Deep Dive- a deeper look into the sports world

  What does the word thankful mean? Thankful is defined as being pleased and relieved, which is a very appropriate word to describe not just the Thanksgiving holiday, but also how many fans feel about sports being played during this uneven year. As the world approaches a year since the global pandemic began, sports should seem insignificant as over 200000 have died at the hands of Covid-19 in the United States alone, but never have sports been more important.  Sports throughout history have been used to help distract and bring awareness to larger societal issues but also used to unify and help with the healing process. During WWII, baseball legends such as Ted Willams, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, and Yogi Berra were among many baseball players that joined the military ranks, with most participating in military baseball teams to boost the morale of soldiers in the pacific. During the Vietnam War, Muhammad Ali protested the war effort and publicly denied entry into the draft thus ...

  It was January 13th, 2020 and the LSU Tigers had just defeated the Clemson Tigers 42-25 in the College Football Playoff National Championship in New Orleans, Louisiana of all places. Head Coach Ed Orgeron had led LSU to an 15-0 undefeated season which only one other team in college football history had accomplished (2018 Clemson Tigers). According to Saturdaydownsouth, LSU had a historic season for lots of reasons, they defeated 7 top 10 teams at the time they played and scored 728 points in a season, both the most ever in a college football season, put up over 600 yards of offense in the National Championship, they trailed by double digits for only 81 seconds all season, and finally quarterback Joe Burrow threw an NCAA record 60 touchdowns in a season on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy. With all of these records broken and possibly having the best college football season and team in history how can Coach O possibly be overrated? Coach O had the perfect storm and if not for...

  The biggest thing to know about the Carolina Panthers Head Coach Matt Rhule, is that he has been one of the best coaches in football at any level over the past six years, but no one talks about him. Which is why when Rhule signed a 7 year 60 million dollar contract to become the Panthers new head coach back in January, it was met with outrage and skepticism. Many members of the media wanted to criticize Panthers owner David Tepper for hiring a coach with almost no NFL coaching experience and for giving him such a lengthy contract. What members of the media did not consider is Rhules track record of building great team cultures, while also developing talent, and taking teams to new heights in a relatively quick time span. Tepper was a former minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and understands sustained success takes time to develop and the contract reflects his faith in the Matt Rhule process.  Success at Temple:  To highlight how good of a coach Matt Rhule is, obs...

It was September 15th, week 2 of the 2019 NFL season when a sudden pop changed the outlook of the present and the future for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger tore three tendons in his elbow which required Tommy John Surgery after that game against the Seattle Seahawks, but with that low came a great high for the Steelers organization.  Later the next week the Steelers traded their 2020 first and fifth round picks, along with a 2021 sixth round pick for Miami Dolphins safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and two draft picks. From the outside perspective the move for Fitzpatrick was heavily criticized. Many thought the Steelers should tank and draft a quarterback as Roethlisberger is in his late 30s and thought they would finish with a top five pick, but the Steelers still believed they had the talent and coaching ability to compete and win games. The Steelers stuck with what they had at quarterback in Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges and despite below average quarterback play went 8-...