FDOM Blog

By: Brandon Fontenot

Many know of the prominent names in the sports analyst world is mainly former players. Companies like ESPN and especially the NFL Network love to have former players on their staff to boost their views, but is it smart? Some former players on their respected networks like Tony Gonzalez, Terry Bradshaw, Terrel Davis, and others do bring more perspectives to the stations as opposed to the ones that have hosts such as Joe Buck, Booger McFarland, and others. 

            Why is it smarter to bring in former players as hosts as oppose to just random people? Like I stated before, it is all about views! 

            One exception, though, is Stephen A. Smith, who I previously made a post speaking on him. He is one of the, if not the most controversial analyst out there. He is very multi-dimensional in meaning; you do not know which sport he is going to speak on the day of the show. The man is very knowledgeable in every sport there is. 

            His co-host Max Kellerman is another prime example of a non-former player that has a lot of knowledge about the sports he speaks on. Yes, he may say some things that may make you scratch your head at times, but that is his job, you are supposed to say something that will spark controversy. 

 These are the two people in the industry. I look up to the most. It seems as if they do not have a care in the world for what people think about what they speak on. Remember the segment on First Take that had to get cut to commercial because it was becoming too political? See how they did not care to stop? That is the kind of mentality analysts need to have, don’t worry about what others think and do your job. 

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Lastly, here is a recent episode of Max and Stephen A’s show First Take, where they speak with Hall of Fame player Magic Johnson on how he passed the torch to Michael Jordan when he beat him in the ’91 finals. https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2020/05/today-on-espns-first-take-thats-when-we-knew-that-the-torch-was-being-passed-basketball-hall-of-famer-magic-johnson-shares-the-moment-michael-jordan-took-over-the/

By: Brandon Fontenot

            With the draft wrapping up, all 32 teams made their selections in hopes of drafting players that will make impacts for their teams.

            Leading up to the draft, prospects like Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovialoa, etc had the cameras set on them. Well of course, not literally since this year, the draft was held virtually for the first time ever. Many felt the draft would feel different and would carry the same vibe this year, due to the different circumstances.

            They were right, as everyone watched from their homes, seeing the commissioner Rodger Goddell announce selections from the comfort of his basement in his own house, brought a different feeling.

            As the Cincinnati Bengals were put on the clock to choose the first player, it was a no brainer who was going to be selected. Joe Burrow, the QB out of LSU was the clear-cut choice for the 1^st overall selection. From starting his career at Ohio State, not really getting a chance to play, then transferring to LSU to start. Many did not throw Burrow into an ideal QB for the NFL pool, that was until last season. Burrow shocked the world with his 60+ total touchdowns, over 5,000 yards thrown, while leading LSU to an undefeated record and a college championship. Many chalked it up as being “luck” since he had only 1 good season, but to throw 60 touchdowns alongside over 5,000 yards is hard to chalk up as “luck”.

            As players begun getting selected, one by one of the board, we all watched who was going where. Miami picked their QB of the future in Tua Tagovialoa, a player who many had Miami picking way before the season had begun, hints where the phrase “Tank for Tua” came from.

            The surprise from the 1^st round came when the Green Bay Packers were on the clock. Everyone hoped finally Green Bay would select some offensive weapons for Aaron Rodgers, their star QB who led them to a 13-3 record alongside an NFC Championship appearance. Sadly, this did not happen, they selected Jordan Love, a raw talent QB out of Utah State. The world was scratching their heads, with Rodgers having 4+ good years left, why select a QB now? However, Green Bay did do the same thing with Rodgers back in ’06 when they had Brett Favre as their starter. Maybe they know something we don’t?

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Here’s an article written by Chris Trapasso on which rookies selected in the draft will need some time to develop on their new teams. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2020-nfl-draft-marquee-rookies-who-need-a-redshirt-year-highlighted-by-a-dolphins-round-1-pick/

By: Brandon Fontenot

         

   Creating content that refers to sports through my eyes has been an experience throughout the year. I never thought of myself as a writer, but I know in this field, having excellent writing skills will only put you that much further.

