Congrats to a Messiah Alum

Alex Lentz

Congrats to Alex Lentz on his chance to fulfill his dream of playing professional baseball. Here is a tidbit from the York Dispatch:

The York Revolution became a bit more “political” this week.

Of the 42 hopefuls who participated in York’s open tryout on Saturday, 24-year-old Alex Lentz is the only one who earned an invitation to the team’s spring training.

Revs’ baseball operations manager Andrew Ball confirmed the catcher’s invitation on Monday night.

Alex was a political science major at Messiah, which you can read more about Alex here. I had the privilege of getting to know Alex in high school since his family attended our church at that time. Great kid, and couldn’t be happier for him. All the best!

How Well Do You Know the NCAA Teams?

Where is that team from?

Take this fun quiz on ESPN’s website to find out how well, and quickly, you can locate all 68 teams! Good luck. I got 62,457 on my first try with no extra prep. There were a couple where I was way off. I won’t tell you which ones, so you can have the fun of watching where the green pin drops.

Where Have You Gone, Allen Iverson?

Allen Iverson looks on from the bench during a Jan 2010 game in Milwaukee

I remember cheering for Allen Iverson for years as a Sixers fan, despite constant disappointment at the mercurial star who talked a big game, but seemed too small and fragile to consistently back it up. With all of the new stars emerging, Iverson seems to have simply faded away. Too proud to accept that his diminished skills and increased age meant he would have to be a role player if he was to continue cashing paychecks in the league. Over at SB Nation, Bomani Jones offers his take on the latest news regarding Iverson. Iverson’s money seems to be dwindling, if not gone. His life outside of basketball seems likely to be a sad and tragic tale. Here is Jones’ take on the present and future of the one-time superstar.

The older I got, the clearer it became that A.I. was going about things all wrong. The braids were a lot cooler in 2001 than ‘09, especially since they were worn by someone 26, not 34. The one-man offense was more defensible when that man, at the very least, was a capable NBA starter. He maxed out what he could do through force of personality and little else. His aging body needed a nuanced game that he hadn’t picked up. His ego needed to be commensurate with his diminishing skills to find a place. And he needed to see, clearly, that he was losing basketball, which was the linchpin that held together everything he had.

Now, it’s gone. So are his wife and family and, apparently, much of his money. He’s no longer a star, not even at the Atlanta watering holes he frequents. We only hear about him when the cops are impounding his Lamborghini or creditors are beating down his door. After being so much, good and bad, to so many, Allen Iverson is a 36-year-old retiree. He is a nobody.

Does he have any fight left in him? We will find out soon. He may be finished as a basketball player, but he can’t be finished as a man, if he ever was one. He’s done too much, been too far and proven himself to be too strong. Right?

He seems totally unprepared for his greatest challenge: life. Iverson was tossed out of high school. He dropped out of college. Not even the gods of irony are funny enough to make A.I. a coach. He’s demonstrated no interest in any activity meant to be performed 40 hours per week. In the most significant ways, he is alone. And there’s no reason to think any of this will get any better.

Four years ago, he averaged 26.4 points per game. Two years later, as a free agent, his irrelevance was impossible to ignore. He wasn’t even on the backburner. He was in the fridge, cold and past his expiration date. Only running backs and radioactive isotopes decay that fast.

The game hadn’t just passed him by. The Game, the macro-level stuff about basketball and branding that The Answer could never be bothered with, were way beyond him. The suits he didn’t want to wear, not his t-shirts and du-rags, were in style. The superstars of the day bore little resemblance to the anti-hero who directly preceded them in the limelight.

Now, it’s as if he was never here. His most lasting imprint is the NBA’s dress code, a measure taken to erase some of Iverson’s cultural influence. He has a lifetime contract with Reebok, but he’ll never be the Jordan-like icon whose brand power could sell shoes forever. Each of his employers was ready for him to go when he left. The Sixers will retire his jersey, and he’ll surely be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Sadly, it might be best-case scenario if we never hear from him beyond those nights.

He went from nothing to the world, and now Allen Iverson may be back to nothing again. Literally, figuratively and tragically.

