2014 for me, was very interesting for me, in all aspects, including sports. I began the New Year off seeing an old classmate of mine starting as LSU’s QB in a bowl game against a ranked Iowa State team, surrounded by current NFL Rookie of the Year candidates Jeremy Hill, Oddell Beckham, Jr. and Jarvis Landry. He was a true freshman, 19 years old, and just six months earlier, Anthony Jennings was walking across the same stage I did to get his diploma at Marietta High School. This same year, however, Jennings would emerge as the team’s new sophomore starting QB and certainly had his fair share of struggles. In the country’s toughest conference, Jennings was sacked 20 times, threw 7 interceptions, posted a completion percentage under 50% and continued to split time with his backup Brandon Harris. After being booed and even receiving a death threat from disgruntled LSU fans, I think it’s safe to say that life comes at you fast when you’re a 20 year-old College Sophomore. Another big storyline 2014 spoke about in general was race. Obviously, racism will always be a sensitive topic to some individuals, but after a couple of case decisions didn’t go the way majority of the general public wanted them to, the protest followed. Eric Gardner Sr. was a father and husband who was illegally selling loose cigarettes outside of a store in New York. After the NYPD attempted to arrest Gardner and Gardner resisted, one officer proceeded to illegally choke Gardner and took the man to the ground. Gardner infamously yelled “I have asthma… I can’t breathe!” an estimated 8 times before being pronounced dead. A bystander recorded the entire encounter and posted the video online for millions to see. The officer that killed Gardner illegally would later not be indicted on any criminal charges. Shirts that simply said “I Can’t Breathe” began to appear on multiple star athletes including Kevin Garnett, Reggie Bush, Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Nick Young, and Jeremy Lin. The NBA also had its’ own issue with race in 2014. Former Clippers’ Owner Donald Sterling was recorded by his ex-girlfriend ranting about not wanting black people at his games. Atlanta Hawks Controlling Owner Bruce Levenson had a 2012 e-mail leaked that discussed ideas on how to create an atmosphere more “diverse,” with ideas that included making the team’s cheerleaders “less black.” This same week, 2014 audio of Hawks General Manager Danny Ferry was leaked in a conference call with Ferry discuss how “African” then free agent forward Luol Deng was. As far as my favorite teams go, 2014 went as about as Atlanta as Atlanta could get. Georgia State became the best College Basketball team in the state, but lost last season’s Sun Belt tournament championship after blowing a late game lead and missing a last second no-call shot by Ryan Harrow. The Braves blew yet another lead in their division to miss the playoffs again, and this off season they continue to decline as a team. The Falcons missed the playoffs last season, lost Tony Gonzalez to a television gig, but end 2014 in a play-in game against the Carolina Panthers to win the worst division in football since 2010. We’re number one..?!? The Georgia State Football team did begin their season on National Television however to end their dreaded win-drought in a thiller at home, but also didn’t have the best season after that and was named the worst team in the country by ESPN. The UGA Football team was in the championship talk, then out of it, then in it again, before ended the season out of it and losing their best player to a torn ACL, BUT their backup is the freshMAN. The Chubster. The Chublunker. The ChuberdelafuenteofPrimeTimeSportz. Nick Chubb. The Hawks had a rough offseason, and they might need every offseason to be rough because they are currently one of the hottest teams in the league and are the talk of the town (alongside the GSU Men’s Basketball Team, of course.) So here’s to a news-filled 2015, in a good way. More championships and less controversy for all. But this is Sports, so everyone isn’t guaranteed peace. |
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AuthorSDarien Amos CategoriesArchives
June 2016
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