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Archive for May, 2010

If you are interested in football, especially in college football, read on to learn some interesting insight into the roots of the game.

In the 1890s college football had already created strong emotions of love and hate. Big-time eastern football had demonstrated that it could draw large crowds, create alumni support, and build an identity that would attract new students. The fact that it had little to do with classical education bothered only the traditionalists on campus and a handful of crotchety purists elsewhere who wrote critically of football in magazines, newspaper articles, and official college reports.

Outward appearances may have changed, but the gridiron problems in that era appear remarkably similar to the present. In the 1890s big-time recruiters and alumni contacts scoured the eastern prep schools for talented juniors and seniors ready to entice them to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Occasionally, unscrupulous alumni convinced students to quit high school before they graduated in order to enroll at an institution with a big-time team. Boosters funneled tuition money to poor but athletically talented boys from the coal fields of Pennsylvania and the industrial towns of the Northeast to preparatory schools in order to prepare them for big-time college athletics. Some of these young men were in their mid-twenties when they finally entered college. Other athletes went from school to school selling their services, phantom players who had no academic ties with the institution.

Big-time alumni football entrepreneurs-the counterpart of today’s athletic directors-arranged a schedule of games which began with weak teams and worked up to big money games held in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Gridiron profits supported stadium building, sumptuous living quarters and training tables for players, as well as Pullman cars for retinues of trainers, massagers, alumni coaches, and other hangers-on who followed the team to the big games. What was left over went to support an array of lesser sports that big-time football had eclipsed.

At the major football schools critics complained that football players became the campus elite, admired by their fellow students and regarded skeptically by many faculty. In the absence of professional football, players basked in the attention of the media, and the names of the gridiron stars appeared regularly in the sports pages of big city newspapers. Even college faculty and presidents had to be properly worshipful of football and its elite because they knew that football advertised their schools and helped to retain the loyalty of alumni. As a result, they often ignored or remained blissfully unaware of scams to admit unqualified students, play athletes who never enrolled, or resort to stratagems to keep weak players eligible.

Though booster organizations did not exist outside of alumni groups, booster alumni and townspeople, student managers, and even faculty engaged in unethical acts. A Princeton alumnus named Patterson entertained football players and made every effort to entice them to his alma mater. Authorities at Swarthmore lured the huge lineman, Bob (“Tiny”) Maxwell, from the University of Chicago and arranged for the president of the college to pass his bills to a prominent alumnus. Professor Woodrow Wilson, a fanatic Princeton enthusiast, shamelessly used football when he spoke to alumni organizations and vigorously opposed football reform in the 1890s and early 1900s. In contrast, Theodore Roosevelt, a Harvard graduate, who gloried in the strenuous life and strongly supported Harvard football, turned against football brutality in 1905 and initiated the first efforts in his capacity as president to reform the spirit in which big-time football teams competed.

We know that the prototype for athletic organization began at eastern institutions in the 1880s and 1890s. Yale’s Walter Camp, “the father of American football,” became the model for the coach and athletic director. While pursuing a business career, he also acted as Yale’s de facto vice president for athletic operations, who dominated the rules committees and ceaselessly publicized the game. From the profits of big games in Boston and New York, Camp created an ample reserve fund that supported lesser sports, afforded lush treatment for athletes, and provided the money that eventually went toward building Yale Bowl, the first of the modern football stadiums. By making Yale into an athletic powerhouse, Camp built the school’s reputation, making it second only to Harvard. Because he succeeded so well, Camp became the first big-name foe of sweeping football reforms-and an especially hard-core opponent of the forward pass.

By the turn of century the deaths of players in football led state legislators to introduce laws banning the gridiron game. Players for big-time teams, critics charged, were coached to injure their opponents or “put them out of business.” The nature of the game, with its mass formations and momentum plays, made football less an athletic contest than a collegiate version of warlike combat. Eventually the violence in football led to attempts to reduce its brutality through reforms. New rules put a strong emphasis on better officiating and on less dangerous formations, but they did not necessarily improve the athletic environment.

