Strength in women

Women have played a huge role in sports, and helped ignite the idea for equality everywhere. Back in the Ancient Olympics, women couldn't even watch competitions let alone compete. It was the unwritten rule, that women were to cook, clean, and nurture their children but as time progressed so did equality. Modern Olympics began to show female competitors starting in 1900, although they had a limited number of events to compete in compared to men, being able to show off their ability and feed their passion was a start. Everyone seemed to be stuck on the fact that women simply weren't "made"for sports, that idea stayed rooted in many minds until the Title IX legislation surfaced. Title IX required colleges and universities to provide equal athletic opportunity for women,

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance..."

—United States Code Section 20

Due to the rising crowd of women participating in sports after the passing of this legislation, the U.S consistently ranked among the top nations in Women's Olympic sports. This enormous modification in sports helped to create household names for women like Mary Lou Retton, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and many more.
As time advanced women began to show just what they could accomplish From the first women to swim the English Channel, Gertrude Ederle, who beat the times of every male swimmer before her; to the infamous Battle of the Sexes tournament between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973, where against all odds and despite all doubts, King came out on top. Women like these and many others help demonstrate the strength and athleticism of women and provided guidance to young girls everywhere. I'd like to say sexism has diminished, especially in sports but just as any other prejudice in the world, it still lingers. It has been a long and successful journey so far, and it will continue onward as women everywhere break records and astound crowds while fulfilling dreams and goals, making their way from women athletes to outstanding athletes, gender aside.

“Today we celebrate how far we've come. But we must also recommit ourselves to Title IX’s goal of equality in education, for too many school and education programs still drag their feet and lag behind in their responsibility to our young women and girls.” — President Bill Clinton on the 25th anniversary of Title IX

Tennessee's search for a new coach

Many see Bruce Pearl as the well rounded, successful men's basketball coach for the University of Tennessee, but recent news has shown a different side. Pearl led the Volunteers to their first number one ranking in 2008 and first NCAA tournament regional finals appearance in 2010, but due to culminating transgressions off the court, he was officially let go from his six seasons with the Volunteers. Pearl was charged by the NCAA with unethical conduct. The athletic director for Tennessee, Mike Hamilton helped make the decision to stay with Pearl and his staff upon receiving an NCAA letter of inquiry in September regarding issues with Pearl. Hamilton now states, "the cumulative effect of the evolution of the investigation combined with a number of more recent non-NCAA-related incidents have led to a belief that this staff cannot be viable at Tennessee in the future." Although Pearl is a well respected NCAA coach, they all learn the rules before entering this career and they should all have the rules tattooed in their brain as time progresses. For Pearl, unfortunately, the idea of rules faded and the consequences that coincide with his actions are now surfacing. Hopefully this will be an eye opener to any other coaches thinking about breaking the rules or attempting to pursue their career with unethical intentions. Sports is supposed to be fun and entertaining, and it will remain so as long as these guidelines written and enforced by the NCAA stay in stone.

NFL Lockout

If the NFL and the players union don't work out a deal by Friday, there is a possibility that the owners will lock out the players or the NFLPA may decertify and take its fight to court. Either way, the outcome of a scenario if an agreement is not met could be chaotic and could possibly wipe out all or some of the upcoming season. Looking past the worries of the rich players and the wealthier team owners, its the ones that go unnoticed that will suffer the most. On average there are 3,739 workers at each game, from ticket salesman to janitors and they would all be out jobs until this argument was settled. Its weird how the greed of the people in charge, is going to end up affecting the ones at lower level positions much more. Locations near stadiums will also suffer, hotels, restaurants, bars etc. will all lost out on that massive amount of revenue received during the NFL season. Not only will the local venues be hurt, but the local tax districts would as well. For example, in Foxborough, Massachusetts, revenue from the New England Patriots' stadium pays for big-ticket items such as buses, school computers, highway truck and fire engines.
If there was an NFL lockout, this would be a huge problems for everyone, including players, workers, fans. Although some of the negative aspects may seem minuscule to the NFL, to the people involved they are huge factors that may very well affect their lives. Hopefully in the next two days, the NFL and the players union open their eyes to the potential damage this could take on communities all over and in turn come to some sort of agreement that will work best for each other and everyone else involved.