A retort to Rick Blaine who, ahead of the Notre Dame v Navy game, says Europe is not interested in Football

It is merely a couple of sleeps until kick off between Notre Dame and Navy in the college football game in Dublin this coming weekend. All around Ireland and indeed Europe the anticipation is building. Naturally, as we say here in Ireland, ‘There’s always one!’ meaning, there is always someone who is unhappy with the situation, despite everyone else looking forward to, in this case, the big game. Step forward Mr Rick Blaine, a writer for Yahoo, who penned this angry article proclaiming that the game is only going ahead as a ‘merchandising’ exercise.

To further anger the Notre Dame faithful, Blaine has also suggested the Fighting Irish could be in for an upset against Navy

Naturally, it goes without saying that Mr Blaine is entirely entitled to his own opinion, and if he doesn’t think the game should be played anywhere but the USA, well, good for him. Unfortunately, he uses a completely erroneous statement as the main basis of his assault on the decision to play the game here in Ireland. Blaine says, and we quote;

''Europe has shown little interest in American football, no matter how hard the NFL tried to force it on them.''

Woah, woah, woah. Hang on a second there. With all due respect to Mr Blaine, this is an incredibly stupid comment. I say that with authority. Stupid. There is an enormous fan base for Football American style in Ireland and the rest of Europe. It has been growing steadily since the 1980s and the NFL in particular is one of the most popular sports in Europe not called ‘soccer’.

Let’s delve a little deeper than Rick chose to.

First of all, and on a most basic level, the game on Saturday is sold out, and has been for the best part of a year. If Lennon and Harrison came back to life and the Beatles reformed, the tickets for their first gig would only be marginally harder to get than for this game. People in Ireland have been trying for months to get them, and there is absolutely none left. The game is being played at a shiny new Aviva Stadium, however it could easily have been played at the much bigger Croke Park, they could have sold the home of the GAA out twice, without any great difficulty.

That fact in itself should be some indicator as to the public excitement about the game here in Ireland.

Furthermore, football is all over Irish, English and European television. It has become one of the most popular sports to gamble on, a fact that illustrates in dollar figures how popular the sport has become over here. Everywhere you go there are NFL and college jerseys worn by fans all over Ireland, the UK and Europe. Sky Sports, the biggest sports station in Ireland and the UK, has several live games weekly. Last season Chanel 4 showed the Monday night games, and there are countless football related programs on ESPN and ESPN America. College football basically takes over the ESPN America schedule on weekends.

Everywhere you go in Ireland and mainland Europe, football is front and center in terms of popularity amongst sports fans.

Further to this, football is being played by tens of thousands across Ireland, the UK and Europe.

  Notre Dame players relaxing with a
giant chess set at their Irish hotel

There is a huge league in the UK, played out by thousands of weekend warriors, with a passionate and knowledgeable fan-base. Sky Sports, to its credit, takes an active interest in same, and frequently shows highlights from the games, and the quality of these is often praised by visiting American coaches and players. Germany has a massive league, which I believe is actually semi-professional, some players earning money out of it, the popularity and standard of play is that high.

Mr Blaine’s comment was not only flagrantly incorrect, it was also very poorly researched. A Basic level of same on the Internet might have suggested to him that there might be more to European American Football than has, to date, met his eyes. Take for example this simple list of teams in Europe. Take a quick look at it. There are hundreds. Look at Germany and France in particular. They themselves have dozens, each!

There are twenty American football teams in Denmark, for example.

We can only wish Mr Blaine had even taken a cursory glance at, for example, the German, British and Irish American football official web pages, before he wrote his regrettable and frankly insulting comment.

The Irish American Football league is a thing of beauty. It is a combative, passionate and talented league, with a very high standard of play. I can vouch for the ferocity of the defense and tackling personally, having played QB for the DCU Saints (now basically merged with the Rhinos) for three years. Let’s just say, those boys can freaking hit. We had some incredible players on defense in particular, guys like Eoin ‘Foxy’ Fox, Joe Carlyle, Connor Sullivan and Irish American Football legends Dave Rothwell and the late, very great, Steve Christian. The team was littered with passionate, knowledgeable and talented football players. In my first season with the Saints we made the playoffs and enjoyed several literally life affirming, uplifting moments, games and wins.

It is an insult to me personally, it is an insult to hundreds of football players in Ireland, and an insult to tens of thousands of football players across Europe. It is an insult to thousands of football fans in Ireland and an insult to hundreds of thousands of football fans across Europe to say anything less than the sport is huge over here, and growing still.

Myself and a few buddies held our annual NFL fantasy draft this week. In a Dublin bar, no less. That's right, fantasy football, in Europe, Mr Blaine. On the way home my good friend Andy said he was going to go to the Lansdowne area (where the game will be) on Saturday, without a ticket (because, if you recall, they are impossible to get), just to soak up the experience. What Andy was tapping into there was the fact there has been a tangible, exciting ‘buzz’ growing across Ireland for over a year now for this game. It is swelling from the ground level up, and the infusion of support, passion and color from the States, combined with the ground-swell of excitement that has been building here, should lead to a great spectacle on Saturday.

