My Thoughts: QB Controversy in San Fran- reality or show?

Hey Y'all it's your favorite rising #SportsGeek, SportsGal89 In the Buildin'. I have been coming back slowly with my blogging on the sports world and the month of November has seemed to see a lot of typing action considering that football season is well under way.
  So of course tonight's topic will be Football and we'll focus a little bit on the 49ers. Two weeks ago 49ers starting QB Alex Smith ended up with a concussion during the Rams game. This ruled him out to play against the Chicago Bears in last week's MNF. Bring in Colin Kaepernick, definitely not a rookie, but not the starter to this 49er Offense. On MNF, Kaepernick shined an amazing 243 Yds and 2 TDs and a game that was absolutely won off of the offensive skill. The Kaepernick led offense routed the Bears with a 32-7 loss.
 What happened after was a well played media hype about what would happen in San Francisco. Smith would be more than likely cleared to return for the Sunday Funday matchup against the Saints and with Kaerpernick's game on MNF, was he making a bid for the starting position.
  Here's what I saw during and after MNF- the soundbite heard round the league "QB Controversy in San Fran," "Who will start," different commentators making their predictions. Tweets, FB posts and memes going up about Alex Smith losing his job. But was it necessary?  Was this perceived media hype around the "controversy" something that was real or fictional? Did the organization play into it, or was their decision made based on a logical decision? And how much of the media hype played into what we ended up seeing on the field tonight?
  Alex Smith was cleared for game day this evening against the Saints, suited up and ready to go, Alex Smith didn't see a minute of play because, yup Kaepernick was starting. Yes, I think he had one  HECK of a game last week. But do you always go for what's hot, just because it's hot? Why not start Alex and see what he can do and give him a chance to get it back. I mean it was Alex who routed the Saints from their playoff track last season. Wouldn't he be able to do the same. And even if he didn't play his strongest in the first or second qtr, pull him out and go with what was hot.

So here we are tonight- post the Saints game:
  Kaepernick led the team to a 31-21 victory in the Superdome, which is often hard to do. But there were still moments in that game that consistency was lacking- 1 INT, some sloppy attempts at  3rd and out conversion. Moments that some might say I was being too critical. But had the game gone the other way, the commentators and the fans would have been down Harbaugh's throat about why he kept Kaepernick in as long as he did.
 Here's the thing, I could honestly care less about what happens in San Francisco, as it doesn't impact me personally. I like what I am seeing from the Niners over the years and I think they have a great shot at making it to the Super Bowl. But I think just on the principle, I think that what happened post the MNF  game was more of the media influence and all the second guessing by analysts that really set the tone for "controversy" in San Francisco.
  I think Smith got the short end of the stick, starting the season 6-2 is not bad at all. So does Kaepernick deserve it, yes I mean for now, if he can take the team to the playoffs then yes. But once you get there, who will you keep as the starter? Alex Smith who has made it to playoff games, or Kaepernick because right now his streak is hot?
  As for the future, Alex Smith almost lost his starting role to taking a backseat to Peyton, had he decided to head to SF. So already having to feel like you need to prove yourself yet again, is your time in the "Golden State" over?
  Furthermore, what can be learned about this in other teams around the league? Maybe the true QB controversy should have been focused on the Meadowlands and the Jets, because that is still one that keeps me scratching my head.
  Well that's all she wrote folks! Til next time.

Title ( a work in progress)

