NASCAR in Car

The fastest growing sport in America has another way for you to enjoy it. They put you in the car, in the pits and hearing the radio. Well not literally of course. I am talking about DirecTV’s NASCAR in Car, a service available with their very popular NASCAR package. Hear Junior curse at his car, watch Tony Eury Jr. call the number 88s shots and see super owner Rick Hendrick huff and puff up and down pit road coaching his drivers and hoping to pull away with another cup win. This service has boosted DirecTV’s sales tremendously and is one of the most improved aspects of covering sports in history. For those who find NASCAR boring and think it’s cars driving in a circle, this is a new aspect that can bring them in. For the die-hard car fans it brings them one step closer to the oval.

New Uniforms

When uniforms in all sports started they were pretty much heavy, bulky, rough pieces of wool crudely sewn together. Now uniforms are just as technical as the equipment covering the sports. Light fabrics that wick away sweat to make you lighter, skin tight material that keeps you warm and your barely wearing anything at all. Uniform sponsorships in all the major sports lead to newer and newer technology and better competition between companies. Currently Reebok makes uniforms for both the N.F.L. and the N.H.L. Adidas, primarily a soccer company has expanded their sports repertoire by branching out and sponsoring the N.B.A. Majestic has won a fierce battle with Reebok and Nike to sponsor M.L.B. But just because one company has won the sponsorship of a sport doesn’t mean they own it forever. NFL Equipment, made by Reebok, held a monopoly over all uniforms, gloves and arm protection worn in football. This year however, the juggernaut that is Nike slipped in and was allowed to make gloves for the players they sponsored. Paul Lukas columnist for ESPN’s Page Two, writes a weekly column called Uni Watch, wear he points out idiosyncrasies in the uniforms and writes about the new technology taking place in them. (His site can be viewed here). Reebok developed streamlined uniforms for the N.H.L. that make the players more aerodynamic and give them less weight to have to carry around. Technology contributes to all aspects of sports, to the way there covered, to the things the athletes wear, and it will change over and over again.

Technology that has failed in sports.

For years sports have experimented with technology, some of which has succeeded and some that have failed. Cameras mounted on layers, officials and every possible angle on the playing surface. ESPNNEWS, Fox Sports Channel and the NFL Network have all had success bringing constant streaming sports news to cable television. But not all ideas have worked. Ideas like the NHL’s glow puck and the synthetic leather ball in the NBA. Ideas that were made to change and revolutionize their respective sports were met with extreme criticism. The glow puck which was showcased by Fox during the 1995-96 and briefly the 96-97 seasons was supposed to make non hockey fans enjoy the sport because too many complained they couldn’t follow the speeding vulcanized rubber disc. The concept was great on paper but its concept failed because frankly, it made you dizzy watching the game. You tried to watch the colored disc but after a few seconds you felt like you were going to lose your lunch. Fox also added a comet tail feature for shots that went over 75 M.P.H., this failed too because it was always to far behind the puck, and followed the puck for too long. The N.B.A experimented with a synthetic leather ball in the 06-07 season but it was quickly shot down. Conspiracy theories surround the rock, that it was P.E.TA. Who was behind the change (no theories have been proven). The ball slipped out of players hands, felt tacky and playmakers complained they couldn’t perform some of the moves that made them all-stars with it. Steve Nash and Agent Zero, Gilbert Arenas were two such players. Technology and sports always go hand in hand, but sometimes like the examples above, they fail.

