Saturday, April 28, 2012

Conversations Overheard In NFL Draft War Rooms


By Charlie Scaturro

Have you ever wondered what actually goes on in an NFL war room during the draft? Me too. When you think about it, those rooms contain highly paid executives, coaches, and scouts making multi-million dollar, pressure-filled decisions that will determine the future of their respective franchises in the most popular (and profitable) sports league in this country. I honestly can’t think of a more nerve racking, adrenaline filled, high stakes game of chance that directly affects so many different people. Based on the enormity of the situation, you would have to assume that everyone involved in this process is highly intelligent, informed, and aware of everything that is going on around them, but I think we know a little too much about certain coaches, general managers, and owners to say that this isn’t necessarily the case.

While it would be amazing to know exactly what Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett were discussing right before they called in their pick, unfortunately, I don’t have the inside sources or access to any kind of Mickey Loomis-style eavesdropping equipment to find out. But what I can provide is my best guess as to how things went down in some of the more entertaining war rooms during the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

Let’s take a look…

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Sky Isn't Falling Because Kentucky Won the National Championship

By Charlie Scaturro

We’re a little more than three weeks removed from the Kentucky Wildcats, and more specifically in some people’s minds, John Calipari and a talented group of freshmen, winning a National Championship in rather dominant fashion. You know how they did it, you’ve heard all about Calipari finally winning that elusive championship, and we now know that many of the players who were instrumental in the Wildcats eighth National Title will be heading to the NBA. But one of the more dramatic, and frankly misinformed, conclusions that some people have drawn from Kentucky’s triumph over Kansas a few weeks ago is that it spells doom for college basketball.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Journey to Sell the Worst Tickets in America

I feel the need to preface this article with a little bit of background.

I’ve never been an NBA fan. I’ve proven on multiple occasions that I can watch college basketball for at least 14 consecutive hours, but I’ve just never enjoyed the NBA. To a layperson, that probably sounds akin to a fanatic of AA baseball that just can’t get into MLB, but it’s just the way I am.

That being said, I moved to the DC area 2 years ago, went to a few Wizards games with some friends, and eventually got drunk enough to purchase season tickets for the 2011-12 season. The theory was that we would get to see some of the all-stars while laughing at the perils of the Wizards, and that at $16 a game, season tickets would be cheaper than trying to Stubhub the “premium” games.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and the Myth of Celebrity

By Charlie Scaturro

There used to be a fine line between athletes and celebrities, but that line has all but disappeared.

Somewhere between the time when professional football and baseball players had to hold second jobs to make ends meet, and when Michael Jordan became one of the most recognizable people on the face of the Earth, our culture has been conditioned to view athletes as a hybrid between hero and celebrity, just for playing a game very, very well. Of course, when Kobe Bryant is dropping 81 points on the Raptors, or Aaron Rodgers is picking apart every secondary in his path, while both guys are simultaneously appearing in commercials with Kanye West or pushing car insurance, it’s easy to see why the modern pro athlete is viewed the way he is.

Despite the seemingly endless number of celebrity/athlete screw-ups and unflattering moments that the public has witnessed through the years, we still hold our favorite athletes and celebrities above everyone else. Of course, even the best athletes fail sometimes, but at the end of the day they’re still multi-millionaires in peak physical condition who could run circles around 99.9% of the population, and the failures they may experience in their respective sports would be considered successes for anyone else on the planet.