Recognition for Messiah College

Once again, Messiah College is making the news for good things going on on campus. This time the men’s soccer team is being recognized as one of the most dominating men’s sports programs in the country. Admittedly, I’m not sure “hercampus.com” is the most prestigious of recognitions out there, but I’ll take good press where we can get it! (though there generally isn’t a shortage) Here is the blurb about Messiah:

7. Messiah Falcons Soccer

NCAA Div. III Champions: 2000, 2002, 2004-2006, 2008-2010

Following a frantic purchase of 30 men’s soccer socks (they had forgotten to pack their game socks for the tournament!), the Falcons upped the dramatic ante on the field as well.  During the 2010 title match, sophomore Dan Squire scored with less than five minutes remaining in regulation to tie.  A minute and a half into the game’s extension, senior midfielder Geoff Pezon blasted a low, hard goal to end it for good. Messiah seized a thrilling 2-1 victory against Lynchburg College and the program’s eighth national title.

(btw, Geoff Pezon was a student of mine in Calc II, and a pretty smart engineering major)

Reflecting on Imperfect Heroes

¹⁰ as it is written,

“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
¹¹ THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
¹² ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
¹³ “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,”
“THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;
¹⁴ “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”;
¹⁵ “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,
¹⁶ DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,
¹⁷ AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.”
¹⁸ “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.” (Romans 3.10-18 NASB)

I couldn’t help but think of this as I contemplated the death of Joe Paterno this weekend. I was intrigued, though not surprised, by the reaction. Some of my friends, many with ties to Penn State wanted to put aside the recent revelations about Paterno’s poor handling of what he has admitted he knew about the actions of Jerry Sandusky and simply praise the legend that we all thought we knew to be above critique as a man, if not as a coach. Others wanted to say all of that didn’t matter in the shadow of the Sandusky scandal. I can’t help but think that these extremes, while tempting, are simply easy alternatives to admitting that Paterno was a man, like all of us, who had good and bad times. He often made good decisions, and certainly should be applauded for not simply amassing his wealth for himself and seeking the bigger paycheck. He was faithful to Penn State, and donated millions back to the University.

On the other hand, we must admit that his ego has been reported to be large, especially late in his career. It has been a long time since Penn State has been relevant on the national stage in any consistent sense. Partially, this is due to Paterno’s entrenched opinions and unwillingness to change significantly. While the defenses have been consistently good, if not great, the offense has rarely been the envy of anyone. Coaches on his staff rarely were replaced, despite lackluster seasons. The insulated nature of the staff probably contributed to the culture that allegedly allowed Sandusky continued access to the program and facilities long after allegations of impropriety had caused him to be “banned” from the building.

The lesson? None of us is perfect. Some of us tend to overlook our shortcomings and dwell on the good we see in ourselves. Others are more prone to flagellate themselves over every failure and overlook their many good qualities. The truth is that we should keep both in mind. We should also keep in mind that all of the people around us have both as well. Even the biggest villain has some good attributes, and even the most saintly person we know has inner struggles we may never see. Have the revelations about Sandusky changed who Joe Paterno was? No. They have simply revealed things we didn’t know. We ought always to offer grace and mercy to those around us whose struggles are most visible, and refrain from sanctifying others when we know that they are human, and therefore have issues and struggles we know little about.

I leave the decision on his soul to the One who alone makes that determination, but I pray for mercy, as I would want were I in his position.

——————————-

Over at The Way of Improvement Leads Home today, John Fea offers a couple of links to takes on this, but also offers an analysis that agrees with mine, just from his perspective as an historian.

As a historian, I think that there are a few things we have to remember as we assess the legacy of Joe Paterno.

1. It is difficult to give a fair assessment of Paterno’s legacy while we are still caught up in the emotions of his death and the whole Sandusky affair.

2.  When we put our confidence in people, whether they lived in the past or live in the present, we are likely to be inspired by them, but we are just as likely to be disappointed.  There are no heroes in history–we are flawed human beings.  There are no villains in history–we, in the eyes of God, all possess dignity and worth.

