Growing up I was privileged to watch the most dominant players in their sports, in their eras. They were all-time greats, not just specialized greats. They were players who transformed their sports and made things look so simple and easy.

We are seeing the end of the era of dominance and transformation right now. With the retirement of Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter,  Jeff Gordon, Kobe Bryant, the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. and the pending retirement of Tiger Woods, we are seeing the end of what was transformational dominance.  If you take each of these men individually in their sport you truly realize how amazing they were.

Now we have LeBron James, Jimmy Johnson, pick your baseball player, find a football player and no real tennis player, in my view, aside from Serena Williams, but she’s not retiring yet. All respect given to these individuals, but I’m sorry LeBron is not an all-time great to me. The era he plays in today is bitch basketball. Jimmy Johnson truly is the closest thing to revolutionizing NASCAR right now and Serena Williams, well is Serena and when she retires she will go into this pantheon of players I am speaking of.

I think it was such a treat to have been able to watch the greatest player in the game, Michael Jordan, his heir apparent, Kobe Bryant play the game of basketball for over twenty years. To have watched Derek Jeter and how he played the game and inspired so many players who were taller than the normal short stop to want to play the position as and excel. To watch how Dale Sr. before his passing was absolutely dominant and made NASCAR what it is today. And watch his heir Jeff Gordon dominate the sport for so long was truly awesome.

What more can be said about Tiger Woods other than during his prime he absolutely was the best player that ever existed. He won at a clip that was insane. He dominated the game like no one has ever done before. He made the prize money in Golf reach these crazy numbers that they are today. He was partly responsible for the inception of the Fed Ex Playoff system. He was the reason that all the Golfers of today have these major endorsement deals. Before Tiger, Golf was an old white man’s sport with very little notoriety beyond the old greats.

The truth is if you are lucky to be around to watch these players who transformed their sports you get to appreciate what athletic greatness is all about. One thing that I don’t do though with these players, is make them a deity. They are great athletes and they have helped to make many, many people very rich and famous and allowed for millions to live comfortable lives, but they are human just like the rest of us and when we forget that, that’s when we glorify them for the wrong reasons.

I’m sure that many may not agree with the group that I put together, but this 31 year old can only go off his own eyes and gauge of athletes he has seen in his lifetime. For me the folks listed above are in the Mount Rushmore of their sports and I’m sure at some point there will be someone else who joins that group as their always is, but I truly think we may have seen the end of that dominance in the sports that these respective players played and retired from.

My hats off to all of these folks for being the absolute best at what you do and the games you’ve played will not be the same without you, but undoubtedly they will go on and new legends will be made.

For as long as she has been a professional tennis player I’ve been following the career of Serena Williams. From the innocent, rough, young lady from California; to the dominant, amazing Superstar that she is today. And I can only imagine did she think that she would this great and spectacular.

If she never wins another major championship, Serena will still go down as one of the greatest Tennis players in the history of the game. And if that accolade is not enough, she’s doing so with her big sister alongside. Venus has been atop the mountain in Women’s tennis just like her sister. And while she hasn’t been as dominating, she is still a multi time singles champion.

Despite all the personal drama that Serena has dealt with, she still has managed to be the dominant force in women’s tennis for more than a decade. She is going for her second “Serena” slam and is trying to win the Calendar slam for the first time in her career. What must that pressure and expectation be like?

Watching her yesterday play against a crowd favorite and native Brit, you saw just why Serena is the best in the game. How many others do you know can play against an overwhelming crowd favorite, lose track of their game for a set and then finally find a way to win such a difficult match. She may not have the typical personality and demeanor that most in the tennis world would like, but she damn sure has the game.

For all her shy and reclusive demeanor off the court, on the court she is as confident, cocky and brash as they come. Oh, and before anybody tries to act like she shouldn’t do that or needs to do that, remember that all of the All-time greats have that element. It’s what sets them apart from all of the rest. It is what allows her to get down and not look like she can win, only to find herself and find that way to win again.

If you are a Tennis fan, just take the time to appreciate the fact that we are watching one of the greats of all-time in an era that has seen three come along. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams. I’ll leave you to think about that.

So listen I know that my last blog focused on the guzzling of LeBron James’ dick..well this post is not quite in that arena but it will be about the insane praise being heaped at his feet as we close in on the end of the NBA Finals.

If anyone else has not noticed LeBron James is getting more publicity and push to be the Finals MVP this year than the league MVP is getting his push for Finals MVP. I mean lets be clear here, I will never knock the talent that he has nor the NBA player that he is. But I really want all these ass kissing media types to please stop this incessant hugging of LeBron’s nuts.

I mean come on, all I’ve heard the past two days since his team lost game 5, despite all of his efforts and the media’s consistent force feeding that he is God of all basketball players, the fact remains that LeBron and company are 48 minutes away from losing a Championship.

Let me be clear, Yes LeBron has done all that he can and has balled his ass off, but let me also be clear, LeBron is not a basketball God and I’m sorry, I don’t believe he is that good. I think he is a benefactor of the league crowning him the Golden Boy and in my view having the politics always favor Mr. James.

