Drugs Are Bad, Mmmmmkay?

Just finished reading the report on ESPN's web site regarding synthetic drug use in Auburn's football program.  So many lessons to be learned or reinforced from this saga:

• Winning covers up a lot of blemishes
• Organizations move slowly
• Athletes get a lot of second (and third and fourth) chances
• Drugs are for losers

High and Outside

Showed my students this e:60 video about Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, who pitched on the 1986 Red Sox team that came thisclose to winning the World Series.  I already knew that he had issues with drugs after his playing career was over, but I had no idea that Boyd was pitching while he was high...since Little League.

Oh, and that comment about Jackie Robinson didn't seem to go over well...

A Different World

Everyday, I watch my students during the Pledge of Allegiance, and only one out of 12 of them says the pledge with any consistency.  That's one reason I showed the video clip of how soccer players and F1 employees were blacklisted after protesting the Arab Spring in Bahrain.

The video was surprisingly (for ESPN) intense: several scenes including possible homicides of protesters by government forces.  After the video was over, I asked my students to construct a similar scenario for here in America.  The most famous athlete in America going to jail for a protest and then having to play in a minor league.

I'm not sure it sunk in with all of my students, but I'm hoping that one or two of them take it to heart.

Second Concussions

This video didn't really have to do with any content, but I had to let them see the story of a guy that looked like he had it all (good looks, great body, football scholarship) and had two concussions.  The second concussion changed his life.

"The Wrestler" in Real Life

Showed my students this story from ESPN's e:60 today, about former WWE wrestler Scott Hall.  It was the typical rise-and-fall story, but what highs and lows!