You can find his links here.

What a View!

Loved this from Onion Sports (HT: Heather Martin):

ST. LOUIS—With the ball on their opponent’s 45-yard line last Sunday, the Rams allowed the game clock to expire during first down so they could take in the unusual sight of their rich, beautiful field position. “Wow, it’s gorgeous around here,” running back Steven Jackson said while running his hands through the artificial turf and inhaling deeply. “It’s a shame we hardly ever get this far. Just look at the view—you can almost see the other end zone from here! I really wish we got to do this more often.” According to sources, the team was so excited they took second and third down off as well, evidently just choosing to lie down and relax.

"What a view!"

TMQ on Football and Mortality

In this week’s TMQ, Gregg Easterbrook revisits the debates about the effects (positive and negative) of playing football. Are the mortality rates for football high enough to warrant reconsidering whether football is dangerous? It depends on whether we care only about mortality (if so, it is not that dangerous), or care more generally about smaller injuries that add up over time (in which case this would be a different discussion). Here are Easterbrook’s thoughts.

Football and Mortality: The first consideration is that both absolute numbers of football deaths and rates of death compared to participants are in long-term decline — mirroring the decline in many forms of risk in society. Age-adjusted rates of all deaths in the United States have declined for 10 consecutive years. Auto fatalities have been declining for more than a generation. “Winning the War on War,” an important new book by Joshua Goldstein — he presents the ideas in this video – shows that despite the impression created by cable news, exposure to violence is in decline both in the United States and worldwide. Schoolteachers especially should consult Goldstein’s book and video.

If society generally is becoming safer, sports also should be becoming safer, and that is happening. Data from the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research reflects a steady decline in deaths caused by football. Table 1 of the center’s most recent report shows that in the past decade, 34 high school, three pro and two college football players have died as the direct result of games or practices, with the primary cause of deaths being heat stroke. That is entirely awful — but much lower than the rate of a generation ago. In 1968 alone, 26 high school players died as a direct result of football; last year, the number was two. Table 3 of the report shows the direct fatality rate from high school football peaked at 2.6 deaths per 100,000 players in 1969 and declined steadily to 0.13 deaths per 100,000 in 2010. That means a 1968 high school football player was 20 times more likely to die than a 2010 player. (The main reason for declining deaths was that football helmets were improved to eliminate skull fractures.)

But even if football deaths have declined, one loss of life is a tragedy. This is especially true for death due to heat stroke, which is 100 percent preventable. No athlete should die from heat stroke; coaches or trainers whose negligence allows heat-stroke death should face legal consequences. Deaths from brain swelling or undiagnosed heart defects are, by contrast, a challenge to prevent. Ridge Barden, the 16-year-old New York player who died earlier in the month, seemed fine moments before collapsing and had not been involved in any dramatic hits. Accumulating harm to his brain from many minor hits might have gone unnoticed. A conscientious coach or athletic trainer might have missed the signs.

How to compare the slight risk of a terrible football outcome to other common risks experienced by the young? Consider the risk of being in a car. About 3,000 teens die each year in car crashes. There are about 21.3 million Americans between 15 and 19 years of age. Teens average about 146 miles driven per week, roughly 150 hours per year of driving. These figures yield a roughly one in 1 million chance that a teen will die in an hour of driving. The National Federation of State High School Associations reports that 1.1 million boys (and a few girls) played high school football last academic year. A typical high school football season would include, in games and practice, perhaps 75 hours of exposure to contact. That’s about 80 million total hours of exposure to contact on the part of high school football players. The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research reports a recent average of three deaths per year directly caused by high school football. That’s a roughly one in 27 million chance of a high school player dying from an hour of football contact.

These are all rough estimates. Taking them together, a teenager has a one in 1 million chance of dying in an hour behind the wheel, compared to a one in 27 million chance of dying in an hour of football contact. Being in pads on a football field is less deadly than driving to high school for class. Many contemporary parents, especially moms, might say, “I don’t want you playing football because it’s so dangerous, but it’s fine for you to drive to the mall.” As regards mortality, this misperceives the risks.

