The New Jersey Devil

Three years ago, Ilya Kovalchuk and the New Jersey Devils shocked the NHL world when both sides agreed to a 15yr/$100 million contract (after the NHL rejected a 17-year deal).
Now, with 12 years remaining on the contract, Kovalchuk stunned the Devils on Thursday by announcing that he is retiring from the NHL to, presumably, go back to Russia to play in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
Kovalchuk's announcement drew instant criticism, claiming that he was unfaithful and disloyal to New Jersey, who committed so much to the superstar. But, with the contract officially voided and Kovalchuk free to sign with any team he wishes, it seems like the appropriate time to look at this decision from both sides affected by the decision.
Starting with Kovalchuk, he did leave 12 years and $77 million on the table, a large sum of money that any person would love to have coming their way. However, according to the Russian, it was not a decision made about money, but rather family. He would rather go back to his native country where he can be close to his family the entire year and be around people that he grew up with playing the game.
This wasn't an abrupt decision for Kovalchuk, but a rather drawn out decision. He voiced his uncertainty with playing in the NHL at the beginning of last year's lockout-shortened season and made it known how he felt with the Devils front office.
But, lets take a minute and think that maybe this was a financial decision by Kovalchuk. Sure, $77 million is a lot of money, but spread it out over the duration of the remaining 12 years of his contract and he's really only making an average of $6.42 million over that span. Once again, that is a lot of money, but think about this: the KHL doesn't have a salary cap and is known to throw boat loads of money at star players in the hopes of keeping them in Russia and hoping that they don't flee for the NHL.
The brief taste of the KHL that Kovalchuk got last year during the lockout may have been enough to make him want to stay there permanently, but the money must have made that decision a whole lot easier. If he does sign in the KHL, it is likely that he will sign with his former team, SKA St. Petersburg and make a lot more money than he ever would in the NHL. With his yearly salary and bonuses (which have been known to be quite nice) it could very well take Kovalchuk half the amount of time to make the $77 million that he would get back in North America.

As for New Jersey, no matter who your favorite team is, it's hard not to feel a little bit bad for them. After all, it did invest its entire future in one player.
When the league rejected the 17-year contract because it felt that it was circumventing the salary cap, the NHL penalized the Devils by forcing them to surrender a 1st round pick in one of the next several years, a pick they have yet to surrender.
On top of that, Kovalchuk's large contract and AAV (average annual value) made it hard for New Jersey to put together a full lineup (remember the game when it only dressed 15 players because of salary cap reasons?) of NHL-caliber players.
The Devils were forced to let their young star Zach Parise walk in free agency last summer because they were unable to afford his free agent demands. Fast forward to this free agency period and New Jersey had to do the same thing with unrestricted free agent David Clarkson. Burdened by Kolvy's contract, one of the Devils' top-three offensive threats was left to sign with another team because they couldn't find the cap space to fulfill his yearly pay.
Sure, that's the way it goes when you put that much money into one player, but had Kovalchuk really committed to his desires to play in the KHL and not the NHL, it may have allowed the Devils to approach resigning Parise and Clarkson a little bit differently.
Parise would have been hard to resign because he was off to Minnesota before the lockout even began, but Clarkson is a whole different story. He signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs just days before Kovalchuk made his decision to opt out of his contract. Reverse these decisions and Clarkson would most likely still be on New Jersey and things may not look as bleak for the Devils.
It was a shocking decision made by one of the NHL's biggest superstars. Kovalchuk won't be bothered by this decision one bit because he'll be back in his home country still making loads of money, but don't be surprised if this takes the 2012 Stanley Cup finalists a few years to recover from.

*All images courtesy of Google Images*

Making It In ESPN

ESPN.  It is every sports journalist’s dream to one day work for the largest sports outlet in the entire world.

However, the company is no longer strictly journalism.  One of the largest parts of the company is the Stats and Information Group, also known as SIG.  This group handles all the stats and analysis that we see on the television screen, making sure that it is accurate, but still getting it on the air in a timely manner.

Within the SIG department are four main departments: the Bottomline, Production Research, Stats and Analysis, and Analytics.  Much of the research and stats come from databases such as the Elias Sports Bureau, TruMedia, and two summers ago, ESPN introduced MLB TruMedia.

