If it isn’t already a given, the things that happen in novels don’t happen in our lives—at least, not in the same way they do in novels.
So I decided to write a mock draft in preparation of this week’s NFL draft. You may be asking, “What qualifies you to write anything on the NFL or football in general? You don’t seem particularly bright, and you probably are ugly.” Well, my only defense to that would be to tell you I have better hair than Mel Kiper, and that covers me on all counts—so take that. Plus most of these “experts” have a worse history of predictions than your local weatherman. So, here we go.
You’ve had a couple of drinks and you’re feeling courageous enough to talk to the good-looking girl across the bar. You have a couple more drinks and realize that time is flying by, forcing you to drunkenly shuffle your hands through your pockets to find your keys. As you tell your friends goodbye with a drunken slur, you stumble your way to the car and force your keys into the ignition, putting yourself and everyone on the road at risk in the wee hours of the night.
The Masters’ final round is, in my opinion, the pizza of sporting events. You won’t regret the decision to park yourself on the couch for six hours, because Sunday at Augusta will always leave you with some sense of satisfaction.
“A River Runs Through It.” “On the Road.” “All Quiet on the Western Front.” “The Bell Jar.” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” What do these books have in common, you might ask? Well, for one, they’re all rooted in autobiography, and their official title is roman a clefs (“novels with keys” in French).
It is easy to get angry when looking at the images in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. It’s simple to focus on the rage you feel toward the person or persons who would attack innocent runners and bystanders on a citywide day of celebration. If we stop there though, we are doing a disservice to all those who put themselves at risk to help people who they likely had never met, let alone seen, before today.
I have written a fair amount this year about Bayern Munich’s rise to the top of the soccer world, and along with it the German Bundesliga’s ascension as king of European football. Now, as the semi-final matchups of the Union of European Football Associations Champions League have been set, the Germans are on the cusp of solidifying their seat on soccer’s throne.
Having already amassed three PGA Tour victories heading into the first major of the year, the Masters, Tiger Woods is seemingly back on top of the golf world. But even if Sunday comes and goes without Woods picking up his first major title since 2008, there is no doubt he has proven himself more than capable of continuing the push toward Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles.
As I contemplated what to write my column about this week, I came to a standstill. Should I write about the mess at Rutgers and the mind-boggling severance package head coach Mike Rice received? Eh, perhaps. What about the allegations regarding the 2010 Auburn national title championship team? No, allegations surrounding championship programs should be old news by now. While I could have torn Rutgers and Auburn a new one, I had the odd urge to be nostalgic and sentimental with my column for the mere reason to shy away from the norm.
As great as the NCAA Tournament is, March Madness comes packed with a brutal reality: one misstep and its all over. With one half of poor shooting, Wisconsin found that out the hard way, falling to 12th-seeded Ole Miss to bring a quick end to a postseason run many thought had a chance to go the distance.
Apropos of nothing I picked up “The Dream Songs” by John Berryman, two years after I last read it. I can remember when I last read that book: driving to Madison with my dad in March, a weekend trip. I had known since December I was accepted to the university, but this March trip was the first time I had visited as an actual student, not an applicant. Perhaps that association is why “The Dream Songs” possesses so much poignancy in my memory.
As the calendar turns over into April, football fans everywhere gear up for what is arguably the most important day of the NFL year: the draft. While free agency has made the practice of building a winner a more expedited process, you can look at the roster of any successful team and see that their corps was put together on a late April day.
Movies are all about perception. And not in an “our perception of a subjective reality created by the editing of time and space is what defines out movie going experiences” sort of way.
There is a distinct cycle in terms of sports viewing in the state of Wisconsin. Throughout the fall, Saturdays have traditionally been reserved for Wisconsin football, while Sundays are religiously dedicated to the Green Bay Packers. As the Wisconsin and Marquette basketball programs get underway, some attention may be diverted toward those teams, yet they will still never amass the type of die-hard viewing reception the Packers or Badger football team receive.
Most of the fun is over. We have just three games left in this year’s NCAA tournament, and then I can’t write another college hoops column for... well, until next week.
With the calendar finally turning the page into April, NFL fans everywhere know that the draft is fast approaching, and if there is an overabundance of one thing on the Internet, it is certainly prognosticators telling us which player will go where and why they will succeed or flop in the pros.