I have never seen a superstar bitch more on the road when he doesn’t get a foul call. And my goodness if I ever see a player get more home fouls called I’ll throw up. If you want to know why I have such a disdain for the basketball player LeBron is, it’s because he came into the league being given clout that true superstars earned.

See to me and in my view if you want to know what a superstar is, look at Stef Curry, look at Kevin Durant, Kobe, Tim Duncan. They all had to earn their stripes, they weren’t given anything, unlike LeBron. So excuse me if I’m tired of hearing all this bull shit about How Mythical and Godly LeBron is and how he is the only player on the planet who could will his team to a win in Game 6 at home with all the calls to go your way.

Sorry, but if you wanna be honest, LeBron has been overrated since he came into the league. Yes he got his team to a finals before he bolted to join the Super Team in South Beach, and I will give credit where it is due, he came back home and guided his squad to the verge of a chip, despite all the injuries. But my question that I have is..where would this team be if they actually called games as they should regardless on if there was “God” James on this team…??

So my final sports rant of the night is really more of a disbelief situation. I read the story about a basketball team in California that won their game 161-2. Yes that’s not a misprint, it was 104-1 at the half. The coach of the basketball team that won was suspended two games, for apparently poor sportsmanship, because of this monsterous blowout. Now reading further into the details of this story, the head coach of the winning team tried to impose a running clock in the third period but the officials denied his request; only to grant the request for the entire fourth quarter.

The coach also pulled his starters after halftime and did not play his signature press defense after the first half. The result is that in the second half his reserves outscored the other team 57-1. Now his comments were that if he had to do over, he would play his starters after the first period, and then he said he would have just not played the game at all.

Let me be clear, I think that this is the biggest case of overaction and bullshit I’ve seen in a while. So you punish the head coach because he has a team that was prepared and clearly shot the lights out, and you also penalize this team by not letting them have their head coach for a couple games, because they’re too good. Why the fuck didn’t they suspend the opposing team’s coach for putting such an attrious team on the court? Maybe he should be looked at for not properly preparing his kids to play this game.

Then he calls the coach of the winning team unethical because he didn’t bench his kids in the first period. I thought the point of playing competitive sports was to stop the opposing team from scoring and to do your best to score?? If you can’t do either of those things is someone really suppose to have mercy on you for blowing your doors off?

is it poor sportsmanship to have your best performance of the year? NO. Is it poor sportsmanship to remove your starters after the first half, institute a running clock, and try to institute it sooner? NO. I’m now getting sick of this overaction that somehow it is the responsibility of the winning team to not embarrass the losing team by not beating the shit out of them.

I was always told that if you can’t stop the other team, you have no right to bitch if you get your ass beat. Maybe that means you need to focus better in practice. Maybe you need to play better, and sometimes on a given night, the opposing team just has it going on and they’re gonna kick  your ass. But never should you penalize a coach for doing his job and for his team masterfully doing their job.

So this blog is very biased and I do not apologize for what I’m about to say. If you disagree with what I say all I ask is that you respectfully give me your opinion and we can have a very civil and fun discussion.

I will be the first to say that I love College Football and yes I do mean love! I am a hardcore Florida State Seminole fan. I’ve supported them since I was able to understand the game and stayed through the rough years too. So as I’ve watched this FSU team this year I must say that the mass media has a Championship bias that I think is really ridiculous.

When other teams were in defense of their title and they would have wins like Florida St. has this season the narrative always was: ” What a great champion, they’re taking the best shots from every opponent and finding ways to win.” However, with this Florida State team the narrative is: “Wow, they’re not that good; they’re having a tough time beating opponents, whereas last years team was just dominating people and blowing them off the field.”

For a novice I would expect them to say something like that if they didn’t really understand what it means to defend a championship. For the experts and Football intellectuals to spew that same stupid impression of this years Noles’ is crazy. Tell me another team in the last ten years that’s won 29 consecutive games in major college football and in the Power 5 conferences?

This Seminoles team over the last nearly three season have won three straight ACC Championships, a National Championship, another BCS bowl game and are currently in the first ever Playoffs to determine the National Champion this year. They have, arguably, the best big game, ,fourth quarter Quarterback in College football history, and certainly of this generation, in Jameis Winston. They have one of the best coaches in  the nation, a team that is as talented as any other in the nation, yet they get  no respect.

People seem to forget that they lost all of their defensive captains to the NFL. That means all the senior leadership is gone off the defense and new leaders have had to emerge. That means that the young talent is on the field, but they’re still learning to assert themselves as leaders. Yet, through all of this and breaking in new players on the offensive side of the ball, the Noles’ have managed to go undefeated thus far and have as good a shot as any to repeat as National Champions.

But if you leave it up to the pundits, they will tell you that FSU isn’t really that good and teams who are playing worse talented teams are somehow better. I want someone to tell me the last team that made defending a title look easy and for that matter defended that Championship. While the final chapter is still to be written and this team still has two games to win in order to repeat as Champions, the fact that they have won 29 straight games against all comers, including the vaunted SEC, says a lot about just how good and maybe great this Florida State run has been.

#Seminoles nation