Here’s hoping Mr Blaine not only enjoys the game, but perhaps also comes to appreciate just why it is taking place here in Ireland.

Who knows, maybe the football loving European fans might even get an apology.

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The L.A. Dodgers represent great World Series value at 12/1

In case you were hidden under a rock, buried deep in episodes of The Kardashians or blinded by endless naked Prince Harry pictures, you should probably know that sometime between Friday and Saturday the Red Sox and the L.A. Dodgers pulled off probably the biggest single trade in MLB history. The Dodgers gave up a group of prospects (including the wonderfully named Rubby De La Rosa) whilst in return Boston shipped off Adrian Gonalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and (don’t forget!) Nick Punto. A simply stunning trade in its sheer magnitude, particularly the incredible $260 odd million dollars of salary The Red Sox West Dodgers are committing to by taking on those high priced veterans.

Boston’s media and fan-base are literally reeling from the shock, the former have nothing to write about anymore, and the latter simply stunned this is happening. Perhaps conditioned by weeks, nay, months of negative Front Office bashing by The Knights Of The Keyboard (as Teddy Ballgame sardonically called Boston’s sports media), Red Sox fans were under the impression the Front Office at Fenway Park had no clue how to run a Major League ball-club. As it turns out, their timing was absolutely impeccable and they have managed to not only drop those $260 million in wages, they have also changed the club-house attitude completely. There is still some work to do, obviously, however right now the future looks definitely brighter and clearer for the Red Sox. The fans are delighted by and large, the media, well, they are a little stunned.

Meanwhile, flying somewhat under the radar, are the Dodgers. The L.A. Dodgers have gone from something of an after-thought to a legitimate World Series contender in a very short space of time. Magic Johnson and his co-owners have signaled their aggressive intent with the Hanley Ramirez pickup, they have now literally engaged afterburners and left many an opponent in their wake with the arrival of Beckett and most of all Gonzalez. The Dodgers line-up, already awesome, is now a veritable Murderers Row for opponent pitchers, who are basically going to have nightmares every night before taking on this lot. Consider, for a second, the core of the Dodgers lineup on a nightly basis. Kemp\Ethier\Ramirez\Gonzalez is a simply scintillating three through six, perhaps superior to anything else in baseball, NL and or AL. Seriously, look at those names, and imagine for a second being a middle level pitcher trying to navigate their way through those four, back to back to back to back. Then throw in pesky leadoff guy Shane Victorino and other parts like Nick Punto, and you can understand the ferocious, other-worldly potential of this Dodgers lineup.

Of course with the addition of Josh Beckett the Dodgers have also upgraded their pitching staff. Beckett will provide experience, depth, and, for my money anyway, wins. He did not turn into a bad pitcher overnight. He can still bring a fastball, and still has a burning desire to win every single battle with every single batter. Beckett is going to love pitching in the wide open expanses of Dodger Stadium, which make Fenway Park look roughly the same size as a tiny little panic room. There are going to be a lot of fly balls to left and center in particular that turn into outs for Beckett, reducing his ERA, his WHIP and his stress levels.

Say what you want about Beckett, he tells it like it is, and has been brutally honest about his own performance when asked about it on the Left Coast. Take these comments for example;

“I’m as big a part of that as anybody. That’s not what they wanted to do. They wanted Adrian to stay. They wanted me to stay. They wanted Nick [Punto] to stay. They wanted Carl [Crawford] to stay. We just didn’t do our jobs.”

He is clearly invigorated and ready to, frankly, be awesome again. Beckett was a huge fan favourite in Boston just two seasons ago. It all fell apart in a short space of time, but the good people of L.A. will probably end up loving the big Texan, particularly if he puts up a few wins for them between now and the World Series.

Speaking of the latter, our overall point is that right now is the time to get on board the Dodgers bandwagon. A few weeks ago the Dodgers were as high as 25/1 to win the World Series. With the addition of Hanley Ramirez, they moved in to 20/1, and now suddenly with the big trade there has been a further market adjustment, all the way in to 12/1 or 14/1 with some establishments.

For me, this adjustment still is not big enough. You are telling me that 12/1 isn’t incredible value for a deep pitching staff, a good bullpen and a simply superb, out of this world lineup? We’re talking value here. We aren’t suggesting for a second that the Dodgers are 100% locks for the trophy, however you cannot deny that at 12/1 they represent superior value, considering the sheer talent of the pieces they have added recently.

The Dodgers are building something special for the short term. The bookmakers have not fully adjusted as yet. Find a way to get on the bandwagon, and enjoy the ride.

