By Jose R. Lavergne
Last Thursday should have been an exceptionally joyous occasion for Jerry Jeudy, a high school football standout from Deerfield Beach.
He was announcing his decision on where he would be attending the next three to four years of his collegiate/football career.
He narrowed down his choices to Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami, and Tennessee.
Instead the greed from some members of the media was put on the forefront.
Without any consideration for when the scheduled announcement was taking place, his decision was leaked on Twitter that he was attending Alabama before Jeudy had a chance to mention it himself.
Top WR Jerry Jeudy picks #Alabama over Gators, FSU, Miami, Tennessee https://t.co/QwPQFwDxe3 pic.twitter.com/y5fDNJ64Yw
— Sentinel Recruiting (@OS_Recruiting) July 29, 2016
Reports going out that @jerryjeudy has committed to #Alabama, but he says no decision has been made yet. Hasn’t even went on the radio yet.
— Corey Bender (@Corey_Bender) July 29, 2016
Talking about ruining a kid’s time in the spotlight, smh.. We’re live w/ @jerryjeudy 10 feet away, but again, he hasn’t officially announced
— Corey Bender (@Corey_Bender) July 29, 2016
The actual announcement would go on to be delayed by Jeudy.
One can only speculate that shock and frustration behind the time delay.
I have to commend Jeudy for comporting himself like an adult and not letting this bitter situation take away from his excitement in committing.
He thanked his mother for helping become the man that he is today and moved forward in putting a visor with the Alabama logo on it.
In our lives, we all have moments that are meant to be special for us.
A relatable example to most of us is our graduation.
Whether from kindergarten or high school, we feel this sense of joy for accomplishing something in our lives, and get to enjoy accolades from those closest to us.
We should NEVER take away that from anyone, especially from a kid.
He was given his first tough adult decision, and the media did not allow for him to voice it himself.
If we want as the media not to be ostracized from great news stories, how about showing respect for the person in the story.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: @jerryjeudy/ Twitter
What Do You Think?
-
Some Virginia Tech Fans Just Seriously Went Over The Line
Sports should never become this.
Before the start of tonight’s University of Miami vs Virginia Tech football game, some fans decided to take it WAY over the line.
Barstool Sports Tweeted out a picture of the following banner that they found in Blacksburg.
Just awful.
The banner mentions Jose Fernandez, a 24 year old Miami Marlins player who died in late September in a boating accident.
Gross.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
What Do You Think?
-
This “Funny Map” Of Broward County Is Hilarious
Broward. Ah Broward. If you grew up there, then you know what we’re talking about. Basically Miami, but not quite.
Oh course, the people from Miami understand how different Broward really is.
So we had a few Miami (and Broward) kids come up with their best mental picture of what Broward is to them and here is what they came up with. (Things get a little more murky, the farther north you go):
Does this map ring true? What would you add to it? Let us know in the comments below:
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
What Do You Think?
-
Here’s How The Warriors Turned Steph Curry Into A Well Rested Bionic Superhuman
Before blossoming into the greatest shooter the sport has ever known, Steph Curry was defined by his fragile ankles.
Over the course of his first 3 NBA seasons, Curry missed 66 games, most of that coming after his initial operation, as he sprained his ankle five times while playing in 26 games the following year.
If his 2012 surgery failed, he was faced with the bleak prospect of inserting tendons from a cadaver into his ankle in the hopes that they would function better than the ones nature provided for him.
Luckily for Curry, the NBA, and anyone who ever wished that Steve Nash and Pete Maravich would have an And1 basketball baby, his last surgery is looking like it could be his last ankle surgery.
Steph’s problems were actually a pretty easy fix, as they were due to a mess of scar tissue, bone spurs, chips, and cartilage filling his joints “like crab meat.”
Dr. Richard Ferkel essentially vacuumed it all out, and the next face of the NBA was reborn.
“I feel like I’ve been doing nothing but rehabbing for two years. I feel like I’m never going to be able to play again. This ankle thing is not gonna be my life.”
Photo Credit: Golden State Warriors/ Facebook
Curry took advantage of as many resources as he could to fuel his 2nd chance in the NBA. Before every game now, Curry straps on his Zamst ankle braces (designed for post-sprain activity) and a pair of Under Armour sneakers created specifically for his feet.
