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minteagalaxea · 4 years

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aeipathy | s.k

sakusa and izumi

genre: fluffy, kinda character study/relationship study.

word count: 3k

inspiration: water girl things, “loveeeeeee song” by rihanna ft. future.

note: a foray into haikyuu, since i’ve been binging it in quarantine. for @ferxaniiiiii

“have you ever considered the fact that sakusa is a little nicer to you than everybody else that helps out, sato?” a girl asked another as they made their way to their next class, receiving a shrug from the girl.

“i really haven’t thought of it that way, hoshi, i thought that was how he always was,” she responded.

“he really wasn’t.”

“hey, are you from australia, because you pass all my koalafications,” a boy called out, izumi craning her head with a raised eyebrow upon hearing the remark.

“nope, i’m a kangaroo, because i hop away every time i see you,” she deadpanned, face impassive as she returned her gaze back to the linemen practicing, allowing the boys to receive their water and gatorade and receiving a nod or verbal note of thanks before they were called back into lining up to practice their plays. making her way to hoshi, who was deep-squatting on the grass, izumi exchanged bottles with her, the girls exchanging smiles as they watched the boys play.

as the girl went to refill the water bottles, she noticed one that rested on the table, different from the squeeze bottles with its black body and gold boot and metal finishings; his lid strap had an embroidered keychain with his name written vertically along the fabric: “sakusa” on the front and “kiyoomi” on the back. the body of his bottle had thin gold decals of constellations, leaves, a lightbulb, and his jersey number, making it appear almost as if it was engraved onto his bottle rather than plastered on. swirling the bottle, the girl noted that there was very little water remaining, and she filled it up with some of the purple gatorade from the container, traipsing her way back to the field.

as some of the players rotated out, the girls distributed bottles to the players, up until one boy, tall with pale, unblemished skin approached her, his eyes flickering down to the water bottle dangling on her other hand. “oh, are you sakusa? i hope you don’t mind, but i filled up your water bottle, it was looking empty.”

skeptically, he grabbed the water bottle from her clutches, removing his gloves and tucking them into the waistband of his pants before removing his helmet, revealing his curled, inky locks and two moles on the right of his forehead as he opened the water bottle to examine its contents, finally taking a sip from the bottle.

“thank you,” he said after several, deliberate sips, his voice pleasantly baritone, though dry and hesitant, as if asking her to fill the silent void.

“sato izumi,” she answered, a small smile on her face as he handed her his water bottle again.

“thank you, sato-san,” he concluded, slipping on his gloves, then his helmet and mouth guard before he returned out to the field, leaving her stunned at his actions and her heart irregularly beating.

“adachi-senpai, how can you be so sure about this?” izumi wondered, hopping onto the adjacent taping table; the other girl sounded confident and assured, like she did most things.

“most of the time, he doesn’t speak, and if he does, it’s only about football or his studies; he only seems to talk to you.”

“how do you know that, adachi-senpai?”

“because i observe, sato, and because some of the players aren’t the best at keeping their mouth shut when it comes to their star receiver, which you and i are both aware of.”

“sato-san!” the girl heard a boy call, approaching her with a bright smile and friendly eyes in between switching players, “i’ve heard so much about you from sakusa-kun!”

“i beg your pardon?” she questioned, an eyebrow raised as she passed him a bottle of water from the basket in her clutches.

“sakusa-kun’s my cousin, and he really likes you; he’s always talking about how pretty and polite you are!” he continued, izumi’s expression inquisitive glimmer flickering into panic as he chatted away.

“komori, knock it off, you’re scaring the poor girl,” hoshi called from the other end of the field, her tone exasperated as she passed a water bottle to kuroo tetsurou, giving him a glare to counteract the smirk on his feline-like features; izumi looked back at the players, before passing sakusa his own water bottle.

“gatorade flavor, sato-san?” sakusa inquired as he removed his helmet to take a drink from his water bottle.

“blue, sakusa-san,” she answered, a smile on her face as she accepted his water bottle, “are you ready for the game tomorrow night?”

“i am,” he answered succinctly, wiping his plush lips with the back of his hand before putting his helmet back on.

“would you like some hand sanitizer, sakusa-san?” she offered, rummaging through the pockets of her windbreaker to pull out a small bottle of hand sanitizer, one scented with vanilla sugar as she uncapped it; wordlessly, extended his hand, allowing her to squirt some of the liquid onto his hand, followed by her own, spreading the substance thoroughly on her hands.

“thank you, sato-san,” he acknowledged as he slipped his gloves back onto his hands, flashing her a brief smile, and izumi attempted to ignore the way her heart beat in a peculiar staccato rhythm the rest of the practice, along with komori’s words.

“sato is just fine,” she murmured, her cheeks dusted with pink as she pocketed her hand sanitizer, and while he didn’t respond to her, the nod he gave her before running back to his position was sufficient indication that he heard her.

“but, komori-san said it once, and besides, we’re not allowed to flirt with the players, and they aren’t allowed to flirt with us,” izumi rationalized.

“well, he’s not,” hoshi pointed out, “at least, not in the traditional sense; but, you do realize that sakusa doesn’t like it when he has to take pictures, right?”

“he doesn’t like what?”

the stadium lights shined down onto the grass as the players began to move, and izumi moved along the field, passing water to the players standing along, waiting for their turn to play, or waiting for the switch between offense and defense. she watched in amazement at the players: atsumu’s steady hands throwing the ball, bokuto’s impeccable rushes for more first downs, nishinoya’s speedy interceptions to get the ball back, ushijima’s brute force as he tackled multiple linemen, kuroo’s clever plays as he outwitted the linemen.

yet, izumi’s line of vision focused onto the boy with the number 15 on his black jersey, and his surname is gold lettering, his runs clean and efficient, every step intentional and no move wasted as he bolted towards the end zone, his height proving to be an advantage as he made his fourth touchdown of the evening; the girl cheered loudly as the got the additional point.

as sakusa returned, izumi passed him his bottle, a jovial grin on her face as she cheered, “you’re doing great, sakusa-san, keep up the work!”

“thank you, sato,” he returned, taking a sip of water before sighing, “and you can drop the formalities with me, you know—i don’t view it as fair.”

“it’s alright, sakusa-san,” izumi reassured earnestly, stepping closer to him, though remaining an arm’s length away, “you’re almost there, don’t give up!”

despite his impassive expression, he nodded an affirmative, slipping his helmet and mouth guard back in as he ran back to the field, striding past her with a confident gait and predatory eyes as he stared down the linemen—it was a look she hadn’t seen on him before, though she was desperate to see it again, and she wasn’t sure why.

they had won, as expected of them given the large upset, though it didn’t diminish the victory: izumi saw as soon as they finished their post-game ritual, kuroo rushed over to hoshi, tackling her into a hug, though she found herself averting her attention to the boy in the no. 15 jersey as he approached her with a tentative smile. “good job, saskusa-san!” she cheered, staring in awe as he removed his helmet and gloves, showing off the somewhat exhilarated grin on his face.

spraying some of her hand sanitizer on their hands, he took a hold of her hand, inquiring with a gentle intonation, “would you like to take a picture with me?”

“i’d love to,” the girl replied, lightly tugging him towards hoshi, handing the older girl her phone—despite anticipating a remark from the older girl, izumi received none, merely a raise of the eyebrow before she told them to smile. moving his hand to her waist, he tucked her into his side, the girl smiling in surprise at his actions as the shutter went off.

upon inspecting the photo, izumi saved it as her phone wallpaper, sakusa’s smile enchanting underneath the stadium lights, and leaving her heart racing every glance she took at the photo.

“i didn’t know that,” izumi pouted towards the older girl, who fondly ruffled her hair, “but, adachi-senpai, what flavor is the gatorade today?”

“purple,” hoshi answered after peering at her phone, “why do you ask?”

“sakusa-san only likes the purple and blue ones,” the younger blurted without entirely thinking about it, “he says the red one tastes nasty, and the yellow one’s weird.”

the older girl turned, her mint eyes knowing as she raised an eyebrow, “did you guess that, or did he tell you, izumi?”

“he told me a few practices ago, maybe two weeks when i passed him water—wait a second, you didn’t know?”

“sakusa doesn’t tell water girls information,” hoshi explained, “actually, correction, i don’t think he tells anybody anything, not even komori, though he tells you these things; although, humor me for a second. why exactly do you interact with sakusa so much?”

“because i like…him…” izumi trailed off, before watching hoshi’s smirk, one present when she seemed to know something that the other didn’t.

“what’s stopping you then—the game is tonight, and you’re helping, so it’s the perfect opportunity for you to finally do something about it,” the elder explained plaintively.

“what about our teacher, then?” the other girl asked, brushing a strand of her brown and blonde-highlighted hair away from her face, curiosity glimmering in her eyes as she properly eyed her senior, izumi’s eyes only widening at the impish smirk on the latter’s visage as she indicated.

“i said you should confess—i never said you had to confess during the game.”

“are you alright, sakusa-san?” izumi asked the tall boy, passing him his water as he stretched in the locker room away from the others, agitation consuming his face.

“i’m alright, i suppose,” he answered after a while. “i feel very unprepared, even though i don’t necessarily have a reason to be—you shouldn’t worry about it, sato.”

“of course, i’ll worry,” izumi interjected calmly, eyes flitting around the room before taking a seat on the bench in front of him, extending her hands out for him to hold, feeling his fingers, long and smooth despite the strenuous training and practices, intertwine with hers. slowly and experimentally, she applied some pressure, noticing his sigh and hums as she squeezed up his arms, to his shoulders, then cupping his face delicately, stroking his cheek and the moles on his forehead, “play well for yourself, alright?”

as their teacher called for her and hoshi to leave the locker room, izumi brushed his cheek, before feeling his nimble fingers wrap around her wrist loosely, an imperceptible smile on his face, before murmuring, “thank you, izumi.”

“good luck out there,” she answered, clutching onto his water bottle as they rushed out of the locker room to the field, the ghost of his fingers lingering on her wrist as she refilled the water bottles, attempting to ignore the way her heart raced at his physical touch and the way he called her name.

as sakusa rushed out of the locker room with the other players, izumi noted that his posture was confident, any semblance of nerves gone with his helmet on, his eyes narrowed into predatory slits, hungry for a victory.

the boys played aggressively, taking as many points as they could get their gloved hands onto, with nishinoya, komori, and kuroo intercepting plenty of the opponent’s plays, and atsumu capitalized on it as he threw it to sakusa and bokuto, both of them bolting to the endzones faster than their opponents could catch them. izumi cheered loudly for them, passing them all encouraging smiles as they hollered for every point they scored, all of them seeming relentless in their energy in spite of them running hundreds of yards and tackling players heavier than them.

“congratulations, sakusa-san!” izumi called jovially as he strode over, shucking his gloves off for some of her hand sanitizer, then tugging her into a tight embrace, hunching his back down to her to allow her to rest her chin on his shoulder, “you played so well!”

“i’m glad you thought so,” he mumbled, ignoring the snaps of the camera and his teammates’ teases, before he pulled away, a light pink on his cheeks as he peered down at her, “bokuto was planning on having a party at his house, but, would you mind if i took you with me to get some frozen yogurt?”

izumi peered down at her phone, reading a message that hoshi had sent her, explaining that she was driving bokuto, kuroo, atsumu and komori to the party, and to ask sakusa to take her home. “i’d love to go get some frozen yogurt with you,” she responded with a smile, squeezing his hands before following the boy towards the locker room, taking a seat on the bench and scrolling through the various social media posts regarding the best game moments and the pictures the players’ friends—and admirers—posted of them.

“are you ready?” sakusa’s slightly muffled voice called, snapping izumi from her reverie as she quickly pocketed her phone, blushing slightly as she shivered slightly from the chill, before hearing an audible click of the tongue, “here, put this on—it’s quite chilly.”

the girl hadn’t registered what he draped around her, until she slipped her hands through its arms and felt its weight that she realized it was his letterman jacket, still somewhat vacant in comparison to some of his upperclassmen, though he neatly organized the patches he did have along the quilted fabric, with one sleeve representing his academic achievements, and the other his athletics. “thank you, sakusa-san,” she answered after a moment of silence, the flush on her cheeks reddening profusely as he casually slipped his pinky into hers as he led them to his car, a mercedes amg-gt that stood out among the other students’ trucks and suvs in the parking lot.

“my parents gave it to me for being good and getting high marks,” he explained succinctly, opening the door for her to enter, before starting the ignition after he buckled in, passing her the auxiliary cord, letting them enjoy their ride with some lofi jazz.

“are you close with your parents?” she asked after a period of silence, earning a hum from the older boy, “you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“not really,” he answered, “they’re busy at work, and my siblings have jobs, so really, it’s just me at home; i don’t mind it, though.”

“but does it ever consume you?” she inquired, earning a hum of curiosity as she continued, “i mean, i know you probably have komori-san, but i’m sure it gets suffocating being alone.” before he could comment, he pulled into the parking lot of the frozen yogurt shop; both of them remained in silence as they each got their dessert: izumi’s with french vanilla and oreo yogurt with sprinkles, sakusa’s green tea and peach yogurt with a litany of bursting pearls and gummy bears.

despite her insistence, the boy payed for both of their treats, and they ate in his car, the music acting as ambient noise for them to softly converse together, their topics less heady as sakusa’s home life, though personal regardless, learning more and more from each other in a way that had the boy grateful that the darkness—excluding the glow of the moon and the touchscreen display of his vehicle—to conceal the redness on his face as he learned more about her home life and her passion for sports therapy, in turn divulging information about his dreams to play football professionally.

“people misunderstand me,” sakusa stated candidly as his car stopped in front of izumi’s house, earning a look from the girl as her head quirked to the side out of wonder, allowing him to elaborate, “people think i don’t want love, or that i’m too busy for it.”

“but you need love and affection, just like most humans do?” izumi concluded, a sweet smile on her visage as her hand reached out to hold onto his, leaning closer and daring her other hand to cup his cheek.

“does that make me sound desperate?” he murmured, eyes flitting down to her lips as she detected his actions, parting to exhale lightly.

“it makes you human, sakusa,” the girl replied, allowing the athlete to close the gap, laying his lips onto hers and leading with a slow cadence, uncertain, though reciprocated with the same, calm passion. izumi tasted the lingering green tea on his lips, pleasantly surprised from occasional places of strawberry from the pearls; he tasted the vanilla on her tongue.

pulling away, both students breathed heavily, their foreheads leaning against each other as the nimble fingers tucked away brown and blonde tresses, and daintier ones stroking the moles on his forehead. “i’ll see you tomorrow, sakusa?” izumi whispered, receiving another peck from the boy, “sleep well.”

as she entered her house, and watched the mercedes leave, izumi found herself consumed with the taste of his lips, and the tenderness of his kiss.

in his car, sakusa found himself reminded of the vanilla on her lips, enduring and warm as he touched his lips.

#sakusa #sakusa kiyoomi #sakusa x reader #sakusa kiyoomi x reader #haikyuu #haikyuu oneshot #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #sakusa scenarios #sakusa kiyoomi scenarios #sakusa imagines #sakusa kiyoomi imagine #sakusa oneshot #sakusa kiyoomi oneshot

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theoriginalladya · 4 years

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Wearing clothes in their favorite color.

from this prompt list - Thank you for asking!