The deaths and brutality presented an excellent opportunity to root out the worst excesses of the runaway football culture. In the 1890s and early 1900s, responding to public opinion, professors and presidents spent a great deal of time talking about the overemphasis of intercollegiate athletics-and, in some cases, passing rules at the conference and institutional level to regulate college sports. Why, then, did college presidents and faculty, who had far more authority over their students than their modern counterparts, fail to control the gridiron beast? Put differently, why did school presidents and faculty often themselves become part of the athletic problem?

. One problem might be that faculty members played major roles in introducing early football. In addition to Woodrow Wilson, who served as a part-time coach at Wesleyan, an English instructor at Oklahoma who had recently come from Harvard, Vernon Parrington, taught the fundamentals of football on the windswept practice field in Oklahoma. At Miami University of Ohio the president called upon all able-bodied members of the faculty to go out for football. In a game between North Carolina and Virginia a member of the North Carolina faculty scored the winning touchdown. Often the faculty proved helpful to the budding football programs in other ways such as giving athletes passing grades or writing articles arguing that football built intellect. Only a handful, like Wisconsin’s Frederick Jackson Turner, made a determined effort to root out the abuses in the culture of college football such as the intense media attention given to the sport and its tendency to cushion star athletes from academic requirements. That was more than a century ago. When we turn to the 1980s and 1990s what do we encounter? Outward appearances of football may have changed, but the problems appear hauntingly similar. Big-time football teams induce players to attend their institution with offers of cars and money as well as running booster operations to funnel cash to blue-chip players. Players who obtain special admission or enter the institution fraudulently do so only to play football and often leave without graduating. Schools manage to keep their players eligible by manufacturing credits or by easing them into simple courses in which they are assured of receiving passing grades. Some coaches engage in violence toward players in practice and even try to drive them out of school so that they can use their scholarship slot.

Athletic departments and institutional officials have become obsessed with the potential for profits from televised big games or bowl games. Big-time teams in the NCAA try to manipulate the organization so that they will be able to have more coaches, scholarships, and only minimal academic requirements. Players commit acts of violence and brutality, then manage to avoid the consequences. College presidents whose salaries and prominence fall far short of the head football coaches dutifully show up at football games and related alumni events, treading cautiously around the mire of big-time college athletics.

All of this has added up to major athletic scandals, most of them involving big-time football. Scandals such as the pay-for-play violations at Southern Methodist and Auburn from the late 1970s to the early 1990s man-aged to create internal disruptions and negative publicity at numbers of big-name institutions. Yet, in spite of the obvious flaws in college football, it continues to enlarge its grip on the major universities. The athletic foundations persist in enlarging their massive gridiron complexes, selling the rights to buy tickets for upscale luxury boxes and suites, and then collecting additional revenues for the sale of high-priced tickets. The major teams have created indoor facilities out of donations that might have gone to deserving but impoverished non-athletes for scholarships. While quasi-professional student-athletes play the game, ordinary students have little to do with the sport. In an atmosphere of highly specialized career coaches, publicists, trainers, and tutors, college football reflects more than ever the professionalism that reformers long ago set out to de-emphasize.

No one would deny that football constitutes one of the most entertaining and enjoyable spectator sports. In the early days some faculty believed that the student enthusiasm for football would enable the institutions to alleviate the pervasive antisocial behavior of undergraduates. Being aware of its appeal, most athletic critics and reformers attempted to change football rather than to abolish it. The few colleges that dropped football did so it because the school had no choice or, occasionally, because a college president happened to wield unusual power at a critical moment in football’s history. Far and away the largest group of thoughtful gridiron critics have attempted to reform football and to reshape it in such a way that it fit more reasonably and appropriately into the spirit and life of the university. Why have they not succeeded?

Beginning in the 1890s and continuing into the 1990s, reformers have spent tens of thousands of hours attending meetings and conferences, devising new rules to solve the latest problems that have cropped up, and generally trying to work out better systems for their own institutions; in the early 1900s moderate reformers founded the NCAA to deal with deaths and brutality and to put football securely under the thumb of the faculty and college presidents. Again in the early 1950s, in a groundswell of outrage against cheating, gambling, and subsidies for athletes, college presidents and faculty members tried to create stricter standards to reduce the greed and professionalism in football rather than to drop it altogether. In the 1980s and early 1990s an outbreak of scandal in big-time football resulted the same response of temporary uneasiness and halting reforms which had become by then a pattern in the history of college football.

