his show several times, mostly as a regular caller, but a few times as an actual guest to talk about the draft, while Doyle suggested soemthing to me that would change my life. Gregg told me that I should go to my local paper and ask if they had any available postions, no matter how small. He told me that he had started the same way, answering phones at his local newspaper when he was in high school, and had even gotten the opportunity to write a couple paragraphs of a story.

I expected nothing more. But mere days after I had walked into The Brown County Press office, I was with the sports editor at a high school basketball game. That's where I am now, a sports reporter for the world's smallest paper, but a sports reporter nonetheless. That's me. That's who I am in a nutshell.

Honestly, I didn't even realize that my career in journalism started with the NFL Draft as much as it did until I wrote this story. But I'm glad that I got started writing about sports, because it's what I do best.

Some of my work...

I recently went to the C103 Basketball All-Star game, during halftime of the boy's game, I sat under the hoop for the slam-dunk competition. These are my best pictures from that event.

Jeremy Sharp's blog, take two

Okay, the last time I set up a blog, it reached one hundred hits per day. That was nice. But unfortunately, the site I was blogging on (thelotd.com) is apparently no more. So now, under the instruction of my Graphic Communications teacher at school, I'm starting a new site. Hopefully, it will end up being just as popular as my last one.

I might as well use post number one to babble on a little bit about myself. I am a teenager, 16 to be exact, but instead of having the normal fast-food job that so many of my peers have, I work for the local newspaper. I am a sports reporter for The Brown County Press. How'd I get that job? Simple, I walked into the Press' office and asked for it.

Nowadays, I cover prep sports, anything from baseball, to softball; basketball and more. My dream is to one day, be a nationally recognized sports writer.

Aside from more than a year of taking pictures and writing stories for a real newspaper, my resumé includes a job shadowing at 1530 Homer The Sports Animal, a sports talk radio station in Cincinnati, and several interviews on the Mo Eger show to discuss my many endeavors and my forte: the NFL Draft.

So check me out at www.browncountypress.com, I hope that through this blog, I can gain a few readers, and a lot of feedback, to further my journalism career.