Of course, death is only one of many risks in football. Other, more common harm, especially accumulated damage to the brain from concussions, is a greater negative to playing, since sports-caused death is very rare but sports-caused brain harm is not.

And even if the risk of any activity — whether football, driving or anything else — is low, society should work to make the risk lower. Cars are safer than a generation ago, but many safety features still could be added. Stricter enforcement of football rules, in games and in practices, would lower risk.

Risk, in turn, does not exist in a vacuum. It should be balanced against gains. The reason the chance of a crash does not stop people from jumping into cars is that automobile transportation offers many benefits. The benefits of cars almost always outweigh the risks. Benefits outweigh risks in many pursuits. Ballet dancers, for instance, might ruin their knees, but being a ballet dancer has many benefits. Bicycling is a leading cause of concussions, but bicycling also offers significant health benefits. If we thought only about risks, we’d never get out of bed. There are many rewards to playing football — exciting experiences, a sense of worth in the community, admission boosts to college being among them. Most high school football players enjoy some benefits and never experience any harm. The benefits should not be overlooked.

Deaths of young athletes shock society, as has been the case at least since this 1896 poem. Recently two middle-aged, retired NFL players, Orlando Brown of the Ravens and Kent Hull of the Bills, died before their times — Brown at age 40 from complications of diabetes, Hull at age 50 from intestinal bleeding. When former pro football players die in middle age, should this be seen as bad luck or as a sign of long-term degenerative harm from football? Last season, TMQ reviewed long-term health studies on football in this column.

Deaths of young athletes cause a second level of shock because rightly or wrongly, sports teams, especially football teams, are perceived as symbolizing the hopes of their community. Particularly in small towns or college towns, when the home team wins, this is seen as auspicious. Losses are perceived as bad signs. Deaths on the home team are the most awful signs imaginable. In August, four players from the high school football team of a New Jersey town were killed in a car crash that had nothing to do with sports. Any four students from any high school dying in a car crash would be a tragedy. But because the four deaths occurred on the football team, the community perceived the event as especially terrible. If a bicyclist dies, this does not always make the front page of newspapers, while a football death usually does.

TMQ Follow-up: Boys, Football, and College

TMQ last week offered some thoughts about boys and college success, and how football may be contributing to the decline. Read my thoughts here. One of the things I love about Easterbrook is his willingness to offer up reader feedback in support or opposition. Here is the feedback he received:

Boys, Football and College: Last week I supposed that ever-more boys spending ever-more time on football may be one (of many) reasons women are doing so much better in college than men. Sean McIntire of Los Angeles writes, “Your argument regarding football holding back males from the grades necessary for college admission is correct, but it’s not tackle football, the problem lies with too much Madden football. I’m a high school teacher, I see the disparity between the achievement of male and female students. I believe boys spend too much time playing “Madden” and many other video games. This is what is causing them to not achieve in high school.”

Anders Vorum of Randers, Denmark, writes, “I teach in the Danish public school system, and we see the same development here, though we have almost no American-style football. The general education level of girls is increasing much more than that of the boys. Our kids play a lot of soccer and handball, where concussions are a lot less common than in gridiron football, so neurological damage isn’t likely a factor in the Danish trend to girls doing better in school than boys.

“What I think is a larger contributor is change in the structure of the public school system. The position of teaching has transformed from a highly respected, well-paid job to a reasonably paid but highly criticized one. This caused men to begin leaving the school-teaching profession; women, then leaving the home for the workplace, found teaching a desirable occupation. Today 70 or 80 percent of teachers in Danish public schools are women, and the fraction may be similar in the United States. One of the effects is a school system that caters to girls but views boys as problematic. As a result, many of our boys don’t feel like they fit in and a fair few begin to ‘bail out’ when they hit the teenage years. A higher percentage of girls end up going on to our universities.”

