The Best of the Bearded Fellow

SpartanEdge has challenged me, if you will, to write a "best of" blog. A blog post that I would want visible for the entire summer. SInce I am a sports blogger, I thought it would be a tad tricky coming up with a post that would be worthy or timely for an entire summer. Many ideas came to me, in fact I was supposed to tell them what I was writing by Friday... oops. But I didn't know what I was going write until now, so here it is, the "Best of the Bearded Fellow." Enjoy.

Sports, they are involved in our lives more than we know. Sports have a power to unite people under one flag, one common cause. They can distract us from our hardships. They can take us away from the tragedies of the world, even if it is only for a couple hours. Sports are a way for people to escape reality, and just root that their teams bests their opponent.

I know sports aren't as important to other people as they are to me, but sports serve as my outlet. When I'm watching the Red Wings nothing else matters. It may sound cold to just forget everyone because the Red Wings are on, but in reality, it's something I need in order to see things clearly. Sometimes it's hard to find that distraction. Whether someone just died, you got dumped, or you're about to pour your heart out to someone, you need to find something to distract you, even if it's just for a moment. My thing is sports.

My grandma died when I was in 7th grade. I was distraught and didn't know how to handle it. What my cousins and family did was on the day of her funeral, took my brother and I out to play roller hockey. We must have played for 5 to 7 hours of hockey. We never stopped until the sun went down. For food we had one person sit out to go on a Taco Bell run. But that's the power of family and sports coming together. They took my mind off of things with a stick, a ball, and two skates.

Some of my happiest days in life are involved in sports. My dad surprised Joe and I with tickets to game two of the Stanley Cup finals in 2008 against the Penguins, we won 3-0 by the way. I recently went to another playoff game, in which the Wings won 3-0. it's a toss up between those two as the best day of my life. And if you're wondering, it's probably the more recent game I consider the best night ever. How about when Magglio sent us to the world series? I was hanging out with my best friend and after he hit that, we ran up and down the streets with brooms yelling "SWEEP, TIGERS WORLD SERIES!" Sports bring people together, and they've been apart of the happiest days of my life.

Also some of my earliest memories are around sports. I remember watching Red Wing hockey ever since I was a little kid. I barely remember 1996 when Draper got crushed by Claude Lemiuex. I remember where I was in 1997 when Darren McCarty scored that beautiful goal against the Flyers. I remember that we were over a friends house for a party when Michigan won the Rose Bowl in 1997. Sports have been in my life for literally as long as I can remember. I remember my first Tiger game, my first Michigan football game, my first Lion game, so many memories of mine are involved the world of sports. From a very young age, I was a sports fan, and it's the reason why I want to be in sports radio.

Bottom line, sports are a huge influence in my life, and in the lives of many others. Sports have this power to unify people under one cause. For two to three hours, nothing else matters. That's the amazing thing about sports. Entire cities, states, and countries forget their disputes and unite under the flag of their team. Nothing else matters while that team is playing. Sports are the world's greatest outlet, and they are my outlet.

In closing, I have to say thank you to SpartanEdge for imploring me to write this, and as always, GO RED WINGS!