Baltimore tackle Michael Oher has been invited to appear on Oprah twice. He’s been invited to the Academy Awards. He’s been asked to be in the audience at the ESPYs.

No, no, no and no.

Seems Oher is not very happy with how he was portrayed in The Blind Side movie. He thinks he was made to look like a simpleton who knew nothing about football before he was picked up off the Memphis streets and taken to live with a wealthy family. Seems he has no interest in furthering that public image, so he’s concentrating on one thing: being a football player.

via Brad Childress has no regret after begging Brett Favre to return – Peter King – SI.com.

This reminded me of the AV Club review of the film:

Sports movies have a long, troubled history of well-meaning white paternalism, with poor black athletes finding success through white charity. But The Blind Side, based on Michael Lewis’ non-fiction book, finds a new low. In the character of “Big Mike” (real life success story Michael Oher, played by Quinton Aaron), a poor, undereducated teenager later groomed into a top-tier offensive lineman, the film suggests a gentle, oversized puppy in need of adoption. (The family that takes him in literally picks him up from the streets during a rainstorm, like a stray. All that’s missing are the children pleading, “Mom, can we keep him?”) Given his background and 0.6 GPA, there’s no question that Oher was well behind his peers, but casting him as a big-hearted simpleton makes him seem subhuman, more mascot than man.

via The Blind Side | Film | Review | The A.V. Club.

Players of these sports are affected by ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) at much higher rates than the general population. Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel correspondent Bernie Goldberg profiles researchers who may have found a link between concussions and ALS.

Data from a study done by the University of Memphis in partnership with USA Swimming indicates that FEAR is one of the biggest factors keeping parents from involving their kids in swim lessons. While I understand the initial hesitation, I would humbly direct those parents to the example of my mother, who doesn’t know how to swim, but was adamant that all three of her chidren (and now her grandson) learn how to swim. The fear of watching your little ones go through lessons is nothing compared to the lifetime anxiety you’ll feel every time you’re near a pool or open water with the knowledge that your loved ones can’t swim. For the ethnic families that worry about the damage that chlorine does to relaxed hair, go with braids for a summer, or au natural until the kids are water safe. The sad reality is that cities large and small will continue to cut pool time from their recreation budgets as long as the public does not make use of facilities. Swimming has been too good to me for me to look at it as a sport that is killing members of my community.

via Class Is In Session: Getting Over Fear of the Water.

Jonathan and his wife Nkechi also recently interviewed USA Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones for the upcoming 2nd season of their talk show A Breathe of Fresh Air With John and Nkechi. Click here to support USA Swimming and Jones’ Make a Splash safety initiative. You can sponsor or donate a swim lesson and also support parental water safety education.

The network will broadcast 14 CFL games from July through November this season. It starts with Thursday night’s league opener matching the Montreal Alouettes against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

via Canadian Football League games to be broadcast on NFL Network – ESPN.

Football is football. I’m a sports junkie. I’m in.

World Cup 2010

It explains why my posting has been erratic.

• Vuzuzela your website with Vuvuzela Time!
• ESPN 3 (formerly ESPN 360) has live webcasts and replays of all the matches with highlights marked throughout the matches. ESPN.com also has great world cup coverage with highlights summarized into  Speed Games
• Sky Sports has it’s own match live-blogging/commentary for the entire World Cup
• Need to figure out when and what to watch? Here is a schedule by time zone courtesy of FIFA, the not so shadowy control body of all soccer.
• Puma, Adidas and Nike are all featuring world cup ad campaigns and specialty shops in time for you to buy some swag and jump a bandwagon.
• In Philadelphia? Fado shut down the block. Dark Horse was a mob scene for USA v England, O’Neals Pub is probably the best bang for you buck. All of those are good bets for World Cup revelry

If you don’t care….all i have to say is….hater’s gonna hate

A former league executive, a former coach and a current general manager all told me LeBron is one of the most spoiled and coddled players of this generation and as a result isn’t particularly accountable, as evidenced by his refusal to shake hands with the Orlando players after they whipped him in last year’s Eastern Conference finals. It’s a particularly disappointing thing to hear repeatedly because, if true, it suggests LeBron has this AAU mentality that values individual accomplishment over winning. I could live with hearing this about, say, O.J. Mayo, but LeBron James?

via Michael Wilbon – Will LeBron James make a basketball decision or a personal one?.

I would have disagreed with this until the time between the Cavs dominating win over the Bulls and humiliating defeat at the hands of the Celtics. Larry Bird was a contemptuous guy, he was not friendly with competitors nor a big post game hand shaker, but he was also a team player, clutch and a winner. He played to win championships. Same with the magnanimous Magic Johnson. He played to win the biggest glory.

I thought Lebron was at this level until he held the pep rally to celebrate his MVP award in his hometown of Akron between the Bulls and Celtics series.

As everyone at this pep rally now knows, Rajon Rondo’s Celtics pounded the Cavs out of the playoffs, Cavs Coach Mike Brown into the unemployment line and James into free agency. This rally may just be a going away party which makes a fool out of everyone involved.

I have to wonder why James didn’t accept it in Cleveland pre-game or at half time like many other league MVP, defensive MVP, scoring title and 6th man of the year winners.  There would have been ample time to visit Akron with an NBA trophy. I remember Kobe saying LA was now his home when he beat his closest thing to a hometown team, the Philadelphia 76ers in 2000 for his championship. I don’t remember Dwayne Wade jumping to Chicago to have a pep rally when the Heat won in 2006. It’s unfathomable to think that such pageantry would ever be something conceived by or associated with Tim Duncan.

The Celtics and Lakers are in the throes of their umpteenth battle for the NBA championship while the off season has begun with the citizens of Cleveland and Akron wondering if their home grown royalty will remain their native son. I think they know deep down that Joakim Noah was right and have nightmares of Lebron wearing Yankees hats or dapping up Jay-Z.

Regardless, Duke of Akron isn’t a title those of us outside of Northeast Ohio care about.

Saturday, 8PM. Are Philadelphia’s fortunes changing? Phillies, then the Flyers? We’ll see…but a Philly sports fan has to be all in now. Ahh, sports playoffs: a desperate path to an off season of elation or misery.