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Red Sox players again under attack, this time for not attending Johnny Pesky's funeral

In this lost Red Sox 2012 season, the anger and frustration continues to rise. As you probably already know, the latest drama is around the funeral of the late great Johnny Pesky, which was on Monday morning. There were four Red Sox players amongst the estimated hundred Sox front office and coaching staffs present at the funeral. That same night, Josh Beckett held his annual (since 2006) fundraising event in a bowling hall, and basically most of the Red Sox players attended.

Those are the raw details, and in the last 24 hours there has been a deluge of material of varying degrees of vitriol lambasting the Red Sox players for not attending the Johnny Pesky funeral, and yet attending the Beckett Bowl.

There is no point in tackling either the mud being slung the way of the Sox players, or trying to defend ‘their actions’ Perhaps the most level headed thing to do is understand a few simple facts. First of all, the Sox got in on Monday morning at 4 am from a road trip. Second of all, the Beckett fundraiser is for a Boston kids hospital and has raised over a million dollars for same.

The latter is the point I would like to draw attention to. Regrettably, the more fiery of the articles assaulting the Sox players appear to be attempting the pawn the Beckett ‘thing’ off as the Sox players hanging out, eating chicken and drinking beer. The honest truth is, it was the Sox players giving themselves up completely for children. To try and use this event as a reason to beat further the very dead horse that is Boston’s players behaviour these last two seasons is actually pretty pathetic, and also completely dishonest.

Things are often never as simple as black and white.

Who knows why only four players made it to Pesky’s funeral, however it would appear that the four that did, did not attend the children’s hospital fundraiser later that evening. Perhaps, for example, it wasn’t possible to do both, and therefore the Sox players decided which they needed to attend, to ensure coverage at both.

I believe it is entirely unfair for people to instantly draw a wildly negative conclusion when the fact of the matter is, very few of us know the timing on the day. Perhaps if you are one of those who want to bury the nail deeper into the coffin of this batch of Sox players, you should check yourself momentarily and review these pictures from the Beckett fundraiser.

They were taken by Shelley from Fenway West, and from what I can see, there isn’t a beer or a bucket of chicken in sight. Just a lot of Red Sox players putting in a lot of time with a lot of very, very happy kids.

If you are absolutely determined to hate this Red Sox team, fine, knock yourself out, however don’t disgrace yourself by dragging the funeral of a Red Sox great and a very worthy fundraiser into the debate.

It is probably best to leave both alone. Very, very few of us are qualified to cast the first stone in this one.

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Nike LeBron X shoe will cost $300 while 15% of the USA is below the poverty line

Nike LeBron X shoe to cost $300

Right now, in a remote desert region somewhere in the Middle East, a terrorist trainer is showing an attentive class a PowerPoint presentation and slowly, for effect, eulogizing that, '..this, this is why we hate the United States'. No, the presentation is not about the Kardashian sisters. No, it isn't anything to do with Justin Bieber or the insanity that is child obesity and fast food in middle America. It isn't even about Donald Trump. No, the presentation is about LeBron's new Nike shoes.

Before we kick off, let's get one thing straight. The below isn't wanton capitalism bashing, you won't find this author extolling the virtues of communism or a switch back to the old system of barter of goods and services. We all take part in this Western World, including me, we all make occasional stupid purchases, we are all just trying to get by.

However, in no World, capitalist, communist or otherwise, is there any valid reason for a company to create a $300 sneaker, and it is particularly ugly when that sneaker cost them about $10 to create, and the families they are aimed at are generally low income, inner city families. In a World where millions of people are starving to death every minute, in a country where unemployment is rife and where approximately 15% of adults in the United States officially live below the poverty line, LeBron James and Nike have come up with a shoe that is going to cost $300 to buy.

That's right, a sneaker that is going to set you back $300 to buy it.

Of course, LeBron has had very little to do with this, Nike have done all the hard work. They paid some kid in Indonesia $2 today to put together the shoe, the same one they are going to sell for 150 times that sum to only the finest collection of Muppets on this great planet Earth. LeBron, supposed philanthropist (as he insists in his cameo on Entourage), is just putting his name, his face and his enormous ego to the shoe.

I am sure the starving kids in Africa that he throws the occasional bouquet at are absolutely thrilled that LeBron has released a new $300 shoe. I imagine they all gathered around one of the kids iPads to check the shoe out, before heading off to their local Foot Locker to pick up a couple of pairs. Each.

With this incredibly crass, arrogant pricing of a shoe Nike has yet again displayed it's wonderfully warped grasp on the status-quo in America. There are quite literally hundreds of thousands of people protesting in the streets against rampant greed in all its shapes and forms, and yet Nike deem this the right time to bring out a shoe that will cost $300? Incredible.

They should have called it 'The Nike 1%'

Before you jump to the defence of a company to price their wares any way they want, spare a thought for a second for hard working family men and women, who are now going to feel compelled to try and buy this ridiculous shoe for little Jimmy, little Tommy or little Keyshaun. In England and Ireland, men and women are distraught trying to afford the latest $50 Manchester United or Chelsea jersey for their kids, lest they be teased on the playground. In the States it is going to be $300 shoes.

