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Hiatus

4and26sports.com is officially on hiatus for the coming week, due to finals. Might post one or two things on the Flyers or Sixers, but don't get too worked up if it doesn't come. Got to take care of school first. I'll see you all later.

Eagles, Flyers, Sixers, Phillies 4/18/08

4th and 26 is leaving town to attend the Blue and White Game at University Park this weekend. Back with a report on Monday. In the meantime..

Eagles:
Since the NFC East was one of only two divisions to finish with all records at .500 or above, the Bird's 8-8 was only good enough for last place. I mention this because that means, in the schedule making, that the Eagles play three last place teams to complete the schedule. Playing against the 49ers, Rams and Falcons should provide us with three easy wins. This is especially important because our out of conference opponents, the AFC North (Pitt, Clev., Cinc., Balt.) are no slouches, and the aforementioned NFC East, with the Skins, Cowboys and Giants all making the playoffs, provide us with no gimme games. Throw in an away date in Seattle, and we're going to need those three wins.

Flyers:
Nothing like a good double overtime game to get the blood flowing. Mike Knuble's goal 6 minutes into the 5th period gave the Flyers a 4-3 game four victory. They have the Capitals by the throat- they just have to finish it off within the next two games. A loss in D.C. would give the Capitals the momentum, sure, but it would be overly dramatic to say that it would be crucial to win game five. I would be completely comfortable bringing it back to Philly for game 6. Flyers fans make the Wachovia Center electric; a series-clinching victory on home ice would invigorate the city.

Sixers:
The referees should be crucified for the travesty that occurred last week. In case you didn't see, the Sixers went up by one with a few seconds to go versus the Cavaliers. Devin Brown drove into the lane and may or may not have been fouled by Sammy Dalembert- that's not what makes this absolutely abhorrent. If they would have called a foul on the spot right there, yes, I'd be mad, but he did get a piece of his arm- it would have been okay. What incited the fans was that there was no foul called, no whistle, and the clock ran off and the Sixers celebrated an important victory and left to the locker room. But then the NBA realized that they forgot to give their star (Bron-Bron) special treatment, and CALLED THEM ALL BACK OUT TO GIVE BROWN TWO FREE THROWS. He hit them both. Sixers were cheated out of a win. I love basketball, and I love the Sixers, but I hate the NBA right now. Absolutely appalling. But I digress.

Phillies:
As for the Phillies first few weeks: Middling. That's all there is to say. There's been good (Pat the Bat) and bad  (The  Flyin' Hawaiian). Just remember there's plenty of baseball to be played. It's April- remember the Phillie's last April? Exactly. Never panic too early, never get too excited. Just enjoy the games for what they are. For example, Mets v. Phils, Santana v. Hamels tonight. You won't find a better rivalry or pitching matchup anywhere in the majors. Speaking of the Metropolitans, don't leave any small objects on the diamond at Citizen's Bank Park- the Amazin's have a propensity to choke.

Be back with a report on the Ageless Joe Paterno, Pat Devlin's development, Evan Royster (who is a MONSTER), D- Will and the gang, as well as the state of the defense now that we've lost our best player (Sean Lee) for the season.

Pushed to the Limit

    I'm assuming most of the people who visit 4and26sports.com were, at one point or another, athletes. I was never that amazing at sports, but I played and loved every minute of it. All of you who did participate in sports should remember this feeling.