On AO3 here

This one was a challenge, and I’m a bit surprised at the pairing that decided to claim it! lol However, considering how the games have been going, it really shouldn’t be that much of a surprise ...

~~~

It starts as an accident, really. He doesn’t even notice at first. When your entire adult life is lived in navy blue twenty-four seven, opportunity to wear other colors can go one of two ways; outright fear or a desperate attempt to showcase individuality. Normally, he opts for the second. Like the blue, white and green jersey he wears on leave in support of his favorite hockey team back on Earth. Or the cream and crimson sweater his mother knit him for Christmas one year. It never occurs to him there’s a third option; mourning.

In the weeks following Alchera, after multiple debriefs, watching his former crewmates reassigned elsewhere, he is given leave to recuperate before he reports to his next duty station. He has nothing but time on his hands, and that, he discovers to his chagrin, is a problem. The idea of leave alone reminds him of the years between BAaT and enlisting; not a place he wants to revisit, especially now.

A friend from basic offers him a place to stay on Arcturus, and he accepts. Heading home might work, but there will be questions, most of which he doesn’t want to answer now. Arcturus, on the other hand, is different. He has mixed memories of time spent here, but it is connected with Earth and home, as well as the Citadel, his next assignment, so why not?

Still, too much time in idle hands can be a dangerous thing.

It begins the night of his arrival. After dropping his things at the flat, he’s spent the rest of the day wandering the station, reacquainting himself. He’s passed through here on several occasions, but this is the first time he’s had more than a day and he wants to get a better lay of the land. But, where to start? The obvious choices are where he’s been before: Arcturus Memorial Hospital or Murph’s. He opts for the former, but ends the day at the latter.

He sits alone in a booth in back. It’s quiet here and gives him a good line of sight on those already present as well as a view of the door. As if he’s expecting someone to walk in …

Not this time.

He orders a glass of Tullamore – the same as last time – and nurses it the rest of the night. His server eyes him suspiciously, but notices the rank insignia at his collar and says nothing. He stays until last call then heads home. He returns two nights later; same seat, same drink, same server. She’s less suspicious this time thanks to the generous tip from his last visit, though she still says nothing. Two nights later, a third visit. Then a fourth.

The fifth time he’s seated she walks over with a genuine smile of recognition. She doesn’t ask what he wants, simply sets a glass of Tullamore in front of him. But, for just a moment, she slides into the seat across from him, folds her hands together and rests her chin atop them, looking straight at him. “Each time you visit,” she observes quietly in a voice with the same lilt he’s come to know so well, “you remind me a little more of home.”

He isn’t quite sure what to make of that, and simply arches one thick brow in response.

She nods at his shirt; he glances down. Old and faded, what used to be bright orange now hints at its former glory, more resembling an orange creamsicle he used to eat as a kid. His old school logo is long ago faded, but the quality of the material is surprisingly good, so he’s kept it in his rotation. These days, it barely fits anymore, but the dark green jacket he’s grown fond of hides that fact well enough. Brow still arched, he asks, “What do you mean?”

Her smile widens. “Éire, my friend.” She sighs softly, but her smile remains in place except in her eyes. “I had hoped you might be a little slice of home come to visit.”

His eyes close on a sharp wave of pain as her words filter through. “I – .” He pauses, clears his throat, then tries again. “I’m not, no,” he finally forces out, “but I just lost a good friend who was …”

One of her hands darts out to pat his gently even as she rises back to her feet. “I’m sure they’d be happy to know you are thinking of them fondly then. Sláinte!”

She leaves, for which he is thankful, because the toast is nearly his undoing. A small tremor that begins in his hand rolls up and around his shoulder. He has to set his glass down or risk spilling the contents.

Thinking of you fondly? He stares at his hands in front of him for one long minute before bracing them flat against the table. How is this supposed to work, Shepard? You were the best commander I’ve ever served with. A Spectre beyond reproach. You saved us, the galaxy from a threat that the Council and Alliance both want to sweep under the rug. Someone has to remember you, don’t they? Keep up the fight?

His eyes fall to his shirt and jacket once more. An accident, but one that makes sense now that it’s been pointed out to him as memories of Commander Caleb Shepard return, resplendent in his specialized N7 armor of dark green with bright orange stripe down his arm.

He takes the glass and downs the liquid in one gulp tonight; he fights his way past the burn to his belly and feels a fire stoked deep inside. You may be gone, but neither you nor the fight will not be forgotten.

He pushes himself to his feet and finds her again on his way out, slipping her twice his usual tip. At her startled gasp, he finds his first true smile since Alchera. “I’ll see you next time,” he tells her as he turns to leave.

#50 Wordless Ways to Say I Love You #ladya writes #when the muses attack #mass effect fanfiction #implied Caleb Shepard #Kaidan Alenko #pre-mshenko but on the way-ish #sorry but Caleb's armor in ME2/3 has been the green/orange from the flag #and it fits him so perfectly #guileandgall

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jeawrites · 5 years

Text

RD AU Draft: 2

(Same as last time but now featuring some edited parts-- Considering this a draft because its mostly unedited and I haven’t added everything in yet- but feel free to read it! The finished part will most likely be uploaded on ao3 but I’ll be sure to post a link to it on here.) Anthony had, had a similar reaction to Evan’s when he saw Tyler’s outfit. He wheezed and laughed too hard for his own good, but he got over it quickly in place of his own excitement.

The entire trip to the skate park was about how much they were going to enjoy the bout, how much fun they were going to have. Even after they had gotten inside and seated it was still just him blabbering on.

“They’re so-so cool! I promise you’ll both enjoy this and-”

Tyler put his hand on Anthony’s mouth. “Okay, we get it. Calm down, dude,” he mumbled. After getting a nod, he removed his hand. Then, he jumped in his seat after hearing a voice. “Tyler?” he turned his head, fear raising in hm. More people he knew meant more people not letting him live down the fact that he wore this outfit, meaning more jokes, meaning- wait.

“Luke?” he asked, snickering.

The man in front of him grinned and crossed his arms. “The one and only,” he chuckled. “What’re you doin’ here? I didn’t know you liked derby,” he asked, curious. Tyler shrugged. “I don’t know if I do. My friend dragged me out here to watch. What are you doing here and-” he giggled, “With bunny ears?” Luke blinked and then chuckled. “These?” he gestured up, “Aren’t mine. I stole them from Ryan. He came with me this time, but I usually regular the bouts,” he explained. And, aren’t you one to talk, cat boy?”

Tyler decided to ignore the comment, not wanting to linger on the topic of his clothes. “No way is Ryan here,” he spoke, genuinely surprised. “Oh, yeah. It's his first time at one of these too,” he replied, “I wanted to get him introduced to a new sport.” Tyler nodded, and glanced over to his friends, who were both sort of looking at him in confusion. Which, that made him confused until he let out an ‘oh’.

“Right. Luke,” he looked at him again, smiling some, “This is Evan and Anthony, my friends. You and Ryan should come sit with us.” Luke smiled at the other two, getting polite smiles in turn. “Sounds great!” he agreed. “I’ll go find, Ry and tell him we’re over here,” he added and turned to walk away.

They all grew more excited for the bout.

The bout had started off good, the teams getting introduced and the first few rotations going well.

Tyler was really getting into it, yelling at the skaters, encouraging the team he was rooting for, the Derby Dolls, and getting just overly excited.

“Keep going!” Tyler shouted, watching as the girl quickly moved her way out of the group and onto the turn. The crowd cheered excitedly as well. “Yeah! You kick their asses, AnnihilateHer!” he shouted, gripping the edge of his seat. He was having a better time than he thought he would.

Evan watched the girl quickly move her way around one that tried to stop her, his eyes wide in amazement and his smile wide. “Good job!” he shouted, hoping his encouragement would reach her as she sped a corner.

Tyler watched her with careful eyes and then he glared at the ref who called her, managing to hear it was a backblock- like the eighth one called to night (not on just her). “She wasn’t anywhere near her back! Open your fucking eyes!” he yelled at the ref and he kicked the wall in front of him. He’s done it several times already.

Anthony laughed gently. He was glad his friends were enjoying themselves. “I told you both you’d like it,” he teased as the jam ended, the next one setting up to be a power jam. Tyler looked at him, his eyes sparkling and his grin crazily wide. “Dude this is sick! It’s so fucking cool- I can’t believe they’d allow a sport like this,” he laughed. “It’s wild,” he chuckled. “You’re wild,” Evan snickered, “You’ve kicked that wall a billion times now, and I think you’re voice is loud enough the refs hear you the last few times. Control yourself,” he teased and got a punch to the arm in turn. “Shut up and let me have this,” he stated, but there wasn’t any spite or sarcasm, he was still smiling and having a good time. This was fun!

He looked to Ryan and Luke, who were in a similar state, though Luke was calmer due to having seen this all live so many times.

“And she just slammed into her-” Ryan exclaimed, hands flailing as he tried to explain. “Yeah, I know, Ry. I saw it,” Luke laughed softly and he looked at him with wide eyes full of awe. “They didn’t flinch, Luke! That’s amazing! This is really cool-” he looked to the track as a new pack formed. “Can you imagine if I did that?”

Luke tilted his head a bit. “Ryan, if I could imagine you doing it, I’d already be doing it,” he answered and Ryan huffed a little. “Really, Luke! Think about it! It’d be so much fun to play together- to learn how to do this cool stuff and-”

“You know, you can play it,” Anthony answered him. Ryan paused and looked back, curiosity in his eyes. “What?” he asked. “You can totally play it. In fact, I’m making a mens team- if you want to play,” he offered and Ryan stared before grinning wide. “No way.”

“I’ll do it,” Luke followed, gaining eyes. “I’ll totally play. Sounds fun.” Ryan pursed his lips. “It does sound really fun,” he agreed.

Tyler looked at Ryan, nodding. “I was the first to join, can confirm it's very fun-” “You didn’t want to join- plus, you haven’t even played yet,” Anthony cut in and Tyler looked at him with a glare. “I was the first you asked which makes me first to join,” he stuck his tongue out at him, and Anthony stuck his out in turn before they both chuckled. “I was second to join then!” Evan declared, snickering.

Luke looked at Ryan as he spoke. “I was third. You wanna be fourth Ry? Come on, you wanna do what those awesome girls are doin?” he asked, encouraging him to join. Ryan bit his lip lightly, thinking it over before he nodded. “Yeah… Yeah! I do! I wanna do that shit too! Consider me on the team! Whenever it's actually made anyways,” he grinned.

Anthony couldn’t believe his team was actually beginning to form.

The bout ended on a good note, the team they were rooting for winning and Anthony treated his friends to dinner (he even took out Ryan and Luke- they were going to be on his team after all so he figured he’d get to know them).

But, when he got home and sat down to start putting preparations for the team together, he finally got hit with a realization;

Making a team was harder than Anthony initially thought.

He had to advertise out to get more people. Four weren’t enough to cut it- it wasn’t even enough to start practicing (five being a good place to start). He also had the issue of needing to register his team, get jerseys, budgeting, getting forms and waivers.

He needed some help.

He ran his hands over his face, and sighed. This wasn’t too good. Who could he get to help? He didn’t know anybody else who seemed to show an interest in coaching the sport, and it didn’t seem like the type of thing he could drop a flyer for.

He thought over people, thinking of names he hadn’t thought of for a good while until one hit him with a good familiarity and made the lightbulb in his head go off as he grabbed his phone.

Anthony stared at his phone, eyeing the profile he had quickly pulled up on Facebook- thankfully they were friends already. He was hesitant, of course. He hadn’t talked to Brock in years. Was this weird? He fidgeted a bit with the device before he sucked up his worries and quickly typed a message. When he finished it, he patiently waited, running his hand through his hair.

A yawn left Brock’s lips as he sat his bag down on his bed. His clothes were stained with a drink some lady spilled on him, and he couldn’t wait to get them off.

God he hated his job. He was the nicest person he could be, yet someone was always ready to complain. The fast food industry could die. But, that thought made him laugh a little. Like this country would let fast food die.

He shook his head and got changed quickly before he finally got into bed and looked at his phone, only to see he got a message from… Anthony?

He stared at his screen, eyeing the message a few times over in surprise. Why would Anthony of all people be messaging him this late? Or now? He hadn’t even talked to him for the last few years. Regardless of that thought, he opened the message curiously and read through it quickly, a smile crossing his face momentarily before confusion hit.

‘Wanna help coach a bunch of dumbasses with my dumbass?’

The idea of himself coaching didn’t sound right, but the phrasing of the request was funny and it did keep Brock’s attention, especially as three dots appeared at the bottom.

‘Roller derby, I mean. You wanna help coach it? Adult league.’

A sudden feeling hit at the mention of the sport. He had loved playing it as a child, really. It was dangerous- despite the gear they wore, but the team experience is something he always held onto, even after he aged out at 18. But, the idea of coaching it? It had never crossed his mind. Until now, and it was till laughable. However, an opportunity to meet new people is always nice, and he did need a change in setting from where he was now.

He especially needed the latter. Quickly, he responded back.

‘More details would be nice, like where you’re living these days. But, I’m in.’

Anthony didn’t actually live too far from him, so it wasn’t hard to start planning on moving closer to the area if he were to actually take up the coaching position.

“What’cha thinkin’ about?” he jumped a little and looked up from the counter before sighing. “Don’t scare me like that, Lui,” he mumbled before standing up straight. “Sorry, just thought I’d kick you from you daze before someone else did,” he spoke, a bit genuine and a smile went with it that Brock could resist. “It’s fine,” he passed it off, “Thanks for snapping me out of it, actually.”

The shorter nodded and kicked his feet lightly before speaking; “So, you gonna answer me?” Brock took a minute before nodding a little. “I was offered a coaching position,” he answered, “I’ve been considering taking it up. I’m supposed to go meet the… team they have so far and the actual coach.” Lui beamed. “You should do it!” he nearly squealed. “It’ll be good for you, Brock! Get you out of your comfort zone,” he added, “Plus- I can totally go with you to the meeting, right?” The brunette grew confused at that request. “Why… why would you want to go to the meeting?” he asked and Lui chuckled. “As your back up incase stuff goes wrong, of course!” he chuckled. “I’m a tough cookie!” he squeaked out and Brock chuckled. “Yeah, Okay. You can come. Just don’t be too mean to anybody.” “No promises!”

#bigjigglypanda #Big Jiggly Panda #I AM WILDCAT #vanoss #vanossgaming #vanoss gaming #ohmwrecker #Cartoonz #moo snuckel #Lui Calibre #aw yeah its all coming together #slowly but surely #bbs #bbs au #banana bus squad #roller derby au?

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thefederalistfreestyle · 5 years

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You Can Star In ‘Hamilton’ And Still Fear For Your Life As A Black Man (HuffPo):

Carvens Lissaint is tired of having to prove he belongs in his own building. He’s a 6 foot 3, 29-year-old black man, raised in Harlem, and he lives in a new upscale glass residential tower in downtown Brooklyn. He moved there in September, the same month he landed a starring role in “Hamilton” on Broadway, one of the biggest hits in musical theater history. But again and again — five times in all, by his count — the rotating cast of security desk attendants treats him like an outsider.

“I come here with some Trader Joe’s groceries, about to cook my wife some dinner, and they’re like, ‘I’m sorry, deliveries are downstairs. You have to call up,’” he said. “They just see a black guy wearing Beats headphones, sweats and a hoodie. … I’m like, ’I live here. These are my keys.’”

[. . .]

Lissaint always struggled with traditional academics, knowing he wanted to be a performance artist. He enrolled in community college ― mainly to have a dorm to sleep in ― and flunked out after his first year. He wanted to be an artist and had already found some success as a spoken-word poet, despite his dad’s repeated warnings to ignore poetry and “get a job that pays the bills.” His dad went so far as to forbid him to attend poetry slams in high school, but Lissaint competed anyway and won the acclaimed New York Knicks Poetry Slam in 2007 at 18 years old. He won several more in the next two years and eventually began coaching slam teams and mentoring young poets.

Poetry wouldn’t pay the bills, though, at least not yet. He crashed on friends’ couches or rode the subway all night for about three years after community college. He would perform on the train to scrape together enough cash to see his favorite Broadway show, “In the Heights,” again and again. The musical, written by “Hamilton” playwright Lin Manuel Miranda, opened on Broadway in 2008, also at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, also starring Jackson, one of Lissaint’s heroes.

“In the Heights” is a love letter to Washington Heights, a Hispanic neighborhood in upper Manhattan. Lissaint was transfixed. He saw the play 13 times. Sometimes his friends would give him a ticket, knowing how much he loved it. “Chris Jackson is the reason I started acting,” he said. “I was a young black kid from upper Manhattan. To see a musical about Washington Heights and see a black dude onstage, that was inspiring.”

At 20, Lissaint had another terrifying encounter with the police. He was riding in a car with three black friends to an arts party in New Jersey, where people were playing guitar and rapping and making music together. A policeman pulled them over for allegedly making a turn that was too wide. The cop forced them out of the car and searched it, claiming there was a scent of burned marijuana in it, though Lissaint insists none of them had smoked or had any drugs on them. His friend Miles was angry at the injustice of the situation and started cussing, which prompted the policeman to call for backup, and five more squad cars showed up with dogs, Lissaint recalled. The officers approached Lissaint and his friends with guns drawn, though he and his friends were unarmed.

