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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Introduction

My name is Jordan DeGiacomo and I am currently a student at Westerly High School. Everyone calls me DeGiac for short. This nickname started when I was younger and my football coaches would always call me DeGiac. So till this day everyone calls me by DeGiac. Many of the kids that are on the football team are called by there last name. I guess it’s just the nature of the game. At Westerly High School I am a sophomore in English 2. My English teacher for the first two years of high school had been Ms. Barnhart. It is a requirement for all of the high school students to complete a sophomore independent project. We need to complete this project so that when it comes to be our senior year we will be prepared for our senior project which is a big part of our grade and if we don’t pass we will not be able to get a diploma and graduate. Our sophomore independent project asks us to choose a topic that interests us and show the coming of age of the chosen topic or in other words we need to show how the topic changed over time. I am trying to talk to young high school students about the many issues in sports. When I was younger I grew up with everyone in my life watching sports listening to sports and playing sports. As a young boy I started out playing tee ball, then base ball, then basketball, and finally I learned how to play football. I started to play football at the age of seven and I was instantly attached. My cousin was the first to introduce me to pee wee football he told me that it was so much fun and being 7 years old at the time I bought it with no questions asked. Now I have played 7 years of football and going on 8. My idols were always the star players that made the big plays and were entertaining to watch. My favorite player was Jerry Rice because for one he played on my favorite team the Raiders and he is the greatest receiver of all time. After learning what the sports were about I started to learn all the other details hidden behind the action and outside the lines. This caused me to watch sportscenter everyday and listen to every detail. Stuff like Steroids, Kids my age skipping college to play in the NBA, the involvement with women in pro sports, the outrageous amount of money that they were getting paid to do something that is merely a game. Also the violence in sports. These events that were happening on the sports world are what made me what I am today. Many older people that I know think of me as a talking ESPN because I watch it and just absorb the knowledge because it is something that I enjoy doing every morning and every afternoon. The coming of age of all these events changes how we look at the game today versus 10, 20 or maybe 30 years ago. It is my goal to educate the young high school sports players on how engaging in stuff outside the lines could have serious consequences on you and the sport that you play.

How marketing changed

Sports marketing has changed drastically over the years and has evolved from simple marketing like photographs to up to the second updates. The roots of Sports Marketing can be traced back to the 1860's when many businesses, recognizing the popularity of the new sport of baseball, began using photographs of the teams to help sell their products and services. Since the time of those first baseball cards sports marketing has become a more than $200 billion dollar a year industry. It now includes such diverse revenue streams as sports equipment manufacturing, advertising, ticket and concession income, athlete endorsements and product merchandising.

In 1919 the recording of sound was developed and the press were able to record their voice in a conversation with an athlete so that it could be put in the news paper each day. Before this new technology the only sports news they had in the papers were the scores from the previous day. The only problem with newspapers as your main source of advertising was that you had to wait till the next day to hear the scores or your would have to go to the game or talk to someone who went to the game.

Then in 1920 the first commercial was made and was broadcast on the radio which was important because sometimes if you hear someone else say how good a product is then that might make you want to believe that the product is good.

Another essential step to making sports marketing what it is today is the first motion picture television was created so this made it some what easier to hear the news happening in the sports world. By 1948 televisions were in one million homes across America which meant almost everyone was watching.

A large leap in sports marketing is that Rich Foods becomes the first company to pay for the right to have their name on a venue. Rich Foods agreed to pay $60,000/year for the naming rights to the Buffalo Bills football stadium. If you put an athlete on the cover of your magazine, stadium or logo it is more likely to draw attention and your product will be worth so much more.

The creation of ESPN was a giant step for sports marketing. There was nothing else like it out there and there still isn't. ESPN (originally an abbreviation for the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American cable television networkdedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day. ESPN's signature telecast, Sportscenter, debuted with the network and aired its 30,000th episode on February 11, 2007. Though ESPN today you can get up to the minutes news and injury updates on your favorite teams and player through text messages.

Also the first HDTV was a stepping stone t where we are today. High-definition television is a digital television broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems standard-definition TV. HDTV is digitally broadcast; the earliest implementations used analog broadcasting, but today digital signals are used. HDTV technology was introduced in the United States in the 1990s. HDTV made it so that broadcasting looked extremely realistic and made it look like you are at the game. So now that ticket prices are rising most people just buy an HDTV and are at the game.

The rising of African-Americans

African-American sport players were not common not too long ago. Just like women in sports African-Americans started at the bottom and worked their way to the top. Now there are more African-Americans in sports than there are whites.

The 1920s were in many respects was the first golden era of sports in the United St3ates. Virtually all sports grew and prospered during this period. Already well established, boxing, baseball, and football now rose to even greater heights. As a result of this track and field emerged as another popular organized sport among blacks. Also the success of the first all black team interested other blacks into joining basketball.

Jesse Owens became an American hero after an amazing performance at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. At the time, Germany was ruled by Adolph Hitler who absurdly believed that blacks, Asians, Jews and other races were inferior to whites. Jessie proved how wrong Hitler's racist ideas were by winning the gold medal in the long jump, the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. He took home a fourth gold medal by running the opening leg for the US team that won the 4x100-meter relay. Jesse was named the World's Fastest Man and in 1976, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest award a US citizen can receive.