The outbreak in the 1980s once again clearly emphasized the failure of reform to bring about real change. In three major periods of gridiron upheaval the colleges have been unable or unwilling to eliminate the causes of chronic cheating. While political reforms by Congress and the states have achieved some enduring success, football and big-time athletics generally have had to face the same issues again and again-much like Sisyphus repeatedly pushing the stone uphill. Why does big-time football manage to be almost constantly in a state of crisis? Is there some quality about football, or college sports generally, or a flaw in higher education which causes this turmoil? If the Greek ideal of education stands for the training of body, spirit, and mind, why have the colleges failed so abysmally at their mission?

Good question, isn’t it? But the answer is beyond the subject of this article – and, unfortunately, beyond the expertise of the college football experts.

So you’re an NFL fan and you love NFL jerseys. Perhaps you’re looking for a great NFL jersey for yourself, maybe you’d like to buy a great looking jersey for a gift. But there’s a few things you need to know before you rush out to buy your first NFL jersey.

There is a wide range of prices for NFL jerseys, and it pays to know how, why and where the prices vary, what you want to buy and where you should get it at the cheapest price. If you’re looking for a cheap NFL Jersey you need to know a few things.

There are a number of different types of NFL jerseys. Authentic NFL jerseys are generally the most expensive and can be the most sought after, but will be of good quality.

An authentic NFL jersey should be as good quality as you would find in the jerseys worn by the NFL players themselves. They are a heavyweight fabric and have all the graphics sewn on, including the numbers, and should last for years. You can also get authentic customized NFL jerseys. You select the name and number of the NFL player you want on the jersey and this is custom ordered for you exactly how you want it.

This can take some time because obviously it has to be made one off specially for you but it means that you get exactly the right NFL jersey for you. This is a great way to order your jersey but not cheap.

If you can’t afford an authentic NFL jersey you can go one step down and order a premier NFL jersey. These are cheaper than the authentic NFL jerseys which is great, but are not of the same quality that you get with the authentic jersey. A premier jersey is made of lighter material and is usually nylon/polyester. It as sewn on numbers and names but doesn’t have the same quality of material as an authentic jersey.

It should look just as good as an authentic jersey, but is made cheaper. A good option if you want an authentic jersey but just can’t afford it.

And cheaper again is a replica NFL jersey. These jerseys are made from thinner fabrics so won’t last as well as the more expensive authentic jerseys, but are much cheaper. The graphics and numbers are not sewn on but are screen printed instead, a cheaper process.

A good authentic NFL jersey isn’t cheap, but there are ways to get cheap authentic NFL jerseys if you know where to look online. However you can pay up to $300 in some offline stores, so if the cost of buying an authentic NFL jersey is a problem for you then you need to spend a little time online.

There are always better options when it comes to buying NFL products online, and if you know where to look you’ll pick up a great authentic NFL jersey online at a price that might rival a cheap replica jersey in an offline store.

Happy searching and enjoy your NFL jersey when you get it. Be proud of it.

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We all know that Golf is a game that’s difficulties can induce high levels of frustrations. So the one piece of advice we have is to make sure you have the right equipment. Don’t make it more difficult for yourself by using clubs that just don’t feel right.

Every golfer’s body and swing are unique to that individual and that’s what custom fitting is all about. Custom fitting golf clubs involves a quick self assessment of your game and several easy measurements. To custom fit your golf clubs, the following information is needed:

• Your gender (male or female)

• Your height in your stockings or socks

• The distance from your wrist (where it bends) to the floor (without shoes)

• What club you use at the 135 meter marker

• Handicap, age, swing speed

Firstly, your gender is used to put you into the correct fitting scale. Then, your height and the distance in inches from your wrist to the floor are used together to determine the length of golf club that is appropriate for you. (About 80% of golfers are Standard length.)