As many college basketball fanatics expected, the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament was indeed filled with “madness.” While it was highlighted by the unexpected Sweet 16 berths of many double-digit seeds like Florida Gulf Coast University, Oregon and LaSalle, the pageantry, excitement and passion of the games was somewhat negated in nature by the bone-headed comments and overall arrogance of Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson.
As the Wisconsin Football Twitter and Facebook accounts hyped a “big” announcement Wednesday, endless possibilities roamed through my head. Would the program unveil a new alternative Adidas jersey to be worn next year? Would it officially be announcing the new realignment of the divisions, distinctly playing to UW’s advantage? While my estimations were not even close in stature, the announcement to fans should be much more monumental in value than the football program initially alluded to. Per a UWBadgers.com press release—the “big” announcement—Wisconsin will kick off the 2015 college football season against the powerful Alabama Crimson Tide in the state-of-the-art Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. What was my first impression of the announcement? It’s about time. Badgers fans have been accustomed to seeing the red and white take the field—either at Camp Randall Stadium or an away stadium—against the cupcakes of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) or marginal Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams year-in and year-out. Dating back to former head coach Bret Bielema’s arrival in 2006, Wisconsin has been anything but challenged in its non-conference schedule. The program has a combined record of 27-1 in such games over the last seven seasons, with the lone loss coming on the road against Oregon State this past season. Moreover, the Badgers outscored their lackluster opponents by an average of three touchdowns (35.8 to 14.6) and scored over 35 points 17 times, including against all of their non-conference opponents during the 2011 season. I really never understood the essence of scheduling opponents well below a team’s caliber of play, except for the fact teams can pat themselves on the back after bullying up on a less-than-superior opponent. Sure, they walk off the field feeling high and mighty after dismantling teams like Marshall, Cal Poly, San Jose State or UTEP, but does it really prepare them for the rigors of the conference schedule? This past year, Minnesota took the route of scheduling its fair share of lowly non-conference teams, and it paid off for the Gophers in the short-term, as they owned a 4-0 record heading into the Big Ten season. Want to know how that turned out? They went 2-7 the rest of the way, including a 34-31 loss to Texas Tech in the Meineke Care Bowl. On the contrary, I completely understand the notion of Southeastern Conference teams scheduling “cupcakes” mixed-in throughout the season, especially toward the end of the season, because of the depth of their grueling conference schedule. However, they still challenged themselves to a certain extent throughout their non-conference slate. Alabama played preseason Big Ten favorite Michigan this past year in Cowboy Stadium. LSU kicked off their 2011-’12 season with Oregon and Georgia played Boise State in the Georgia Dome in the same season. While I’m sure Wisconsin fans are giddy about making travel arrangements to Arlington and finally seeing UW challenged on the field during its non-conference slate, they should be more giddy about the explicit meaning behind the Alabama-Wisconsin announcement: Things are changing for the better under head coach Gary Andersen’s regime, specifically in terms of scheduling. Planning games against superior BCS-level programs like Alabama in 2015 and Virginia Tech in 2016 will provide a respectable body of work for the playoff selection committee to refer to, should the Badgers be in contention for college football’s playoff in the coming years. Moreover, the message Andersen and athletic director Barry Alvarez are sending aligns with the common sports saying, “In order to be the best, you have to beat the best.” By in large, Alabama is currently the face of college football, having won three of the last four national titles, and it is the closest thing fans have witnessed to a football dynasty since the days of Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart at Southern California. Yet with the announcement, the Crimson Tide’s prestige did not phase Andersen and Alvarez. Both of them have made it known they want to compete at the highest level, and this 2015 matchup will serve as a golden opportunity to do just that. Finally. What do you think of UW scheduling a non-conference game against Alabama? Send Rex your thoughts in an email to sports@dailycardinal.com.
One of my regrets from the summer was not finishing “Annals of the Former World” by John McPhee. Besides the fact he is one of the most terrific writers of the past 60 years, “Annals of the Former World” concerns itself with geology and geologic history, a subject of renewed interest for me. My interest is semi-facetious—although as an environmental studies major, rocks are generally always relevant—insofar as I don’t care so much for the names of eras and what they entail (I also have less of a memory for such things). But what really gets me about it is the geochronology aspect. The time part.
Wisconsin certainly didn’t enter the Big Ten tournament hitting on all cylinders. The Badgers lost two of three games before Friday’s matchup with Michigan, and their only ‘W’ came on the shoulders of a last-second 3-pointer from sophomore guard Traevon Jackson.
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