I wonder how many families in Akron, where LeBron is from, can afford the new LeBron shoe?

Whatever about the idiots who decided to price a shoe, that cost them about $10 (including parts and labour) to create, up at $300-$315, what about the brain dead chug monkeys that are actually going to purchase these disgusting symbols of waste, greed and frivolity?

If you do end up buying one of these pairs of sneakers, congratulations. You are approximately as intelligent as Imelda Marcos.

Have fun with that.

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New York Jets backup QuarterbackTim Tebow's Christ pose for GC magazine causes a stir

We live in a World where it would appear to be far easier to slam dunk home an angry, knee-jerk reaction than make an intelligent, calm, considered opinion on any given topic. The New York Jets backup Quarterback, otherwise known as Tim Tebow, is taking plenty of flak for appearing to be recreating Jesus on the cross in a recent GC magazine article. The pointless, angry kerfuffle brings to mind another inane conservative reaction to 'the liberal media' that occurred a month ago

As the latest Batman movie was released, neo-conservative shock jock Rush Limbaugh noted the super villain Bane, remembered that Mitt Romney once ran a corporation called 'Baine' and couldn't help rushing to the following reaction;

"Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire breathing four eyed whatever it is villain in this movie is named Bain [sic]?"

Unfortunately for Limbaugh, his rushed, heated and angry comments were completely off the mark. At no point in the movie did the psychotic and yet tragic Bane ever breathe fire. Furthermore (and more importantly) Bane first appeared in Batman comics almost twenty years before 'Batman - The Dark Knight Rises'. It would have been astonishingly visionary for the creators of the caped crusader to foresee Mitt Romney's Baine Capital adventure and link it to their impressive villain, Bane.

But, Limbaugh saw what he saw and, without thinking about it, went ahead and made his assumption.

Pretty much the exact same story is playing out right now with a Tebow snap that is making some of the more vociferous, ardent religious right explode in fury. We at 'From the bleachers' don't even have the stomach to copy and paste in the quotes that are available on this topic, suffice to say the angry parties have out Limbaughed Limbaugh himself.

A quick seconds thought would have perhaps led to less volatile commentary. Call Tim Tebow what you want, he is obviously very serious and reverential about his faith, and even the most simple minded amongst us must realise, he would never, ever be caught parodying or taking lightly same.

Added to this, the fact that GQ recycled and no doubt doctored the pictures, the recycled them from a lengthy six years ago in fact. Tebow had no idea they were going to be re-posted.

The below snap was also from the same photo shoot, and you can see the Florida Gators colours clearly prominent.

With the above in mind, if you originally thought Tebow was making light of his faith, do you still think so? If so, well, probably nothing is going to change your mind, however most people who are willing to think through a topic fully would agree, clearly the picture has been taken wildly out of context.

As for those still frothing at the mouth with anger, rest assured, Tebow is going to be absolutely annihilated in the New York Jets locker room for this by his merciless team mates. No doubt about it he is going to be teased ferociously.

Now on to a far more pressing matter, how has nobody even mentioned the incredibly Zoolanderesque latest Tom Brady cover shoot?!

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Two top French soccer players face trial and possible jail for soliciting underage escort

Let’s take a walk on the murky side.  Close your eyes for a second and imagine the greatest ever underage prostitution scandal hit American professional sports today. Imagine, if you will,  LeBron James and Tim Tebow being linked with an underage ‘escort’ in a scandal as explosive as any Michael Bay ‘movie’. That doomsday scenario, LeBron and Tebow being caught, cough, with their pants down, is basically playing itself out in France as we speak, with two of the greatest stars of French soccer filling in for King James and the Jets backup Quarterback. Franck Ribéry and Karim Benzema are both French national team heroes, and both play for gigantic clubs, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid respectively. France is tearing itself apart from the inside with what to do with this situation.

Prostitution is basically legal in France, so the fact Ribéry and Benzema solicited one isn’t a big deal (apart of course from the moral issues), however the fact that when they did so, the girl in question was under 18, is a massive issue. The name on everyone's lips is Zahia Dehar, now 20. Dehar has told police that Benzema was first, and that the nefarious deed took place in 2008, when she was only 16 (and Benzema was 20). Interestingly Dehar still speaks relatively highly of Benzema, who’s lawyers maintain he is "innocent" and would explain himself in court.

Dehar speaks considerably less glowingly about Ribéry. The French winger has delivered the stunningly narcissistic explanation that he flew Dehar to Munich as a birthday gift to himself. Whilst most of us are happy with a nice cake and a card, Ribéry, married with children, chose to basically buy another human being for the night. Whatever makes your frog’s legs tasty, I suppose. Dehar has since comments that: "It was hard to get him to pay me, but he did all the same."

