BYU and Nike

I heard a rumor that Nike might be doing some pro combat uniforms for BYU football. I have also heard tons of complaints and worries from people about it. All I have to ask these people is, What's the problem? Now granted I'm not Tom Holmoe (BYU's athletic director), or anyone in charge of important college football things, and I clearly don't have as good an understanding of these things, but how can this not be a great idea for this program? I think it would be smart to switch over to Nike pro combat because BYU wants to gain all the publicity it can get, especially now as an independent. What better way to get some attention than to go big with some cool new design on some sweet new uni's? Also, being attached to ESPN and Nike would bring in some fantastic recruits from across the nation. Especially those on the fence about BYU. Those kids who love BYU as a school and environment, but want to sign with the "cooler" college programs might very well be swayed by these new uniforms. BYU has said since setting off into independence, that it wanted to become a leader in football. Their commercials especially, everything points to heading out on a new trail and becoming a powerhouse program. These uniforms would be a smart way to show off BYU as new, hip, and primed to be a football powerhouse, without stepping too far away from the "Traditions" of BYU football. Below are some of the concept ideas that I found while cruising the Internet. I will admit it seems unlikely, but the best way to balance "Tradition" with "Independence" would be to incorporate the Lavell Edwards era Royal Blue into the jerseys. (Hint Hint)http://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=6375975
http://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=6375882

More on Bounties

Some punishment finally came to the Saints organization this week. Here is a list of the punishments as far as I can tell: 1. Lose Head Coach for the whole season (Good) 2. Lose Assistant Coach for 6 weeks (wasn't he as responsible as the head coach?) 3. 500,000 dollars in fines (Fine) 4. Loss of 2nd round draft picks for 2012 and 2013 seasons (Second round seems slightly obscure, but fine) 5. GM suspended for 8 weeks (All suspensions are without pay, Good) 6. Greg Williams suspended indefinately (Get him out of the league forever please) 7. Garbage about making sure kids don't do the bounty thing (too little to late?) I think that these punishments are basically in good order, but I do hope that when individual punishments come to the players involved that they are "harsh", the NFL needs to take a strong stand on this to keep this bounty program from spreading. Particularly Johnathan Vilma, who offered 10,000 dollars for a knockout hit on Brett Favre! That is just sick, and a discrase to the sport.

Drew Brees tweeted about the suspension of Sean Payton saying, "I am speachless. Sean Payton is a great man, coach, and mentor. The best there is. I need to hear an explaination for this punishment."  Ok, here is your explaination. Sean Payton was told by the NFL to end the bounty thing before it got out of hand, it clearly didn't matter to him, because here we are and now it's caught up with him. In 2009-2010, he tried to cover it up when the NFL started an investigation, that was 3 years ago! The New Orleans Saints won a super bowl that year, and the system continued anyway! Over the course of his career he has shown a blatant disregard to the NFL, and it's policies, ranging from being late to important interviews, to accepting drugs from assistant coaches (not confirmed). So there you go!
 

Music for a Living?

So I heard about this website where you apparently listen to music by unsigned artists, and when you review the song, or the album, you get paid! Like real money, crazy right? Well I looked it up and it turns out they really do pay you money to review these songs. On average you will get paid $0.94 per hour. It got me thinking to myself, I said;  "Self, how does that money compare to what you can pick up by picking up change on the sidewalk". So being the modern human that I am, I Google searched it. It turns out this girl in Seattle has been picking up coins on the street for about a year and has collected the grand total of $1,013.65. I crunched the numbers and here are the results. 1,013.65/365(days in a year)= $2.77 dollars a day/8(hours in a work day)= $0.35 per hour. So if you plan on picking change up off the streets of Seattle, and reviewing music online for a living, you might need to supplement it with a real job. Sorry if I crushed your dreams...


T-Pac

Bounties and the NFL

In the news recently the world came to the realization that the New Orleans Saints have been placing "bounties" on opposing players heads. The intent was to knock key players out of important, and playoff type games. Two of these bounties in particular was especially brutal and upsetting. 1- The 2009 playoffs against the Arizona Cardinals. When, after an interception the Saints layed a cheap-shot on Kurt Warner, ending his game, his season, and his Hall of Fame career. He retired 2 weeks later. 2- The next week, Brett Favre, NFC Championship. The Saints went at Brett Favre with all they had, causing several injuries that plauged Farve through the rest of his career, he was never the same after the game. The Saints went on to win the Super Bowl that season, and after that game an audio clip was taken from coach Williams (The coach who started the bounty program)  "All Things Considered," Mike Pesca dug up audio of Williams speaking after the Saints' Super Bowl win. Williams says, "My whole life … I've been trying to get people to play nastier." Can he seriously think lack of aggression is a problem in football? Williams also had this to say about his two sons' youth football days: "I told their little league coaches my kids will play fast, they're going to play nasty, they're going to play tough. Tell the rest of the babies around them to speed up."

What kind of a man boasts that his sons are nasty and denounces as "babies" 10-year-olds who want to participate in a sport safely? Williams needs to take a long look in the mirror -- and by his distorted values, he has forfeited any claim to a leadership role.

 If this is to be fixed the NFL needs to drop the heaviest punishments available to the team, and the coaches with blatant disregard to the NFL and its rules, but also the sport as a whole. To make an example to prevent other teams from taking up a similar program and ruining the beautiful game we have. Every time someone thinks of the New Orleans Saints, or Super Bowl 44, everyone needs to think of the cheating (defined here as breaking the rules of a sport/organization), and the players who were deprived if an attempt to be NFL champions. Please, for the sake of the sport, be swift and harsh on your punishments to this team, for the sake of the sport, and the players who were shorted their chance because of these sick and twisted "bounties".

-Taylor Packer

Citations:Gregg Easterbrook http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/7652028/saints-bounty-scandal-worse-spygate-example-sets-all-other-levels-football