Top 5 True Sports Movies of All Time

After my amazing list of top ten fighting movies of all time I thought that I would continue making top lists with movies that I feel deserve to be acknowledged. Instead of adding all of these fake and unrealistic movies this list is going to be purely based off of a true story, so no Air Bud movies or Space Jam will be making an appearance. With doing a true story sport movie, there are going to be a lot of Disney movies on here that means. Without further ado, the top five true sport movies.

            5. The Greatest Game Ever Played- The Greatest Game Ever Played is a story of a kid who entered to play the “Gentleman’s Game” at the US Open. Even though he was still an amateur golf player he was still able to come through with a win over his English foes and go down with one of the greatest golf victories ever. Shia Lebeouf was brilliant in his portrayal of Francis Ouimet, a young aspiring golfer who shocked the world.

            4. Invincible- Mark Wahlberg showed what he had when he played Vince Papale, an unemployed teacher who recently was left by his wife during a recession in the Philadelphia area. When he decides to attend the open tryouts for the Philadelphia Eagles he inspires the city when he makes the team and ends up starting.

            3. Coach Carter- A story of a man coming in and taking over a dismal team is always heart wrenching, but when Samuel L. Jackson did it, he did it big. The story is about Ken Carter, who took over a basketball team and changed their whole season around and their lives. He made each player sign a contract and improve their grades; the way they dress and how they play and it changed them and me.

            2.Miracle- The story of the USA Men’s Hockey team and how they made history by defeating the unbeatable Soviet Union. Not only is it a great story, but it also gave us the best quote in the world.

            1. Glory Road- The first team to play an all black starting line up in the NCAA Basketball Championship game and for the season is documented in this film. The events of this movie is what made the game I love the way it is today. You see the hate, you see the fear, emotion, everything but you also get to see them win.

            The list is complete and is in perfect order. If you wanted to see Blind Side or anything like that I’m sorry but it was more about the life than him playing the game. If I was doing a list of greatest sports movie of any kind I would put Space Jam pretty high up there on that list, but still no Air Bud movies.

From Highs to Lows

This weekend has not been the greatest in the state of Michigan’s sports history. We suffered some close defeats and we suffered some humiliating, season ending defeats in the past two or three days. On the other hand though we did have some great victories by some of our favorite teams.

            The weekend go off to a great start when the dearly beloved Michigan State Spartans ruined Denard Robinson and Michigan’s undefeated record when the Spartans downed them twenty eight to fourteen. This was my favorite part of the weekend because the whole week was filled with Michigan fans raving how good their team is and how State was going to lose, to bad for them because now they just look bad. Michigan State sealed the deal with a pick six that put them up by fourteen in the fourth quarter and I was more than happy to brag to all the Michigan fans after the game, which they did not enjoy. People started saying “Oh! Denard got hurt!” or “State had home field advantage!” Who cares? We won, so do not come up with excuses and just live with the fact that you lost to the best team in the state of Michigan.

            Then it all came to an end for Tigers baseball fans. With a two to zero lead going into the third, a lot of people were excited in Mo Town and thought we might get to a game seven. Then the Texas Rangers bring in nine runs that inning and you could feel the disappointment throughout the state of Michigan when this happened. The Tigers did not stop there though as they let up six more scores by the end of the game as their chance at the World Series, and a little bit of their pride, had died.

            At the same time as the Tigers were being viciously man handled, the Red Wings won their game. You can always count on the Wings to come in night in and night out and give all they got and be a good team. So far this year they are not disappointing and I am even going to say that they WILL make it to the playoffs and right to the finals. I might even throw in that they will be the ones hoisting up Lord Stanley’s Cup at the end, but I wouldn’t count on it.

            The truly sad thing about this weekend was that the Lions lost their first game. This one was a heart breaker as we saw Matt Stafford get called for a couple of intentional groundings, the Lions getting a safety, and Stafford pump faking a ball straight into the ground, two feet in front of him. No one took this loss harder than Coach Schwartz who tried beating the poo out of San Francisco’s coach for being to excited. I know the Lions were not going undefeated this season but I was hoping to suffer our first loss to this year’s Super Bowl Champions, the Green Bay Packers.

            Even though this was not the greatest weekend for Michigan, we still have had a great year. I myself have not heard to many of those “The Michigan team didn’t win it, the other team lost it” line that all sport analysts seem to say every time we have a good team. So keep your head up sports fans, the Pistons will be back to save us in no time.

MSU!