    You show up in the locker room, you BS with your teammates for awhile. Somebody cracks a joke or rips on one of your friends, and everyone laughs. You would go to war with these guys, and you don't want to let them down. The coach walks by and everybody either shuts up (if it's a strict coach) or greets him warmly (if it's a player's coach). You don't want to let him down either.
    You go through stretching and warmups, running in lines and maybe a jog around the field. You go do some tough drills. Linemen line up 1 foot apart from each other, and bully their friend or teammate until the whistle blows. You always go until the whistle blows. Can't let the coach down. Can't let your teammates down. Receivers and D backs go press coverage on each other in one on one fade drills. You always go hard, you run your fastest, you try to separate yourself, try to prove to everyone that you're good enough. Can't let anyone down. You go all out in position drills and push to the limit. Coaches eyes are on you, teammates eyes are on you. You can't disappoint. You're already tired, already sore, already beat. But practice isn't over.
    It's just begun. Team scrimmage, first vs. scout, or even first vs. first. This is game situation, coaches tell you. Go all out. Someone misses a blocking assignment.
"What the f** are you doing? Are you f**ing stupid? Do you not know anything?" The hard line approach.
Someone drops a pass.
"Dammit, those are the kinds of mistakes we can't afford to make. Do you think the other team's receivers are dropping passes? Get out of there, we got a scout team receiver who's been looking pretty good."
It always seems like there's someone ready to replace you if you're not good enough. I would imagine that feeling amplifies on a D-1 college team, where there are hundreds of kids dying to take your spot.
    The feeling of being so overwhelmingly fatigued has to be put on hold, because after the no-holds barred full contact scrimmage, you have to take your beaten body to the conditioning period. If you're lucky, you'll just have to go to the hill, where you run up and down a steep incline frontwards, backwards, crawling, crawling backwards, sidestep and just old fashioned sprinting time and time again.
    But if you're unlucky, you go to the field. Ladders, suicides, there are lots of names for the same thing. Start on the goal line, run to the five. Touch down, run back to the goal line. Whistle blows. Run to the ten, touch down, run back. Whistle blows. Run to the fifteen, touch down, run back. It goes on.
    This is where the weak get separated from the true warriors. As you slowly, painfully inch your way down the field, where each new sprint is longer than the last, some of the linemen start to wheeze. The more rotund of the group start to slow down.
"What the f** are you doing? Run, (female genitalia)! RUN!"
Someone gets singled out. The coach's look of disappointment runs deep. Everyone feels a twang of terror, knowing it could easily be them. Nobody wants to be That Guy. Because That Guy is not improving his status with the coaches. That Guy doesn't earn the respect of his teammates. The pressure being put on an athlete during sprints is tremendous. You may be so tired that in a normal situation, you can't walk, but in this situation, you're sprinting. Because you think your life depends on it. You don't want to be replaced. You don't want to let the coach down. You don't want to let your teammates down.
    There comes a point where even the most well-conditioned start to slow their pace. Mercifully, you reach the other goal line. Sometimes you have to wind your way back down the field, other times you're free to go. And everyone's look on their face when they know they've finished is priceless. They know they didn't let anyone down and they tried their absolute hardest. It's a good feeling. You don't need to be a star to get all the satisfaction sports rewards on you.
     Usually after sprints, everyone gets to calm down, relax, go home to their family or their friends or their significant other. Maybe go get a lift in or go study. But sometimes, it doesn't happen that way. Sometimes they never get to walk off the field at all.
    A football player from the University of Central Florida died during a conditioning workout in a spring practice. Coaches said that there were no signs, but they might have been trying to cover their tracks. Four teammates said the kid looked extremely fatigued and was not responding, and that the coaches were screaming and cursing at him to finish the workout. Now I'm not going to take sides on this particular situation- I'm not a talking head who makes open and shut cases on things that they know no specifics- but this begs an important question.
    What if, after the grueling practice, you were in sprints, and your teammate suddenly didn't look so good? Would you tell him to suck it up, or would you ask him if he's okay? What if he didn't respond? What if he looked like he might collapse? Would you tell a coach? It's not that easy in sports today. You can't stop in the middle of a sprint; it simply doesn't happen. And it's very rare that someone complains to a coach that they can't do conditioning- it's basically begging to be benched, or even to never get a shot to play. How can you expect players to react? They don't want to step out of line if it's a teammate who is lagging behind, or it may be their head on the guillotine next.
    And what of the coaches? You can't build a successful team without hard work. The players NEED to be conditioned to have any chance in the fourth quarter, third period, overtime, last lap, match point. So you push them. And it's not just physical conditioning. It's mental and emotional conditioning. "We're here not to just build football players, but to build men," I hear coaches say all the time. To build a man, you have to push him to his limit and then push some more. But how hard are you supposed to push? When does being a hardass coach turn into being potentially responsible for death? I'm sure Coach O'Leary never wanted to kill the kid, so I'm not calling him a murderer. He may have just been doing his job.
    But the bottom line is an innocent kid is dead. A son, a friend, a football player, a student. He could have had a family one day. Who is to blame? The system, maybe. The whole masculine culture of sports embraces pushing yourself to the limit. But the coaches were just trying to turn him into a better player, a better man. His teammates probably just assumed he was out of shape, or maybe they were afraid to disrupt practice to say anything.
    Ereck Plancher suffered this fate because he didn't want to let his coaches or his teammates down. He didn't deserve it. Does this call for changes to the entire system? I don't think it does. We don't know the entire story. But I do think this calls for remembrance of Ereck Plancher. Someone who sacrificed his life pushing himself, trying to make himself better. Maybe the right thing to do would be to sit out when he felt woozy, but he didn't. He did what we all tell ourselves, what all our coaches and parents tell us when we're tired of working so hard- don't give up. Keep working hard and it will all pay off.
    It didn't this time. Rest in Peace, Ereck Plancher.