Whatever about being basically mocked by a 20 year old prostitute turned fashion designer (more on the latter shortly), Ribéry has opened himself up to further ridicule with his slimy and incredulous defence. Unbelievably the tricky little winger seems genuinely surprised he is going to court. He has called the trial "surprising and unfair" and has gone so far as to complain openly that the whole affair has hurt his family deeply.

Earth to Franck, the moment you dropped your pants and (reluctantly) handed over thousands of euros to sleep with a woman who was decidedly not your wife, that’s where your family started getting hurt.

As for Zahia Dehar, the girl at the middle of this French furore, France seems to be viewing her through some sort of odd rose tinted glasses as the trial approaches. Fashion designers have taken to her, writers are pouring praise over her, and even the French movie business is talking about committing her ‘story’ to the big screen.

Wait one hot French second here, what on earth is the attraction, other than sleazy, murky and greasy scandal?  The designer Karl Lagerfeld has, tongue firmly in cheek one would presume, said that Dehar is so interesting because she is a throwback to France's 18th-century courtesans, paid mistresses of the rich, "a purely French tradition that the whole world admired and copied".

Or, she has really, really big fake boobs

She might be the nicest, most intelligent woman in the World, but why all this sycophantic praise?

The woman is famous because she took money off two soccer stars to have sexual intercourse with them. Without that, she is just another fame chasing, Z-list ‘celebrity’. There are literally billions of women Worldwide who ‘deserve’ fame more than her, and billions more who provide a more meaningful input to the societies they live in.

However, the French, like the rest of us, love a good, dirty, filthy, scandalous story, and bottom feeding scavenger fish people like Zahia will always be in demand.

The whole story is playing out something like the tag line for the brilliant 2000 movie ‘Traffic’, ‘No One Gets Away Clean’.

Who knows how long Zahia‘s ill-gotten 15 minutes of fame will last, and who knows how much trouble Ribéry and Benzema will find themselves in. All we do know is, is this was America, and this was James and Tebow, as hypothesized above, the Internet would quite literally break.

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Derek Jeter shows his class with moving eulogy to Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky

New York Yankee Derek Jeter

Boston lost a true legend yesterday as 92-year-old Johnny Pesky moved on to the great diamond in the sky.

Pesky bled Red Sox red longer than most of us can imagine, dedicating himself to the Sox and the local community. On first hearing the news of the great man’s passing, the first thought I had was, thank goodness the Red Sox managed to win a couple of rings for him in his lifetime. Pesky definitely deserved that.

Shunned by former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette, who famously and idiotically banned Pesky from the Sox dugout during games, Pesky was thankfully welcomed back into the fold by the current management team, an act that will stand to them for the duration of their ownership.

The legend of Johnny Pesky stretches back a long way. Former Major Leaguer Larry Upton told me that none other than the great Ted Williams used to jokingly and playfully call Pesky ‘needlenose’ . He also spoke of Pesky’s outgoing, warm nature. You can read a nice article by him on the great man here.

Like Larry, there are going to be many a worthy accolades written about Pesky in the coming hours and days. Last night as the New York Yankees prepared to play Texas, one of the Red Sox greatest rivals spoke about him.

Often the greatest compliments come from your rivals. They just carry more weight to them. In this case, the Boston Red Sox have no greater rival than the New York Yankees, and the figurehead of that organization, one Derek Jeter.

His softly spoken, measured and thoughtful comments should resonate strongly with even the staunchest, loyalist Red Sox fans. Jeter said;

“He was always so nice to me throughout the years. Every time I’d see him, he would come over and say, ‘I hope you get four hits today – and the guy behind you hits into four double plays.’ I’ve always enjoyed having the opportunity to talk to him. I always like the fact that we have a lot of ex-players that come around all the time. I always liked going up [to Boston] and having an opportunity to see him. They loved him there; fans, players, media, everyone loved him. I send my best wishes to his family.”

Jeter has broken Red Sox hearts countless times down through the years, however this time he may have tugged at their heart-strings in a different way, with such a simple, yet gentle and meaningful eulogy.

Like Pesky before him, Jeter remains a class act.

Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky

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Three Irish boxers in action on a potentially historic Olympic Friday

Everyone loves a Friday, and this one has the potential to be extra special in Ireland. With five medals already guaranteed, this is already the most successful Irish Olympic team since as far back as 1956, and today is a massive day in this particular Irish Olympic quest.

Following hot on the heels of Katie Taylor’s magnificent Gold medal triumph yesterday, there are not one, not two, but three Irish men boxing in Olympic semi-finals today.

Here’s the line-up for the Irish men’s boxing Olympic Fantastic Friday.

