Alfie Dogs

With the 18th pick in the NBA draft....     The Miami Heat selected with their first round pick the "Mexican American" Jaime Jaquez Jr. a forward from UCLA. Jaime also has a sister who plays for UCLA and the two siblings made history as the only two siblings to make the sweet sixteen in the same year as brother and sister and every published narrative is quick to classify them as 'Mexican American".  Parents: Jaime Jaquez Sr. and Angela Sather (Jaquez)     It is technically true that the Jaquez siblings can be classified as "Mexican American" however it is also true how myopic and manipulative the label implies. If you where to do a superficial search on the origin of these two accomplished sibling athletes you would easily stumble upon the overt publicity of the Mexican nationality of their father. However, the nationality of their mother requires motivation to unearth her origin. Angela Sather's family lineage remains a mystery, but Sather is a Nordic...

  The Fangio defense core philosophy is to prevent/discourage big plays from the opposing offense. How exactly does he tailor his scheme towards that goal?  1. Zone Match Coverage  Simplistically, unlike traditional zone coverage where the defender patrols a zone and not the player, Zone Match instructs the defender to play man coverage once the opponent enters their zone responsibility. You may ask why is this small distinction impactful? In a traditional zone coverage an offense can effectively recognize and adjust in real time, however Zone Match can easily be mistaken for man coverage as a play unfolds therefore forcing the QB to hesitate on his initial read. 2. The Play-action Neutralizer The Defense plays primarily from a 2 safety shell. However the safeties play about 4 yards closer to line of scrimmage than your basic 2 deep, WHY? The defense wants the safeties involved in run support and more importantly the defense is designed to adjust coverage post snap. If yo...

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, a fervent slavery abolitionist authored the most influential literary work of the 19th century, Uncle Toms Cabin. In fact, the only book to outsell Uncle Toms Cabin GLOBALLY in the 19th century was the Bible. The story was so influential that upon meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln fondly commented she was "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." in reference to the Civil War.  Harriet Beecher Stowes’ purpose was to highlight the inhumanity of slavery. Her vehicle was to humanize the principal character, Tom, as a man of principal, integrity, honor, and most importantly a Christian that was agnostic to race.  Uncle Toms Cabin isn’t about race, it is the story of a Christian with unflappable faith. Tom befriended his kind owners with grace, he was a trusted ally to his fellow slaves, he risked his life to save a white child from drowning while being transported on the Ohio river for SLAVE AUCTION, and most importantly, he s...

  Jan 12th, 2020 The KC Chiefs, after rallying to overcome a 24-0 Deficit in the first half of a home playoff game, miraculously cut the lead to a manageable 3 points with less than 2 minutes left in the half. The stage was set for Mahomes to educate me on a talent I never considered as tangible, a manifestation of something I always perceived as a platitude. As the first half was about to end, he scrambled for a TD, it may seem like a common play, but it was as if he was going in slow motion it was confounding how he navigated to score while seemingly exhibiting no explosion. In that moment the game slowed down for Mahomes, Like Spider Man that sees his surroundings in a slower frame rate.  Mathew Tkachuck I will admit I have an untrained eye for hockey, that being said, I have watched plenty of Panther Hockey. A primary reason for my lost of interest is that I simply didn’t truly believe in the talent. When the Panthers posted the best record in the league, I saw a wild sens...

  How do we measure CB play? In most cases it can be measured by comp% allowed. Revis, Champ, Peterson, players that where absurd in lockdown coverage in their prime. Xavien Howard is NOT a lock down corner, evaluating him by critiquing his lock down coverage is to misunderstand his talent. X is a ball hunter! A talent he exhibited early in his college career. He registered 10 ints in 29 games at Baylor! For Perspective, The GREAT Jalen Ramsey registered 3 Ints in 41 games at Florida State.  The “X” factor. It is a pervasive reality that sport fans only focus on a players weakness. Yes, X isn’t a lock down corner, HE NEVER WAS! I understand that there are instances where he is victimized in coverage and the optics look bad. Nevertheless I would argue that he is the most influential winner in the secondary for Miami since Jake Scott. X creates turnovers and scores at a high rate for his position historically. Turnovers is the overwhelming winning stat, and scoring? well I would...

I want to be clear, my knowledge of Hockey in no way makes me qualified to have conviction of the observation I am about to express. Hockey/Baseball are incredible similar in more ways than we may have thought. Let me unpack. The Object of player focus (Baseball/Puck) These two objects are similar in weight, both are manipulated by a stick in some way, they both travel at extreme velocity, and both can cause devastating injury if a player is struck above the shoulders. If that was every similarity it would still be a reasonable observation of similarity, but for me the greatest similarity is the nature of their unpredictability. For a baseball, the unpredictability is how the baseballs rotation is always a variable force, For a Puck its the nature of its glide on the ice, and that it has two separate surface realities -- It can glide on the flat, and roll on the tread. The Sticks The concept of manipulated a puck/ball that already has a level of unpredictability baked int...

Speed does not make a great RB. It is true, the cliche “speed kills” is very real. Skill position players that possess the gift of elite speed are far more likely to have successful careers than those who do not; the metrics are quite clear. However, there are other variables that play a key part in this objective conclusion. A few considerations must be examined to unpack this ultimate conclusion. 1.) Is speed the most important trait to a successful skilled player, Or does speed just supplement a more important skill set depending on position? Can track stars unquestionably be football players? 2.) Is our perception of speed based on a non contact, non padded sterile environment truly define a physical elite trait? Can we really measure speed of a skilled position player in a controlled uncontested environment? Carefully considering those two examinations, I am of the opinion that speed is an auxiliary skill set, although incredibly necessary, ultimately useless if the skilled player...