Hey Y'all it's your favorite #SportsGeek, SportsGal89 In the Buildin'! I hope that y'all are doing amazing because I am.
  So I know that I talk a lot more about the games I watch and what's happening in the sports world. But today I wanted to focus a little bit on what it means to be a fan, and in my case in 2012 being a fan in a time where my teams are just eh, or there is no real benefit for the way that my teams are playing. I'll start with the Steelers since that seems to be where the most of my pain is right now. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE football. I have aspirations to one day own, yes that's right OWN a team. And not in the "Any Given Sunday" way, but in the I earned it and I know what I am talking about kind of way.
  Anywho, I love football, it is my Christmas all rolled up into the gridiron magic on Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights. The 2012 season like every other one gets me all excited to see my boys do great things. You get hopeful for a chance to make it to the playoffs and reclaim glory that only a few teams and fans have been able to witness in their lifetimes. I have been lucky,  that I got to see my team make it to the Superbowl at least 4 times in my life- 2 of which they won!, and my life is still far from over.  But here's the truth, even though I like every fan am so hopeful for a championship style team, I am also very realistic in my understanding that some years my team just wont have it. I felt it during the 2009-2010 season when we lost to the Packers and I feel it again this season. It doesn't help that our starting QB was recently injured and the likelihood of his return to bring us into the playoffs is slim. Now our 2nd QB was injured and we are down to our 3rd string and fighting to sign another QB in the middle of a season. Not to mention our team is just old, adjusting to the speed of other teams has been tough for a team as old as ours. The glory days of this team is starting to come to an end, and it will be interesting to see how our team and the organization rebuilds itself. The start is the resigning of PLAX! yup that's right Plaxico Burress is back in the Black and Gold. So to him I say welcome home!
    To continue, I am a diehard O-H-I-O Buckeye til I die, College sports fan (well Men's basketball and football). Due to a very poor decision of our athletes and our coaching administration, the Buckeyes this season have been forced to play for the sake of playing with no opportunity to play in a Bowl Game or the BCS Title Game. Part of the punishment that the NCAA bestowed upon us. We lost our beloved Tressel as well. Primarily because of his knowledge of our players not abiding to the NCAA rules and regulations of player behavior. Going into this season, I knew that regardless of the way they played, Buckeye Nation wouldn't be watching our team in what mattered the most to us, continuing to bring home an amazing legacy for our team and our state. This season though has been something of amazement. For one, we have a new coach. Mr. Urban Meyer has graciously come out of retirement to coach The OHIO State University Buckeyes Football team. Not only has he chosen to come out of retirement for us, but he has done it knowing that our team had no shot to make it to a Bowl game or Title Game. We are currently 11-0 for the season, our last game coming up against our RIVAL the dirty blue! With the last game of our season and the one against our rivals, it is going to be one of the most exciting games to watch. Throughout this season I have been fascinated with the energy that Braxton Miller and the boys continue to provide each and every game. This is what the game is all about, players playing to play. It's not about the money, the accolades, it's simply about the pure joy of playing a game you love.
  So as we enter our 12th game and our final one of the season, I look forward to a beauty of a fight. One where my team not only proves that they deserve to be one of the greatest teams in College Football, but that they are also not going to sit back and let others hate on their skills. This season for them was practice for what is yet to come.

That's all she wrote folks...

