What should the Giants do? What is wrong with professional athletes?

This past week and a half has been an absolute disaster for the New York Giants. With their star player Plaxico Burress, acting up earlier in the week, now he's shot himself and has been charged with illegal weapons charges. If convicted Plaxico could be going to jail for a minimum of two years. What should the giants do?

I think the Giants should set straight rules with him. Either act proper or leave the organization. Not only is he in trouble, Antonio Pierce, a teammate of his, might be in trouble as well. This all happened at a night club in Manhattan, when Plaxico was asked by the bouncer to show him his gun. While pulling it out, the gun discharged and launched a bullet in Plaxico's leg. Antonio Pierce, who was with Plaxico that night, rushed him to a hospital and now is under investigation for potentially hiding the illegal weapon. Plaxico is clearly distracting the team's focus on football. This team is 11-1 this season and they have to worry about their best player screwing up instead of a superbowl. The Giants are good enough without him, and he's just too much baggage to deal with. I say get rid of him.

These athletes don't realize how lucky they really are and this pisses me off. They get paid millions to do what they love and they can't stay out of trouble. They need to forget their past and live in the present. What is the point of throwing it all away for something so stupid. This isn't the first incident in the NFL. Michael Vick is another case of stupidity. Why would you do something as cruel as dog fighting when you are living the american dream. Athletes need to realize that they are the luckiest individuals alive. They use their god given talents to make money the average american can't even dream of making.

Lately there been a lot of incidents in all sports that are showing negative images. The NFL cant keep their players out of jail, while the NBA can't control the fights that happen during the game. These aren't the images we want to show are kids. All professional programs should make more penalizing rules for those who break the law.

Who will win the Big 12 South?

Who will win the Big 12 South? Will it be Oklahoma, who just embarrassed Texas Tech, or Texas, who beat Oklahoma at the beginning of the season, or Texas Tech, who beat Texas a couple of weeks ago. In my opinion it would have to be Texas, because they beat Oklahoma in a head to head match at a neutral site in dallas. Although they lost to Texas Tech and Oklahoma  beat Texas Tech, Texas Beat Oklahoma and that should be the only thing that matters. Who beat who head to head. Even if you disagree, their are other factors to prove that Texas' record of 10-1 came harder than Oklahoma's or Texas Tech's.

A factor which goes into their ranking is the strength of schedule. So far if Oklahoma beats Oklahoma State next week, they will have had four impressive wins, over Texas Tech, TCU, Cincinnati, and Oklahoma State. Even with these impressive wins, what hurts them is that they also played two of the worst teams in college football, Chattanooga(1-11) which is an FCS team and Washington(0-11). Compared to the other two teams, I would say that their schedule strength falls short of Texas but is harder than Texas Tech.

Texas has beaten Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Big 12 north rival Missouri, and Arkansas to add to their resume. They play no FCS Opponents which helps their cause as well. The only thing that could hurt them at this point are the human polls and the BCS rankings, which they only have a slim lead against Oklahoma. Texas has the hardest schedule out of the three but they could still get screwed by Oklahoma.

With the late lost to Oklahoma, Texas Tech virtually has no chance unless Oklahoma and Texas both lose next week. Their schedule does not allow room for error because they play two FCS opponents. They do have a couple impressive wins over Texas and Oklahoma State but due to their weak schedule strength, all they can do is hope both Texas and Oklahoma lose.

In my opinion Texas should be going to the Big 12 Championship to play Missouri. They have the hardest schedule and they beat Oklahoma head to head at a neutral site. It is projected that Oklahoma will pass Texas if both teams win next week, due to Oklahoma playing a ranked opponent, but I believe that should be changed. Oklahoma is the hotter team at the moment but Texas is the better team. 

With the NBA season creeping up, who are the contenders?

The NBA season is quickly approaching, and numerous teams have acquired key players to help their chances in the playoffs. The most improved, I would have to say is the Houston Rockets. Being born in Houston, this is the year we are going to win the championship. 