Three people that work within the Stats and Analysis department are Hillary London, Erin Quinn, and Caroline Stedman are responsible for putting together many of the stats that you see pop up on screen.

Quinn and Stedman are both very young and just in the beginning of their time at ESPN, but have immense amounts of experience that can take them a long way. 

Stedman graduated from Amherst College in 2012, where she played for the women’s basketball team and was named an All-American and NESCAC Player of the Year.  The summer going into her junior year of college, she studied in Costa Rica, where she became fluent in Spanish, a trait that proved very valuable to her when she applied to ESPN.  Now, even though she is working in analytics, she is trying to use her knowledge of Spanish to help her move up in the sports world.

“I am currently working my way towards becoming a certified translator,” said Stedman. 

By becoming a translator, Stedman can use her knowledge of both Spanish and sports and work her way up in the organization and in the sporting world.

Quinn is currently in her third year with ESPN, her first full-time job right out of school.  She, like Stedman, went to school in Western Massachusetts, graduating from the all-girls school Smith College in Northampton, Mass.  Rather than learning a language like Stedman, she stood out to ESPN with all of her experience, interning for a minor league baseball team and then also at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. 

The round of interviews that she went through to finally be hired by ESPN were lengthy, but certainly worth the time.

“After I originally talked to them on the phone, I had to take a 45-minute email test,” said Quinn.  “Following that, I had about four or five phone interviews and then finally was asked to come to the campus in Bristol and have an in-person interview and observation.”

And finally, there is London.  She is the experienced one in the group, a production manager within SIG.  Unlike Quinn and Stedman, she didn’t go right into the stats world, but instead, followed her passion of lacrosse and coached collegiately for 11 years, before she left to take a position at ESPN.  Now, she works with statistics, but is also one of the people that hires applicants like Quinn and Stedman.  For her, everyone that applies to ESPN loves sports, but she looks for more.

“In your cover letter, I want you to include a story about how sports have played a role in your life,” London said.  “Everyone says that they’re passionate about sports, but you need to include why this (job) will help you with what you want to do.”

All three of them took different routes to get where they are now, but for all of them, it is their passion in sports that will make them successful.

To Hell and Back

In 2007, Michael Vick had it all.

He had recently signed the richest contract in NFL history with the Atlanta Falcons, a 10 year/ $130 million deal with $37 million guaranteed.  But all of that disappeared when he was arrested and found guilty on dogfighting charges, causing him to go to jail for 18 months of his life.  The 18 month penalty was a much harsher penalty than what the law had called for, but Vick was used as a scapegoat.

Following his release, Vick signed as a free agent in 2009 with the Philadelphia Eagles and has since seen himself go from a near MVP candidate, to one of the most hated men in Philly.  But, back in 2010, ABC News' Bob Woodruff had a chance to sit down with Vick and talk about everything that Vick had been through: his time in Atlanta, how he lost everything, and how he has found his way back.

Coupled with the piece was a written story by Jennifer Metz that goes into more detail than the two and half minute video piece that Woodruff put together that details Vick's life in more detail.  By putting the two together, you get the visual side of the story, seeing Vick's life through highlights and video interviews and then the much more in-depth story of how Vick lost everything and got it all back again in the written piece.

Together, the multimedia package does a fantastic job of putting everything out there about Vick, but the one thing that really stood out to me as odd was the one-on-one interview that Woodruff had with Vick in the auditorium.  I didn't really like how they had the interview side-by-side as opposed to being face-to-face.  Had they been set up in front of each other, it would have forced Vick to look more directly towards Woodruff and talk TO him, rather than be next to him and talk BY him.  By setting them up that way, it was almost giving Vick a chance to avoid eye contact and not make it as personal as what it could have been.

On a positive not, I liked how there were multiple video packages put together.  The first one, the 2:33 package is the real story.  The next video that pops up is all the interview that Woodruff has with Vick, so you're able to hear more about what Vick has to say about his life.  The final video is Vick at his introductory press conference when he signed with the Eagles in 2009, giving you the full sports aspect of the story and showing him finally back from where he had gone.

Overall, this piece was well put together, nothing less than what one would expect from ABC News.  Even though I wish the video could have been longer, the written story did a fantastic job capturing everything about Vick and is certainly a great piece about a person trying to get a second chance at life.