What it means to be a SportsGal

Hey Y'all it's your favorite (I hope) sports fanatic, Sports Gal89 in the buildin'. Normally I take a more conventional route and recap games, and athletes, but today I decided to talk to you a little bit about me, and how I came to be the fan that I am and what it means to be a fan in 2012, particularly as I reflect on my teams.
  So it is the 2012 season and I am a #SportsGeek! Let me recap why. My father, yup I am a self-proclaimed "Daddy's Girl." I have grown up around sports for much of my childhood, with my dad coaching High School football when I was younger, playing soccer and coaching men's women's soccer. I spent time with the football players in and out of our house for team meetings, I was the water girl at game days for soccer, and even assisted my father while he coached little kids in our summer leagues.
  I myself, played soccer, some softball and was a cheerleader for my elementary football teams. When I was in middle school, "Friday Night Lights" was the true heart of my growing up. Spending each Friday night at the High School Football game, where literally the entire town shutdown to be out at the game. My time in the stands razzing the visiting team from time to time.
   I loved watching sports, spending time in Pittsburgh at Pirates games. Going to a Steelers Game, driving with my dad on trips to NY and coming back to visit the Football Hall of Fame- our stop EVERY TIME we returned home. Sports literally courses through my veins. I love sports and I can't ever let it go.
   When I was in High School, unfortunately my love of sports was left to what was on TV as my HS was not large enough for a sports team of any sort. So instead I focused on the local teams that played on TV, at the time Stanford, Cal, Santa Clara etc. When I started college however, the whole scope of my understanding of the games changed. I entered college and my friend base were the athletes. My friends were the starters for our college football team, the starters for the basketball team, played volleyball or water polo. That was my crew. So I was at literally EVERY game, for one season straight my friends and I planned our work schedules based on the football games. We traveled with the team and watched them make it to the championship game. I would talk to the guys after games running through their weak sides and just talking with them. The respect of my crew was simply that "Keesha knows her ish." Some of my friends would joke, we play the game and you know it better than we do. Ha Ha.
  The love of the game came full circle in watching my teams play live. Going to a Lakers game, watching the Steelers play the Raiders, seeing the A's that was my real training. Watching live games AND studying them on TV.
  Literally all of this over-saturation of the games, created a MONSTER. So now here I am 27 years of life, with a sports blog and just this love of sports that I don't know where it comes from, but also recognize that as a female it has its limits. Why? I get a lot of comments from people that they'll say- "Wow, Keesha, you know A LOT about sports and it scares me." I have had guys tell me that I intimidate them with my knowledge. One, because I can get gully with the rest of them, when they talk about teams and games. Two, because when the game is on, I am focused. I am cheering, I am screaming at the TV, I am going in. I am a fan, I can't get it out of my system and honestly I don't know if I would have wanted it any other way.
  So if I could get on my high horse for a minute and speak to the ladies who are fans like me. Stick with it, we need more of us being vocal and proving that we have value as fans that isn't superficial. I think one of my favorite moments, is clowning the idiot who thinks that because I am a girl, I must not have any idea what is going on in the sports world. I let you think that for a second and then I just lay it all down and make you look STUPID. Sometimes it's not about me proving that I know what I am talking about more than it is me proving that I worthy of being listened to.
  So this is why I blog. I hope you like what you have been reading and continue to stop by and share my story.
  Thanks for indulging! That's all she wrote!

Money + Ego= greatness destroyed...

Hey Y'all it's your favorite #SportsGeek, SportsGal89 in the buildin'!! I know, I know it has been TOO long since I have dropped a line on the sports world. And I promised that I would get better and devote a little more time to you all but I am here now so, forgive me for my transgressions and let's move on to the real reason that I am writing.. SPORTS!

  You ever have a moment where you feel that someone you looked up to is tainted, like you just were able to see them as human instead of the super human being that you thought they were? I had that moment a few games ago with the Steelers when Emmanuel Saunders had this horrible flop to buy time for the Steelers. Some of us have this image of sports greats- Barry Bonds, even though I am not in that category, or Lance Armstrong, Reggie Bush or USC. It's those moments that you saw them as pure, untouchable, that no matter what shade someone threw on them,that shade was just another point you could add to your argument about why they were great. 

Y'all know, if you have been following since I first started this blog, that I am a HUGE Lakers fan. My fan "purity" for lack of a better word has been something that I have had to defend for a long time. But it is something that I recognize I end up defending for a series of reasons and not just because the Lakers happen to be my team. The Lakers in my eyes could do no wrong, win or lose I love that team. I know that Kobe's days are numbered, I've been there through his ego and running the team long enough to appreciate his growth and his leadership even though many tend to think that it is a little much. I know that the Lakers are a big market team and I get that money talks in the NBA and clearly it talks for the Lakers organization when you have a guy like Kobe to build a team around. I am not naive to think that money doesn't speak volumes, but I still have this idea that no matter what the money is there is still skill on the court that got them the championships they have and the often hated image that they have- but in my mind- Hating on greatness doesn't stop them from still being great!... Until today!

Today the Lakers front office decided to fire Coach Mike Brown. Let's look at the landscape- Mike Brown came into the Lakers Season as a head coach last season. In this change, the team showed their ASS in one of the most embarrassing moments, in a very public, botched deal to get Chris Paul from New Orleans. In this power move, the Lakers dropped a notch in my integrity ruler, due to the fallout of how they treated Odom. As if he hadn't been a part of the team, wasn't voted the the NBA's 6th Man and hadn't worked hard to do what he could for the organization. Neither here nor there. Odom finally exited stage right. The Lakers under Mike Brown for the 2011-2012 season went 41-25. They made it to the Western Conference and yes, they lost to OKC in game 5. 