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play major league baseball. Jackie was a star in the Negro Leagues but wasn't allowed to play in major league baseball because he was black. He finally got his chance when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945. On April 15, 1947, he played his first major league game as the Dodgers first baseman. Many people booed and cheered Jackie when he took the field but by the end of the season, he won many of them over with his play on the field. He batted .297, led the league in stolen bases and was named the National League Rookie of the Year. More importantly, he broke baseball's color barrier and opened the door for other black athletes to participate in professional sports.

Today Hockey is most controlled by white player and coaches. You don't see alot of black players roaming the ice and scoring goals. Out of the 700 or so players on NHL rosters today, only 12 are black, a level that has remained flat over the last decade. Golf is a sport that is predominantly white and Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods are the only black players on the PGA tour. Although Tiger is African-American he has quickly become the most prestigious golfer in the world winning 14 professional major golf tournaments and 71 PGA tour events. Hockey needs an African-American star, a Tiger Woods, to market the game to a black audience.

In golf and Hockey African-American players are scarce. It is almost the total opposite in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. In the 1932 there were only two black players in the NFL and by 1934 there were none. Today a survey shows that the NFL is approximately 61 percent non-white. The NBA is approximately 70 percent African-American, 10 percent white and 10 percent other. So blacks come a long way along with women who have both gone a long way in athletics.

Women in spots from begining to end

Women in sports was not always the norm. Now women are treated equally and they play sports and some of them are pretty good. The reason why men and women dont play in the same leauge is because men a just so much more physical and much stonger. Because of this women created their own leauge and implimented their own rules. So the expresion "you throw like a girl" or "you shoot like a girl isn't as effective as it used to be because you could be reffering to Lisa Leslie who is a 6 foot 5 inch foward for the Los Angelas sparks and is a three time WNBA MVP and a four time Olympic gold medalist. Although women had made their mark in the sports world it wasn't too long ago that seeing them play sports was like seeing a black sheep.

The first step to women becoming part of sports began way back in 779 bc when the first olympics were held and females were obviously excluded so they agued every four years to have they own games to honor Hera the greek godess who ruled over women and earth. Only one hundred years ago women were not allow to take part in physical education because many people thought that this would make them less feminine.

About 31,000 women were involved in college sports in 1972, that number has more than tripled. Spending on athletic scholarships for women has gone from less than $100,000 to almost $200 million. There was an average of 2.1 women's teams at colleges in 1972. That number is now at a record 7.7 per school. The fact that women sports are being incorperated in colleges around the world shows that women have come a long way since the first time they entered the sports world.
Probobly the biggest hump in womens sport was the creation of the WNBA. This leauge was founded in 1996 and started play in 1997. The WNBA is not the first womens basketball leauge but is the first to get full backing by the NBA commitee. It was created so that men and women did not play on the same cour together. Bothe sexes playing on the court would be unfair and dangerous beacuse could you image a wnba center goin up against shaq or dwight Howard, they would be out rebound, backed down, and thrown around like a rag doll. Also NBA centers are typically 7 feet tall and WNBA ceters are around 6 foot 4 inches to 6 foot 5 inches. That is the normal hieght of an NBA shooting guard. Could you imagine a 6 foot 3 170 pound small foward taking a charge from LeBron James or Dwight Howard. A merger just wouldn't work because all of the players from the WNBA would have to point gaurds or shooting gaurds and there are only 30 teams. About 5 woman would make the cut for an NBA team.

From the first Olympic games to the WNBA women have come a long way in the sports world.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

The Evolution of Safety

Safety in sports has really evolved over the years with new types of helmets and rule changes. In the NFL the helmet is the most important part of a players equipment because obviously it keeps the players head on their shoulders and not on the ground. In other sports like soccer, golf, and basketball there is no need for helmets because no one repeatedly gets hit in the head in those sports. But advances in rules have also contributed to the safety of players.

In the early days of professional football the helmets consisted of simple leather hats. The leather was hardened had some padding inside and flaps to cover the ears. Holes were placed in the flaps to let the players hear the calls, and there were no face masks. Helmets were not required so a number of players decided not to wear them. Even though the idea of wearing a leather helmet did not seem any different that not wearing one at all it was a stepping stone that led to safer helmets and equipment.

The next step to the revolutionized helmets that we have today is the coming of a plastic helmets. These helmets were developed by the John T. Riddell company who also created the chin strap which kept the player helmet on their head so that it did not come flying off every time they got hit in the head. The NFL started making plastic helmets in 1949, which was only sixty years ago. The original plastic helmet was more protective than the leather ones but they are no where near to what we have today because in one year a player broke nine helmets.Face masks were not always the way they were today.

In the early 1950's face masks were usually only one bar and would often break. To fix this problem the face mask was redesigned to include a tubular bar. After many years of innovations the helmet that we see today evolved to become very elaborate for extra protection. Linebackers and linemen often have a full cage face mask while kicker only have a double bar face mask.

