The Sochi Olympics get Red Hot

The Sochi Olympics get Red Hot
by Dan Salem and Todd Salem (2-14-14)


Seesaw Sports is now on Buzzchomp. Find the post HERE. Go subscribe to keep up in future weeks as we transition away from blogger. Thanks.

[Part one - Sochi Olympics Fever 2014]



TODD:

What excites me most about the Olympics? I already do moguls well, so scratch that one off the list.

I think I could ski the 2 mile downhill course, although my time might be around 15 minutes rather than 2 minutes. I would want to try ski jumping though. Just the thought of soaring through the air for such a great distance seems majestic and awesome. It's also better than the halfpipe or slopestyle courses too because I wouldn't have to worry about spinning and flipping for a score; just float to victory.

And land. Landing is important.

I've watched a bit of the speed skating and figure skating. It seems like it would be cool to be able to skate so well, but I would have no interest in putting that skill to those ends.

When it comes down to it, isn't watching the Olympics (either winter or summer) more fun when you just get a taste of something? No one likes to sit down and watch an entire event, qualifying rounds through the finals. Even snowboarding and skiing which, as you pointed out, are the best to watch, are not fun all the way through, especially women's.

Poor scheduling job by NBC this year. There's no way they should ever air a men's slopestyle event before a women's event. The men go down, pulling off triple corks and 1440's. Then we see the women do a shaky 540 and swing their arms all the way to the landing and she qualifies for the finals immediately.

For events still to come, really the only thing on my agenda is to catch some of the hockey but, again, I don't plan on watching an entire game at any point, let alone the entire tournament. That's just the nature of the beast with Olympic sports. If the sport itself was good enough, it would be popular outside of the 4-year environment. It also isn't helping that all of the results are shared online throughout the day, before the event in question is even shown on television. No wonder The Walking Dead crushed the Olympics in TV ratings the other night.


DAN:

The Walking Dead crushed the Olympics because it is amazing. That had nothing to do with the Olympic TV product, nor NBC's manner in airing the festivities and events.

I can't take credit for my view point, as I heard Colin Cowherd wax poetic on the subject earlier this week, but I wholeheartedly agree that there is nothing wrong with the tape delay. You just said yourself that its not fun to sit and watch an entire Olympic event unfold. Its best served in bits and pieces, multiple servings from a sports buffet. Well NBC is attempting to provide just this to its viewing audience, editing down the long events, the boring parts, into a watchable show that could in fact be tolerated for the entire time. What you want is the Red Zone Channel equivalent of the Olympics. This would be the perfect thing to air on the NBC Sports network, boosting its ratings in the process, but NBC knows you will watch no matter how they air it or when.

Am I in the minority in wanting something different from the Olympics? I know they add new events every time and the whole thing is very serious for the athletes, but as you pointed out, none of these events are interesting outside of the Olympic games. Taking that as more or less a fact, the Olympics should really take a page from the X-games book and hype up the coolness factor by one hundred. One of the coolest X-game events is the snowmobile jumps. Why is that not an Olympic event? And they have the shooting event on cross country skiis, but why not let the snowboarders shoot things while going off jumps?

Its time to think outside the box and create some events that show new, unique skill sets. Its hard enough for all the countries around the equator to compete in the winter games, having no snow and all, so why not branch out and really make things interesting. Tubing? Snow ball fights? Tug of war? All of these things are fair game. A skill is a skill and I want to add a splash of color to the current black and white version of the games.


TODD:

Of course the edited version is preferable, but the Red Zone comparison is only apt if, on the actual Red Zone station, they showed you all the touchdowns that you had already seen written about that morning.

I'm not sure about many things in life, but I can be sure that Finland would crush it in Olympic snowball fighting.

[If you missed Part one - Sochi Olympics Fever 2014]

Sochi Olympics Fever 2014

 
Sochi Olympics Fever 2014
by Dan Salem and Todd Salem (2-10-14)


Seesaw Sports is now on Buzzchomp. Find the post HERE. Go subscribe to keep up in future weeks as we transition away from blogger. Thanks.



TODD:
The 2014 Winter Olympic games began last week in Sochi, Russia.

The opening ceremony was an elaborate, extravagant and over-the-top spectacle of...something. It was expensive and unnecessary, but really the entire Olympic games is that as well.

Every two years, the winter and summer Olympics are supposed to build the feeling of patriotism and joy for amateur athletics. It is a reason to watch athletes and sports you would never ordinarily care about or pay attention to. It does all of those things very well. There are very few things more exciting than watching a young athlete competing at the highest level for their country.

