Injury Free: No Fun Leagues

The Big Diesel keeps going. The Kidd is no longer a kid. Big Ben's ticking is no longer like clockwork. The NBA is supposed to be the top league, however the top players are not given the fair chance to shine because of old laggards who have decided that they are not ready to give up the millions, fame, and idea that they may not have the same game at 30+ that they did when they were 22.

There is so much talent that is either in or near the NBA level. There is even one player averaging 37 points per game in the NBADL. Go look it up and give him some more hype so then maybe he’ll actually get a shot at the NBA sometime soon. The league works to protect its valuable assets almost like the NFL’s new rules where you can’t lay a blade of grass on the quarterback once the ball is released from his hands. The NBA now has a touch foul and anything remotely dangerous is considered an intentional foul to protect the safety of the players and hopefully keep them around longer.

Everyone who played the game 20 years ago will say that the league is entirely different than it was when they played and that is the truth. NBA doesn’t care about the athletes as long as they can make money. The one reason that these rules have been initiated is to protect the ‘valuable’ and marketable guys like Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Greg Oden, and LeBron James. As long as those guys can stay healthy and bring in the big bucks, then the guys at the top could care less about the rest.

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Do you happen to feel like you have a temperature over 100 degrees? Maybe you are having bodily chills or a dry cough and headache? The runny nose will not stop and you are always feeling tired. Well, my friend, I want to let you know that you are experiencing symptoms of Influenza also known as the flu!

The flu season can start as early as October and last until May. The flu affects large numbers of people nationwide. College campuses are one of the more heavily hit places each year because it provides a breeding ground for the virus to spread with roommates, classsmates and friends sharing food and drinks. It can spread as easily as a drop for liquid from someones mouth or nose.

There are many ways to attempt to prevent the flu such as avoiding others who are sick with it. This is a highly unlikely method though, so flu vaccinations is probably a close second. They are administered by doctors offices, clinic, and now even your neighborhood friendly Wal-Mart store. Be sure to wash your hands frequently during the flu season because it can kill many of the diseases that people carry around.

After aquiring the flu, ways to get rid of it are to drink plenty of fluids, medicines and my all-time favorite which is to sleep more. Fluids to clean your system and sleeping are the most effective ways though because the body itself is a healing machine made to rid the body of waste and diseases.

Good luck and good riddance. Flu season 2007-2008 signing off.

We can be heroes, for just one day...

Desperate times call for desperate measures and some of these measures a parent just cannot make on their own and nor could I.

Since I can remember, I've always wanted a baby daughter in my life. I intend to spoil her and treat her as my little angel. A boy has kind of come second on my list but I definitely want one of them as well. In either case, I cannot even begin to fathom what I would do if the situation were to arise where I might have to potentially put them in harms way. Many men and women in the past have taken things into their hands when it came to putting their life first or their children's.

The picture to the right is that of a family in Germany where the building was ablaze and smoke was flowing from the building. The child's mother and father are in the background, and the gentleman with his hands up in the air is the uncle of the baby. I know that I would not be able to drop my child from any distance with adrenaline or not. The fact that the uncle saved this little 9-month old boy's life by ripping him from the arms of his mother and dropping him to safety below of a police officer is astonishing.

The uncle in this story just happened to be in the right place at the right time to make the pressing decision to make an attempt to save this child's life from smoke inhalation. Unfortunately for the uncle, on the same day that he became a hero and could celebrate, he also had to weep for the loss of his other nephew who passed away in the fire.

For more on this story, Click Here.


In another instance, the Washington Redskins lost one the heart and soul of their defensive unit on November 27th 2007. Sean Taylor was at home with his girlfriend, Jackie Garcia and his daughter Jackie, when an intruder came into his home. Taylor forced his girlfriend and daughter to lock themselves in a room while he went out to confront the intruders. Unfortunately, Taylor was shot his femoral artery and died in a Miami hospital after fighting a day for his life.

Taylor was not as lucky as the uncle in the previous story to come away with his life; however, he did sacrifice his life to save the greater good of his girlfriend and daughter. He will forever be remembered for that act of love and compassion regardless of his hard hits and off field incidents. A last impression is many times a lasting one.

The truth is that there are many stories on a daily basis where people sacrifice their own safety and put their life on the line day after day. We commonly recognize the major incidents with media coverage on TV such as Taylor's case, or a situation where the story is so bizarre and eye catching like a baby falling from a window that we rarely notice the ones in our everyday life. Police officers, cops, lifeguards, our nation's soldiers and others around the nation and the world on a daily basis put their life in situations where they could very easily be harmed. The have learned through their training some tactics to lessen the danger, but nonetheless, they lay it on the line for people that they do not know and have never come into contact with. If we as citizens could look past the differences between each other and be willing to lend a helping hand when one is in need then maybe, just maybe we could be heroes for just one day.