When it comes to colleges there are a lot to choose from. Each college offers different studies or activities that appeal to a college student and usually will help them decide where they go. Some students make their decision solely on the academics offered, while others make their decision based on the athletics. If your decision is based on athletics then there is no better place to go than “The” Michigan State University!

            Michigan State’s athletic program has a long storied history that goes all the way back to the college’s inception in 1855.  They have many different forms of sports that have a winning tradition that is tied to them. Some of these sports include Cross Country, Ice Hockey, Rowing, Softball, Baseball, and even Golf. While all of these sports are great the ones I’m talking about are Football and Basketball.

           

            Michigan State Football is the cream of the crop if you ask me in college football. They always seem to be competing in the most difficult conference and always finishing near or at the top in my standards. In their illustrious history they have won seven Big Ten Championships and also have won seven Bowl Games. They have also been part of some historic games that include the “Game of the Century” game against Notre Dame and also have the record for biggest comeback in NCAA history against Northwestern. Having over fifty-nine players go to the NFL, they are one of the most successful teams in the Big Ten Conference. Some of these players include Javon Ringer, Carl Banks, Bubba Smith, Blair White and Plaxico Burress.

            The Spartan Basketball team not only has been labeled a dynasty for the past decade, but also one of the better teams ever in the NCAA. Not only have they won two NCAA Championships, in 1979 and 2000, but they also have been to the Final Four a total of eight times and also have the fourth highest all time winning percentage in the NCAA Tournament history. Along with all of these awards, they hold the record for most attended college basketball game with 78,129 fans watching them face the Kentucky Wildcats at Ford Field. The Spartans have also sent many players to the NBA like Magic Johnson, Jason Richardson, Mateen Cleaves, Charlie Bell, Jay Vincent and Zach Randolph.

            So if you were wondering where you should go to college and athletics is a big factor in your decision, look no farther than Michigan State University. With a winning tradition on and off the athletic facility they are the right place for you. 

Michigan's Back!

I usually do not get excited when the Tigers win because I dislike baseball, but when pretty much every major team in Michigan makes our state look better than what we are, then I get excited. It is not really just the Tigers that I do not like watching but sometimes it is every other Michigan team. We tend to lose when it counts and we usually lose bad, so I try not to get my hopes up. But this weekend was different, this weekend we all won!

            First game that made this weekend for Michigan sports pretty good was Michigan University’s football team winning. I’m not a Michigan fan when I want MSU to succeed but I was rooting for Michigan this week. They straight up manhandled the Minnesota Golden Gophers, as they should because that is one of the most unintimidating mascots I’ve ever heard of. Lead by their quarterback Denard Robinson, they defeated the Gophers by the score of fifty eight to zero. I am not going to say that Michigan is legit because I feel that they have not faced anyone that challenging and have done good against some weak competition. With that said though they really came through this weekend.

            The second game was definitely Michigan State defeated the highly hated Ohio State Buckeyes (why would you have a buckeye as a mascot?). Though it was not a pretty win, it was a win and against a pretty solid team. The Spartans did something that not a lot of teams can do and that is win on the road at Columbus. In Ohio State’s defense, this is not the team that we are used to seeing but still Michigan State has a victory over them.

            The third win of the weekend came from the Lions’ thrilling comeback victory that I’m sure everyone heard about. They were down but twenty-one points at one point and came all the way back to beat “America’s Team” the Dallas Cowboys. It was won in the final minutes with a touchdown catch from Calvin Johnson and a nasty sack by the Lions’ defense. What hit me hard about this game were two snubs after it. One snub was everyone was celebrating Matt Stafford, but no one was congratulating Jason Hanson! If this guy misses all of his extra points and field goals you lose and you’re not even congratulating him? The second snub was Tony Romo ignoring Jerry Jones who was trying to talk to him. Not a big fan of either of those two, so it was entertaining to see.

            The fourth and most important win (just cause they are in the playoffs) was the Tigers’ game two victory against the Yankees. I watched bits and pieces of this game and it was nice seeing that Miguel Cabrera can hit a fly ball all the way into the stands at Yankee Stadium, even if it would be out anywhere else. The funniest part of the game was Valverde almost single handedly giving every single Michigander a heart attack in the ninth by almost blowing the game. I hope his prediction of us winning two straight in Detroit does not ruin this series.

            It is hard to beat a weekend like this in Michigan, but with the way all the teams are playing it could happen again next weekend. I hope it does and am fully expecting it to except for Michigan State because of a bye week. Soon the Red Wings are going to be playing and they will make our state’s sports teams look even better with their amazing play.