Congratulations to Sydney Burrier, our Lisa Brinkmeyer Award recipient! This award honors graduating female student-athletes who distinguished themselves in high school in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service and leadership.
#GoWarriors
Ari and I were talking to Kirk Ferentz at Big Ten media days, and Ari asked if Ferentz had any hobbies. His answer?
"Does drinking beer in the pool count?"
And that was the day I learned that Kirk Ferentz and I are the same person.
I asked my producers not to make any clips from the dad grief portion but enough people reached out about this part I changed my mind.
Jim Nantz on what Arnold Palmer told him about his dad is one of the most impactful things I’ve ever heard. A lot of people need to hear this.
An important message and reminder sent from my daughter’s youth soccer league re Refereeing.
Having spent a few seasons on the sideline now as a parent, some of the behavior I’ve seen towards referees is abhorrent. As with anything, there is a wide variety in the standard of refs I have seen, but at the end of the day, they are humans working a very important job for the sport.
One of the things I’ve appreciated at my daughter’s club, is that her coach has taken a hard line with the parents about any type of reactions or comments towards the referees. 0 tolerance and if you do- you aren’t allowed to sit on the sideline.
Refs will get calls right and wrong, but often times these refs are on their 6th or 7th game of the day. I constantly find myself on the verge of yelling/screaming— and then remember the 11 year old me who was a ref/linesman to make some extra cash and then was completely berated by parents. I can only imagine the level of scrutiny and hate the top referees in the world face on a day to day basis.
On TV - we are constantly tasked with giving our opinions about game changing decisions— which in my conversations with refs, they completely understand. There is always an element of subjectivity around the game, but it’s the way in which we approach it that matters.
I’m certainly not trying to sit here and preach from my high horse and claim that I’m perfect in this regard— but more so challenging us all to do better in our treatment of refs in the youth soccer and professional environment.
Cheers to the refs // I look forward to disagreeing quietly in my head with the offside call you give against my daughter’s team this weekend.
@brianferentz_oc@edsstache Good pull. Didn't remember him, but coincidentally met his sister in STL last weekend and she saw my hawkeye hat and introduced herself.