Paving His Own Path

Ever since he was a journalism major at George Mason University, Matt Lee has lived by the quote that late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs once said: "Don't be afraid.  You can do it."

It was this message that got Lee out there and gave him the confidence to apply to jobs and internships as a senior in college, with very little experience in the field of journalism.

"It was like a chip on my shoulder because I wasn't doing myself any favors by going there," said Lee of his decision to go to George Mason, a school not well-known for its journalism program.  "My one professor told me 'look, let them tell you no.  Don't take yourself out of it before you even give it a shot.'"

In essence, Lee's journalism professor was telling him to not be afraid because he can do it.

Following his graduation from George Mason in 1998, Lee took a job at Washingtonpost.com as the online producer, working mainly the night shift.  It was Lee's job to take all of the print content and put it online, but working online was not the ideal job that Lee had for himself.

"I wanted to be a beat reporter of some sorts," said Lee.  "I had no idea where this was going to take me and all the old guys there were telling me that what I was doing was just a fad."

By taking an online job at Washingtonpost.com, Lee was pursuing something outside of his comfort zone.  Not being afraid of the task at hand.

When Lee graduated, there were only three routes for him to take in the field of journalism: newspapers, radio, and broadcasting.  But, with the invention of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other interactive social media sites, journalism was rapidly changing.

Lee excelled as the online producer and was one of the key guys in starting the first blog for Washingtonpost.com.  This experience led to Lee getting a call from one of his colleagues who had a job opening at ESPN.

"I got a call from one of my old colleagues and she had a job opportunity at ESPN to work on the news desk," said Lee.  "I didn't get that job, but I did get a job as the lead editor for the Insider section."

That opportunity led to Lee getting to where he is now, as the senior blog editor for ESPN.com.  Four years ago, when he first took the blog editor position, Lee's staff consisted of only three or four writers.

"We hired traditional beat reporters to cover each specific NFL division and blog about them and give analysis within each division," said Lee.

Along with the NFL blogs, his small team of writers also wrote college football blogs, covering each of the major conferences.

Today, Lee's staff of writers has tripled to nine writers and their content has also expanded to to college basketball and major league baseball, on top of the NFL and college football blogs.

Lee is in his sixth year at ESPN and is a long way from that insecure college student from George Mason.

"One thing I would tell anyone pursuing journalism is to find something passionate and blog and write about it.  Find something you love because this is a tough business," said Lee.

Find something you love, and, oh, don't be afraid.  You can do it.

Concussions Changing The Way The NFL Is Played

Imagine yourself on queer street, not knowing where you are, being sensitive to light and sound, and constantly nauseous.  Now try to imagine those same feelings while having them in front of 70,000+ screaming fans every Sunday.

Those are the immediate effects of a concussion and the injury that is the reason why fans and critics alike are calling for a change to the nation's most-popular league.  The high-level speeds and hitting that occur in an NFL game make the sport one of the most violent in the world, but fans still love to see one of their team's favorite players light up the opposing player.  Unfortunately, it is ruining the game everyone loves.

On October 7th, Washington Redskins rookie quarterback and No. 2 overall draft pick Robert Griffin III (RGIII) suffered a nasty blow to the head in the 3rd quarter in a game against the Atlanta Falcons.  Upon viewing the hit and seeing RGIII's immediate reaction following the play, any sensible person could see that he was not ok.  Following the game, head coach Mike Shanahan admitted that his quarterback suffered a "mild" concussion and he was not just "shaken up" as the team previously stated, meaning that Griffin would now have to go through a series of tests that the league put in place so that players who suffer head injuries won't come back too soon.

Now, the Redskins are facing potential fines from the league because of the original diagnosis of RGIII as only being "shaken up."  However, in a different report and mentioned on Yahoo Sports "Shutdown Corner" blog, the Redskins' medical staff denies any claims that they downgraded Griffin's head injury and went through the correct medical steps to diagnose his injury, including asking him the quarter and score of the game, which he failed.  After he failed that test, the trainers took him back into the training room and examined him further.

RGIII was drafted to be the team's prized possession and the organization's future, so it only seems fitting that the team would do anything possible to have him on the field.  However, risking his future now is a dumb move, especially since he started the following weekend against the Minnesota Vikings.  So much for really protecting the prized jewel.