9 neighbors

9 neighbors is a website dedicated to the people who live in and around the hub. It is site that is devoted to bringing up to date information on the news around Boston. Everything from traffic and train schedules, to pot hole maps and current Red Sox information. This site has it all. 9 Neighbors is journalism because well it covers the news, has an audience and because it's truthful information. Sometimes there is an opinion or two, but mainly it is truthful information. 9 Neighbors is not journalism because it is unregulated, it is hard to verify all the facts on it (if they are facts at all), and most would argue since it just takes links from other sites and does very little of its own reporting it isn't really journalism. However I would need to argue that even though most of the information is provided by other sources and links, somebody has to find it and compile it, so that makes it journalism. There is a role for professional journalists everywhere so their is definitely one on 9 Neighbors. A professional journalist could do some original reporting, they could help fact check and they could help better the reputation of the site by being a part of it. Mainstream sites should definitely use sites like 9 Neighbors because since it's citizen journalism, the citizens are going to read it. This helps their readership and it makes them feel more at home with citizens and less like the big media machine that a lot of sites and news organizations are viewed as. I think that 9 Neighbors pulls of the citizen journalism part of their site very well. However I think they need to add more meat to their reporting, all it is, is a few sentences explaining the link. They should put some more into their blurbs. All in all I think 9 Neighbors is a very good site. 

Super Bowl

MYSpace.com also owned by the all powerful Rupert Murdoch, just like Fox who broadcast the game came up with one of the best ideas in Super Bowl history. They created a page just for the commercials so you could watch them over and over again. Also if you miss them you can see them again. The page can be viewed here. My favorite ad of this year was the Jackie Moon ad for Bud Light. Viewed here. This is great for the ads that worked. However several ads were flagged as racist or sexually demeaning. The Sales Genie ads that featured both a panda and a worker and his boss. They can be viewed here and here. Both were immediately scolded and have been pulled from regular rotation. It seems like every year some company doesn't have a clue and makes a terrible mistake on a racist or sexist commercial. For these commercials the internet websites that feature these ads are a terrible invention. However for the ads like Bud Light and Coca-Cola who did very well this year, these websites are amazing. Their message gets out over and over again, and people can watch their favorite ads the way they were meant to be seen.

Spygate: What's the Deal?

A report surfaced earlier this week that the Patriots spying scandal was a lot more than we originally realized. Commissioner Roger Goodell was called out by Senator Arlen Spector, asking why the tapes were destroyed and why more action was taken against the Patriots. Matt Walsh, now an assistant golf pro in California was employed by the Patriots from 1998-2003 where he shot video for them. He said that he taped the Rams final walk through on the eve of Super Bowl XXXVI. A walk through is where the team goes through what plays they will be running in the game in certain situations. If this is true, this would be extremely damaging to the Patriots and Bill Belichick. Who knows if what Walsh is saying is true, but this will defiantly linger over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII and even worse history. Technology has become so crazy over the years in regards to the game of football, it's hard to keep up. Twenty years ago it would be hard for all this videotaping to go on unnoticed, but now with cameras being so small and sophisticated and the internet it's going to be hard to try and catch everyone. The 2007 Patriots are one of the best teams to ever play the game of football period. It's a shame that this scandal will follow them throughout history no matter what the outcome.

Super Bowl Media Day

It happens every Tuesday before the Super Bowl. Thousands of media outlets from all over the world congregate on the gridiron to ask every question under the sun. It's called Media Day at the Super Bowl, or for Bill Belchick "The Worst Day of the Year." Every player from each of the two teams is asked a barrage of questions, some having to do with football others not. For example Coach Belichick was asked what he eats late at night during film sessions? To which he replied, "Anything with salt." Tom Brady was asked by a female reporter, "Would she marry him?" (Watch it here). Media Day does nothing more than provoke controversy and let us hear the answers to the same questions that have been asked all year. But with sites like Espn360.com streaming the video live, Media Day has taken on a whole new audience. It used to be that people would only hear about what was said at Media Day after they returned home from work or school, now with live video on all the time, people can pick it up instantly. If a player says something memorable or even worse, something terrible, a lot of people see it live. For those that don't, well I am sure that people that did will post the video on the internet shortly after the moment occurs. Media Day now becomes a huge deal to the players because instead of just being watched by the couple hundred or thousand reporters at any one given time, they can be watched by millions. Welcome to the Super Bowl in the 21st century. Enjoy.