Face-Off: Chad Underwood says "Defense Wins Championships"

"Oh Yeah, Rick. It is going down right now. How dare you disrespect us."- Steelers Defense 

 
 "Defense wins championships" is not just some worn out saying used to keep teams grounded, it is a fact. When Rick and I decided to write these dueling columns, I thought the battle would be much harder than it has been. In my opinion, the numbers tell the story just fine.

Face-Off: Rick Dahrens says "Offense Wins Championships"

These men combined: six Super Bowl championships and eight appearances in the big game.

   

 The Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants, Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, and Chicago Bears: One of these teams is not like the other. All except one has won a Super Bowl within the past 7 seasons. One has ventured far enough to the big stage, but fell short. The Chicago Bears lacked one aspect of the game that the rest of the teams excelled with.

Michael Allen: What American Sports Fans Are Missing: Part One: Australian Football

This is a image from last season's Grand Final, not some kind of war.

   

The United States of America is, arguably, the best country in the world for sports.  There’s something for everyone.  We have four gargantuan professional sports leagues, a steadily growing soccer league with a bright future, a thriving college sports organization, motorsports, horse racing and poker.  Americans are always a major competitor in the Olympic Games.  I’ve even seen a game of chicken foot broadcast on ESPN.  The USA sports party is wild.  But there are a few guests, some foreign, others local but a little shy, leaning against the wall that we should offer a few drinks.

Chad Underwood: Remembering Tupac Shakur

 

   When I was thirteen, I managed to get my hands on a copy of Kanye West's The College Dropout and it changed the way I listened to music forever. Before that, I pretty much just listened to Train and Dave Matthews Band with my dad (sometimes I still listen to those bands), but hearing Kanye was my first true rap experience. I loved the sound and how every single time I popped it in my portable CD player (Wow, we had those?) I discovered some new wordplay I did not realized the first time. It was incredible.

Mark Vance: Contagion Review

   Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion could not have come out at a better time. Contagion, a film depicting a catastrophic epidemic, opens on the weekend of the ten year anniversary (strange to call it an anniversary) of the tragic events of September 11. It is hard to not think about the aftermath of 9/11 and its affect on the world populace and I think it is best to keep these thoughts in mind while watching this great film.


    Let’s get the “well duh’s” out of the way. The film looks fantastic. The directing is spot on. The pacing is swift and the film is entertaining throughout. All of this comes with a Soderbergh film. What did stand out to me even more was how improvisational each scene felt. The pauses, the stuttering, the “uhs,” all feel organic and genuine. Scenes that lesser movies would have made cliché come off as authentic. Deaths come at a shock to characters who can’t take it in immediately.  Only when several months have passed is when it finally hits. And it hits hard. The dialogue and acting, involving Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne and many more, easily makes these people feel like real people and that this horrible epidemic is really happening. 

Chad Underwood: Hockey's brutal Summer, and how Fall could change that

The 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Hockey Club.

   
The hockey world usually stops to take a break after the Stanley Cup is awarded to the champion of the league each June. This off-season has been anything but a break. In the past four months we have had three NHLers commit suicide: Derek Boogaard of the New York Rangers overdosed on pain pills and alcohol, Rick Rypien of the Vancouver Canucks killed himself after fighting depression, and recently retired Wade Belak, was found hanging in his hotel room.

Rick Dahrens: My relationship with NASCAR

Fact: NASCAR stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

   
   While some might like to call it the “non-athletic sport created around rednecks”, I simply like to call it NASCAR. It’s been a part of my life since 2001, and will always continue to impact my life. I even have aspirations to somehow incorporate NASCAR into my career.