The NFL has done everything it can to try to reduce the number of concussions in the game, by putting harsher punishments on helmet-to-helmet hits and blows to the head, but it's just the way the game is played.  Sadly, the NFL community and sports world lost a legend last May when former NFL linebacker Junior Seau committed suicide.  The cause of this: too many concussions over the course of his career.  

Seau is one of many NFL stars that have ended their lives early because concussions led them to having mental problems following their careers. 

On the same day as RGIII's concussion, Kansas City Chiefs' QB Matt Cassel also suffered a serious concussion, one that kept him out of the following week's game.  Prior to the hit that knocked Cassel out of the game, his play had been poor, throwing two interceptions on 9-of-15 passing through the first three quarters.  But, it was the reaction that the fans had after Cassel had been knocked out, causing him to be taken out of the game.  The hometown fans cheered when he was removed from the game, causing Chiefs' offensive tackle Eric Winston to go on a rant about how embarrassed he was at the reaction the fans had when Cassel was injured.

Much like RGIII, Cassel may return in short time, but the reality of concussions can be seen in the sad stories of Seau and the other NFL stars that have committed suicide: concussions are not something to mess with and can cause a lot more long-term damage than the short-term pain they initially create.

We should only be thankful that the NFL is trying to do something to fix this.

Tony Romo All The Talk Following MNF Failure

http://storify.com/pstroh65/tony-romo-all-the-talk-following-mnf-failure

Author Sean Glennon Talks His New Book And The Great Quarterback Debate

In author Sean Glennon’s new book, Tom Brady vs. The NFL: The Case for Football’s Greatest Quarterback, Glennon put his own spin on the greatest quarterback of all-time debate by claiming that Tom Brady is the best quarterback the league has ever seen.

"This book is meant to start arguments in bar rooms, on the radio, and in comment sections," said Glennon.

Brady was selected 199^th overall in the 2000 NFL Draft, has won three Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots and has become the poster-boy for elite quarterbacks in the NFL, leaving many critics and fans debating whether or not he is, or will become, the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. 

Glennon is one of those people.  He makes that case in his book that, even though Brady is still playing in the league, he has already surpassed the likes of Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, and Joe Montana for the greatest quarterback to ever play the game.

"This book almost killed me because I had to take all these stats and put them into a narrative,” said Glennon.  "I wanted to be able to compare Brady to the other great quarterbacks from a perspective of knowing the game."

Glennon began writing his book roughly 18 months ago (although he isn’t exactly sure how long it actually took) while he was a columnist at the Boston Phoenix newspaper.  He was approached by Triumph Publishing Co. to write a book comparing Brady and Peyton Manning.  Almost a year into writing the book, Glennon realized that the real debate is not between Brady and Manning, but instead, it is about where Brady ranks among the greatest quarterbacks of all-time.

Glennon took this idea and ran with it, doing extensive research and looking up the stats of 14 retired quarterbacks and some of the game’s best active NFL quarterbacks, but wanted to come at it from the angle of being informed.

He didn’t want to bash great quarterbacks of the past just to make his point.  He wanted to use his knowledge of the game to tell why each quarterback was so great, but why Brady was better.  An approach that can be difficult when comparing a quarterback from today’s game to quarterbacks that played in a time when the game was completely different.

“It’s hard to compare quarterbacks today to Roger Staubach and Terry Bradshaw because it’s just a different style of game,” said Glennon.

Today, it seems as though Brady has surpassed nearly every quarterback on the “Greatest of All Time” list, except for the legendary Montana.  When it came to this debate, it was this argument that Glennon enjoyed most while writing his book.

“The most interesting story for me was telling the story of Joe Montana, the second greatest quarterback of all time.”

Glennon knows that there will always be people out there who will back Montana and everything he accomplished.  His perfect 4-0 record in the Super Bowl, his zero interceptions thrown in Super Bowl games, and all the other records and stats that he compiled during his illustrious career.  But, the way Glennon sees it, Brady has already been to five Super Bowls, one more than Montana ever got to and Brady is the only quarterback in history to win his first 10 playoff games.

“This argument may be settled by the time Brady’s career is over, one way or another,” said Glennon.

Currently, Brady sits at 12^th on the all-time passing yards list, one spot ahead of Joe Montana and over 30,000 yards behind Brett Favre, who has 71,838 yards passing.