However, it seems to me that the Olympics does something more than build patriotism. It also destroys race relations. It encourages, nah Demands that you root against someone strictly based on their nationality. How is this a good thing?

How soon until the build-up of xenophobic feelings overwhelm us all and Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders are team captains, picking sides for the bipartisan Olympics?


DAN:
Wow, you just took the Olympics to a very dark and despondent place. I'd like to first acknowledge that yes, the Olympics are an awesome thing for the world. It brings sports to the masses, universalizes people and is a great show of hard work, dedication, and competition. I love the snowboarding and skiing events personally.

As for your ridiculous accusation that the Olympics is ruining race relations, you are obviously confusing race with nationality. This is the root of the very problem you brought up, that people use race so arbitrarily that it has become a catch all for prejudice in general. There are lots of different types of people in the world and the Olympics strive to do just the opposite of what you said. Sure, we are rooting for America. But we root for America no matter the race of the athlete wearing our flag. And all athletes from all the countries involved are placed on an even playing field, to compete as equals for the world to watch. The entire world unites and you want to spin it as encouraging hate? Who are you? Haha.

I understand the point you're making; we are growing as a society towards universal acceptance. Its unlikely we will ever get 100% there, but each step we make is important. And the Olympics only bolsters this. Every two years we are exposed to the greatness of other countries and their people. We may root against them, but its only a select few fans who wish harm upon the opponent. And those fans are not huge Olympics fans anyhow.

I'd also like to put to bed the idea of former star athletes drafting teams. This is great bar stool chatter, but the actual draft falls way short of expectation. Let's get Shaun White and Bode Miller to draft Olympic squads. Woo! Now tell me who should be first pick? Do you have any idea? And should you draft a Curler over a Ski Jumper, or go all crazy and pick the Ice Dancer instead? This is a ridiculous conversation.

What excites you most about the Olympics? I know there is at least one event you wish you could do well.

[Part two - Sochi Olympics are Red Hot]

PEDs & the Children - Part two

PEDs & the Children - Part two
by Dan Salem and Todd Salem (9-20-13)

[Part one - Steroids, PEDs & Sports. Oh my]



TODD:
Professional sports leagues should allow players to take anything they want, but everyone will know about it. That's the notion Malcolm Gladwell presents and its a fascinating idea that I am all for. Obviously there are numerous pitfalls, as with anything. But now the court of public opinion can be set rather effortlessly. It will be up to us if we put more stock in an aided 60 home run season or a clean 42 home run season. And owners/general managers can make the same determination. The same thing is happening now but the public isn't aware of it.

What do you think of his idea? This may have severe consequences, such as every player deciding to take drugs since they are legalized or clean players who perform less than their peers getting pushed out of the league but it is an interesting take nonetheless.


DAN:
I'm against cheating, let me make that clear, but I'd hold the same opinion on PEDs if I competed at a higher level of sports. Like all jobs, you can come to your position and success honestly or not. You are ultimately accountable to yourself and have to live with the choices you make. I'm sure I've lost jobs over the last five years to people who "cheated" their way ahead of me. But it wasn't really cheating, they used whatever advantage they had to beat me out for a job. The same goes for those competing for college and professional sports jobs as athletes. You can pursue a less honest means to the job, taking steroids to boost your performance in the short term while sacrificing your long term health, or you can simply kick your workout into higher gear and be a little less strong in a more natural manor. The best player and person will win out. No hard feelings. Its up to you how bad you want something.

Most professional athletes want to compete at the highest level more than anything in the world. I don't agree with sacrificing the later years of my life to be stronger in my 20s, but I never wanted to be a professional athlete either. I can relate to the passion, however, but the idea that testing for everything but banning nothing will solve some problem is ignoring the bigger picture.

The main issue here is high school athletes taking muscle builders, growth hormones and PEDs during the years of their life when the body is still developing, the mind is impressionable and the child doesn't know any better. Adults can and will make their own decisions, but the kids will emulate their elders. Consequently, we have to punish the adults for actions otherwise okay. We as adults try to shield the youth from the reality of life for as long as possible. We don't want them to know that the CEO gets paid the most for doing the least work. We also don't want them to know how hard that CEO had to work, and who he had to step on, to earn his cushy job in the first place. And we DEFINITELY don't want them to know what the CEO did to step on people. That action in sports is the PED.

PEDs are banned for the sake of the kids. PED usage is punished for the sake of the kids. So testing for them, but then doing nothing is the worst possible solution. Its like telling a kid that we are going to put cameras in the class room so we know if you cheat on an exam. We are watching your eyes from every angle. But if we catch you cheating on the test, that's okay. I realize I brought in the word "cheating", but its still a good analogy. The only way to set a proper example and keep kids off drugs they should not be using until they turn 25 (I picked 25 because you should be finished growing by then) is to ban them for the adults. They are illegal outside of the doctor's office because its the doctor's job to understand the drug and administer it. Not your coach.


