Listening to FavreSPN radio late Friday night on the drive back from Hinesville, the question was posed on whether or not Michael Phelps’ performance will turn swimming into a mainstream American sport.
In a word: no.
We’re all in agreeance that Phelps’ efforts were breathtaking, awe-inspiring, mesmerizing and down-right unbelievable. But will you be flipping channels come next month in search of swimming?
America is stubborn in its ways. We love our football, baseball and basketball. Sometimes we like hockey. In certain places we like fast cars. Occasionally we’ll check in with the golf tourney or the tennis match. Once a year we get up for the big horse race. Swimming never made the cut.
Young children will undoubtedly race to their parents and ask to join the local swim teams — see the Statesboro Sharks — and the popularity of the sport will enjoy a short spurt of exposure. But don’t expect it to take the place of our most cherished past times — that idea has no chance treading water.
Blue Devil football
I took a “night off” on Friday and headed down toward Fort Stewart for a little preseason football.
Statesboro went up against Bradwell Institute in a friendly scrimmage, and the two teams tied 14-14. But there’s so much more to the story than the scoreboard.
The varsity squad, the one you’ll be seeing in two weeks against Josey, failed to score in its first two quarters of play. What we can make of that is little, since it’s never quite clear what kind of unwritten rules are outlined in these mysterious ‘scrimmages’.
What I did see however is a much improved passing attack from SHS. The Devils looked good moving the ball through the air at times and that’s certainly a good sign.
The running game looked a little rusty — but remember, the SHS coaches did little to no scouting of their opponent prior to the contest. Not a single member of the staff was in the booth or equipped with a headset, either.
On defense, Statesboro was stellar. Even when Bradwell began a forceful drive in the first frame, Willie Burden intercepted a pass by jumping at the line of scrimmage and grabbing the ball right out of midair. Impressive.
Both teams appeared to have a lot of work to do — both appeared not to unveil very much either. One thing’s for sure, they’ll both have better records than I did come season’s end.
Record: 18-25.
Prediction time
Prognosis has been hard to come by over the summer months. While it is tempting to see how many times the word Favre is used in one showing of Favrecenter — I’d rather not sit through that torture.
But things will change next week. The games will start lining up and I’ll start looking through the crystal ball, a.ka. my noggin, for answers galore.
Things are about to get serious — you can bet on it.
In a word: no.
We’re all in agreeance that Phelps’ efforts were breathtaking, awe-inspiring, mesmerizing and down-right unbelievable. But will you be flipping channels come next month in search of swimming?
America is stubborn in its ways. We love our football, baseball and basketball. Sometimes we like hockey. In certain places we like fast cars. Occasionally we’ll check in with the golf tourney or the tennis match. Once a year we get up for the big horse race. Swimming never made the cut.
Young children will undoubtedly race to their parents and ask to join the local swim teams — see the Statesboro Sharks — and the popularity of the sport will enjoy a short spurt of exposure. But don’t expect it to take the place of our most cherished past times — that idea has no chance treading water.
Blue Devil football
I took a “night off” on Friday and headed down toward Fort Stewart for a little preseason football.
Statesboro went up against Bradwell Institute in a friendly scrimmage, and the two teams tied 14-14. But there’s so much more to the story than the scoreboard.
The varsity squad, the one you’ll be seeing in two weeks against Josey, failed to score in its first two quarters of play. What we can make of that is little, since it’s never quite clear what kind of unwritten rules are outlined in these mysterious ‘scrimmages’.
What I did see however is a much improved passing attack from SHS. The Devils looked good moving the ball through the air at times and that’s certainly a good sign.
The running game looked a little rusty — but remember, the SHS coaches did little to no scouting of their opponent prior to the contest. Not a single member of the staff was in the booth or equipped with a headset, either.
On defense, Statesboro was stellar. Even when Bradwell began a forceful drive in the first frame, Willie Burden intercepted a pass by jumping at the line of scrimmage and grabbing the ball right out of midair. Impressive.
Both teams appeared to have a lot of work to do — both appeared not to unveil very much either. One thing’s for sure, they’ll both have better records than I did come season’s end.
Record: 18-25.
Prediction time
Prognosis has been hard to come by over the summer months. While it is tempting to see how many times the word Favre is used in one showing of Favrecenter — I’d rather not sit through that torture.
But things will change next week. The games will start lining up and I’ll start looking through the crystal ball, a.ka. my noggin, for answers galore.
Things are about to get serious — you can bet on it.