Lissaint had a sick feeling he could die that night. “I was sitting there, like, yo, they could kill us,” he said. “They could kill us right now, and we can do nothing about it.”

He was homeless for two and a half years before he started auditioning at conservatories, hoping one of them might see his potential and give him a scholarship. He got a callback from Juilliard in 2010. New York University’s acting program had accepted him, but he couldn’t get into the main school with his academic record. Ultimately, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan gave him a full ride and helped him with living costs, and he was able to enroll.

It was there that he began to understand that high art was generally considered to be art created by white people ― and that black people’s art forms and aesthetics aren’t as valued pedagogically or considered worth investigating in the theater and academic worlds.

“A teacher would say, ‘Bring in a piece of high text,’ and I would bring in a spoken-word poem or a rap. And they’d say, ‘No, we mean high art, like Shakespeare,’” Lissaint said. “Voice and speech teachers told me, ‘You should stop doing spoken-word poetry, it’s inspiring your regionalism and your dialect too much. We’re afraid you’ll never be able to work in the American theater because of your speech, because you do that rap thing.’”

[. . .]

I asked Lissaint what’s like to go from being homeless and sleeping on friends’ couches to having this fancy apartment. “My wife was trying to get me a gift, and she asked me what I want,” he said. “I’ll tell you exactly what I want.”

He leaped from the couch, crossed to the wall and started flipping the light switch on and off, creating a strobe effect in the living room. “You see that? The lights work!” he shouted, his voice becoming louder and more performative. “That’s dope to me! I don’t need much! That is dope! You see this? The lights are on! I don’t need much!”

Instead of buying things, Lissaint has decided to use his new Broadway money and platform to make a five-track album and a book of poetry about racism and violence against black bodies. He realized while he was in grad school that performing art solely for entertainment’s sake wasn’t going to fulfill him. “I’m sitting in class doing Shakespeare monologues, and Trayvon [Martin] just got killed, and we see a Black Lives Matter march pass by our rehearsal. And I’m like, what am I doing in here?” he said.

Lissaint’s new projects, both called “Target Practice,” draw from his experiences and reflect on stories like that of Philando Castile, a black man who was pulled over by police in Minnesota and fatally shot in front of his girlfriend and her child in 2016. The poems pulse with outrage at the white ruling class, even implicating his Broadway audience.

[. . .]

He referred to an incident on July 4, when he posted a photo on Instagram of an 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass about “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” and the fact that Americans were celebrating freedom while keeping African men enslaved. Douglass’ speech, one of the most damning pieces of oratory in American history, condemns the display of patriotism on Independence Day as “hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

Lissaint now has 11,000 followers, and a white woman who described herself as a “Hamilton” fan commented on his post, “This would definitely make sense to an African American male in the 1800s. Not so much to an African American male who makes his money in 2018 singing in a play based on American history. You are very talented and one of my favorite actors in the play. This post, however, is offsetting.”

Lissaint points much of his poetry at people like her who seem oblivious to ongoing racial oppression in this country. “There are ’Hamilton’ fans who don’t like black people,” he told me matter-of-factly.

He said white people after the show will demand that he pose with their kids or yank him around for pictures like he’s a prop, instead of just asking him. One woman in Houston grabbed the “Hamilton” backpack on his body and twisted it around to show it to her friend, without ever acknowledging the man wearing it. “When you’re an artist, people feel like they own you,” he said. And when you’re a black artist ― “that has deeply rooted implications.”

[. . .]

Performing for an audience black and brown high school kids is his favorite thing to do; it gives him a special kind of energy onstage. He said he hopes that seeing “Hamilton” can do the same thing for the next generation that “In the Heights” did for him as a young black man. [. . .]

read the entire amazing article & get tix to his book release [x]

#hamilton #carvens lissaint #racism #police brutality #broadway company #diversity #huffpo #interview #in the heights

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peacefulheartfarm · 3 years

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Homestead Update and Health Update

It has been a while so how about a homestead update and health update. I republished a couple of podcasts. I hope you got a chance to listen for the first time or relisten if you were interested in the topic of cheese.

It’s going to be close, but I think I can get this podcast published today. Let’s hope all goes well and I am able to accomplish it. If it doesn’t, I am likely to abandon the effort for another week. My life is topsy-turvy and I only have so much time each day to take care of any given task. When things don’t go well, they get pushed to the next day. It’s my method of reducing stress. Let’s pause a moment.

I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. Thank you for hanging in there with me. I appreciate you all so much. Let’s have a homestead update and then a little info on the status of our health here at Peaceful Heart Farm

Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates

The cows are coming up first.

Cows

Last night at about 9:15 we got a call from the neighbors across the street. Two of our cows were in their yard. Who could they be? There were two groups of cows with two animals. I knew it was most likely the two that were scheduled for freezer camp this morning. Sure enough, those two guys were out there wreaking havoc in the neighbor’s yard and trying to get into the pasture with their cows.

It was a little harrowing to be trying to work with two very large boys in the dark. However, all of our cows are fairly docile. They were upset and confused of course. I believe that I’ve mentioned before that a cow does not like anything out of the ordinary. They want things to be the same all the time. Routine, routine, routine. So needless to say, everything about this situation was out of the ordinary.

Perrin is Secured

Nearby, just 20 or 30 feet down the driveway, was a gate to a paddock. Scott opened that gate and Perrin almost immediately went inside. Rocketman was a different story. He went back and forth in front of that gate at least three or four times, never venturing inside. Finally, he started down the driveway and Scott herded him that way and away from the neighbor’s cows. I followed with the car. Of course, once we got him down the driveway the next challenge was finding a way to get him into a pasture.

Scott chased him up and down one fence a couple of times. I opened up a couple of gates. One was a gate back to where he escaped. The other was into the field with our nursery girls. It was a little risky letting him in there, but we needed some way to get him into some fence somewhere. Once he was back inside our perimeter fence, there were many options as to how to move forward.

Rocketman is Secured

Rocketman eagerly went through the very wide-open gate into the pasture with the girls. The girls themselves were way out in the field. We needed to get him contained before he joined with them. That would be a disaster if we had to single him out from that crowd in the dark. Scott quickly contained the girls in paddock number one. Perrin was in paddock number two. And Rocketman was in the travel lane that joins with all paddocks.

The goal was to isolate both boys in the small holding area just inside the gate I opened for Rocketman. He had already walked most of the way down the travel lane toward the other paddocks. Scott met him coming the other way while herding Perrin down the travel lane toward the holding area. I was over in paddock number four which runs directly alongside the travel lane. I wanted to be close but not in the travel lane. That would have just confused everything and possibly herded them back out into the field in an attempt to get away from me.

Chasing Cows Around Paddock Four

Now for the next debacle. There are two gates at the bottom of a hollow. One opens into paddock four where I am and one opens or closes the travel lane where Scott and the boys are walking. I’m a little way up the hill in paddock four, just monitoring how they are moving. Everything looks Ok. Scott is coming down the travel lane headed toward the holding area. I just happened to mention that the gate into paddock four is open and they might come in there instead of continuing up the hill into the holding area. And you know what? That is exactly what they did. Now we are reduced to chasing them around paddock four, still trying to get them to go back through the gate and up to the small holding area.

All Ends Well

At some point I went down and closed the gate to the travel lane. No sense in letting them run back up that way. Now all we needed to do is get them to go through the other open gate out of paddock four and into the holding area. Somewhere along the way in this process, I noticed that part of the problem we were having is that they would go wherever the light was shining. Our headlamps and flashlights were actually confusing them. As Scott brought them back down the hill for the third or fourth time, I had just finished latching that travel lane gate. I shined my flashlight in the exact place I wanted them to go. It worked. Right through the gate they went. The travel lane gate was closed and now the gate into paddock four could be closed.

Whew what a trip. It lasted about 45 minutes. Shortly after 10 o’clock we were back inside and grateful for it.

The Girls

The girls continued to happily exist up in paddock number one until the next morning. After loading the boys into the trailer, he opened the paddock gate allowing the girls access to the pond for water and cooling baths.

Last week we had our vet and AI tech out checking to see who is and is not pregnant. There was good news and bad news. Three are pregnant and three are not. We are going to roll with that for the spring.

Buttercup

The vet gave us health information on the entire herd. Buttercup did not conceive. This is two years in a row. The vet talked to us about her weight. Too much fat is not a good thing, especially in an aging cow. I won’t go into the details, but her opinion was that, not only had she not conceived, but it was going to be harder and harder for her to conceive as she ages more. She will need to be replaced.

Cloud

Cloud was pregnant but miscarried. The vet was not too concerned about this. A late term spontaneous abortion would be a different story. But aborting early in the process is not so uncommon. We decided against trying to start over with any of our girls. Cloud is also marked to be replaced. Not because of her miscarriage, but because she kicks so much that we cannot milk her. Due to her strong angus genetics, she is also not really ideal as a milk cow. She simply does not produce as much milk as the others. Not by a long shot.

Claire

Claire appears to be pregnant but the vet could not 100% confirm it. She did mark her as pregnant but noted that she could not move the uterus to a position where she could know for sure. However, the fact that she could not move it was a good indication that Claire is pregnant. We shall see. Claire is also marked for replacement as she is getting on in years and is prone to mastitis. Her udder is in bad shape. She produces enough milk for her calf and not much more.

Luna

Now on to one we will keep for a little while, though we may offer her up to anyone looking for a family cow. Luna is pregnant. She is a heifer which means this will be her first calf. We do not expect her to produce lots and lots and lots of milk. Her mom is Cloud and Luna exhibits a lot of the angus coloring traits. We don’t really know how much milk she will produce, but it is likely that it will be substandard for what we are looking for in a milk cow. However, it may be perfect for someone looking for a little milk for their family and a good beef calf every year. We shall see. At this point, her fate is still up in the air.

Violet

Just a brief note on Violet. She did not make it into the rotation for artificial insemination. And we did not expose her to the bull. She is not pregnant and will remain open for the coming spring birthing season. In June next year, she will make it back into the breeding rotation. Violet has really good Normande breeding genetics. She has the BB kappa casein genetic trait that we want for cheesemaking. I asked about her weight and the vet said that even though her belly is really big and round, she is not overweight near her ovaries and therefore does not have Buttercup’s issue with weight. She’s a keeper for now.

The Jerseys, Butter and Rosie

Now on to the Jersey girls. Butter is a champ. She is pregnant and looking good. No issues there. Rosie, on the other hand, is not pregnant. The vet had already warned me that this was the most likely issue with a heifer having a calf when she was so very young. Getting pregnant again might take a little time.

Scott and I were just discussing this morning that we might want to have one cow that gives birth in the fall so we have some milk year-round. Right now, we dry them up in November and have no fresh milk products until March or April the following year. Rosie might be an ideal candidate for a fall delivery. We shall see. There are still a couple of months ahead of us before we would need to make that decision.

Special Cheeses

Any cow that gave birth in the fall would be completely out of the rotation for making cheese. Do we really want to give up that milk? It’s still under consideration. It would be nice to have a very small amount of milk to make cream cheese and yogurt throughout the winter. And perhaps a bit of camembert, reblochon or other cheese that we might make in smaller quantities for personal use.

Calf Sharing

If we decide to do that, we would do what is known as calf sharing. That means the calf stays with mom. Anytime we want to have milk, we simply separate them overnight and milk in the morning. For any of you thinking about having your own milk cow, this offers tremendous freedom. Normally, cows get milked twice a day. But if you are calf sharing, the calf takes care of the milk during the day. Overnight mom makes lots of milk and we get to keep that part. The calf rejoins mom and gets all of the luscious milk throughout the day. As I mentioned earlier, even Luna would produce enough milk to make this work. And if the day comes when you don’t want to milk at all on any given day, just leave calf and mom together for the entire day and night. It’s a win-win situation. The calf really appreciates the extra juice and the homesteader gets a break from milking every single day, seven days a week.

Well, that was a lot of cow updates. On to the sheep. I won’t be as long-winded here I promise.

Sheep and Mack

Mack is doing a good job of protecting the few sheep that we have left in the flock. We had one ewe that had an abscess on her chest. The vet drained it and gave us instructions on how to care for it. She is nearly healed already. Lambert, the ram had deeper issues. We don’t really know the cause but he had some pretty severe hoof issues. The vet seemed to think it was perhaps related to running around trying to get away from predators that precipitated this issue. His feet were really sore. She tried trimming his hooves but there wasn’t really much there. We treated all of the sheep for hoof scald and hoof rot. This is a problem that we are aware of but have never encountered. It usually happens when their hooves are not in top shape and they are exposed to a lot of water. And it appears, that lots of stress on the hooves can caused problems.

Worms Again?

In addition to the hoof problem, Lambert also had an enormous worm load. He had lost lots and lots of weight. He is still actually quite weak. The worms suck the blood out via the stomach. The animal becomes very anemic. It does take some time to heal. Hopefully, Lambert will turn the corner soon and regain his weight and strength. He was pretty far gone and his health is still up in the air.

The remaining two seems to be in relatively good shape. We wormed all of them just to be sure. Lambert’s worm overload was also likely precipitated by the enormous amount of stress they all endured during the predator attacks. Stress can weaken their systems enough to give the worms the window of opportunity they need to begin to multiplying uncontrollably.

It has been a good long time since we had any issues with worms and we may have been a little lax. Going forward we will be keeping a closer eye on these guys. Hopefully, they will all stay relaxed and continue to live peacefully on the homestead.

We are also still looking to add a few more ewes to the flock soon. Rebuilding will take some time and we want to get started on that process. Two more dogs are lined up to help us out as we rebuild from the disastrous spring and summer. More on that later.

Personal Health Update

Before closing today I’ll give a brief health update for both Scott and myself. Scott is doing very well with treatment. He is two and a half weeks into seven weeks of radiation treatment. No chemo, thank the Lord. He drives an hour each way to receive the treatment, Monday through Friday. I will be accompanying him in the coming days.

He is managing the treatment very well. A sore throat makes it more and more difficult to eat. There are lots of treatments to help with that as well. Taking daily naps is a way of life for him. Sometimes for a couple of hours, but yesterday for only a half hour. We are still fairly early on in the treatment so we will see how he progresses.

Treatment Side Effects

At this point in the treatment, the worst side effects start to manifest. I already mentioned the difficulty in getting food down due to the pain in his throat. Add to this that his taste will change. Doctors have let him know that everything will begin to taste horrible. Their experience has shown that the taste issue will continue for a month or two or even more past the time when the treatments are complete. As you can imagine, this adds insult to injury. He already has trouble swallowing. How much worse will it be when he has to force himself to even put anything into his mouth?

Scott is a trooper. He is a stoic individual. I fully expect he will plow through this just like he does any other issue that presents itself to his world. I am here to support him in any way that I can.

My Health

My state of health is stable. That is the best way I can describe it. The time prior to the treatment starting was more stressful. I can say that at this point. Who knows what the future will hold? I could be off-the-scale stressed next week. The uncertainty of what the future would hold, one appointment after another in preparation for treatment and my own insecurity about whether I was mentally and emotionally up to the task of caring for Scott was wreaking havoc on my normal schedule and making me a little cray-cray. Now that we are settled into a routine, I am handling it much better. I feel much more relaxed and confident in my ability to respond to Scott’s needs as they arise.

We are blessed to have all of you praying for us. Thank you so much. Please continue to pray for us and we will pray for you.

Final Thoughts

That’s it for today’s podcast. I know the cow updates were long and perhaps too detailed. I didn’t even get to the quail. Well, too late now. I need to get this podcast published and then on to the evening chores. It’s time to wake Scott up from his nap so he can start on his evening routine. The regularity of routine is a life saver when your life is topsy-turvy.