  Great teams are not always going to be great forever- The 75 Steelers weren't going to continue their legacy forever, it took us 2 decades to make it back to the Super Bowl and another decade and some change before we actually began winning again. Even the Yankees have fallen. What about the 49ers who just started to get good again. Athletes move, organizations change their systems as their coaching changes and as their players change. You do your best to stay innovative but it's a poor expectation to think that you don't have some learning to do, or that you can keep playing the same cards and ALWAYS get the same results. Mike Brown came in after a very talented Phil Jackson, arguably one of the, if not THE best coach to grace the league. He proved that he could make a championship team no matter where he went- GOOD for PHIL! 

  Let's begin with the 2012-2013 season. The Lakers probably had one of the best shifts of the season- FINALLY getting rid of the dead weight in Bynum- YEAH I SAID IT.. And bringing in Steve Nash (which I am still questioning, and honestly ANY REAL Laker fan would question that move too) and Dwight Howard. Steve Nash is old. His days in the game are numbered. Dwight Howard is coming off of back surgery and coming out of a team where he was the superstar. Then you have new players, or reused players in a different fashion, but in your pocket you have a chance to be innovative and rely on the head coach and his system to change the play and rebuild a different Lakers organization when you know Kobe is on his way out too and you will have a new generation of players taking over.

  But let's got to this season. Preseason the Lakers ended 1-7. Okay, duh, did you not just read the last paragraph, new team it takes time to jell. And, to expect that pre-season is where you have to prove yourself is a it's preseason and in an 82 game season you might as well have it be training camp.  Then begins the regular season and as of this morning's firing the Lakers were 1-4. 5 games in and yeah, even I had to "check my face" after some sloppy games and loss after loss of my "super human." But the same factors are still at play now as they were before the season started- Nash is old, Howard is still healing and the team is still jelling. The one thing they had in common was that the team was FINALLY listening to Brown's wisdom. As late as yesterday, Kobe was saying how he respected Brown and recognized his strengths. And then all of a sudden, Brown is out. I argue that it was way too soon and here is why...

Yes I will agree that the Lakers are sucking, and it's a combination of things, but coaching is not the only factor.  But, you just got a squad together. Even if they are the best of the best, it still takes time for the players to adjust and get into their rhythm as a team- case in point Miami two seasons ago. Regardless of whether or not they lost all through the Preseason- the point is that you learn to be a team together. That takes patience. You are also having to teach a different level of basics, you have to teach players to be innovative. I mean let's be real the LakeShow is getting old so you have to deal with the players changing bodies AND a whole new team. And I get it he had a year and still didn't produce- part of this could be a fault on his end, don't take off more than you can chew.. the Lakers are the Lakers for a reason don't jump in the ocean if you aren't confident you can't catch a wave. But in Mike's defense, the Lakers players ARE NOT the easiest to manage. You have to win their respect (and by their I mean Kobe). 

But all that aside, this is my fundamental issue with the firing of Mike Brown- the organization. People hate on the Lakers because they think we are a bunch of money chasers-- with the Chris Paul botch, yeah I can see that among other reasons where I might give them credit for the thought. But in this moment, WE (I'll say this as a fan, because right or wrong I still stick to my team) showed that our ego was bruised. We showed our ass like a sorry bunch of punks. We are the LAKERS!! one of, if not the greatest organization in NBA history. It doesn't mean that we are going to be great every season, it doesn't mean that we aren't going to have to learn to change and adjust to the changes in the league. It doesn't mean that sometimes we have to change direction as an organization and deal with the new systems etc. I don't think Mike Brown was the worst. I do think Mike Brown had some horrible moments, but I also think that Mike Brown deserved a little more time to get his system going. I mean let's be realistic 5 games in an 82 game season. You couldn't have waited until game 8 or until the end of the next 6 games when we are home each game. You couldn't have waited until December? I feel it was a bad call, For Shame Lakers, For Shame. In my opinion the organization just wasted a great opportunity to be leaders in the big market league and be innovative. Changing the way that they played and adapting to the new youth in the league today. Instead, greatness was tainted.  

That's all she wrote!