That column further said high school football had become too time-consuming, preventing many boys from posting better GPAs. Joe Lindsey of Boulder, Colo., writes, “My nephews, age 7, are playing little league football this year. They love it. But it’s a significant time commitment for their family. The boys practice two hours two nights per week then have games on Saturdays, which can involve up to an hour’s travel each way. They play eight regular- season games this year. Their club may qualify for a three-week playoff season that culminates in, I kid you not, a bowl game. When I was in junior high school, our JV team practiced twice a week for two hours. We played seven games, all at the school or a short drive to a nearby school. There was no postseason. Now we have 7-year-old kids in their first exposure to organized football potentially playing an 11-game season.”

Ben Wachsman of Lancaster, Pa., writes, “You wrote, ‘Traditionally, high school football players struggled in the classroom during the season, then made up ground in the spring.’ I disagree from my own experience. When I played high school ball, my grades were best during football season. Having a set schedule and little free time helped. Lifting at 6, school from 8-3, practice 3:30-6:30, film study until about 7:30, I would come home and start homework right after a quick dinner, every night. But in the spring I would be home at 3:30 and would always find something more intriguing to do than schoolwork.”

Personally, I’ve heard from students that echo the bit at the end: structure helps me succeed during the season. I’ve also heard the concern authored by TMQ’s Danish reader. Most schools are structured to benefit those who can sit well and listen for long periods of time. This is often not something young boys are good at.  Girls tend to gain this skill earlier, and therefore may experience earlier success in school. Boys may react in numerous ways to this deficit, but I would not be surprised if some take a fatalistic attitude that education isn’t for them, and so they give up on the institution. Sure, some take it as a challenge, and try to prove the system wrong about its early characterization of them. Others just gain the skill early enough not to be affected greatly by a negative early impression (I was likely one of these). Either way, I’m glad that Easterbrook has decided to take up the discussion and allow us to interact with some of the responses.

Virginia Tech Researchers Study Youth Football

The Auburn Eagles, 6-8 year old boys from Montgomery County, VA

Researchers at my graduate Alma Mater, Virginia Tech, have been studying head traumas in youth football. Here is a bit from the article:

BLACKSBURG, Va., Oct. 18, 2011 – Virginia Tech released today results from the first study ever to instrument child football helmets. Youth football helmets are currently designed to the same standards as adult helmets, even though little is known about how child football players impact their heads. This is the first study to investigate the head impact characteristics in youth football, and will greatly enhance the development of improved helmets specifically designed for children.

The Auburn Eagles, a local, Montgomery County, Va., youth team consisting of 6- to 8-year-old boys, has participated in the study since August. The helmets of the child football players are instrumented with custom 12 accelerometer arrays that measure how a child’s head responds to impact. Each time a player impacts his head, data is recorded and wirelessly downloaded to a computer on the sideline.

The technology is similar to what Virginia Tech has used since 2003 to instrument its collegiate football team. “The research conducted with the Virginia Tech football team has led to a better understanding of head impacts in football and how they relate to concussions,” said Stefan Duma, the Virginia Tech professor of biomedical engineering and department head of the Virginia Tech – Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences that directs this project.

Furthermore, this research has led to the development of the National Impact Database, which contains the first safety rating system ever available for adult football helmets (STAR Evaluation System). Similar developments for youth football are anticipated from the current study with the Auburn Eagles.

“Based on eight years of studying head impacts experienced by Virginia Tech football players, we were able to quantify exposure for adult football players relative to impact location, severity, and frequency,” Duma said. “Unfortunately, we cannot translate the adult exposure to the youth helmets because the impact conditions of youth football are completely unknown. To solve this problem, we are applying the same approach that we have used with the Virginia Tech football team to a youth football team,” Duma added.

You can read the rest here. I’m interested in seeing where this research leads. Concerns about unnecessary head trauma is part of our reasoning for not encouraging our kids to consider sports like football or hockey for their activities. This is definitely a study/story to watch over the next few months/years.

Almost Time!

The Classic Eagles Logo

The NFL Films special on Reggie White and Jerome Brown is on tonight at 10:00 on the NFL Network. NFL Films has the latest sneak peek available on their website. I’m pretty excited at the chance for a trip down memory lane, even if it is mixed with the sadness of the early death of the two men and the reminder of the disappointing end to the seasons each year.