Again, thank you so much for your prayers.

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Thank you so much for stopping by the homestead and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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auburnfamilynews · 4 years

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Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

To hell with Georgia.

While this is being written, the nation has been riddled bemused by the misfortune of our Chief Executive’s recent diagnosis, but that’s going to take a quick and staunch back page to what will transpire ‘tween the hedges once the sun sets this evening.

I’m not even old, and I remember a time wherein the Auburn-Georgia rivalry was... civil. Maybe it wasn’t completely healthy, or polite, but we didn’t seem to get into it the way that we do now. Amen Corner held importance, but we didn’t stir in the true hatred until Thanksgiving arrived. I even enjoyed listening to Larry Munson’s gravelly bourbon drawl.

I also didn’t grow up in Georgia.

Things were fine for most of my adolescence. Georgia was a competitive series, where neither team really threw together a serious winning streak. Georgia’s four-game streak from 2006-2009 was the longest streak by either team in the series since Auburn won six in a row in the mid-to-late 1950s. We had some absolute classics, especially throughout the 90s and 2000s — the First Overtime Game in the SEC, Ronney Daniels going wild, Cadillac’s coming out party, 4th and 15 in Auburn, 4th and 11 in Athens — but I never felt awful after losing to Georgia. It was like losing to a friend who just got the better of you that day and you knew that tomorrow you’d have your revenge.

Then, the strangest thing happened.

It was almost like spiking the ball at the Thanksgiving backyard football game and then pantsing your brother while taking the last slice of pumpkin pie and the best spot to watch Home Alone. I thought we were friends, and then you want to come and gloat like that? I never expected it.

Then again, I didn’t grow up in Georgia. Can’t say I even knew a Georgia fan for the majority of my life. Why all of the sudden rudeness? It was hard to feel bad about what happened three years after the dancing escapades.

In fact, it was nearly impossible. The schadenfreude was even sweeter three years after that when several Georgia coaches hit the deck when a miracle occurred, and even better when we turned their own native son against them in 2017.

Still, this has been Georgia’s rivalry as of late. While we treated Alabama like our Super Bowl, they realized that the Nerds in Atlanta weren’t any sort of real rival, and turned their true attention to us. Mark Richt made a living off of beating Auburn (and lost it in Jacksonville), and Kirby’s somehow managed to end up getting the benefit of some of the worst coaching in Auburn history (and major injuries) to help him beat the Tigers four out of his first five tries.

Today’s pandemic-dampened festivities lead into a blood match tonight. It’s turned petty. It’s turned nasty. It feels like we all grew up in Georgia as of late. We can at least hope that the masks will somewhat silence the effect of a grown man barking at you.

SERIES HISTORY: Georgia leads the series 60-56-8 and has won three straight games in the rivalry including the 2017 SEC Championsip.

LAST MEETING: Georgia beat Auburn 21-14 last season at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn nearly erased a 21-0 deficit, but a critical error on a pass from Bo Nix to Harold Joiner on a late fourth down killed Auburn’s hopes. The Tigers fell by a touchdown at home.

LAST WEEK: Auburn took down Kentucky 29-13, getting three touchdown passes from Bo Nix (both to Seth Williams) and three turnovers from the defense, while limiting Kentucky’s offense to nearly nothing in the second half.

Georgia struggled with Arkansas, trailing 7-5 at halftime before Stetson Bennett IV threw for two touchdowns on the way to a 37-10 victory. The Bulldogs ran for less than three yards per carry and had real trouble getting going overall.

KEY STARTERS:

Auburn

Bo Nix: 16-27, 233 yards, 3 TDs

Seth Williams: 6 catches, 112 yards, 2 TDs

Eli Stove: 4 catches, 55 yards, 1 TD

K.J. Britt: 11 tackles, 1 TFL

Owen Pappoe: 8 tackles, 1 sack

Roger McCreary: 4 tackles, 1 INT

Georgia

Stetson Bennett IV: 20-29, 211 yds, 2 TDs

Zamir White: 13 carries, 71 yds,1 TD

George Pickens: 4 catches, 47 yards, 1 TD

Nakobe Dean: 7 tackles

Richard Lecount III: 3 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 PD

Nolan Smith: 6 tackles, 1.5 sacks

KEYS FOR AUBURN:

Get over the Georgia headache. This team isn’t better than Auburn. They want to be Alabama, but they’re not, and will likely never beat Alabama while Kirby is leading the program. However, for whatever reason, Gus Malzahn has allowed Georgia to become his biggest bugaboo. Auburn had the better team in 2014, but the Texas A&M defeat the week before sent us into Athens on a down note. If Gus realizes that Sean White’s arm is broken in 2016, we just run the ball and win. The SEC Championship is a wash, since Kerryon Johnson’s injury was more than we could handle, but last year never should have seen us go scoreless for three quarters. Gus needs to prove he can go into a road rivalry atmosphere and win. He’s 0-fer in Athens, Tuscaloosa, and Baton Rouge. He gets two opportunities in those places this season. We may never have a better chance in Athens with what we saw from them last week and how little the crowd will be a factor. He absolutely has to win this game, and it could end up as a positive turning point in his career. How do you do that?

Keep Bo Nix upright. Nix wasn’t sacked once last week and only pressured twice. That was Kentucky, this is going to be the best defense we see all year. Bo took some good shots last week looking downfield, but I think we may see the full extent of the Chad Morris offense this week, with plenty of short and intermediate passes mixed in. Let Bo weave in the pocket, and work on settling his happy feet just a little bit so that he can make the necessary pass. He’s not going to leave Athens with a clean jersey, but taking a hit’s the price to pay in this rivalry.

Win the run game on both sides of the ball. Auburn must do a better job of running the ball, even if to give the defense a little bit of a rest. Kentucky sped the game up and reduced the number of possessions last week and Auburn looked like they got a little antsy as a result. If the Tigers can do the same thing, and run for over a hundred yards at a respectable clip (3.8+ ypc), then I think we’ll be in good shape. Defensively, you have to make Stetson Bennett, or J.T. Daniels, or D’Wan Mathis win this game. Rodney Garner’s going to rotate his guys up front, so hopefully we see them get stronger as the game moves along like last week.

Play necessarily rough. They deserve it. With a little bit of this, it may force Georgia into a repeat of the penalty-fest they put on last week.

STRESS-O-METER:

Let’s do this. Plenty of time for dark liquor and aggression before kickoff. War Damn Eagle.

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/10/3/21499601/game-preview-and-open-thread-4-auburn-7-georgia

#IFTTT #Blogger #auburn #auburn fast #wareagle #AuburnFamilyNews #war eagle #sec #football news #aubu

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mitchbeck · 4 years

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CANTLON'S CORNER: WOLF PACK TRAVEL TO PA TO BREAK STREAK

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Kris Knoblauch, the Hartford Wolf Pack's (11-4-0-5) first-year head coach, is taking the Wolf Pack’s first losing streak, currently three games, as calmly as he took their nine-game winning streak to open the season, calm, cool and collected. “Not changing too much. Guys are still happy to come to the rink, and that’s good. We're balancing things right now. The hard work continues.” Knoblauch didn’t highlight any one area that needed cleaning up. “We weren’t as sharp as we had been (defensively), and we had scoring chances and couldn’t finish. Our passing was spotty. We encourage our team to get faster, keep the feet moving, and how well you defend plays a big part in how other parts of your game are doing,“ Knoblauch commented. On Wednesday, Knoblauch ran a hard hour-long game that simulated one-on-one battle drills perhaps stressing that level of intensity that might have ebbed a bit over the last three games. It didn’t faze veteran Matt Beleskey. “Of course your gonna have moments like these (losing streaks). It's all about taking forward steps, not backward ones. We still have good energy in the room, if we keep playing hard, good things will come to us. Coach said it best this morning. 'Things that don’t take talent helps you win.' The tape-to-tape pass, winning that one-on-one battle and when you do the little things as a group, good things will happen.” As a veteran, Beleskey was able to understand what it was and draw parallels with tough practices in the past. “That was a tough practice hour-long battle drills, but he made it fun. That keeps guys competitive. It can be seen as a punishment, but it wasn’t. You could view it as a punishment, but there isn’t one guy in that room who doesn’t want to win and do better. It is, in its own way, a team-building (moment) and learning to come together as a group." When queried about one very nasty bag skate the Wolf Pack suffered under former head coach, Keith McCambridge, last year upon their return from an unsuccessful Canadian road trip on a Monday - the traditional off day in hockey. “I missed that practice by a week getting reassigned by the Rangers, but no question it left a really bad taste with players for two or three weeks afterward. It took the wind out of our sails. You feel you're being punished, and you're trying to win. It wasn’t a good atmosphere. Today doesn’t resemble that at all. It was a tough practice, yes. It was competitive. It was an hour-long battle to get better-together. I think it’s a good way to work toward breaking a losing streak.” The goaltending duo of Igor Shesterkin and Adam Huska did their usual split of playing time, but Shesterkin played his first back-to-back games in North America, and the formula will remain this week when they visit Lehigh Valley (Allentown, PA ) on Saturday, and Hershey on Sunday. “Both will play, but we really haven’t decided what our rotation will be for this weekend yet." Line changes may see some minor changes with Boo Nieves recalled, and Tim Gettinger returning after two games in New York. The biggest change is the addition of Shawn McBride, who was recalled from Norfolk (ECHL) where he was reassigned from Maine to get playing time for the injured Lewis Zerter-Gossage (upper body, out for the weekend), but are hoping he’ll be back next week. “I’m very happy we were able to recall a natural center and not convert one of our wingers.” He will likely be anchoring the fourth line. NOTES Knoblauch’s bench will be shortened-on the coaching-end this weekend. In an out-of-left-field move, Assistant Coach, David Cunniff, officially resigned this morning and took the Head Coaching/GM job with the Worcester Railers (ECHL), the Islanders Double AA affiliate. The team relieved their first-ever head coach, Jamie Russell, and assistant coach, Derek Army (Kent Prep), of their duties. “We knew for about two days. On Monday, they sought permission from the Rangers' Jeff (Gorton) or Chris (Drury) not sure who, to speak to David about the job. It was really a job he couldn’t pass up. He has been an assistant coach for many years, so he gets his first head coaching job and couldn’t be happier for him, but we're gonna miss him.” Beleskey echoed his sentiments “That’s close to home for him to be a head coach good for him. We're really gonna miss him because he was one positive guy on the bench. He was always talking and encouraging everybody. We all wish him the best.” He was an assistant coach for eight years with the Worcester Sharks under Roy Sommer, the all-time winningest AHL head coach. He was an interim head coach in Iowa for a period of time. His debut at the DCU Center in Worcester Wednesday night wasn’t a good one, a 4-1 loss to the Newfoundland (St. John’s) Growlers. When asked if he had a replacement in mind for Cunniff, Knoblauch responded, “Too fresh and too early for that. Gord Murphy is more than capable of handling more responsibility. We'll be able to handle things this weekend.” There's a troika of possibilities to take over for Cunniff. It could be Jed Ortmeyer, Tanner Glass, or perhaps assistant GM Pat Boller, who was on ice assistant under Ken Gernander, could dust off the skates and be in the mix. Defenseman Yegor Rykov was skating with the group in his non-contact jersey, #57. He is very close to returning as he was going to the doctor’s in the afternoon seeking medical clearance. “If he is cleared as we hope, he won’t this weekend, but hopefully next weekend,” said Knoblauch. Rykov hasn’t played since the Traverse City tournament in September where he suffered a nasty high ankle sprain. With his left arm in a sling, Gabriel Fontaine was actually feeling pretty good five days after his surgery on his left shoulder. "It was actually a lot less pain than I expected. It's not great, getting better every day, but its a tough break for sure." Sleeping has got to be a gymnastic feat. "I've been able to stay on my back, but when I try to go my left side, oh you feel it," Fontaine said with a smile as he rolled his eyes. Tough to have a season cut short at 13 games for one of the nicer players. The hottest team currently in the AHL is the Milwaukee Admirals. They have won ten in a row. The Admirals second-leading scorer is ex-Pack captain Cole Schneider with 19 points in 21 games. The Pack is now the sixth-best in the AHL behind Toronto, Milwaukee, Tucson, Rochester, and Providence. Ex-Pack, John Gilmour, was sent to Rochester. He has played only four games in Buffalo in the first two months of the season and last week just 7:53 in his last game. Ex-CT Whale, Jayson Megna, was sent to the Colorado Eagles by the parent Colorado Avalanche. Former CT Whale, Alex Krushelnyski, was loaned to Rockford after starting the year with Indy (ECHL). Ex-Pack goalie, Brandon Halverson, was returned to Norfolk (ECHL) by Providence. Former QU Bobcat, Craig Martin, gets a weather upgrade from Adirondack (ECHL) to Jacksonville (ECHL). -Jaxon Stauber, son of former Wolf Pack and New Haven Nighthawk goalie Robb Stauber after one NCAA game with the University Minnesota-Mankato a victory 4-1 win over University of Alabama-Huntsville (WCHA) returns to Sioux City Stampede (USHL) for the rest of the year. It preserves his NCAA eligibility and he returns to the defending USHL Clark Cup champions where Stauber had an 11-1 post-season mark win playoff MVP honors. Former Wolf Pack captain, Mat Bodie, is not having a good time in Sweden. He lost his assistant captain status, his ice time, and was then traded from Vaxjo HC (Sweden-SHL) to IK Oskarshamn (Sweden-SHL) Former Sound Tiger, Casey Bailey, leaves South Carolina (ECHL) for Vaxjo gaining the team’s import player license as it's known in Europe. Ex-Pack, Zdenek Bahensky, has gone from Mulhouse (France-FREL) to Cracow (Poland-PZIHL). Read the full article

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morganstrout-blog · 5 years

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'' said Tom Pluto

He kills the serpent, then in a moment quite shocking surprised Hollywood left it in phoenix weeps in his wound to heal him. That a classic symbol of Christ passion. It Christ tears that make us whole.. "Things are going well," Alexander said. "Our players are responding to the coaches, and our coaches are feeding off our players. One of our goals for the spring was just to get familiar with each other, not only with our personalities, but with our abilities too. Team goals are to do well in the SCOL, have a strong showing when it comes to tournament time, and to have fun. This is a great bunch of young ladies and I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend so much time with them and get to know them so well. Robert Stegbauer at 937393 3456 ext, That says a hell of a lot about the footballers, Laughlin Cowell earned best afield honours for Warrnambool and District for his efforts, rotating with Jordan Lowery in the ruck. Justin Fedley, Williams and Ben Rantall were also important, while Ben Saunders led the goalkicking with three. Stewart McCann was Colac and District's best, along with Toby Hawkins and Zac Day, while Morgan Fenton booted three goals. I would say one of the best things about Mark is he's a straight shooter. During your career who are some of the better players you've seen play in the HFNL? Wayne Billings was an amazing player. He was tough and skilful. "It definitely ended a little earlier than we wanted, lamented Ziegler. "We definitely made some steps for the organization for the future. Like Darren said, Coach Outlet Online even though I won't be able to be a part of it next year, I am definitely going to be keeping track of what they are doing and I just hope they can accomplish more than what we did this year, Vanderbilt led by six late, but Williams drew a Flagrant 1 on Vanderbilt forward Clevon Brown Coach Outlet Sale his fourth foul and hit both free throws with 1:22 left. Two seconds later, Williams sank a layup. Admiral Schofield hit a short shot in the paint to tie the game at 76 with 38 seconds left. Friendly Links: New England Patriots Jersey | kanye west yeezy seasons zines 1 2 3 4

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Ramblings: Wheeler Scoring Goals, Crosby Lugging the Pens, Aho, Stamkos & Kakko (March 6)

The Canes and Bruins met on Tuesday with both teams salivating over the two points. The Hurricanes are trying to stay up on the Wild Card teams, while the Bruins attempt to keep a leg up on the charging Maple Leafs.

Sebastian Aho scored the first two goals of this game bringing his season total to 29. That matches the mark he set a season ago as a sophomore. The 21-year-old has been magnificent in 2018-19, but especially in the back half. His 41 points in 32 games since December 23rd sit fourth in the league behind Patty Kane (51), Nikita Kucherov (51), and Sidney Crosby (45).

Heading into this season, Aho was drafted somewhere between the fifth and seventh rounds. Does anyone see him slipping out of round two next year?

The Hurricanes allowed the next three goals– including a Patrice Bergeron shorthanded tally. After Justin Williams tied things at three, we went to overtime. There, David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk continued their torrid play, connecting on the OT winner.

Since David Pastrnak went down with a thumb injury on February 12th, Krejci has 11 points in nine games, while the 22-year-old, DeBrusk has 12.

Marcus Johansson left this game and did not return. That could be good news for Danton Heinen owners who were likely expecting their asset to slide out of the top six when Pasta returned.

Jaroslav Halak grabbed the victory as the Bruins continue to give both netminders a regular rotation leading up to the post-season.

The Sens took on the Isles and Craig Anderson looked to put a 10-game losing streak in the rear-view mirror. You read that right, the 37-year-old hadn’t posted a victory since December 17.

Over that same time frame, 90 other netminders have recorded a victory – including Andrei Vasilevskiy’s 21 victories.

In predictable fashion, Anderson and the Senators found a way to lose this one too but at least they made it to the shootout. The Isles took the 5-4 win with a team effort. 10 players recorded a point, while Robin Lehner won his 21st game of the season.

Both Lehner and Thomas Greiss have 0.928 save percentages. That’s good for a share of the third-best mark in the league for goaltenders with at least 20 games played.

Barry Trotz, ladies and gentlemen.

If the Penguins are going to make the playoffs it’ll be on the back of their captain. With a goal and two assists on Tuesday, Crosby has 13 points in his last five games – including a goal in each of those contests. Hell, he has 24 points in his last 12 games!