• Light-flyweight Paddy Barnes will take on Zou Shiming from China in the semi-final at 13.30 Irish time (GMT)
• Twenty-three-old boxer, John Joe Nevin, from Mullingar, County Westmeath, faces Lazaro Alvarez Estrada in the semi-finals of the bantamweight division at 14:00 Irish time (GMT)
• Twenty-year-old Michael Conlan will bid for a place in the flyweight final at 20:45 Irish time (GMT)

All three men have brought a lot to these games, and have their own style and tactics. Personally I am a huge fan of Nevin’s fantastic footwork and discipline, however the other two lads have their own abilities. It should also be noted, Paddy Barnes is the first Irish boxer to win a medal at consecutive Olympic Games. He won bronze the last time round in Beijing. That’s special in itself, and who will forget how the young man survived a crazy head-butt attempt from an Indian boxer in the quarter finals to get this far.

What a huge day for Irish boxing, and what a huge day potentially for Irish Olympic history.

Best of luck to the three lads.

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Olympic Gold medalist Katie Taylor brushes aside the nonsense to bring the prize home

Ireland’s Olympic gold medalist Katie Taylor didn’t just have to dodge opponents left and right jabs all week long in London. She also had to contend with a veritable deluge of potentially distracting rubbish. Taylor took the gold medal this afternoon, the first ever in women’s boxing, by beating Russian opponent Sofya Ochigava. During the lead up to the gold medal bout the Russian girl was guilty of some pretty disgraceful disparaging comments to the media. Sadly, that wasn’t the only disappointing distraction as some of her compatriots in the Russian media added gasoline to the fire with equally stupid comments, and a couple of British journalists made the head scratching ‘mistake’ of calling Taylor ‘British’.

However, all week long the thing that has impressed the most of all about Taylor has been her laser sharp focus pre-match and throughout every round of every fight. Nothing changed today as Taylor cast aside all distractions and put her experience, style and technique to work and came out, quite literally, on top of the world.

Taylor has given Ireland and boxing fans all over the World a plethora of memories to take away from this Olympic games. She has brought dignity to the ring every time, the memory of her classy encounter against British girl Natasha Jonas will last a long time. She brought an army of wild, adoring and loyal fans who literally set the record for loudest fans at an Olympics. She has been a wonderful role model for the youth of Ireland, a group searching, hoping for such a leader in these dark recessional times. She has been a firework shooting across the London sky.

Taylor has also impressed opponents and coaches alike. Natasha Jonas had this to say after being beaten by Katie

"I could have thrown the kitchen sink [at her], maybe drove a bus into her, it didn't work. She's the best."

You can count US head boxing coach Basheer Abdullah as a fan too. One of his boxers, Queen Underwood, failed to automatically qualify for these Olympics, despite glittering credentials. Taylor publicly and successfully lobbied the powers that be in world boxing to give Underwood an at-large bid. Basheer said

"That says a lot about her character. She's a true champion. When you look back at the great ones in boxing, the Ali's, they wanted to compete against the best. And that's the same mentality Katie Taylor has."

Katie has attracted the attention of stars outside the boxing world also. Irish legends old and new have been tweeting about her victory, take for example the great Paul McGrath and the potentially great James McClean.

Taylor has worked for this all her life, and can now sit back and reap the rewards. It is not often you come across an athlete that deserves every single accolade that gets thrown at them, however Katie is one of a rare breed.


Many of us are guilty of having been caught up in the surrounding distractions this week (including me!). All along we had it wrong. Just stay in the moment, ignore the distractions, put the hard work in and if you are honest and true to yourself, if the sporting Gods decide to shine on you, who knows, you just might come out at the other end with a gold medal.


Just like Katie.

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The Daily Telegraph thinks Irish Olympic hero Katie Taylor is British

Irish hero Katie Taylor

Katie Taylor Photo Gallery here

Goodness gracious these Olympics seriously get the blood going, don’t they? Katie Taylor and her legion of Irish fans have a date with destiny in just a few hours in London, as she fights in the semi-final of the Olympic games women’s 56kg boxing. Taylor won her initial bout with Natasha Jonas on Monday and her legend has grown exponentially ever since.

Apparently, some are confused as to Taylor’s nationality.

In an incredibly crass, insulting and ill-informed ‘article’, the English rag The Daily Telegraph, has called Taylor British.

Perhaps a quick history\geography lesson is called for, for our friends across the sea.

Katie Taylor was born and raised in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. Bray is a vibrant little seaside town to the south of the capital of Ireland, Dublin. Ireland won its independence from an oppressive, corrupt and often brutal British imperialist state and declared independence from same in 1919. We have been free from British rule ever since. It should be noted that before that time, any Irish man or woman, athlete or regular punter, would rather die than be known as British, despite the latter’s military occupation of Ireland.

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Related:
Australian journalist apologizes for Katie Taylor article stereotyping Irish as drunks

Top ten facts about Irish Olympic hopeful Katie Taylor – VIDEO

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One final note for the idiot\editor who approved this unbelievably stupid piece. Taylor should be easily recognizable to all British journalists and sports fans, she was the Irish athlete that annihilated your actual British boxer on Monday, in a flurry of punches that left your girl reeling (Despite my obvious fury on this subject, it should be strongly noted, the telegraph could learn a thing or two about dignity from Jonas, who carried herself with utter class on Monday)

Any telegraph ‘journalist’ who is still confused about Taylor’s nationality should perhaps put the question directly to her.