In 2002 Riddell released a new more spherical design for the helmet called the Revolution and it is currently the most widely used helmet in the National Football League. A study released by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center shows that the Riddell Revolution, and others like it, reduce the incidences of concussion by 31 percent. Ever since then Riddell has come out with a new helmet to reduce injuries to the head. The Riddell helmet released in 2009 reduces concussions by 41 percent.

Many fans believe that the NFL is becoming too soft and the rule changes are too harsh. These rules are created only for the players safety. The quarterback safety rules are often critisized. An important rule for quarterbacks is that a defensive player can not hit the quarterback after they have released the ball. Some other rule implications are that a player can not be hit out of bounds because by then the ball is dead, the quarterback can not be hit below the waist, and the tackler or blocker can not make helmet to helmet contact. All these penalties are personal fouls and for good reason.

$alaries are way too high!

Anyone in America who knows the true value of a dollar believes that athletes salaries are way too high. Current sports salaries are reaching astronomical figures. Players are signing contracts that are worth over 50 million dollars and 30 million dollars guaranteed.

4 out of the top 5 highest payed players in the MLB are currently members of the New York Yankees. Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, C.C. Sabathia and Mark Texeria are making a combined seventy five million two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year. They sign contracts for a combined eight hundred and five million dollars, averaging two hundred one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars which is an outrageous amount of money for four players to play merely a game that you and I would play for pure enjoyment in our spare time.

The difference between then and now is that in 1927 Babe Ruth was the highest paid player in the MLB and he was making seventy thousand dollars a year. In 1979 Nolan Ryan was making only one million dollars compared to the highest player now who is making thirty three times that amount.

These high salaries also affect the average sports fan because higher salaries means that ticket sales will be higher and jersey sales will be higher. The tickets, jerseys and food that ongoing sports fans buy at games pays for a large percent of players salaries. Now an average family of four can not go to a sports event with out spending an entire paycheck to go to ONE game. It is cheaper to fly to Kansas City, for a Royals game against the New York Yankees, go to two games there than it is just to drive to Stienbrener Stadium and watch the game there. The jerseys that are bought in stores are worth about seventy five dollars but are sold for two hundred and fifty dollars. This mark-up is just one of the many was that we, meaning the fans, pay for the over payed players.

Some of the players around the different leagues treat sports as a business and others will take the pay cut just because of the pure love of the game. Pro sports has some serious problems when it comes to money because just a few months ago Albert Hansworth signed a one hundred million dollar deal with the Washington Redskins. Don't get me wrong he a big physical player and you could argue that he is the best at what he does but for him to only be out there for twenty five percent of the game, he doesn't deserve one hundred million dollars. It doesn't matter who you are, your not worth one hundred million dollars.

With the economy being as bad as it is now, you would think salaries would slowly be decreasing. If you said yes your wrong the big money players are just getting payed more. If you thought that Rodriguez, Texeria, Jeter and Sabathia were making alot of money well... with his success on and of the golf course Tiger Woods has already earned ONE BILLION DOLLARS, which is five times more than what A-rod and his teammates were making.

I can throw stats at you all day about how professional players are being payed way too much money but think about this... the average person makes one million eight hundred thousand dollars in a LIFETIME versus Tiger Woods who made ONE HUNDRED times that amount.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

From Prep to Pro

The only sport that allowed players to go directly from the high school level to the pros was the NBA and it had it's pros and cons like any other rule or law. There were many players that came straight from high school to the NBA who had and are currently having outstanding careers. These players include LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, Ervin "Magic" Johnson and many others who have their finger prints in the history books.

Brandon Jennings is the first American athlete to go from prep to the pros by way of Europe. Jennings believed that skipping his senior year of high school and playing in Europe would better prepare him to play in the NBA that playing in his senior year of high school and going to college. For Brandon it's not all fun and games in Italy, "the bed looks like it could be palmed by Shaq, the room is the size of a hummer, the hotel looks like a town house, and his room mates bunk is just a sneakers length away."

His reasons for going on his voyage to Europe is because he was unsure about his opportunity in college because of his low SAT scores made him ineligible at most colleges. But now that he is in the NBA his efforts brought him to be drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks and is on his way to becoming rookie of the year. Brandon Jennings is averaging over 20 points a game. The top players in the league like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony are averaging around 28 points a game.

There is now an age limit on which you can enter the NBA which makes it so that you cant go straight from high school to the NBA. This rule was created because of the numerous number of players that had come out of high school and did not have the illustrious careers that they hoped for and became NBA busts. These players include C.J. Miles, Ricky Sanchez, James Lang, Korleone Young, Ndudi Ebi, Kwame Brown, Darius Miles, Sebastian Telfair, Jonathan Bender, and Leon Smith who proved to the NBA that they needed to add the age limit rule that we know today. Smith was just too immature for the NBA and clashed with coaches about his development and refused to go over seas to the NBDL. Then on November 14th he attempted suicide by swallowing 250 aspirin. He was then arrested twice during his rookie year, with one incident involving threatening a woman with a gun.