The 31-year-old now sits fourth in league scoring and is on pace for 108 points in 79 games. Yet somehow it's likely he ends up outside of the top three producers.

I love it.

Here’s a look at the beautiful aerial dish he gave to Jake Guentzel on the winner. That stands as Guentzel's 33rd tally of the season. Another young star.

https://dobberhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Guentzel-OT.mp4

In the marquee matchup of the evening, Winnipeg and Tampa Bay squared off in Florida. These are two heavyweights, but it was the Lightning who did most of the punching on Tuesday defeating the Jets 5-2.

Stamkos (1+1), and Kucherov (0+2) led the way for the Bolts who now sit with a 51-12-4 record. With 15 games to play, the Lightning need 12 more victories to set the all-time wins record held by the 1995-96 Red Wings.

With his first period tally, Blake Wheeler scored his sixth goal in the Jets previous 70 minutes of hockey. Not bad for a pure setup guy.

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Nice backhand set up by Patrik Laine on the Blake Wheeler tally. That's six goals for Wheeler in his last 3.5 periods. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoJetsGo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoJetsGo</a> <a href="https://t.co/IUeGbhY5Yy">pic.twitter.com/IUeGbhY5Yy</a></p>— /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) <a href="https://twitter.com/Hockey_Robinson/status/1103097053272371200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2019</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

Connor Hellebuyck left the game after taking a Kucherov slapper right off the mask resulting in a cut. Laurent Brossoit came off the bench in relief and gave up a Stamkos tally almost immediately.

https://dobberhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/Stamkos-1T.mp4

Hellebuyck returned to the cage a few moments later and didn’t appear to be suffering any ill effects from the blow.

Obligatory 2019 draft talk!

Kaapo Kakko scored another goal this morning in Finnish Liiga action. It’s his eighth in his last eight games, and he has 13 in his last 15 contests. His 20 goals in 41 games are one behind Sasha Barkov’s U18 scoring record.

This kid is making a serious push to go first overall this June in Vancouver.

Of note, he’s been playing exclusively on the wing the past couple of months after dabbling down the middle to close out 2018.

Cam Atkinson recorded his career-best 36th goal of the season on Tuesday, while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 as Columbus defeated New Jersey 2-1 in a shootout.

The 29-year-old, Atkinson has been extremely consistent this season, but you can’t help but wonder what his future production holds. With the impending loss of Artemi Panarin, and Matt Duchene likely willing to weigh his options, it could be down to the studs in Ohio.

Ben Bishop made 28 stops, John Klingberg scored a second-period even-strength tally, and the Stars shutout the Rangers 1-0.

Alexander Georgiev made his second consecutive start for New York and played well in this one stopping 31/32. the Rangers are likely trying to gauge what they have in the 23-year-old Russian netminder. With Igor Shestyorkin slated to cross the pond this summer, there may be a logjam for NHL ice.

Anaheim dealt Arizona their first loss in seven games, and also a big blow to their playoffs chances with a 3-1 victory on Tuesday. The Yotes sit two points behind Minny for the final Wild Card spot.

Darcy Kuemper lost for just the second time in two months. Here's hoping you grabbed him when we told you too before the calendar flipped to 2019.

Filip Zadina scored the first of many NHL goals on Tuesday evening. The 19-year-old had been rolling nicely in the American League before earning this recall. He skated on a line with Andreas Athanasiou and Luke Glendening at even-strength and tallied this one on the power play.

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">First career goal alert <a href="https://twitter.com/filip_zadina?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@filip_zadina</a> <a href="https://t.co/8q92gdplQz">pic.twitter.com/8q92gdplQz</a></p>— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) <a href="https://twitter.com/NHLGIFs/status/1103152971041439744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 6, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}

However, it was Nate MacKinnon who provided the victory for the Avs in overtime. Mikko Rantanen set him up for his third point of the evening. Now imagine adding Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko to this lineup next season.

It's going to happen.

The Canadiens took on Kings in sunny California on Tuesday evening. They did so without the league’s youngest player, as Jesperi Kotkaniemi was a healthy scratch. It’s the first time the 18-year-old has sat in the press box this season, as coach, Claude Julien expressed some concern that fatigue was creeping into his game.

It should be noted that the youngster suited up in 84 total games last season – split between the Finnish Liiga and international tournaments. Prior to that, his career-high had been 41 contests. Despite averaging just 14 minutes a night with Montreal this season, the wear of 66 NHL games for a rookie is real.

There shouldn’t be any concerns about Kotkaniemi moving forward. He’s a spectacular playmaker with a bright future.

The Habs took care of the lowly Kings 3-1 with Carey Price recording his 28th victory. Price now sits with a 0.918 save percentage on the season – jumping him into the top-10 amongst regular starters. It's been a solid bounce-back campaign for the 31-year-old.

Follow me on Twitter @Hockey_Robinson

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-wheeler-scoring-goals-crosby-lugging-the-pens-aho-stamkos-kakko-march-6/

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flauntpage · 6 years

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Your Eagles and Jaguars Betting Preview

The Eagles and Jaguars each entered this season with great expectations, but both teams have underwhelmed through the season’s first seven weeks. While it’s still early, it’s not that early, and there should be a sense of desperation on both sidelines when the two teams take the field this Sunday. Jacksonville will look to snap a three-game losing streak in which they have been outscored by an embarrassing 90-28 margin. 90-28? I mean, how does that even happen?

Blake Bortles being Blake Bortles

Pt. V pic.twitter.com/jkhPvGvNkC

— Montserrat Bernal (@montsebernalg) October 21, 2018

Ah, yes. That’s right.

Bortles, of course, was benched last week in favor of Cody Kessler, but Jacksonville head coach Doug Marrone will turn back to Bortles this week. After all, Bortles is 3-1 in his career at Wembley Stadium. That has to count for something. I think.

The Eagles, meanwhile, have lost three of their last four games, including last week’s inexcusable and entirely avoidable fourth quarter collapse at home against Carolina. After throttling the Panthers’ offense for three quarters, Jim Schwartz went ultra-conservative as Cam Netwon obliterated the Eagles’ defense over the game’s final 15 minutes to the tune of 201 passing yards and two touchdowns on his way to leading his team to 21 unanswered points. The Eagles’ fourth quarter offense wasn’t much better, but it still had a chance to save the day in the game’s final moment. Except…

3rd and 2. Smallwood at the top. Jesus. pic.twitter.com/wdpzVZ3A0W

— BWanksCB (@BWCrossingBroad) October 21, 2018

Why throw to the wide-open running back in the flat when you can just throw it into double coverage in the end zone? Indeed. In summation, to say each of these teams square off on Sunday almost entirely devoid of momentum would be an understatement.

Eagles (-3.5) at Jaguars, Over/Under 43.5

*Game will be played at London’s Wembley Stadium

As for the game matchups, Wentz enters having completed a career-best 70.8% of his passes with 10 touchdown tosses against only one interception, and while the Jaguars’ defense is allowing an NFL-best 179.7 yards passing per game this season, there should be plenty of opportunities to make plays against an injury-ravaged secondary. Jacksonville will be without three of its top cornerbacks in A.J. Bouye, D.J. Hayden, and Tyler Patmon. Undrafted rookies Quenton Meeks, Tre Herndon, and Dee Delaney, a trio that has all of four combined NFL regular snaps between them, will take their place. That’s…less than ideal.

If Jacksonville hopes to slow down the Eagles’ passing attack, they will need big games from Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue. Jacksonville’s vaunted pass rush has only produced 15 sacks this season, but is still dangerous and will be quite a test for banged up offensive tackles Jason Peters and Lane Johnson.

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In terms of the run game, I’m not sure that it even matters. The Eagles average 4.0 yards per carry (24th in the NFL) and 102.9 rush yards per game (21st in the NFL), but more importantly, they don’t even really try to run the football. It’s obvious that Doug Pederson isn’t terribly excited about his running back rotation of Wendell Smallwood, Corey Clement, and Josh Adams after the Eagles ran the football only once during their fourth quarter collapse last week.

While Philadelphia’s offense has disappointed, Jacksonville’s has been a borderline disaster, already failing to score double-digit points three times this season. Jacksonville is scoring only 16.6 points per game, and only 4 of their last 35 possessions have resulted in points. Much of the criticism has centered around Bortles, who has nearly thrown as many interceptions (8) as he has touchdowns (9) this season, prompting takes similar to this one:

Blake Bortles has gotta go. pic.twitter.com/GOBV5G1n81

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) October 23, 2018

Even Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins took a not-so-subtle jab at Bortles this week when he voiced his support for Colin Kaepernick:

Malcolm Jenkins, addressing the differing positions among some black NFL players over systemic oppression and what he called the blackballing of Colin Kaepernick, said, “I can turn on the tape this week of our opponent [Jaguars] and see that Colin Kaepernick deserves a job.”

— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) October 24, 2018

Ouch.

The Jags hope that the recent acquisition of running back Carlos Hide, who has 382 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 114 carries, will help spark the NFL’s 23rd ranked ground attack that has sputtered in the absence of Leonard Fournette. That will be a tough ask against the NFL’s No. 2 rushing defense which has limited opponents to just 85.7 rushing yards per game.

Gambling Trends: The consensus spread has trended in the Eagles’ favor throughout the week. After opening at most books as a 2 or 2.5-point favorite, the spread has now jumped over the field goal threshold to -3.5 at many books. Despite this apparent value on Jacksonville, 73% of point-spread bets and 67% of point-spread money backs the Eagles as of early Friday afternoon.

Things to Know: The Eagles have been slow starters this season, but Jacksonville has been outscored 23-0 in the first quarter over the past three weeks. The Jags have been terrible against NFC opponents. They are 23-39 ATS against NFC teams since 2003. Bortles, specifically, is 4-12 ATS against NFC teams, including 2-4 ATS since the start of last season when Jacksonville became competitive. Any way you slice it, the Jaguars’ performance against out of conference teams has been poor.

Favorites in London are 12-8 ATS and 24-11-2 ATS in neutral site games since 2003, including 8-3 ATS since the start of the 2016 season. Bortles, meanwhile, is 3-1 ATS at Wembley Stadium, but is only 6-11 ATS against teams coming off a loss and 3-7 ATS as an underdog against teams coming off a loss.

The Eagles are tied for a league-worst 2-5 ATS (1-5 ATS in their last six games) this season (28.6% ATS cover rate), which is important to know because Bortles is only 1-5 ATS against teams that cover the spread at a 25-30% rate.

The Eagles are also 6-1 straight-up in their last seven games coming off a loss, which is good. Not so good is the Eagles’ 1-7 ATS record under Doug Pederson when favored between three and four points. Additionally, the “over” is 15-4 ATS under Pederson in games played away from Lincoln Financial Field.

Prediction: I don’t trust the Eagles, particularly after last week’s fourth quarter debacle against the Panthers, but I keep coming back two things:

1) Blake Bortles 2) Carson Wentz

Bortles has been atrocious against the spread versus NFC opponents, hasn’t fared well against teams coming off a loss, and is playing poorly. Wentz, meanwhile, is going up against a defense missing three starters in its secondary and the Eagles have excelled lately when coming off a loss. Throw in the success of favorites ATS in neutral site games, and that’s enough to get me firmly behind Philadelphia.

Eagles 27, Jaguars 19

This was part of my Week 8 betting preview over on ClaytonFootball.com. You can read the rest here.

The post Your Eagles and Jaguars Betting Preview appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Your Eagles and Jaguars Betting Preview published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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thornburgrealty · 6 years

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Named after colts former head athletic trainer of the baltimore

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Eric LeGrand's Biggest Fight

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Eric LeGrand's Biggest Fight

Four years ago, the promising Rutgers defensive lineman was paralyzed from the neck down during a game. Now he’s battling to win back his body while becoming an inspiration to many.

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The Associated Press

This has been published in conjunction with The Big Roundtable.

Ever since he was a child, Eric LeGrand’s life was always about his physicality, his body. It still is, but in a new way. This is what happened in the last hours of the life that he once lived:

On the nights before Rutgers University home football games, the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown New Brunswick, N.J., welcomes busloads of Scarlet Knight players and staff members for an overnight stay. And on Friday, Oct. 16, 2010, at the Hyatt, the players were hard to miss; each one was dressed in a Rutgers gray-and-red jumpsuit.

Although the hotel is just a few miles from campus, it’s far enough from girlfriends, Friday night parties, and grease trucks (aka food trucks) to help the players focus on the next day’s game. In one of the hotel’s conference rooms, they loaded their plates with food and, before they ate, head coach Greg Schiano led a short prayer.

Eric filled his plate with carbohydrates — lasagna, white rice, and two slices of bread. Then he raced to be first at the blender. It was his pregame ritual: Get to the blender before his teammates contaminate the jar with protein powders, peanut butter, bananas — all of which Eric found unpalatable. His recipe was simple: chocolate ice cream and milk, for a milkshake to take to his room.

The Scarlet Knights were 3–2 on the eve of facing Army at the new, 82,000-seat MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, the home field of the New York Jets and Giants. The game was among the nastiest on Rutgers’ schedule; it was one of only two for which most Rutgers defensive players were required to wear shin guards and long white socks with their uniforms. Eric preferred white mid-calf socks and black ankle braces — his “swag.” He hated the idea of everyone around the country seeing him on television without his usual game-day look.

By October, the soreness had set in from a season that really began in August, and Eric wished he could have a break. His body ached as he remembered the hundreds of up-downs in the sand pit on the practice field and the days of running up and down the stairs of the team’s home field, High Point Solutions Stadium, carrying his 295-pound teammate, Charlie Noonan, on his back. Now, after playing nearly every play on defense, lifting workouts were harder. But for a defensive lineman like Eric, who could squat 605 pounds and bench-press 415 pounds, the workouts were just part of the daily grind that he hoped would lead him to the next level of play. “I was the strongest kid on the team, with all the weights added up,” Eric now says. “I was in the best physical shape of my life, training my body to play in the NFL.”

Eric was 20 and stood 6 feet 2 inches, at 275 pounds. He wore his hair in shoulder-length braids. His smile was infectious. It was not typical for a defensive lineman at his height and weight to also play on special teams. But during his sophomore year, Eric led the team with 13 tackles on kickoff coverage. He was quick getting down the field and unafraid to make a big hit — exactly the type of player Schiano wanted on kickoffs. Heading into his junior season as a rising star for the Rutgers defense, Eric was still in a three-man rotation at the nose guard and defensive tackle positions, but he knew that would end, and he was preparing for a pro career. “In college football, you only need one year,” he says. “I would’ve had my senior year to start and then go off into the draft.”

On Saturday morning, the team boarded the buses and headed to East Rutherford for a 2:05 p.m. kickoff. It was a sunny day with temperatures in the upper 50s. As they did before every game, Eric and his teammate, Scott Vallone, dressed and headed to the field to play a simple game of catch. Eric paused his warm-up routine to say a few words to the television cameras. “We’re here at the Meadowlands, the new Giants stadium,” he said, dressed in a white, long-sleeve Nike shirt, a red “R” embroidered on the neck. “We’re out here ready to go, being focused, and we’re gonna keep on choppin’ all day long.” The phrase “Keep on choppin’” was instilled in a Rutgers football player’s vocabulary — it was Schiano’s way of telling the team to stay focused, regardless of the situation.

The game was a battle from the beginning. More than 40,000 fans were roaring in the stands, including Eric’s sister, Nicole, and Karen LeGrand, sporting her No. 52 red jersey with “LeGrand’s Mom” written in white letters on the back.

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Eric playing in a 2010 game. Photography courtesy of Eric LeGrand

The Knights quickly fell behind, and spent the afternoon trying to catch up. They were trailing in the fourth quarter, when on a third-and-4, Eric filled the gap and stopped the fullback head-on. He got up to celebrate but felt dizzy as he started to head off of the field. He focused, only to realize that he was heading toward the Army sideline. Disoriented, he turned around and headed to the Rutgers bench. He was fine. He did his job.

Rutgers tied the score at 17 each, with just 5:16 remaining. On the ensuing kickoff, Eric lined up in his usual position, next to the kicker, San San Te.

It was 4:46 p.m. Eric watched his kicker’s feet.

The Army returner, Malcolm Brown, caught the ball inside the 5-yard line and started sprinting up field. Eric ran around the outside to avoid his oncoming opponents. At the 25-yard line, he bounced off an Army player and fell to the ground on his left side. He rolled onto his back. His arms dropped to his side and his legs remained frozen in mid-air. After a few seconds, as if gravity was pulling down on his legs in slow motion, he could feel his heels gently hitting the turf.

He struggled to whisper to the trainers and coaches surrounding his rigid body. “I can’t…I can’t breathe.” One of the trainers held his hand, hoping Eric could feel their palms touching, squeezing together. But Eric did not know it.