 How would I improve my site? I want to go out and interview famous sports athletes or even prominent sports analysts to pick their brains to better myself in this field. How could I have better promoted my content? I think me promoting my content on my social media would have had a better opportunity at latching onto people and having eyes on my posts. Since I posted them on a handle I do not use, the posts did not have opportunities to reach people. What was my best experience of the semester-long project? Getting to see how sports evolved over the year. Going from the start and end of seasons, even the pause of games altogether due to the outbreak of COVID-19. It is hard to say whether I will ever see another outbreak of this caliber, which puts the world on hold in my life again, but it has been an experience I will not forget. In what ways could the experience benefit me in the future? The whole writing experience can help me in the long run. Like I mentioned earlier, being a good writer can put you in a tier above others in this field. Companies will look at how good you can write on topics to see whether you have a place on their team. Lastly, how might I implement these tools professionally in the future? Writing companies about potential jobs could be a way I use this new tool. They will look at how the email will flow and how professional I sound throughout the email.

            How useful was my WordPress site? My most popular week was the week of 2/17-2/23, where I had a total of 3 views and visitors. My most popular post was the first post I made. It got a total of 7 views, but I think that is in part too since it was my first post, and people wanted to see what my blog was going to be covering. Me getting seven views on one post was surprising since I did not promote my blog very well.

            This past year, this class will leave me with the knowledge I will take to further better myself in the media community. I learned a lot from a subject I didn’t know much about heading into the class.

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Here’s a look at the stats of my blog and how it’s done over the course of the year. https://wordpress.com/stats/day/fdomsports.game.blog

By: Brandon Fontenot

            The world sat back as news of the Chicago Bull’s documentary of their championships during the ’90s was coming to TV. Me, not being that big of a basketball fan, was still intrigued by the idea and was curious to see how the seasons and team looked in the eyes of the legend Michael Jordan. 

            Michael Jordan, selected 3^rd overall in 1984, coming out of North Carolina, regarded as one of the drafts top talents. He was drafted by a struggling Bulls franchise that was not very good and had minimal players on the team. Drafting Jordan gave Chicago the symbol of hope they needed to spark their team and have them start winning games.

 Though it took Chicago a few years to start being competitive, it was not until 1987 that Chicago paired Jordan with another star player in Scottie Pippen. Pippen was not too known, coming from a small school, but he did not let the big stage get to him. He immediately helped Jordan and the Bulls to the playoffs, where the Detroit Pistons would stop them for the next three seasons. 

            1990, however, would be the last season the Pistons would stop them in their tracks, ’91 would be the breakthrough. The Pistons had moved on, but their next task was the big dogs, the Los Angeles Lakers with their star player, Magic Johnson. With it being Jordan’s first finals series, it did not phase him at all. They ended up defeating Johnson and the Lakers to bring home the first of six championships Jordan would win during his time there. 

            Though this is all just a snip of what the whole documentary consists of, I won’t spoil the entire thing for you. You will have to watch it yourself to learn more! I highly recommend it, that’s coming from, once again, I guy who doesn’t like basketball all that much.

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Here is an article written by Bryan Graham on his take on the series “The Last Dance” https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/may/09/the-last-dance-michael-jordan-netflix

By: Brandon Fontenot

Stephen A. Smith, one of the, if not, the most notable columnist out there. Someone who is continuously blasting or on blast about a controversial topic.

He started at the bottom, just like every other reporter did, writing low-end blogs, going out to sporting events, reporting the game, etc. He built up his name to what it is today, with the sports industry not even going 5 seconds without his name mentioned. The man is the center of thousands of memes across social media, and he’s proud of it.

Going through an archive of Stephen’s blogs from around eight years ago, they all have a similar pattern. They are all very passionate because Mr. Smith is one of the most passionate people I have ever watched. Go through and watch him on First Take or, better yet, watch the talk show he has on ESPN and tell me that man isn’t passionate.

That’s what I love, his passion for sports. He doesn’t care if he gets criticized for anything, the man is there to bring news and entertainment to the people of the sports world.

I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t a reason why I decided to pursue a career in sports broadcasting. I feel like me, and he is very similar in parts. We are both passionate about sports and other opinions on what we do don’t phase us. I have never seen him get discouraged on the amount of hate he receives from day to day. Search him up on google, the first article I found on him was one titled something on the lines of “Stephen A. Smith needs to be punished for this.” A lot of people think he’s a clown and a bad image in the sports world, but overall, he has a different way of reaching everyone. He’s good at blocking all of the hate out and focusing on his job.

Now, what’s unique about him? I doubt you can say you’ve seen an analyst use the baby filter on Snapchat to change his videos to bring more entertainment to them. Really, go look up some videos of him turning himself into a baby and then proceeding to report on sports, it’s hilarious.