Intro

    Jim Rome? Skip Bayless? Stephen A. Smith? Honestly? This is what "journalism" is today? This is what we've become? I'm not one for taking unnecessary jabs at individuals I don't personally know, but as a devoted sports fan, and as someone who follows quality journalism and sound thinking, these people do not cut it. They just don't. Maybe I didn't graduate from the Bill O'Reilly school of journalism, but yelling as loud as you can and making witty quips doesn't qualify you as an expert. That's why I'm not going to consider myself an expert. I consider myself someone who is going to look into his subject, research information, and make informed an informed analysis on whatever it is I'm writing about. However, that's not to say I'm going to make this a dry, bland site; There will be opinion, and it will be strong opinion. You may think I'm an idiot for what I say sometimes. But I have reasons behind my thinking. And I will do my best to convey them as efficiently as I can. That is the point of this site: to give the reader an informed viewpoint from a passionate fan.
    This site will be based primarily on Philadelphia sports. If you don't like that, then that's a damn shame. My apologies for being blunt, but I feel as though it's necessary to put that on the table first and foremost. Yes, Mets/Cowboys/Giants fans, I know the amount of championships we've won since 1983. Thank you for reminding me of my traumatic childhood. Hope you feel better about yourself.
    Hopefully the title will come. Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young are going to lead the Sixers to a bright future, but I don't think they're quite there yet. And despite 3 MVP candidates and an ace pitcher, the Phils got swept in the first round last year. But just maybe they can swing it to at least a pennant in October. The Flyers begin their run this week against Ovechkin and his boys. Most experts I read tell me they have no chance. I'm not listening.
     And that leaves my beloved Eagles. Asaunte Samuel was good for a week or two of bragging, but a highly-paid corner alone doesn't bring you a championship; ask Clements and the 49ers. But we've got the best running back in the league, a solid offensive line, decent (maybe) receivers, LJ back at TE, and our defense is looking MONSTROUS this year, with the D-Line and secondary receiving upgrades (not to mention the young, rabid linebacking core). I also believe that Donovan has a few good years left. With some help in special teams in the draft, I truly feel that the Eagles are going to return to contender status.
     And that's what sports are about. Sure, the stereotype Philly fan is a pessimistic loser who chucks snowballs at santa (50 YEARS AGO, PEOPLE! DROP IT!). But really, we're optimistic. No matter how bleak things look, no matter how much we supposedly hate our players, we show up every year. We always are there for our team. We're united in our hatred for the Cowboys. And most of all, we'd gladly fight for our team. So yes, I believe the Eagles will be packing their bags for Tampa come February. And no, I don't think I'm crazy. I am not taking any mind-altering drugs. I just believe in my team. Like a fan should.