Hey friends,
Things have been fairly busy lately. I trust that you are well. Check out this video from the recent Michael W. Smith cruise to Alaska. Playing basketball against an NBA hall-of-famer was probably the highlight of my year.
Matt
Hey,
I’m on a tour bus headed to Canada. We will be up here for the next few weeks.
Last night I had a few minutes to put together a little video for my family about ‘Backyard Cricket’… which is one of Australia’s greatest past times.
I thought you might enjoy it… maybe. Whatever the case… my brother-in-law (Hugh) and I have played a lot of cricket over the last few days. The bowling shoulder is sore… but the heart is happy.
The following ad is Nike’s latest with Tiger Woods. The voice is of his deceased father, Earl Woods.
I really felt something the first time I watched this. Then… I felt sickened.
Perhaps it’s because this ad has nothing to do with selling sporting apparel. This is all about the re-imaging of a man. In a way, this is Nike telling us that they believe that they have the power to redeem… just because they have created a 30 second piece. Trust me… the gift of redemption is above Nike’s pay grade.
Perhaps I hate the fact that anyone would use their deceased father for something like this. It appears that Woods is using his dead father to rectify his image problem.
I’m not sure why I feel what I am feeling right now. This ad is a brave move on the behalf of Tiger Woods and Nike… but it just doesn’t seem right to me.
What do you think?
Tags: Earl Woods, Nike, Tiger Woods
My mate Todd Stepp blogged this about the NCAA Basketball Tournament yesterday.
All this talk about the NCAA expanding the national championship field to 95 teams is crazy.
First off, why should teams like North Carolina (16-16), Texas Tech (17-15, sorry Chuck) or Illinois (19-14) be rewarded by an invitation into the most prestigious basketball tournament when their teams this year are average at best? Who wants to watch average basketball? Not me. Teams like Vermont and Richmond are ecstatic to be playing in this tournament. They may be average, but they earned their right to still be playing.
Secondly, at what point do we need to stop treating everyone like we’re in Little League? Expanding into a 95-team tournament is essentially like advertising a job and then feeling bad that you can only hire the right person, so you hire everyone. Sports is about teaching you life’s lessons, not proving everyone’s a winner.
Right?
I love it when someone understands the importance that sport has on our society. Some even claim that it is a display of a nation’s strength in the the absence of war.
Who wins the FIFA World Cup in June is way more important than most of us think.
You should follow Todd’s blog at toddstepp.wordpress.com
Dude is a genius (with cool hair).
Tags: College Basketball, FIFA, NCAA, Todd Stepp
I get to meet heaps of cool people in my travels. I had the great fortune to spend Sunday night with John Carney and his family in California. He has played in the NFL for 22 years and was part of the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints in 2010. Check this out!
I love my life!
Matt
PS – Holly Carney made the best breakfast of 2010. I found a nice article about Holly here.
Tags: John Carney, NFL
