A different way of looking at it

As I mentioned earlier in the week, this blog will now be part personal writing practice, part a spot to vent about what's going on in sports and also, part homework assignment. For my advanced sports reporting class, we will be blogging about various aspects in sports for the next 15 weeks. And since I didn't want to confuse you, my loyal readers (yes, all three of you), I chose to keep make my in-class blog the same as my out-of-class blog.

In the class on Monday, we had talked about the most important moments in sports, both locally and nationally the past 13 months, from January 1, 2008 to today. All sorts of important moments were discussed, from Derrick Rose's homecoming to Tiger's one-legged US Open title. No doubt both were important stories, but one of the reason's they are remembered so well is that they made were as memorable for their off-field accomplishments as they were on.

Had Derrick Rose gone to any other city, and it would have been a big deal. Here's a guy who is the perfect point guard (assuming one day he improves his jump shot and man-to-man defense), a true team player and a flat-out winner. Yeah, that Memphis team he was on last year was really deep, but there was no question that in March, when the Tigers needed a bucket, they went to #23. So for any team to draft him #1, it would have made headlines. But for Rose to return to Chicago, a city that loves high school basketball and has been watching this guys every move since he was 15 years old, it was a HUGE story. Features showed up all over the place on how his homecoming will impact his old 'hood This is my favorite piece, because it's really well done and also the author was an instructor of mine who has helped me out a bunch) and how his arriving to the Bulls suddenly makes them a must-see team. There would be no story without the game of basketball, but basketball is not the only story.

Same with Tiger Woods. He has won so many important tournaments, that they just all run together. Nobody blinks an eye anymore when they are told Tiger won the Masters or PGA Championship, instead, they are shocked when he is defeated. So right off the bat, saying Tiger won the 2008 US Open is not a huge deal. But the fact he had to hit incredible shot after incredible shot on Sunday just to play in Monday's playoff was amazing. The fact that he was going up against a foe, Rocco Mediate, who nobody had ever heard of but suddenly everybody was rooting for was amazing. And the fact that we later learned Tiger was essentially playing the entire tournament on just one leg was the most amazing. The win is just another trophy, but the lasting legacy was the tremendous effort by one of the all-time greats.

The in-class discussion made me realize that the best games of the year (For me, it was either the Super Bowl or the NCAA basketball championship) aren't always the best moments of the year.


-On Friday I'll have my official Super Bowl preview up on the blog.