Every team is looking for an edge somewhere in keeping players healthy and consistent. It is an accepted fact that this is the new market inefficiency in sports. But few organizations pursue this avenue with the vigor and resources of the Warriors.
They hired Australian sports science guru Lachland Penfold this offseason, and according to owner Joe Lacob, the goal is to “have like, a video game fatigue meter. A guy like Lachland will be able to go up to Bob and Steve [Kerr] and say, ‘Guys, he’s at a 77, and our threshold is 75 for Safe to Play.'”
The NBA’s new SportVU cameras that track and measure almost any movement on the court have combined with the GPS trackers the team wears in practice to give the Warriors unprecedented insight into their players’ health and its relation to their game.
The Warriors place a premium on their players’ mental acuity as well. Steve Kerr has made it a team goal to reduce personal stress, and the Warriors run complex drills to test their nervous system, as Curry described in an interview with Tech Insider:
“We overload our sensory system, nervous system, in our training with different lights. There are little beams that we have on the wall, and I’ll be doing dribble moves and reading the lights that are associated with different moves. Different colors mean to do a different move, and you have to make that decision in a split second and still have control of the ball.”
What do Steve Kerr, Chip Kelly, the Vancouver Canucks, and Jason Bourne all agree on? As the line from Robert Ludlum’s famous 1990 book goes: “Rest is a weapon.”
Photo Credit: Golden State Warriors/ Facebook
Before Kelly even arrived in Philadelphia three years ago, the Vancouver Canucks signed a deal in 2009 with Fatigue Science.
No professional squad has a more brutal travel schedule than the northwesternmost team in North America; the Canucks traveled one third of the distance to the moon en route to their 2011 Stanley Cup Finals loss, so it’s only natural that they would be interested in the effects of sleep, or the lack thereof, on the body.
A 2012 Harvard Study placed Fatigue Science’s armbands on orthopedic surgical residents and found that they averaged 5.3 hours of sleep per week, and because of this, the risk of medical error increased by 22%. Significant fatigue basically has the same effect on the body as being drunk.
Kelly has said that he believes that “an elite athlete needs between 10-12 hours [of sleep] a night.”
He was a college football pioneer in so many ways at Oregon, and he was practically the only college coach who was seriously investing in sport science.
As Chris Brown wrote for Grantland in 2014 about the basis of Kelly’s research (which was conducted on Australian-rules football):
“Many of those studies used heart rate, GPS, accelerometers, and gyroscope monitors worn by players in practice to determine how to train for peak game-day performance and how to prevent injuries. These studies also tracked the movements that players made in games so teams could mold practices and training to what players did on an individualized and position-by-position basis.”
The Eagles were 18th in Football Outsiders’ adjusted games lost to injury metric the year before Kelly arrived.
They invested a ton of money in his programs, placed trackers on their players’ wrists in practice, and finished 1st and 2nd in his subsequent seasons. Kelly has since been fired from the Eagles and is now the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
Top 10 teams at managing injuries over the past 5 seasons, with @ManGamesLostNFL data pic.twitter.com/Vj97MFmrWx
— Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) January 27, 2016
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan used to show up for work before sunrise. But things have changed for him.
“I thought that showed dedication and work ethic. I don’t do that anymore, because I realized it is more important to be rested and ready than it is to beat everybody to work.”
Pete Carroll has long embraced the importance of sleep, and the Seahawks now schedule their travel and training schedules to maximize their players’ sleep efficiency.
Richard Sherman has become one of Carroll’s acolytes on this issue, emphasizing how the head coach’s focus on good sleep was central to their Championship season of 2014 in an open letter for Sports Illustrated.
The pace of innovation in sports is accelerating. The Moneyball Era opened the floodgates for a reevaluation of everything.
Once available only to elite athletes, this technology that monitors players’ health and performance and helps explain their inextricably linked relationship is becoming more widespread and affordable.
If these advances could help alter the course of Steph Curry’s career, and thus, the history of the NBA, imagine the possibilities they could create in neighborhoods across the country.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
What Do You Think?