Within minutes, his mother was brought down from the stands and onto the field. With Nicole by her side and Schiano telling her to “just pray,” Karen watched as Eric was carted off the field on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance that would take him to Hackensack University Medical Center. A paramedic placed an oxygen mask over Eric’s mouth and nose, and everything suddenly went black.

At the hospital, doctors immediately started to prepare Eric for surgery. It would last nine hours, into early Sunday. Doctors told Karen that her son had fractured his C3 and C4 cervical vertebrae and was paralyzed from the neck down, with less than a 5% chance of walking again. They told her he would more than likely need the assistance of a respirator to continue breathing for the rest of his life.

Eric woke up three days later. He was groggy from the drugs and was surrounded by tubes, machines, and wires, but also by his family and friends. He was smiling. “I knew I was hurt but I was just happy to be with everyone, all of these people I hadn’t seen in a while,” he says.

His mother didn’t let anyone in the room who might bring Eric down. She told Eric he had broken his neck and he would need to rehabilitate. Not much more. Weeks passed, and in early November, Eric’s doctors said it was time for him to leave the hospital and begin his recovery at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange. But in the ambulance to his new home, for some reason, Eric’s stomach ballooned. “I knew I wasn’t ready,” Eric says. Still, that night, Eric and his family gathered in his room at Kessler to watch Rutgers play against the University of South Florida, the second game since his injury. During the fourth quarter, Eric started to get restless and anxious. He asked his sister, Nicole, to move his right leg an inch, or his left leg over a little more. Still drowsy, Eric fell asleep. He woke up on a stretcher on his way to St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston. His fever spiked to a perilous 105.5.

When Eric awakened at the hospital, the fever had ebbed, and his sister was sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Nicole, where are we?” Eric asked.

“We’re in the ICU, at the hospital,” she replied. “You caught a bad fever.”

Eric wanted to get up out of bed.

“Nicole, get off of me, I want to get up real fast,” he said.

She replied, “I’m not on you, Eric.”

Eric didn’t understand.

“Nicole, get off me! I said I can’t get up,” he said.

Scared and nervous, she told him to go back to sleep. He put his head back, and closed his eyes.

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Photograph courtesy of Eric LeGrand

By now, Eric knows exactly which way his body will turn during the night: Left side, middle, right side. Back to the left side. Middle. Right. Left side. Middle. Right. Every hour. Every night.

The bed rotates as air leaks out to change its firmness, to ensure that Eric’s body isn’t “falling asleep” while he slumbers. Often we wake up with pins and needles in our arm and can’t completely feel our fingers; the same thing can happen to Eric, except that he doesn’t experience those sensations and he can’t move around to get things back to normal. The rotations are one of the reasons Eric doesn’t sleep that much. The spasms are another.

As the bed rotates, sometimes he can feel them coming. Eric’s legs will kick straight up, uncontrollably. Or his abdominal muscles will contract, forcing the top half of his body upward and pushing him into a seated position. Sometimes Eric tries to fight against the spasms because they can be painful, but they are out of his control.

Mornings are the worst. The bed has been rotating for hours, every hour. Eric doesn’t need much sleep — about five hours a night is enough — but his mom does, so he doesn’t wake her. The nurses and aides don’t get to his house in Avenel, N.J., until 9 a.m. He can’t reach over to his nightstand to get his phone to pass the time. He can’t get up to use the bathroom. He can’t roll over into a new position and go back to sleep — the bed won’t rotate for at least another half hour. He lies there, tossing and turning with his head. It’s all he can do. The inspirational quotes and “BELIEVE” posters on the wall seem to mock him as he lies there, staring at the ceiling.

It frustrates him — the dependence on others, the loneliness, the things in his old life he remembers so vividly but can no longer do.

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Eric at five years old. Photograph courtesy of Eric LeGrand

Some mornings, there is no sign of the person the world knows: the radiant Eric, speaking in front of thousands at the ESPY Awards, as he did in 2012; the confident Eric, moving himself around in his mouth-operated wheelchair; the focused Eric, concentrating on each exercise movement at therapy.

At 8:15 a.m., Karen LeGrand awakens to her son calling for her in the next room. She no longer works, and she helps take care of her son. He tries not to bother her, but he wants to watch TV before the process of getting ready begins. It takes two to three hours, usually until around noon, before Eric is primed to start his day. His electric bed pushes his body into an upright position, allowing his aide, a young woman Eric’s age named Raven, to slide a sling under his legs. Silver chains connect the sling to a rail system, which looks like train tracks suspended from the ceiling. The harness allows Raven to raise Eric out of bed. His suspended body slides on the ceiling tracks 10 feet across the room to the bathroom, where the lift system lowers him down into a shower-safe wheelchair seat. He does his business in the bathroom and Raven cleans him up afterward. Then she wheels him into his open shower. Raven fixes his hair and brushes his teeth.

His nurse, Clementina, helps to slide Eric’s body back into the sling to bring him back to the bed. Rolling his hips and legs back and forth, Raven and Clementina shimmy his pants up. They pull his arms and head through his shirt. They transfer him from the lift system to his chair. Clementina cleans his ears with a Q-tip and applies some Chapstick to his lips. They fix him up in the chair, making sure everything is pulled and tucked and comfortable. His arms and hands are arranged on the armrests on the side of the wheelchair, and his legs are positioned in place in the footrests.

Clementina attaches his iPhone to the wheelchair stand by a strip of Velcro — his phone is his lifeline to world, since he can no longer just get up and go places. She puts a stylus pen, covered with a cut-off finger of a rubber glove, in his mouth. He secures it between his teeth. Eric doesn’t eat breakfast. Frosted Flakes used to be his favorite, but he doesn’t get hungry early in the day anymore. By the time he is dressed and prepared for the day, it’s time for lunch, the first of two daily meals.

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Eric his senior year of high school. Photograph courtesy of Eric LeGrand.

At therapy, five days a week, for four hours each day, Eric works to do things he had done all his life, like walk. He is a participant in the Christopher and Diana Reeve Foundation’s NeuroRecovery Network, which raises money and provides special treatments for spinal cord injuries. His therapy sessions begin with a harness, a treadmill, and four to five specially trained physical therapists. The sessions are called locomotor training, and researchers at the NeuroRecovery Network believe these rehabilitation treatments can help spinal cord injury patients like Eric gain significant functional improvements, and with them a better quality of life. Gail Forrester, Eric’s doctor, who helped the Kessler Rehabilitation Institute become a part of the NeuroRecovery Network in 2007, says there are about 300 people in the program nationwide. The network has six other locations and a waiting list of six months to a year to be admitted.

All this treatment has a high cost, of course. Eric’s insurance policy from Rutgers expired two years ago, but he is covered by his personal health insurance and a lifetime catastrophic injury policy from the NCAA.

From his wheelchair, Eric is transferred into a harness suspended above a special treadmill, where five people will help him exercise his body and operate the machine. A large brace supports his torso and back, and royal blue harness straps, secured from the hips to above the top of his shoulders, lift him up. His arms hang down at his sides, palms facing in and fingers, long and straight, pointing directly toward the ground. With his feet on the treadmill, the harness lifts about 120 pounds of his weight, or about 45%, while the rest of his body weight rests on his legs. While his physical therapist, Sandra “Buffy” Wojciehowski, straddles the treadmill belt and steadies her feet on the sides of the treadmill behind Eric’s body, two others position themselves in small chairs near the belt, where they each will control one of his legs. Buffy grasps the straps on the harness, her biceps flexing, as she presses her body weight against Eric’s back. Another physical therapist bends Eric’s arms at the elbows and straps his forearms and hands onto wooden boards at the sides of the treadmill. Waiting for the signal from Buffy to start the belt, yet another therapist sits at a computer next to the treadmill. It’s almost time to get moving.

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Photograph courtesy of Eric LeGrand

Strapped in, harnessed up, sneakers tied, Eric stands upright. He stares at himself — his new body — in a long, floor-length mirror hung on the wall in front of the treadmill. With the treadmill set at 2.8 miles per hour, the physical therapists bend his legs at the knee with each step, pressing on specific nerves and placing each foot on the belt. Buffy says that the next 55 minutes on the treadmill will “excite his nervous system” by maximizing his weight bearing and optimizing the sensory cues in his legs and lower body. Eric spends those 55 minutes walking, talking, and most importantly, watching. He sees his reflection in the mirror, and while he focuses to keep his body still and his head and shoulders upright, he envisions his future.

It has been two years and more than 360 sessions since Eric started the locomotor training therapy. He’s still in the first of the three phases of the program. Before it, he had 88 sessions of traditional therapy — double the number of traditional sessions of most patients — but still could not yet sit. He never scored higher than a 0 to 3, out of 56 points, using a measure called the Berg Balance Scale. The scale measures the performance of 14 different tasks. The individual scores are based on a five-point scale, ranging from 0, meaning the patient cannot perform the task, to 4, meaning he or she has normal performance.

Eric is the only patient at Kessler with his precise level of injury. Doctors measure that level on a system called the ASIA scale. The scale is based on motor function tests and how much sensation the patient can feel in different parts of the body. The ASIA scale uses a Grade A to E measuring system, with Grade A representing the most impairment, or complete lack of motor and sensory function below the level of the injury, including the anal area, an important indicator, and Grade E, indicating the least impairment, or that all neurological function has returned. Eric is a Grade B, meaning he has some sensation below the level of injury, which was not the case immediately after he was hurt.

That level, in turn, is indicated by the part of the vertebrae that has been fractured. Vertebrae are grouped into different sections, based on the location in the spine. Usually, the higher up on the spinal cord the injury is, the greater the impairment. The higher vertebrae, located in the neck region, are called the high cervical nerves, and are labeled as C1 to C4. Eric fractured his C3 and C4 vertebrae. The C3 and C4 contain the phrenic nucleus, which is important for breathing because it passes motor information to the diaphragm and receives sensory information from it.

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Photograph courtesy of Eric LeGrand

As a part of the NeuroRecovery Network, Eric has made clear progress. After 20 sessions of the locomotor training therapy — which Buffy describes as dynamic and activity-based — Eric was able to sit, if only for 10 seconds. Then, it took more than 100 sessions for Eric to move 1 to 2 inches forward, in what is called a “functional reach” test. Eric can now sit for more than 17 minutes, without assistance.

The last time Buffy applied the functional reach test, she recorded Eric moving his trunk forward as far as 11 inches. “It gives him his personal space, he’s got his bubble back,” Buffy said of Eric’s progress. “He doesn’t have to have someone constantly in his face and in front of him keeping him steady and held up.”

And if he feels unbalanced, Eric has gotten strong enough to hold himself up for a few extra seconds, just long enough for him to call for help. When he starts to fall over while sitting, he said, it is because of the pain and exhaustion he feels in his neck and shoulders, not his balance. Instead of using his upper and lower back muscles to hold his torso up in a sitting position, Eric must squeeze and contract the only muscles he can — his neck and upper shoulder muscles — to hold himself up. The exercises and the pain leave him with knots and large areas of tension in these muscles.

Though he hasn’t moved onto the next phases on the treadmill, Eric posts videos on Facebook and Instagram to show how far he’s progressed. In a video captioned “Mama always said to keep your hands off the table…” Eric sits, bent at the hip in his chair with his arms crooked and his forearms resting on the table, palms down. As it starts, he shrugs his shoulders upward and with each downward motion, and his arms slide on the tabletop toward his body. His torso straightens, his head lifts, and his hands slide more than 12 inches, nearly off of the table.

The video is only 11 seconds long, but already has over 4,000 likes and hundreds of shares and comments. The words “believe” and “amazing” and “inspire” appear dozens of times apiece in fans’ reactions.

The video does show remarkable progress — Buffy says Eric is doing more than it is conventionally thought someone with his injury could do. There are not many patients in the NeuroRecovery Network whose injuries are the same as Eric’s, so it’s hard to compare his results, but there are also not many with the same positive outlook. “Very few patients that I have seen in the six and a half years that I have been doing this have been so optimistic all the time,” said Buffy. “Everyone has had a bad day, but Eric has never come in here and is just having one of those days.” She also attributes his outlook to the support he’s received. “They’re making it as easy as possible for something that is so difficult.”

In Las Vegas, in February 2014, at the Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) Symposium for physical therapy professionals, Buffy and a group of six other doctors and researchers presented their work with locomotor training and the neuro-recovery scale. The room was packed, with triple the attendance of last year’s presentation. When Buffy played a video of Eric working during therapy, she said the audience started to buzz with whispers and comments like, “Is that him?”

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Since his injury, Eric has become an inspirational speaker and spokesman for spinal cord injuries. Traveling to these engagements, or anywhere, for that matter, can be difficult. Eric got his first car, a Nissan Altima, in April 2010, just a few months before his injury, when it was easy to just get up and go wherever he pleased. Now that’s one of the hardest parts, and he has to coordinate and plan transportation every time he wants to go out. For places nearby or within driving distance, a Chrysler Town & Country equipped with a wheelchair lift and ramp does the job. But for longer trips, like visits to California or Arizona for awards ceremonies or speaking engagements, air travel is the only option.

Most airline carriers are accommodating, but it doesn’t mean the process is simple. Eric’s Permobil C500 power chair weighs 350 pounds and can’t fit on a standard airplane. It must be taken apart, Bubble Wrapped, and stowed underneath the cabin, which is where the troubles begin. Some attendants don’t know what buttons to press to unlock the wheels, and it’s a risk putting the $6,000 chair in an unsupervised space for a long trip.

Without his chair, Eric must be transferred to an airplane wheelchair, which is smaller than a standard one and just barely fits down the aisle (and just barely fits Eric’s big body and frame). He’s strapped into the chair and taken down the jetway as someone holds his legs up, since sometimes they hang off and touch the floor. On the plane, Eric sits in a regular seat. He sits on a seat cushion to prevent sores during the flight and is buckled in with the seat belt. His feet rest on the floor and his hands rest on his lap. He tries his best to stay warm.

After a spinal cord injury, it’s difficult for the body to control its temperature, in both hot and cold weather. So the frigid temperatures during the rough New Jersey winter were particularly tough for Eric, who piled on layers, even in the house.

He braved the cold winter on Friday, Jan. 31, two days before Super Bowl XLVIII. He headed to New York City for an exclusive, invitation-only party hosted by ESPN the Magazine. With Brandon Hall, his longtime friend, driving his all-black, wheelchair-equipped Chrysler van, they pulled right up to the gates lined with police officers at Basketball City at Pier 36. Click. Click. Click. Brandon unbuckled Eric’s extra-long seat belt and the van door slid open. Patiently, he sat and waited as his friend walked around to the other side of the van to release the ramp.

Inside, Eric was among stars and celebrities. Robin Thicke and Kendrick Lamar took the stage to perform; Elena Delle Donne of the WNBA and C.C. Sabathia of the Yankees mingled with friends; NFL players past and present, like Tim Tebow and Colin Kaepernick, stood tall above the crowds of people.

Brandon held a beer to Eric’s lips as he waited for the performers to take the stage. Chris Berman came over to say hello — he’d met Eric before. It was not long before dozens of other people come up to him, asking how he was doing and posing with him for pictures. Some laid a hand on his arm or embraced him with a pat on the shoulder. Others reached for a handshake. There was an awkward pause each time, a slight hesitation from the other person, as Eric’s hands and forearms remain glued to the armrests on his wheelchair. Eric simply nodded his head continued the conversation. He’s used to it.

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Eric LeGrand being presented with an ESPY by Rob Lowe on July 11, 2012. Kevin Winter / Getty Images

The first time Eric visited Mikey Nichols at the Morristown Medical Center, Mikey didn’t say much. But for the most part, Eric understood.

On Jan. 4, 2014, the 17-year-old senior forward for the Monroe Township High School hockey team took a shot and then was checked from behind. He collided headfirst with the boards. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a C5 vertebrae fracture.

Eric tried to talk with him, but it was only a few weeks after the injury and Mikey just needed to sleep most of the time. He was pale and sickly looking. Mikey lay in the hospital bed, surrounded by tubes, machines, and wires.

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Eric with his mother, Karen. Photograph courtesy of Eric LeGrand.

“Mom,” said Eric. “Is that what I was like?”

Karen LeGrand nodded her head, “Yes.”

It had been almost exactly three years earlier that Eric had appeared in his first on-camera interview since his injury, in January 2011. ESPN anchor Tom Rinaldi sat across from Eric at the Kessler Rehabilitation Institute, just a few days before the 2011 BCS National Championship Game. It’s one interview Eric says he will never forget.