TODD:
This is you; this is what you sound like:

[Direct Link to Mrs. Lovejoy of The Simpsons fame]

Now I'm no monster. I understand the well-being of children is important. But remind me why it is the job of essentially random, young adults who can jump high to be the role models for kids. If you agree that professional athletes are going to do all they can to succeed at their job, depending on "how bad you want something" as you put it, why is it on them to also be examples for young people and do the right thing? Aren't those two mutually exclusive?

I actually agree with the school exam analogy to a point. That is a fair assessment...if the point of the testing was to find the kid who was best at taking tests and then have him or her be that school's test taker in order to show the optimum results on nationwide standards. But that isn't the point of school, at least not in good neighborhoods. Sports are a business run for entertainment and to find the humans who are best at it. Where does being a good role model fit into other lines of work? And why is Alex Rodriguez more important to a child's maturation than parents or guardians, teachers or coaches?

This isn't where I expected this conversation to go, which is not a bad thing, but I do want to steer it back towards the professional ranks if I may. Keeping the children out of it for the time being, since you made it clear that you can understand and are relatively okay with adults trying to get an edge, is there any player, active or retired, that you would be disappointed if you found out took PEDs? Framed another way, if you found out ____ took steroids, your opinion of him would change.

I already gather you would be fine with finding out Peyton Manning or Adrian Peterson did. You already said, and I wholeheartedly agree, that taking something to help you recover from injury sounds rather logical. So then, to piggyback myself, would it change your opinion somehow negatively to find out someone like Derrick Rose 'didn't bother' to take PEDs? In essence, Rose took so long to recover because he 'didn't want it bad enough' to cheat.


DAN:
One final point on your killer jab at me via The Simpsons and the iconic Mrs. Lovejoy. Being a professional athlete is a special kind of job. There is only one other job that is akin to being a professional athlete and that's being an A-list Actor. I excluded politicians because we all know better than to look up them. Same goes for Musicians, who sing about such racy material that most people know better. All other jobs are not in the spotlight, more or less. Only Professional Athletes and A-list Actors and Actresses are both in the spotlight and presented to the world as something other than themselves. Kids and Adults alike look up them. They are role models. You don't get to choose this or not. If you choose to be on that level, then you are by default a role model. And there is one simple reason; you get paid in the multi millions of dollars. The money comes with responsibility. So wanting something so badly that you'd do anything is one thing, but getting it and dealing with the consequences of how it changes your life is another.

[Part three - Destroying legacies & the Steroids witch hunt]

[Part four - Statistics, steroids & What exactly is cheating]

[If you missed Part one - Steroids, PEDs & Sports. Oh my]

Steroids, PEDs & Sports. Oh My - Part one

Steroids, PEDs & Sports. Oh My - Part one
by Dan Salem and Todd Salem (9-16-13)



TODD:
Has any phrase had a bigger decline in emotional response than "HGH?" Saying those three letters now, in the company of a common sports fan, will elicit disgust and dismay almost immediately. But didn't human growth hormone used to be pretty benign? In fact, wasn't it kind of innocuous? It used to be something doctors gave the elderly to help sooth their many ailments. If you weren't a doctor or old, I don't think you were even aware of what HGH was. And now...?

HGH implies conniving, cheating and lying. It makes us angry. I guess these responses are warranted. Professional athletes who take performance enhancers are blatantly trying to increase their talents beyond what is natural. If you consider human growth hormone not natural. You know, unlike tendon replacement and cortisone shots. Those are cool.

With this very leading preamble, my question to you is as follows: do you have a problem with professional athletes taking PEDs? If those enhancers have no known downside or physical side effects, does that change your answer? Or if the athlete is taking said substance to simply recover from an injury and not to increase his day-to-day performance, does it change your answer? And seriously, what phrase has taken a bigger dip in popularity than HGH? That has to top the list.


DAN:
First of all, I don't have a negative connotation associated with HGH. I guess I'm in the minority here, but HGH is something found naturally in the body and has been used for years by doctors to help cure the sick, elderly, you name it. It is exactly what it sounds like. Human Growth Hormone aids the body in a multitude of ways and I think its foolish to ignore its applications in medicine. Its not illegal for doctors to utilize HGH, but doctors get to utilize traditional steroids as well. I understand there's a difference here when it comes to sports.