With the acquisition of Ron Artest and sharp shooter Brent Barry, the Rockets have finally found the right pieces of the puzzle to support Yao and T-mac. Artest has the ability to score and take the pressure off T-mac. He brings that swagger we need to become a championship contender. Barry can drill threes and open the post for Yao. Also, with Barry's lethal shooting, pressure with be taken off Rafer and T-mac to score. With other key players such as Shane Battier, a lock down defender, Luis Scola, Rafer Alston, the starting point, and Carl Landry, the Rockets have a talented roster with Championship potential. Compared from last year we have only gotten better and our young talents such as Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola, and Carl Laundry have had the chance to ripe into good NBA players. 

Teams out of the western conference that might have a chance are the LA Lakers. With Kobe leading the way, the lakers are always a threat. The Portland Trailblazers are a young team with a lot of young talent. If their stars start playing well, this is a team you do not want to face in the playoffs. Another team that has potential this season is the New Orleans Hornets. Led by Chris Paul, this team is also a young team but they proved themselves unlike the Trailblazers. If New Orleans gets hot, they are another team that could ruin your playoff hopes.

The Eastern Conference has also done a lot of improving during the off season. The Celtics, last years champs, have the hopes of repeating but the rockets will ruin their dreams. The Cavaliers should step it up under the leadership of Lebron James. The Detroit Pistons are another solid team that revolves around their defense. If they stop you defensively, the opposing team has no chance of winning. 

With so many teams making strides to improve, I guarantee that this year is going to be an exciting one. Go Rockets!

Improved Technology is ruining face to face communication!

Recently I was on a trip with some friends, and I was addicted to my computer. All I did in the hotel room was stay online and look at facebook. My friends kept saying that technology was ruining communication, but I always believed that it was improving it. The irony of improvements to communication devices ruining communication, didn't make sense to me. After I thought about it, they were right, with improvements in phones, computers, and internet, we don't need to go out and meet everyone. We can talk to whoever we want as long as their online! Examples of how technology is ruining communication, is when your walking down the street and you see someone you know but your not really friends with and you pull out your cell phone and act like something is happening to avoid talking to them. I've seen this happen, I've even done it! Another is when some people chat a lot online but, when you see them in person they don't say a word. I've witnessed both situations and they are detrimental to our social lives. Facebook is one of the main reasons our social lives are going down! People stay up all night just to see people photos or chat with their friends. But they cut off all other when their on facebook. some people can stay on facebook for hours when they could go and meet that person face to face. Because of modern technology, communication in the form of dates are not as popular. Now you can either call or facebook that person to see whats been going on.

The controversial issue of age at the 2008 Olympics

I don't know if its true or not but when I saw some of those girls China had doing the gymnastics, I told myself there is no way they are 16 years old. Im sure China wasn't the only ones bringing in young girls to compete but the fact that their athletes were winning gold left and right, it brought them into the spotlight.  A reason I can believe this is because China wants to win and thats it. When I heard that in their open ceremony they told the girl who was supposed to sing that she wasn't pretty enough so they used her voice and let another girl take the credit. I was stunned, I don't see how you could be so cruel, just to have a better looking girl on stage in front of the world. After hearing that story, the underage controversy seemed 100% possible. A solution to this problem is to lift the age limit and let all ages compete. If this rule stays, China and many other countries will continue to bring in young girls to compete and break the rule. You might ask why is this a big deal, its a big deal because it might start the breaking of other rules in the future. If we dont settle this one, it could have the domino effect and other nations will keep breaking other rules. To save the integrity of the prestigious olympic games we need to stand strong and solve this issue.

In Tigers Woods Absence, America prevails!!

Not sure it was Tiger's fault, but the American team finally won the Ryder Cup after a 9 year drought. The American team was considered a huge underdog without the presence of Woods, but they seemed more bonded. Everyone was playing with heart and passion. Rookies such as Anthony Kim stepped up and pounded Sergio Garcia 5 and 4. Other notables are J.B. Holmes and Boo Weekley who contributed to the Amercan squad. To these guys it was an honor to play in the Ryder Cup, but when you see Tiger or Phil they don't seem as excited to play. It seems to me, they don't want to be there, to them its just another tournament. But to the rookies its their first time to compete in that kind of atmosphere and their pumped to win for their country! Everyone said that we didn't have a chance to beat Europe but we did it. We proved to the world that we don't need the number one player to win. Europe had no problem doing it the previous nine years. What they had was heart and team spirit and this year we prevailed because we had more desire to win. In my opinion the absence of Tiger helped team America come together as a team. It seemed like there was no tension between the players, everyone was focused and had a good time.