Eric sat positioned in his wheelchair, with his shoulders, neck, and head supported by a brace and tilted back, to help regulate his blood pressure. He was down to a mere 185 pounds. His cheeks were pale, making the redness in his lips stand out on the screen.

“There is a difference between what we know and what we believe,” Rinaldi said as he started the segment. It was the first update on Eric’s condition in a month and the first time he publicly declared he was going to walk again.

“I believe it,” said Eric.

And he has his reasons.

Eric remembers vividly the sound of his own breathing with the help of a ventilator. “I couldn’t sleep with it,” he says, recalling the constant clicking and hiss of the respirator as he released each hoarse, scratchy breath. “But the first couple times I asked to get off of it they wouldn’t do it.”

Eventually, the doctors agreed to allow Eric to try to breathe on his own. They warned him he was only going to be able to last one or two minutes.

The doctors pulled the tubes out of his throat and nose, and Eric instantly felt as he had during sprints on the treadmill, or during coach Schiano’s grueling workouts. He was breathing heavily, almost gasping. He said he felt as if he had just run 17 miles; his heart beat rapidly and a burning sensation spread throughout his chest as he tried to fill his lungs.

He lasted for 90 minutes.

He was worn out, and it was time for him to go to sleep, so the doctors reattached the ventilator. But this time, while the machine was giving him air, it wasn’t breathing for him. Just five weeks after his injury, he was free of it.

“When I accomplished that goal,” he says, “I felt like I could do pretty much anything.”

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Eric LeGrand working as an analyst for the Rutgers Radio Network on Sept. 1, 2011. Rich Schultz / Getty Images

Eric misses his old body. “I miss my straight stomach,” he says, “just looking down at my chest and seeing my big legs.” Even though he is almost the same weight as when he played football, his muscles are less defined, and he has what is called a “quad belly.” The abdomen has involuntary muscles that hold the internal organs in and upright. But when you’re paralyzed, those muscles aren’t contracting and all of the organs in your midsection fall forward, creating the look of a rounded stomach. It’s hard to see when Eric is sitting, but it is more obvious when he is standing upright and strapped in the harness on the treadmill.

Eric’s athletic physique, his commanding stature, is one of the things that had drawn his college girlfriend to him. He started dating Rheanne Sleiman, a Rutgers soccer player, five months before his injury. She was gentle and caring, and then strong enough to deal with cataclysmic change to their relationship. He can recall her crying only once after his injury. In the months that followed she would sometimes stay over in Avenel, sleeping by his side. Last fall, she moved back home to Vancouver. They remain close and keep in touch.

Even with his level of injury, a relationship is not without its potential pleasures. He has learned about various options, such as epidural stimulation, which courses an electrical current through to the lower spinal cord area, that can help with any number of tasks he is relearning — like walking — as well as with intimacy. As Roger Kahn wrote in his 1972 book The Boys of Summer, about Roy Campanella, the catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers who was left paralyzed after a car accident: “The paralysis had not left Campanella impotent but had robbed him of the motion, the push-pull, so to speak, of sex.”

Like most people, Eric envisions a family of his own.

“It’s definitely something I think about late at night,” he says. “I always think about who would be willing. I still want kids — and it’s physically possible — it’s just about finding the right person who wants to start a family with me.” If he has a son, Eric says, he will allow him to play football.

“I would tell him he better give it his all,” he says. “Or don’t play.”

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The Rutgers crowd supporting LeGrand as his jersey’s number was retired in September 2013. Photograph courtesy of Eric LeGrand

On an especially brutal winter evening in February 2014, with mounds of snow piled more than 3 feet high on the streets around his home, Eric sat in his room in Avenel. He was dressed in sweatpants and a sweater, with another layer underneath. The thermostat in the room read 80 degrees. The television was on, but a constant, low vibrating sound also hummed throughout the room, from a small portable heater on a table next to Eric, the knob turned to the highest setting. Eric brings it with him everywhere, except, of course, when he goes to Miami, which he does from time to time. The steamy Florida weather makes Eric feel good — it’s the perfect temperature for his body.

During his next trip to Florida, Eric will have a chance to go skydiving in Daytona Beach, a jump that his friend Alan Brown is coordinating. Brown lives in Miami and has spent 26 years in a wheelchair as a C5 and C6 quadriplegic, after a swimming accident. As impossible as skydiving may sound for someone with paralysis, it is actually quite common. Skydiving instructors and companies have a special process to lift the legs up for the landing and special safety harnesses equipped for a paralyzed body.

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Customized Nikes. Photograph courtesy of Eric LeGrand

But before that, Eric will graduate from Rutgers with a degree in labor studies this month, two years after his classmates and teammates graduated. He tried first for a communications degree, in line with his dreams of being a sports commentator, but switched to labor studies to provide himself with a backup. He finds the process of how people form unions “interesting,” he says, and has also studied regulations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He attended class through Skype, took proctored, verbal exams, and typed up seven-page papers on his iPhone, using his pen-in-the-mouth method, aided by spell-check and Apple’s Siri. He completed all of his credits in January 2014, with the help of his academic advisers.

We were talking about graduation one night and I asked, simply by habit, “Are you gonna walk?”

The blood rushed to my cheeks but the question didn’t faze him. Instead, he nodded and said he was going to “walk” in May, in his wheelchair, not for himself but for his mom and the rest of his family, so they could celebrate the moment together on a grand stage.

In fact, Eric will speak at the commencement ceremony on May 18, sharing the stage with a former New Jersey governor, Tom Kean. He was invited, then understood that he had been disinvited in favor of Kean, and voiced his displeasure on Twitter. Soon, what Rutgers called a “miscommunication” was patched up. The school’s president, Robert Barchi, said that it had always intended that both men give speeches, and that “Eric holds a special place in the hearts of the Class of 2014 and the entire university community.” Eric plans to inspire the students, but that’s nothing new to him.

He does a lot of that. During the winter of 2014, he hosted a pilot for a new series called Mission Possible, which focuses on the stories of athletes with disabilities. He’s also been working on his broadcast career, with contracts under discussion with various networks for college football analysis — his dream job. HBO will debut a documentary about his life in the fall, and he’s been contacted by big-time brands for collaborations and commercial deals. June 14 will mark the fourth annual “Walk to Believe” at Rutgers, a fundraiser for the research and treatment of spinal cord injuries that began as a benefit for Eric.

Plaques, trophies, framed letters, and awards cover every tabletop and nightstand and almost every inch of wall space in Eric’s room, but they don’t even begin to cover the long list of conferences, dinners, events, and ceremonies that he’s attended. His appearances provide him with a paycheck, but also a forum to share his story and raise awareness for spinal cord injuries and the search for cures for paralysis.

He expects the whispers when he enters the room, and he’s used to the people who stand back a few feet from him, hesitant to approach and unsure of how to react. He never writes a speech. He doesn’t need one.

“It’s my story,” he says.

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Eric LeGrand with his teammates before a Nov. 19, 2011, game. Patrick McDermott / Getty Images

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365footballorg-blog · 6 years

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Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 9 MLS slate

April 27, 201812:03PM EDT

Onto the next one.

Friday Night

Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs. Real Salt Lake

10:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

This is actually a rematch, one of the first of the season. Three weeks ago, in the midst of what looked like it was going to be a horrible, humiliating slide to the bottom akin to last year’s miserable start, RSL got the ‘Caps at Rio Tinto, got themselves a gameplan, and rode it to a 2-1 win.

“How many times did they punt the ball sixty yards in the first half alone to [Kei Kamara] to play off of him?” is what Mike Petke said after the game. “We worked on it all week—having good shape, reacting to the pressure on the ball, knowing they’re sending it long, and getting behind and around for winning second balls. They’re a very dangerous team like that.”

They are. But Kamara’s hurt, and the ‘Caps have been outscored 8-0 in two games without him, and they’ve won just once in their last six. Moreover, they’ve scored in just one of their three home games.

It’s not quite do-or-die time yet, but Vancouver are about three (or so) bad results away from seeing this tailspin turn into a death spiral. Their best hope here might be that they’re a harder team to scout now, and that Anthony Blondell brings kind of a different approach to the center forward position than Kei does:

Notice him floating off the backline instead of matching up directly with the center backs? And that pass is just… *chef kisses fingers*.

We’ll see what these teams come up with.

Saturday Slate

Atlanta United vs. Montreal Impact

1 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Montreal have the league’s worst defense, having conceded 17 goals in 7 games. Pro-rate that over the entire season and you end up somewhere north of 80, and even a barrage of Ignacio Piatti hat tricks won’t be able to save you.

So naturally what the doctor ordered is a trip to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for a date with Atlanta United and their all-out, ruthless attack.

I have, um, loaded up my MLS Fantasy team with Atlanta players. You probably should do the same.

Toronto FC vs. Chicago Fire

3 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Speaking of “pain,” what Toronto FC did on Wednesday night in Guadalajara should be celebrated. They became just the fourth team in MLS history to win a CCL game in Mexico, the second to do so in the Knockout Round, and the first to do so in the final. They allowed few chances – Chivas’ only looks came off of turnovers – generated their own off of set pieces, possession and counterattacks, and certainly had enough to take home a title.

Which, of course, they didn’t. Their finishing wasn’t sharp enough during the 90, and was disastrous during penalties. Let the CCL hangover begin!

Honestly, I think it goes one of two ways: Either said hangover is real and destructive and the Reds limp all the way to the World Cup break, or it turns out to fuel the fire that burns inside of this team and they Hulk out into a run of dominance that propels them up the table. Given how TFC have approached every single challenge over the last 24 months, I’m guessing it’ll be the second thing and that they’re going to happily start shoving opponents into the woodchipper.

The Fire may not be such easy meat, though. Last weekend’s win in New Jersey was a legitimately great one, and the central midfield looks more robust than it did a month back. They’ve now won two of three, and while I don’t think all their issues are behind them, they’re a much better team than they were in March. If the Reds are indeed hungover, Chicago will punish them.

Philadelphia Union vs. D.C. United

3:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

There has been a lot of ink spilled on the Union over the last two months. “What’s wrong with their defense?” has been a common tack, given that they’ve been a bit raggedy after a pretty good start. “Is the midfield working as it should?” is another one, given that they have quality but maybe not a real ball-winner. And fair enough – both those things are worth examining.

But here is the long and short of it: They are not finishing. Philly, by both advanced metrics and the eye test, and generating chances. The quality of those chances might be a bit overstated given that so many of them come off crosses, but even so…

Jimmy Maurer isn’t human. #FCDvPHIpic.twitter.com/ozGzZfNigZ

— Carter Baum (@CarterBaum) April 22, 2018

They’ve scored once in their last five games. They’ve scored three times all season.

Dallas are considered a bad finishing team, and they’re at about 75 percent of their expected goals numbers according to Opta (8g on 10.6xG). TFC have had a disastrous start to the season in front of goal, and are at about 45 percent of their xG total (4g on 9.1xG).

Philly are under 30 percent (3g on 10.4xG). David Accam, C.J. Sapong, Borek Dockal and Fafa Picault all have done better, and all need to do better now, because the Eastern Conference is not for the faint of heart. If they keep squandering chances, their season’s gonna be over before we get to July.

We’ll see if this is the week for them against a D.C. team that sits deep as hell and gives up plenty of chances. The key will be getting Dockal to push higher – actually into the box – so that the Union have actual numbers up top.

Columbus Crew SC vs. San Jose Earthquakes

7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Columbus are another team who’ve seen their overall goal total fall short of their expected goals total. That’s through no fault of their ageless DP playmaker Federico Higuain, who’s playing as well as he ever has in this league:

I was initially skeptical about giving him 2019 without Meram as a backstop, but Higuain’s chance creation so far this season has been pretty sharp pic.twitter.com/YRNjinAw5q

— Kevin Minkus (@kevinminkus) April 27, 2018

Part of the above is just that Higuain’s in a groove, as is center forward Gyasi Zardes. Another part of the above is that production from the winger rotation of Pedro Santos, Cristian Martinez and Niko Hansen has been somewhere beyond “disappointing” and has now veered into the neighborhood of “worrisome.”

Santos, a DP, now has 1g/4a in 1788 MLS minutes (regular season and postseason), which is about 20 game’s worth of action. His movement is great and he helps quite a bit in the build-up, but his lack of end product has already cost Columbus two results this year. Martinez has 1g/2a in about 1000 MLS minutes, and Hansen 1g/2a in just over 500. Combined it looks like these guys will not match the production that Justin Meram alone was able to provide last year (13g/7a), and it’s a mile from the 2015 team that made it to MLS Cup behind a combined 18g/18a from Meram and Ethan Finlay.

Or… maybe not yet. Santos is what he is at this point, I think, but one of Gregg Berhalter’s strengths as a head coach has been the ability to get the best out of his attacking players, to coax consistency and production out of them over time. Neither Meram nor Finlay were particularly highly regarded before Berhalter found starting roles for them – and then stuck with them despite a few bumps in the road. Just look at how Zardes has come alive, right? Perhaps the same path can be found for Hansen or Martinez.

Given how scattershot and disorganized the Quakes backline and midfield has been, this could be a good weekend to find out. San Jose coach Mikael Stahre was known as something of a defensive guru in Sweden, but that really hasn’t come to pass in his first two MLS months. His team’s constantly been roasted on the flanks and – more damning in my opinion – has constantly allowed opposing attackers to find time and space in Zone 14 between the center backs and central midfield.

It’s been ugly.

New England Revolution vs. Sporting KC

7:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Litmus test game. SKC’s attack has been monumental, but their defense has still looked gappy to me, and I think they’re vulnerable when trying to play out of the back. The Revs have been better than I think anyone expected – they swarm like hell with their high pressure – but good attacking teams have been able to crack open that backline (Columbus scored two, but could’ve had five last week).

In the grand scheme of things this game isn’t that huge, as it’s an intra-conference game. In terms of figuring out what these teams are really all about, though, it’s one of the biggest of the weekend.

I’m honestly not sure what to expect in terms of game-style and outcome.

One thing I do expect, though, is for Graham Zusi to get forward on the overlap. And if that happens, don’t be surprised if the Revs flip Cristian Penilla over to that side of the field and have him attack the space Zusi leaves behind. Penilla’s quietly been one of the league’s best wingers, and if he gets a step there’s no defender in the league who’ll catch him.

Minnesota United vs. Houston Dynamo

8 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

In Week 1 the Dynamo looked like last year’s Dynamo in gumming up the midfield, forcing turnovers and counterattacking Atlanta United to death in a 4-0 win. Since then they’ve slowly reinvented themselves, becoming more of a possession team and mostly doing it pretty well.

Here’s an idea of how they’ve reinvented themselves:

2017 2018 Possession 43.95 48.69 Final 1/3 passes per 90 72.4 92.5 Final 1/3 passing accuracy 62.2 70.25

Despite a few lapses – the ‘Caps and Revs killed ’em on the counter – early returns for Houston have mostly been good. They’re playing better, more diverse soccer than they did last season, and while there are bound to be growing pains, they’re also bound to be a better and more dangerous team come October. If Houston were a stock, I’d buy it.

I’m not sure I can say the same for Minnesota. I’d be particularly wary of trying to build through the middle in this game were I in charge of the Loons, but I’m not sure they’ve shown they have any other gameplan so far in their MLS existence. And they definitely haven’t shown they can defend.

LA Galaxy vs. New York Red Bulls

10:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Here’s a thing we talked about on Matchday Central last week: How, exactly, do the Galaxy get the ball into the final third?

It’s kind of an elementary thing, one that you almost take for granted when watching most soccer teams. A lot use their defensive midfielders to play a pass into that zone, while pure counterattacking teams often use a playmaker to release their forwards or attackers into space. Columbus spray diagonals to the fullbacks, who then carry the ball forward, while NYCFC (for example) advance en masse, via possession.

What do the Galaxy do?

Two months into the season I’m not sure we have an answer for that. And Atlanta United punished that lack of clarity last week with a 2-0 win that could’ve just as easily been 4-0. To the point above: They held LA to a single shot on target.

The Red Bulls will have seen that tape, and like the Five Stripes they’re well set-up to punish any 4-4-2 team. Expect a hellbent for leather approach from the visitors.

Sunday’s Triple-Header

Colorado Rapids vs. Orlando City

4 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