Blog Post written by Stephen back in 2012 https://www.espn.com/los-angeles/columns/nba/story/_/id/7565707/showtime-only-memory-los-angeles-lakers-new-york-knicks

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By: Brandon Fontenot

It seemed like only yesterday, the world was running regularly, and sports were on pace to start on their respected dates. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, that isn’t the case anymore. Here are some significant headlines dealing with start dates for each sport. The NBA has put the season on hold due to Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert testing positive for the disease. This news came to light when the Jazz and Thunder game that was initially supposed to occur last night had taken forever to start. News broke out that the game would not take place due to the star player being sick and possibly having the virus. We now know he does have the virus. This news forced commissioner Adam Silver to put the season on hold to help further protect the health of his players. 

You think one major sport shutting down is bad, think again! Once the NBA decided to postpone everything, everything else soon followed.

The MLB, who’s opening day is on pace for March 27^th, will now be put on hold as well. Players have been spending the last month getting ready for a run at the championship, but now that will need to be put on hold.

College sports such as basketball and football have suspended operations as well. Basketball’s infamous “March Madness” event, where 64 teams form a bracket, only for one crowned victor will not take place in part due to the virus outbreak. Football’s spring games will be canceled and will not happen to a later date. Meaning, seniors will miss out on playing the last spring game of their college careers.

Lastly, FOOTBALL. Yes, the NFL too, well, isn’t in season yet, but their big event, that being free agency has a bit of a twist put on it. Players can still sign with respected teams who may be wanting their services for the season, but it’ll take place via fax. There will be no in-person meetings with groups, so gambles on individual players may need to be made this period if a team may need help at a specific position.

Here’s an article written by Gabriel Fernandez on how the Corona-virus has impacted sports up till now.

https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/coronavirus-kevin-durant-among-athletes-and-coaches-who-have-been-infected-with-covid-19/

By: Brandon Fontenot

COVID-19 has now been active in the sports world for around a week. But that’s not the headline story. Many of you know Patriots all-time great, quarterback Tom Brady. Sources say he is going to void the final two years on his contract this season in hopes of getting more money, just like he does every year or so with him getting way up there in age. It’s the smart thing to do, Lebron James does the same job in retrospect. He’ll sign a big 4-year deal, but the last two or so years are voidable so he can gather more money per year.

Tom Brady is an all-time great, coming from a 49ers fan. Even at age 42, he is one of the best in the game, with no signs of slowing down.

This past season was a major let down for the organization. They secured a wild card spot, which isn’t like them. They went up against the Titans, who were rolling with Derrick Henry. They hit a roadblock; they couldn’t get much going on offense, thus causing them to lose. It’s hard to see a player who has been the nine super bowls and has won 6 of them to be rendered helpless in a game. One flaw to the Patriots team, they didn’t have really any offensive talent, but time and time again, Brady proved the haters wrong and took a player no one knew of and made him into a star. This season that didn’t happen, he received no help from anyone on the offense, but his defense did show some promise.

Many say it was Brady’s relationship with coach Belichick or maybe even the owner Robert Kraft. I think Brady got tired of requesting help from the teams personal in

Here’s a timeline written by Joseph Zucker from Bleacher Report that shows how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected the world of sports.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2880569-timeline-of-coronavirus-impact-on-sports

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new sports blog! This blog will be an overview of news taking place in the 3 main sports, that being Football, Baseball, and Basketball. This, however, will only cover the professional aspect of the sports, due to them having a wider band of news happening daily.

With the sport of professional football, the sport has many aspects, the players, their stats, the scores of games, etc. Football, being by far the most watched sport in America will be spoken about heavily within this blog, even with the Super Bowl having just concluding and the offseason well underway.

Basketball, being around, a quarter of the way through the season will be spoken about heavily as well, since the trade deadline has just passed, and very prominent players having found a new home elsewhere.

Lastly, you have Baseball, which is currently almost beginning spring training for clubs. I will speak on this sport yes, but only the news on teams, not so much the games since there are roughly around 150 or so games played in a season, there is no need to report on every single game that happens per day. But the news on teams and trades and who may be leading the league in major stats will definitely be spoken upon because I am curious who is going to take the league by storm this year. The Astro’s will also be kept a close eye on, them being my favorite team but I want to bring light to their season and see where they lead after the blow the sign stealing scandal took on them.

All and all, I will show my favorite teams no sympathy. I will speak my opinion on how I feel about different situations regarding whatever I may want to post about. There will be no biased posts because I feel those aren’t as interesting to read as opposed to someone who is straight-up offering their opinion on the subject at hand.

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