My perspective on this issue is one of a former high school athlete, a former varsity football player. I played some rugby in college, but my football career ended with high school. Let me tell you, more than half my high school football team was taking some kind of supplement. Only a few people took actual steroids, but Creatine was super popular and everyone loved protein powder etc. I'm proud to say I took none of it and was by far the biggest and strongest player on the team. But taking stuff was a part of football in high school, so its only a larger part in college and an even bigger part in the pros. What does any of this have to do with PEDs? I'm not going to single out HGH here. Performance enhancing substances is a huge umbrella term, but for me it includes protein powder and that ilk as well. It all helps to beef up your body.

It comes down to this. Athletes at all levels of all sports are going to take things. Attempting to label some fair and others illegal is a fools errand and will never, ever result in anything less than confusion. I could care less if the guy next to me, or the player on the other team, was taking steroids. I never once felt inferior and took pride in being "clean." I have two main feelings on the whole PED issue.

When it comes to injury and recovery from injury, players should be able to get whatever treatment they can get. I don't care if Adrian Peterson took HGH to heel his knee. I'd rather him come back at 100% in six months than at 90% in twelve months. Let's not ignore modern medicine for the sake of old statistics and records.

As for players taking drugs to make them stronger, this is a tricky subject. I don't see it as cheating. They are not breaking the rules of the game itself, just the rules of the governing league. Cheating is doctoring your bat or baseball, or putting metal plating on your shoulder pads. Cheating is what every running back does when he tosses the football five yards up field after getting tackled. He's hoping the referee is unclear where he landed and gives him a more favorable spot. He's trying to steal a yard. Cheating is not making yourself stronger. You have the option of doing that regardless of whether you are taking drugs, protein, or raw eggs to help things out (Disclaimer - I don't think raw eggs do a damn thing). My assumption is that many players in the NFL and NBA are taking things you'd rather not hear about. We get to find out when it comes to MLB, which kind of stinks. If you allow players to take a regulated dosage of a drug, or PED, then at least it would be safe. Some players would get extra on the side, but it would level the playing field. And its still the individuals choice to make, to take it or not.


TODD:
It is actually quite refreshing to hear your take on this. However, your point of view may have changed had you played a sport at the division one, college level or professionally. What if some guy taking a PED was also trying to take your job? Would that change your opinion, or is it all in the game?

Letting players take a regulated dosage of things is interesting but would obviously be corrupted rather quickly. It does bring up an out-of-the-box point though, kind of piggy backing on your point of taking stuff to recover from injuries. Acclaimed author Malcolm Gladwell is a pretty big sports fan with some great theories. Everyone knows his famous 10,000 hours theory about practicing. He also has a radical take on steroids in sports. I'm paraphrasing but Gladwell thinks we should test for everything and ban nothing.

[Part two - PEDs & the Children]
[Part three - Destroying legacies & the Steroids witch hunt] 

[Part four - Statistics, steroids & What exactly is cheating]

"Kick save and a Beauty" - What ha... happened? (June part one)

"Kick save and a Beauty" - What ha... happened? 
(June part one)
by Dan Salem and Todd Salem (6-17-13)



We scour the internet for a crazy sports photo and someone must try to explain it. Seesaw Sports asks what ha... happened? Monday: Opening statement. Friday: Rebuttal.

Real photos. Real results. But what in the heck happened?

This month we have GIFs!



TODD:
I present to you the following:

 

Photo: All women's sports should be this much fun.

Title: "Kick save and a Beauty"

Description: Who knew?!? Apparently the phrase "Kick save and a Beauty" is not just for ice hockey. This volleyballer made a nice diving kick to, we assume, save the point for her team. But even if they didn't manage the return, who cares? It was still damn impressive. Go ladies!

Two immediate questions come to mind:

(1) Be honest, were you aware that players were allowed to use their feet in volleyball?

(2) Can you find me a better GIF of someone stretching the limits of a sport?

My answer to both is 'I doubt it.' But go for it and tell me what ha... happened?


DAN:
Honesty, huh? I had NO idea you could kick the ball in volleyball. I thought it was bump, set, spike, but kick! Haha, that's awesome.

I'd argue this is hardly stretching the limits of the sport if its just part of the game, albeit a rarity. But don't you worry. I have a few GIFs up my sleeve.

As for what happened?

Not everyone is fortunate enough to make the Olympic soccer team. That may be the pinnacle of women's team sports in the Olympics and this lady was the odd woman out. She is a super star athlete however and turned to her second love, volleyball. Not beach volleyball, that's for showoffs, but regular street volleyball. Instincts are instincts, and instead of diving head first to bump the ball with her hands, a sweet slide and kick save was enacted. I'm hoping it was for success!

(GIF courtesy of Sbnation)

[Part two - "Not all Swords are created Equal"]