It would be fun to watch her retort.

If you would like to contact the telegraph to remind them that Taylor is Irish, and not British, you can do so by phoning them or filling out this quick online form. Either should suffice.

Update Wednesday 3:30 pm: Credit where credit is due, the telegraph has issued an apology, and as always, that's all you can ask for. 

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The loudest cheer of the Olympics thus far: Leave it to the Irish!

You might be sitting there on your sofa or your rocking chair or your bean bag thinking to yourself, 'What has been the loudest cheer of this 2012 Olympics thus far?' You might also find yourself a little shocked at the answer. Michael Phelps and his eight thousand medals? No. Usain Bolt making the rest of us look like mere mortals? Nope. Any number of British medals? No. The single loudest cheer of the 2012 Olympics thus far has been for a quiet, unassuming Irish girl called Katie Taylor.

Ireland's premiere Gold medal hope, Taylor, is also the class of women's boxing at the moment, and her magnificent fight with Britain Natasha Jonas was loud. Very loud. Much like the wildly disappointing European Championships, the sports loving Irish turned up in their thousands, decidedly out shouting their English hosts in the stadium.

Here's the science.

The Olympic officials in charge of such matters declared the decibel level at the peak of the fight to be at 113.7, beating all other events including the second loudest, the noisy cycling fans at the Velodrome. To put the noise in perspective, your average jet engine emits a decibel level of 140.

Taylor seems to be really plugged in to the flow and emotion of what is happening all around her, and she was visibly living off the positive vibe coming from the predominantly Irish crowd.

''I've never experienced an atmosphere like this before. I knew it was going to be great but it took me by surprise a small bit. It's a privilege to box for them, as well as my country''

Taylor is Ireland's best hope for Gold apart from John Joe Nevin in the men's boxing, however she elegantly cast all tensions aside with a dominant first round. Credit to Jonas, who may have just edged round two, but Taylor ran away with rounds three and four, and twice had Jonas reeling from ferocious punches. The fight ended with a big margin to Taylor, but Jonas can hold her head high after a proud, dignified performance. The spirit, class and dignity the two girls showed at the end of the fight was a heart warming reminder of what the Olympics is all about.

Onward and upwards for Ireland's gleaming emerland, Katie Taylor, who now faces Tajikistan's Mavzuna Chorieva in the semi final. Should she manage to get past that, a Gold medal bout awaits Thursday.

The last word goes to the classy young Liverpudlian Jonas, who said of Taylor and the chase for the Gold medal

"I think she will (win it) and hope she does"

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Bring back one of the ‘Idiots’ - Derek Lowe would be a great fit in Boston (again)

No, ‘idiot’ is not a low level stoop into the dark art of trolling. If you recall, the merry bunch otherwise known as the 2004 Red Sox were self-declared idiots. Kevin Millar, Johnny Damon and our story’s hero, Derek Lowe, were three of the biggest (again, self-professed) idiots. Lowe wasn’t just ‘an idiot’, he pitched admirably for the Red Sox for 8 seasons, including a World Series ring, a plethora of wins and indeed saves, countless funny moments for us Red Sox fans to enjoy and, of course, pitching a no hitter into the bargain.

Lowe came to Boston in one of the most lopsided trades in MLB history back in 1997. The Red Sox got Lowe and Jason Varitek for ‘closer’ Heathcliff Slocumb. I say ‘closer’, as for those of you old enough to remember, poor old Heathcliff was really more of a ‘potential door opener’ than ‘closer’, blowing saves like it was going out of fashion. Let’s just say Seattle got the raw end of that deal.

Why all the fuss around Lowe these last 24 hours? Well, the Cleveland Indians have basically released him, or to use the technical term, they have designated him for assignment. He is still somewhat under their control, they can trade him for up to 10 days from when they let him go, however the feeling is he will be allowed drift off as a free agent to whoever wants him.

Right now, Lowe is openly saying he would love to come back to Boston, and that’s kind of cool.

Lowe could prove very valuable to the Red Sox. Where do you start, the list of positives is glowing. He knows how to pitch in the AL East. He knows Boston, and has proven to know how to win in Boston, something not a lot of pitchers can do. When he is ‘on’ he keeps the ball down, crucial in Fenway Park. He started out the 2012 season 6-2 with a tiny ERA and has historically been a streaky-good pitcher, perfectly capable of finding his sinkerball mojo again. Particularly in, for him, the comfortable confines of Fenway Park.