So here’s the interesting thing about the Rapids, who have mostly played in a low-block 5-3-2 this season: They are unusually susceptible to being undone by a simple ball over the top. It happened a few weeks back in a 1-1 draw at FC Dallas, it happened last week in a 3-0 loss to RSL, and it was how the Revs got three points against them back in Week 1. It’s a strange weakness for a back-foot team to have, but maybe speaks to their lack of comfort on the ball when they’re coaxed out of their own defensive third.

Orlando City are more than happy to play that kind of soccer. Their four-game winning streak has been built through their ability to get out into space:

Obviously that’s not the same thing as a ball over the top, but it’s operating on the same principle. Draw the defense up, then exploit them.

Chances are that approach will define the entire open-play encounter, since Colorado do the same thing (keep an eye on Dominique Badji). The obvious x-factor will be set pieces, where the Rapids are very good and Orlando City are very bad.

NYCFC vs. FC Dallas

6:30 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

NYCFC took their first L of the season last week in kind of stunning fashion. They held 74 percent possession and completed over 90 percent of their passes, and somehow managed to lose 3-0 at Portland.

Miss me with your “possession doesn’t matter” take, by the way:

I’m very bored of people taking possession stats from one game and saying ‘possession means nothing’. Here’s the link from 2016/17. pic.twitter.com/zv2YAZzRH3

— Michael Cox (@Zonal_Marking) May 29, 2017

The correlation isn’t as strong in MLS as it is in most of those leagues, but it’s there.

That said, a solid and thoughtful bunker-and-counter approach can indeed work when applied selectively, and Dallas have the personnel to do it. Nonetheless it’s a much bigger ask to manage it at Yankee Stadium, where the Cityzens have lost just once in the last 12 months.

(Incidentally they lost that on the counter against Portland last summer, so go ahead and study the tapes, folks.)

LAFC vs. Seattle Sounders

9 pm ET | Match Preview | TV & streaming info

Seattle started looking something like themselves last week in a 3-1 win over MNUFC – for at least the first 45 minutes anyway. They were patient and, eventually, precise in using the ball to break down a bunkered-in opponent who had trouble winning second balls in central midfield:

If LAFC have had a fatal flaw thus far in their maiden voyage, it’s kind of that. They’ll let you knock the ball around a little bit, and if you do it too much their backline will get antsy, try to make a play, and then you can roast them. And if you pin them back, it’s no secret that their central midfield combo of Benny Feilhaber and Mark-Anthony Kaye can be slow to close down space and win 50/50s. They are not great at making you miserable if you try to combine through them.

But “not great” doesn’t mean “bad.” At times LAFC have been very good at closing down lanes and winning second balls, and when that happens they’ve been spectacular in pushing the ball with intent in the other direction. That resulted in four wins and 16 goals across a six-game, franchise-opening road trip, and if they keep up anything close to that form over the course of the season they will spend the whole year amongst the Western Conference leaders. We’ll finally be able to see how Bob Bradley’s team plays at home as this match marks the opening of Banc of California Stadium.

Seattle know all of the above too well, as LAFC’s road trip began with a 1-0 win up at CenturyLink. The game’s only goal came off of a quick transition through midfield, and a bit of brilliance from Carlos Vela and Diego Rossi.

No mysteries for either team here.

One more thing to ponder…

Happy weekending, everybody.

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Armchair Analyst: Your complete guide to the Week 9 MLS slate was originally published on 365 Football

#Analyst #Armchair #complete #Guide #slate #week

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suaasgn-blog · 7 years

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Athletics and Cardinals cheap cowboys jerseys

Wily Peralta (11-15) gave up five hits and walked five in five-plus innings for the Brewers. The Cardinals put the go-ahead run at the plate with two outs in the ninth, but closer Jim Henderson got slugger Matt Adams to strike out to end the game and earn his 26th save.Oakland's Coco Crisp hit a three-run homer, and Daric Barton and Jed Lowrie each had solo shots as the Athletics overpowered the Minnesota Twins 11-7. cheap authentic soccer jerseys The Athletics, who had MLB's fourth-lowest, opening day payroll at about $65 million, clinched their 16th division crown and 25th postseason appearance when Texas lost 4-0 at Kansas City earlier.

Sonny Gray (4-3) gave up four runs and seven hits in five innings, while Oswaldo Arcia homered and drove in six runs for Minnesota. The 22-year-old left-hander allowed one hit and four walks in 4 2-3 shutout innings. Brandon Gomes (3-1) followed and struck out Manny Machado with a runner on second.

The Kansas City Royals blanked the Texas Rangers 4-0 after Justin Maxwell hit a two-out grand slam in the 10th off former Royals All-Star closer Joakim Soria. Eric Hosmer hit a two-strike double leading off the 10th against Neal Cotts (5-3). Soria intentionally walked Billy Butler, and an infield single by Salvador Perez loaded the bases.At New York, after honoring Mariano Rivera in a pregame ceremony and celebrating Andy Pettitte's last regular-season home start, cheap custom football jerseys the Yankees saw their AL wild-card hopes dim in a 2-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

In other AL games, the Cleveland Indians downed the Houston Astros 9-2, the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 6-3, the Seattle Mariners edged the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 and the Boston Red Sox defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-2.In the NL, the Cincinnati Reds trounced the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-3, the New York Mets edged the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3, authentic nfl jerseys cheap the Los Angeles Dodgers shut out the San Diego Padres 1-0 and the Arizona Diamondbacks were 13-9 winners over the Colorado Rockies.

I love the idea that the Yankees, who for decades were run by an owner who was suspended by baseball not once but twice, whose current GM tells his players publicly to "shut the fuck up" are seen as this classy organization, but I suppose that's another conversation.Back to business - what's left of baseball purists will likely believe that the best way to keep opponents from celebrating in your pool is not to have one in your stadium in the first place.

This is just the latest case of baseball players proving themselves to be the world's most sensitive athletes - is it me or does it seem like every week brings about another unwritten baseball rule controversy? Now the Dodgers are supposedly "classless" because they jumped in a pool (didn't you know, that's in the book also?). cheap soccer jerseys from china I suppose that the D'Backs consider the pool to be some sort of sacred ground, but I still have to disagree with the reaction from Bloomquist.

The Dodgers completed one of the more dramatic turnarounds in baseball history, going from the basement in late June to a division title, and that is certainly an achievement worthy of a celebratory dip.After toweling off, manager Don Mattingly and his band of $200m stars will attempt to find the balance between getting some rest while staying sharp. Mattingly would be wise to keep his regulars on the field for most of the remaining season, baseball being a sport of timing and repetition that can only be honed by playing in real games, even if they mean little in the standings.

The Texas Rangers are in the midst of their second consecutive late season collapse. cheap soccer jerseys for sale However, unlike a season ago, this current Rangers slide could see them out of the playoffs altogether. With just 10 games to go, With just 10 games to go, Texas are fighting for their postseason existence, mired in a muck of soul destroying baseball. On August 31st, Texas were in the thick of a race for the American League West division title, up a pair of games on their rivals, the Oakland A's, and seemingly in control. They had just finished off their best month of the campaign, winning 20 games, despite the loss of slugger Nelson Cruz to a suspension for performance-enhancing drugs. In fact, their offense had not slowed down a bit - even without one of their key cogs in a lineup that averaged close to six runs per game in August. Meanwhile, the pitching staff put up their best numbers of the season during the month, and so the team was cruising - coolstandings.com put their chances at October baseball at 97.1%.

Then, suddenly, as the calendar flipped over, their bats died, slumbering to under 3.5 runs per game while a handful of their pitchers completely forgot how to throw. Next thing you know the division race was virtually over and the panic was back in Arlington, where they recently dropped six games in a row. Altogether, cheap stitched nfl jerseys they are 4-13 in September, now battling a pack of six AL teams trying to shoehorn themselves into two playoff spots, 6.5 games behind Oakland - that's a swing of more than eight games in 19 days, during which their chances of reaching the postseason has plummeted by more than 30%.

This is a different story to 2012, when the Rangers coughed up a five game AL West lead in the blink of an eye. On September 24th, with just nine games to go, cheap cruises from new jersey they had a 95% chance of winning the division, only for their season to fall apart at a blistering pace. The freefall made the A's unlikely division winners - the consolation prize was a one game wildcard game at home to Baltimore. They lost 5-1. Just like that, a season in which a third straight World Series appearance was well within in reach, was over.

This time around the agony seems destined to be spread across an entire month rather than 10 grim days. When the Rangers went out and acquired Matt Garza to bolster their pitching staff, cheap nike jerseys they couldn't have thought they would be getting a pitcher that would allow more than eight runs per nine innings in September. Derek Holland is another rotation stalwart who has just killed Texas down the stretch - his ERA is approaching eight this month. Ian Kinsler and Adrian Beltre, two major pieces that just couldn't slump with Cruz out, have been abysmal. All manager Ron Washington can do is go out there and play his best team, while deflecting speculation that the swoon will cost him his job. Washington told ESPN radio in Dallas:

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thrashermaxey · 5 years

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Ramblings: Updates on Schultz, Zuccarello, and Jenner; Sergachev; Dahlin; Gurianov; Ceci – January 31

Big news for the Penguins and their fans as Justin Schultz appeared and skated at the team’s gameday skate on Wednesday. He did so in a non-contact jersey but considering he’s returning from a broken ankle suffered three and a half months ago, it’s a very good sign. He’ll need a lot of time to get anywhere near game shape so don’t expect him back in the lineup in the immediate future, but he’s trending in that direction.

It looks like the Blue Jackets will be without Boone Jenner for at least one more game.

It’s quite the odd career Jenner has had so far. Through his first three seasons totalling 185 games, Jenner scored 0.82 goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five, landing 8.28 shots per 60 minutes while shooting 9.94 percent. In the three seasons since totalling 205 games, he’s scoring just 0.68 goals per 60 minutes while landing 9.46 shots per 60 minutes, converting them at a 7.22 percent clip. Remember that this excludes the power play, so his early career PP usage isn’t relevant for this particular discussion.

Jenner’s expected goals have fluctuated season by season but that rate is actually higher over the last two and a half seasons (0.88) than his first three seasons (0.8, via Corsica). It’s not as if the manner in which he scores goals has changed much, it’s just that there are fewer of them.

I’m not going to dig deeper for today but it’s just weird to see this kind of production fluctuation over such large samples at this stage of a player’s career.

Mats Zuccarello was back in practice on Wednesday for the Rangers, in a normal jersey in his usual spot on the top line. It looks like he’ll be back for their next contest.

Before the season, I said it was kind of a make-or-break year for Denis Gurianov, the Dallas Stars prospect forward. He’s over a point-per-game in the AHL and has been able to crack the NHL lineup at times, including Wednesday night for Valeri Nichushkin. He still needs to shoot more but at least he’s showing the improvements needed to take that next step.

In other news, I’m throwing in the towel on Nichushkin. I fell in love with his skills years ago and was very high on him, but it just hasn’t translated since his rookie year. The hope is he can turn into a reliable two-way bottom-six forward, which I don’t think is what he wants to be. I’m interested to see how this all turns out.

I was watching a TSN segment on Tuesday night and Bob McKenzie discussed that the Sens could be looking to move Cody Ceci. This comes on the heels of seeing Jake Muzzin traded to Toronto, and Ottawa thinking they could get some sort of package in the neighbourhood of what Muzzin returned. Now, delusion aside, trading Ceci does make sense for this team. He’s an RFA probably looking for a long-term contract and that long-term contract, whatever he does get, will not look pretty. If they can get anything for him, they should.

Ceci is a guy who is coveted in multi-cat leagues because he can provide stout peripheral totals in both hits and blocks, while giving decent shot totals and a reasonable amount of points. All this, however, is a function of two things: ice time and playing on a bad team. That second part allows him to rack up hits and blocked shots at a higher rate than many of those d-men on good teams (your team can’t have the puck if you want to pile up the blocks and hits) and the first part allows him to boost his totals. If he’s traded somewhere like Columbus, the Islanders, or Minnesota where he’d be very unlikely to get top-pair minutes and where the teams are much better defensively, what do his peripheral stats look like? He won’t fall off the map but he won’t produce to the level he’s currently enjoying, either. Something Ceci owners need to keep in mind as the trade deadline approaches.

While on the topic of defencemen, let’s continue on with Mikhail Sergachev.

I was looking up Brent Burns’s stats for something unrelated and came across this: one guess as to which defenceman is second behind Burns in the NHL in primary assists/60 minutes at five-on-five (min. 600 minutes)? Given the topic of this section, it’s probably easy to guess it’s Tampa Bay’s 20-year old blue liner.

Before the season started, I was adamant in these Ramblings that Sergachev would be worth his ADP. A lot of it is league-dependent but he was often going between the 30th and 40th defenceman. That has not been the case this year as he’s outside the top-50 defencemen in standard Yahoo! leagues, and has found himself in the rotation of blue liners Tampa Bay healthy scratches on a nightly basis. Not great.

Sergachev is on pace for roughly the same amount of five-on-five points last year (22) as this year (23). His production drop, obviously, has come from the power play; he’s not even on pace to crack double-digit PPPs a year after producing 16. He doesn’t have a PP goal yet, his PPTOI per game has declined, as has the team’s shooting percentage with him on the ice for the man advantage. Without digging into the how this has happened, this is why his production has receded.

When we look into different metrics, it’s easy to see why his assist production is the way it is (from CJ Turtoro’s viz):

He’s shooting less but finding his teammates just as often with shot assists and is carrying the puck into the zone more often. It makes sense, then, that his goals have declined but his assists, particularly his primary helpers, have increased.

Sergachev is still a wildly talented defenceman. With the prominence of so many young blue liners like Thomas Chabot, Miro Heiskanen, and Rasmus Dahlin, it’s easy to forget that Sergachev already has a 40-point season under his belt, is just 20 years old, and is still doing very well by all accounts. It might be worth checking in with the Sergachev owner in dynasty leagues to see what his value is. He might not do much for the balance of 2018-19, but his future is still very bright for 2019-20 and beyond.

On the topic of Dahlin, it’s worth reading Cam’s Ramblings from yesterday for the history that the rookie defenceman could make this season. I just wanted to add a little context to it.

First, he isn’t shooting much. Among d-men at five-on-five, he’s in the 60th percentile. That isn’t a huge concern, though. We don’t expect 18-year old defencemen to shoot a lot, even the elite ones. Don’t read anything into it unless this persists for three seasons.

What worries me for the balance of 2018-19 is his secondary assists. At time of writing, he’s averaging 0.8 secondary assists per 60 minutes at 5v5. That’s the fourth-highest mark in the NHL. There are a lot of guys at the top of the leaderboard that we’d consider puck-movers like Morgan Rielly, Erik Karlsson, Mark Giordano, and Thomas Chabot. Even for elite guys with track records like Rielly, Karlsson, and Giordano, they’re exceptionally high marks. All three players are currently enjoying career highs, and in the case of Rielly, he’s over three times higher than his three-year average from 2015-18. We can talk about increased goal scoring all we want but that doesn’t explain such a jump. There’s a good bit of luck mixed in there.

I’m not trying to take anything away from the kid. His ability to drive the play, especially offensively, is already very obvious. He’s having a great year so far and has every look of a player who’ll be in the Norris conversation in the next three years, and then every year for 10 years after that. All I’m saying is that he’s a player whose fantasy value for 2018-19 is dependent on assists and plus/minus. Having such a high rate of secondary assists and a .937 save percentage at 5v5 behind him is cause for concern over the next couple of months. This has nothing to do with his long-term outlook, just the next nine weeks.

Kudos to NBC for having Olympian Kendall Coyne as an analyst for the Pittsburgh-Tampa Bay game Wednesday night, acting as a between-the-glass commentator alongside Pierre McGuire. Maybe she doesn't know that Matt Cullen once got detention for throwing a snowball when he was 11 years old like McGuire does, but she's more than qualified for this position. Hopefully it's a crack in the door for more women to be features of broadcasts down the road, rather than as a host or presenter.

Updates on the games in the morning.

The last couple Ramblings I’ve been discussing the changing nature of defencemen and what they produce. Last week I just briefly touched on it while going a little bit deeper in Tuesday’s Ramblings.

I got thinking about this. It’s something I think is definitely worth discussing and can have a significant impact on how we view defencemen in the fantasy game, how we value defencemen, and how we draft defencemen. I also started thinking that maybe this isn’t the best time to cover this. To really get a clear picture on blue line production it’s probably best to put this off until the regular season has finished. Using a two-thirds season sample really doesn’t make a lot of sense and figuring out why the upper-tier of defencemen are producing more points doesn’t really help fantasy owners for the next two months as opposed to the next two years or so. I’m going to shelf this until April (and I’ve set a reminder to do so just in case I forget).

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-updates-on-schultz-zuccarello-and-jenner-sergachev-dahlin-gurianov-ceci-january-31/

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