Your age, handicap, estimated golf swing speed and club you use at the 135 meter marker are all combined to determine the shaft flex that is appropriate for you.

Club Length & Flex

With regards to the length of your club there’s one main point you should consider: a longer golf club will hit further given the same swing speed – so length can be a good thing. But, as I’m sure you’re thinking, it can’t be that simple. And you’re right! Since the swing arc is longer, it often is also harder to keep under control – so length can be a bad thing. All things being equal, most golfers will opt for longer length to the sacrifice of greater control. But there’s still a decision to be made!

The standard length of a steel shafted Driver for a man is 44 inches. Graphite shafted drivers are manufactured 1 inch longer than steel shafted clubs because graphite shafts weigh less than steel shafts allowing us to produce a longer club with the same swing . The proper length of a golf club is a function of your height and the length of your arms. Some golf shop provide a Custom Fitting Wizard that determines the correct length for you with just a few simple measurements.

Flex is the torsional stiffness of the golf club, which is provided by the type of golf club shaft that is used. Generally, stiffer shafts are better for stronger hitting golfers.

The proper flex of a golf club is a function of your strength and golfing skills. Determining the correct flex is most important for your Woods and longer Irons. Short irons, wedges and putters are not impacted very much by the different flexes as the differences between flexes becomes very small in the shorter clubs.

Loft & Lie Adjustments

A lie adjustment requires bending the hardened metal in which an iron is cast. We strongly advise getting your lie fitting done in person. Online fittings while accurate do not take into account your natural ball address. Some players are more naturally upright and some like to lean into the ball. Once you have lie adjusted a club it is usually not a good idea to re-adjust if you later find it was the wrong adjustment.

From years of building experience we find it rare to need more than a 2 degree adjustment upright or flat, therefore we only perform lie adjustments to either extreme.

Woods, hybrid clubs and putters can not be adjusted. The reason these clubs can not be adjusted is because the hosel of each is cast in a way where physically bending the head at all will cause damage. In woods and hybrids it will crack or bend the crown of the club, and putter hosels are not made with the strength required for adjustment after the casting process.

Loft adjustments require a different type of bend than a lie adjustment. Some people receive advice in which they require a certain loft adjustment. We have never understood loft adjustments since it merely changes the loft of the club. We recommend buying golf clubs matching the loft you seek and avoid custom loft adjustments. Bending the loft of an iron weakens the hardened metal and can lead to future metal fatigue, since the actual bend twists the metal to an extent. If the loft of your 5 iron is too strong, use a 6 iron. If it is too weak, use a 4 iron.

Golf bags are essential for carrying around all the things you need as you play golf. These would be your golf clubs, golf balls, tees, markers, towels and umbrellas.

Although they do not directly affect the result of your game, they could influence your attitude as you play, as golf bags offer you a lot of comfort and convenience as you go through the course.

Here are some types of golf bags.

1. Staff bags

Staff bags would be the largest kind of golf bags. A good staff bag would be made of leather or other durable and high quality materials and are usually a bit more expensive. They are able to contain all of your golf clubs, and still have a lot of pockets to hold other things and equipment that you wish to bring along as you go through the course.

Most professional golfers prefer to use the staff bag as they are able to hold the most equipment. They need not worry about lugging it around since they usually have their caddy to help them out with that.

2. Cart Bags

These bags are relatively smaller than staff bags but are bulkier and harder to carry around. Cart bags are designed to be transported in golf carts but have less pockets and less room for storage.

3. Carry Bags

These are the smallest of the golf bags, which are usually made from nylon, plastic or other light materials. They are constructed to contain the essentials like golf clubs, a couple of balls and small golf accessories. They are perfect for those golfers who prefer to carry their own bags.

When choosing the most suitable golf bag for you, you would need to consider the features that you need and your budget. It is not necessary to buy the most expensive bag available, as they do not directly affect the way you play, unlike your clubs, balls and golf shoes. You should carefully assess if the bag you are planning to buy has all the features that will suit your needs, while still being reasonably priced.