Lowe sounds very optimistic about joining up with his regular personal training and fixing the mechanical pitching issues which have him in his current ‘funk’. He said;

“I just need to go back with Chris and get my stuff right again, I know I will,’

The fact of the matter is the Fenway clubhouse could probably do with having a gregarious character like Lowe around. He would also be fantastic to have around Felix Dubront and other young Red Sox pitchers. The Cleveland Indians players and staff have to a man had nothing but glowing comments on Lowe, singling out his selfless, generous sharing of time and information with younger players.

The upside to having a proven winning, inning eating, experienced, friendly character like Lowe around is absolutely gigantic compared to very few potential drawbacks.

This 2012 Red Sox season hangs in the balance.

A gentle push like adding Lowe as starting pitching insurance, could be a small factor for the positive.

Vote Lowe! Bring the ‘Idiot’ back!

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Don't lose sight of the Olympic forest because of the nationalistic trees

The Olympic games got off to a great start, with a blazing, throbbing opening ceremony full of colour and intrigue, including a rambunctious entrance by a myriad of athletes of the World. It was so much fun watching the beaming, glowing stars pour into the stadium in colourful garb, a real celebration of the best and brightest from around the World. Sadly, for me anyway, that appears to be where the goodwill pretty much stopped. Right now, this doesn’t really feel like an Olympic Games. Instead, we appear to be going through dozens of individual, stand-alone events where athletes from one country try to accumulate medals against unseen, unreported rivals. Perhaps I am far off the correct path, however my innocent understanding was that the Olympics is supposed to be a celebration of mankind.

Instead we have the BBC screaming with delight as a British athlete finishes second in the cycling, completely and utterly ignoring the Dutch winner, even going so far as to only interview the silver medalist. What about the Dutch girl? Didn’t she deserve a look-in?! Colour me confused.

Instead we have Irish television actually taking the British insularism and expanding on it exponentially. I suppose Irish TV has some excuse in that Ireland is a tiny nation and any victory for an Irish athlete truly is newsworthy, however, RTE may as well call their Olympics coverage ‘’The hunt for any kind of medal for an Irish athlete along with some other random sports that we will spend 5 minutes on at 11:30 pm on RTE2’’.

The German media is utterly despondent, simply because they haven’t won a truckload of medals as yet. The Olympic games is, in their eyes, a failure thus far, because ‘Germany, Germany, over all’ (that’s the start of their anthem translated, for your information) isn’t blaring out daily on the winners podiums. They don’t care how the other athletes are doing. The entire exercise is a monster bust because Germany isn’t cleaning up.

As for the United States. ESPN is basically a snazzy, glorified medals table focusing solely on the US and their achievements to date. Their coverage is ignorant in a barely concealed passive-aggressive way, with ‘comical’ stories about how American athletes find foreigners amusing. For example, they love telling us that star-struck members of foreign teams are asking the Dream Team for autographs after games, they are getting a big kick out of that dynamic. You know what’s interesting, ESPN doesn’t even have an Olympics tab on their menu bar. Just the usual NFL, MLB and so forth.

‘Worldwide leader in sports’? Maybe in shoving US sports and US athletes down our throats, sure, but ESPN can’t claim to have a worldwide, global view on anything. They don’t even have an Olympics tab on their main menu bar!

Look, the above flag-waving is all well and good, it is great that we in Ireland know everything there is to know about Katie Taylor, and in the USA the entire Olympics is about Lochte\Phelps, the Dream Team and the US women’s soccer team.  Super. Wonderful. I suspect many readers will be shaking their heads saying ‘I don’t see what this idiots problem is?!’

The thing is, the Olympics is a chance to celebrate peoples from all around the world. The games are crammed full of individual stories that would only fill your heart with happiness and an uplifting feeling if you had a chance to find out about them.

Every Olympic event is full of brave, interesting and skilful individuals, beyond the colour of the flag they represent.

Many of these individuals have the weight of the World on their shoulders. There are countless individual struggles going on, often against the odds, as in the case of Saudi woman Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani who is not just preparing to battle other opponents in Judo, but is also battling the weight of an entire faith’s beliefs on her slim shoulders. Not only does she have to worry about an opponent pulling a ‘Ouchi Gaeshi’ on her, she also has to worry about backwards, redundant comments from her own people like this; ‘‘Men will be looking at her and she will likely be wearing form-fitting attire.’’

On no, someone call in the religious police! Form fitting attire! Oh the humanity!

Hey, of course there is a middle ground, and I am not going to lie to you, any Irish medal will be loudly cheered from my apartments sofa. The point I am trying to make here is, we are in danger of being sucked into this boring, nationalistic, angry, flag waving black hole, where the exploits of individuals are crushed from our view by the weight of ugly medal tables and over exuberant nationalistic reporting.

Knock yourself out, punch the air when (insert country here) wins whatever event. But, just don’t lose the chance to celebrate humanity a little. Try ‘adopting’ a few athletes or teams from nations other than your own, and follow their exploits as the games progress.

You might find yourself enjoying the Olympic games on another level than that stupid medals table.



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