Video: Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story
Rise & Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story from Diesel Films on Vimeo.
When I was out in Chicago a few weeks ago, Sammy introduced me to an executive producer on the above project who is also a good friend of his, Pete Viña Jr. Having lived in the UK and understanding the talent in the Premier League, and the passion for football over there, this is an absolutely remarkable story. More on the project below.
“For a true story of determination and inspiration, you all need to check out Rise and Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story. The film follows the path of Jay DeMerit, an undrafted, unheralded soccer player, who left the U.S. upon graduation from UIC to pursue a career in European soccer. After a year of shut doors, countless “No’s” and disappointment, Jay came back to ‘States with more determination than ever! The rest as they say is history. You may recall him playing in the back for the U.S. in last summers World Cup in South Africa. Check out the movie opening on November 3rd nationwide on a limited run. For a theater near you check out www.jaydemeritstory.com. Stories like these are what the people need to see!”
Sunday Sports Day: Congrats, Prime Time
Peace on this Sunday. Many things happened in the World this past week including another pending economic disaster as the U.S. credit rating was downgraded to the dreaded AA+ mark. The U.S. also lost 31 special ops troops to whom I think we all owe a big thank you for their commitment to our country. A moment of silence is probably owed to say the least.
With that said, this is Sunday Sports Day, so allow me to commence with some commentary on this weekend’s cerimonies in Canton, Ohio.
This weekend saw the enshrinement of several football players from a generation of talent most people my age had the pleasure to watch and enjoy. One of them in particular, Prime Time, is held in special regard as you will come to understand here shortly.
To brief everyone, my favorite professional sports teams in the World are the ones that hail from Cleveland. Outside of our three Cleveland teams, I don’t like anyone else. At all. I don’t have a second team and never did in any sport. My favorite Cleveland professional athletes growing up were Bernie Kosar (QB, Cleveland Browns), Kenny Lofton (CF, Cleveland Indians), Omar Vizquel (SS, Cleveland Indians), Mark Price (PG, Cleveland Cavaliers) and Albert Belle (LF, Cleveland Indians).
However, growing up I took a liking to a few players that did not call Cleveland their homes. In no particular order those athletes were P Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox, PF Chris Webber of the University of Michigan, Washington Bullets and Sacramento Kings and one CB Deion Sanders of FSU, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys.
I am not exactly sure how I came to like these other athletes, but I think they all had one thread in common: flash. At their peaks, these were the most competitive players at their positions in their respective sports. While my memory of childhood is not great, I know one thing for certain, Deion Sanders had a huge influence on me as early as I could remember.
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Sunday Sports Day: Indians and Browns Analysis
By MK
I haven’t written on sports in a while, but with the Tribe making a huge trade and Browns camp starting back up, I feel now is a good time to offer some thoughts. I definitely miss the banter with friends and fans back home. We also used to do a sports thing once a week, so maybe this will segue me into bringing that back, but don’t bet on that shit.
Either way, after the Ubaldo Jimenez trade, things got popping off with a lot of Tribe fans ecstatic about the trade. I am not specifically going to get into the psyche of a Cleveland fan, because at this point, let’s be honest, our fan base is not the most sane or rational one. For good reason, but I am going to take a more pragmatic approach as I examine this trade, but more so the philosophy I believe a team in our economic situation must adopt.
About the Tribe…
Overall, I applaud Antonetti for actually having the balls to make this move. You get an ace for at least two years as it should seem, while giving up your top two pitching prospects. Bold move. High risk, high reward stuff. But let’s move on to the practicalities of this trade.
Let me begin by saying this: pitching and defense wins you championships. Timely hitting is also a large part of that, but I believe the first two are the foundation for a championship ballclub. As I assess our ballclub, our pitching even without this trade is ahead of our offense. So…
To those drinking the Kool-Aid on the Ubaldo trade, please understand: we will eventually go down the same path with him that we did with Cliff Lee and Cookie Cookie Sabathia, and what did that yield? So far, a decent player in Michael Brantley and a few hits out of Matt LaPorta. We will see what Jason Kipnis is made of shortly. However, for the position we are in as an organization, a shitty one at that, it’s those top teir prospects we need to rely on, for depth and better long-term contract situations. I think most people really undervalue this concept for two main reasons.
First, in the last few seasons we have been in fire sale mode, so we have been acquiring prospects. Those prospects rarely jump straight to our Major League club meaning they are still in this development process. Second, our drafts had been so shitty for a number of years that our so-called top prospects had been over-hyped. Without developing an in-house prospects, but it seems of late, this had been turning around with prospects like Alex White and Drew Pomeranz.
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Peyton Hillis – Madden 2K12
Let’s get it! I’m hype for this upcoming season, especially with Hillis on the Madden cover. They better get things straightened out soon with the NFL owners, though. We DON’T need to have a football-less Fall season. Nope.
Video: Weezy – I Am Still Music Tour: Indiana
Wayne acting a fool while on the road. The funniest part is the fact that he’s crushing on Skylar Diggins, who apparently plays ball for Notre Dame. Honestly, I don’t pay much attention to women’s basketball…
Fab Five
Finally got the chance to watch the ESPN “30 For 30″ on the Fab Five. Wow. Talk about some game changers. This was easily one of the best stories in the history of sport. When you think about it, there are only a few events in any field of play or business that truly change an entire culture forever. The University of Michigan, Nike, and TV execs profited greatly off of the mystique that was the Fab Five. Kids all over the country idolized these dudes, who were only 18 and 19 years old.
I’m always for a good anti-establishment story, and this documentary was the best one I have seen. Props to these guys for changing the game.
Blake Griffin Might Be Superman
There’s a chance that Blake Griffin might be THE MOST explosive player in the league NOW, not to mention the most gifted power forward ever.
I do this on the daily, though.
NBA Season Opener
GAME, SET, MATCH! I realize last night was just the season opener, but I had to get that off my chest. To be honest, I’m not going to participate in LeBron hating all season. I DO have better things to worry about.
Honeslty, I think this NBA season is going to be a classic. Especially if Carmelo ends up in NY or Chicago. All of the best teams in the league will be in every major city (especially if Carmelo goes to NY), which is only gonna make things crazier.
Oh, and best of luck to Byron Scott. He might be wondering what he got himself into.
LoL.
This guy.
Never wrote on the whole bit. Maybe I will soon, but it’s been overkill in the media already. However, the things this cat tweets is straight comedy. If anyone is listening to advice from that guy…get a grip. Ring chasing at 25. SMMFH.
Hey Bron…we don’t believe you, you need more people.
Fantasy Football Playoffs – LET’S GET IT!
WOW! Our fantasy league was a pressure cooker this year. Going into the last week only one playoff spot had been sewed up, five were up for grabs and like eight teams had a chance for those five spots. NUTS!
Heading into the weekend I was in 9th at 6-6, but had the third most points scored in the league. I started out the year 0-3, but finished crazy strong winning like six of my last seven. As you can see on the bottom right, I romped in my final week matchup and found my way to fourth place.
Shouts to Matt Ryan, Mo Jones Drew, Matt Forte, T.O., Greg Jennings, Reggie Wayne, not so much Todd Heap who got injured in the first quarter vs. Pittsburgh, Matt Bryant and the Ravens D. I have been scoring very consistently of late so a run to the championship may be in the cards. Not saying it will be easy, but the Lord knows I could use some good luck.
OK LET’S DO IT! Higher Plane FC FTW!!!