Millions of young football fans cherish the idea of wearing the NFL clothing representing their favorite National Football League team. What keeps many from that dream is the price. Some NFL merchandise is pricey, particularly good quality jerseys. Many are being sold for hundreds of dollars, and the higher the quality, or rarer the item, the higher the price. Of course, there are cheap knockoffs of authentic NFL merchandise, however most young football fans will tell you quickly that these simply aren’t what they want. They want clothing that looks good, and something close to a real NFL jersey. The NFL brand carries a lot of weight with them.

Of course some NFL jerseys sold in retail outlets or online aren’t the real thing. If you’ve seen a real NFL jersey hanging on a wall in a football pub, you know how huge they are. Two people can fit comfortably into them. The jerseys were design for large men wearing even larger shoulder pads. Only the quarterbacks and kickers have shoulder pads that are comparatively smaller than the well padded ones that linebackers wear.

For small children however, a real NFL jersey is too heavy with designs that are too detailed for the child to appreciate. Kids like it simple and comfortable and they won’t appreciate an authentic NFL jersey so there’s no point in wasting money on it. A kids jersey needs to be made of a softer material with stitching that won’t cause itching and chafing. You can buy authentic NFL kids clothing online at an NFL shop. Many people buying sports jerseys or receiving them as Christmas gifts discover that they’re perhaps made for pickup football at the local park and not as casual wear.

Many NFL jerseys are purchased as collector’s items. An authentic team jersey signed by a well known National Football League star can fetch a good price at auction. Most recently, throw back jerseys have become popular. These have the designs, colors and team logos from year’s long past. You may even have throwback jerseys signed by former popular players like John Riggins, Jim Marshall, Dwight Clarke, Terry Bradshaw, Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Ken Stabler, Fran Tarkenton, and even coaches such as Mike Ditka.

NFL Merchandise is a very popular Christmas gift item. Sports fans appreciate these collectibles, particularly those that are unique. Sports Bars often lacking in decor ideas, are perfect locations for framed football jerseys. Nothing makes a better statement for your sports bar than the appearance of a signed NFL jersey up on the wall. You might want to have a jersey handy and ask a pro player to pay your bar a visit. Have them sign the Jersey. Then you’ve got a collectible that can impress your football fan patrons.

Baseball Caps for Football Fans

Another in-demand type of NFL merchandise is baseball caps with the various team NFL logos on them. It’s probably the least expensive way to adorn yourself with an NFL branded logo. Some merchandise manufacturers make NFL caps that have a rubber fan face built into it. Besides being a fun way to show you’re fan fanatic, it might help keep you warm on cold game days in these coming months.

For the rabid NFL or college football fan, an impressive Christmas gift is a headwig, or rubber fan face for wearing at parties or the game. And the price of this fanwear is great. For less than twenty dollars, you have some authentic NFL merchandise with the fan’s favorite colors and logo on it. Other items carried at an NFL shop are oversized inflatable footballs. These are a lot of fun for backyard play and take a lot of the seriousness out of the game. You can never have too much fun. For your car, you might want to block the Sun’s UV rays from your kids in the backseat. It doesn’t hurt to have a Steelers logo, or Jets logo, or Raider’s logo on it as well. Show your team pride.

The most popular teams for fan merchandise aren’t always what you’d expect. Fans in certain cities are very loyalty and spirited and they are more likely to get into the culture of football and adorn themselves with NFL branded clothing. Some of the more highly sought team merchandise is that of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Merchandise sales for the Steelers rose strongly after their recent win at the Superbowl.

Other teams that sell a lot of NFL merchandise are the Seattle Seahawks, Oakland Raiders, New York Jets, Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers. To find an NFL teams merchandise check online via Google or Yahoo. You’ll find Chicago Bears Merchandise available at NFL.com or via the Bears official web site, and there are other NFL shops that offer official Chicago Bears merchandise. From collectibles to wearables, there are plenty of gift ideas for Christmas 2006. Stats show that fan interest in NFL football has continued to climb. Attendance at actual NFL games has risen and more games are shown on TV. That means fan-related items such as caps, fan faces, and headwigs are going to be present at all the games. Share the spirit this year with a visit to an NFL shop online.

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