Bill Rowell » Sports

Dear ESPN.com: Please Disable Auto Playing of Video

Bill — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:34:19 +0000

This annoyance goes right up there with sites that play music when you visit them. ESPN, for Pete’s sake, stop having your stupid video’s auto play when I load one of the pages on ESPN.com. I don’t care to hear them. I don’t care to watch them. I watch SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, and all of the other shows to know what’s going on in the sports world. I don’t need to see it again. Plus, I’m probably already watching TV or listening to music. Or even still, maybe my wife is sleeping next in the same room while I’m on my laptop and the video just blared without my control and woke her up. I realize you’re trying to “enhance” the quality of your site, but its downright pissing me off.

Does Texeira Equal A Championship For the Yankees?

Bill — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:04:42 +0000

So I guess its official that the Mark Texeira sweepstakes are over. The NY Yankees are getting him for 8 years and $180 million dollars, giving them the four highest paid players in all of baseball. Rumors had Texeira landing with my Boston Red Sox, but you can never count the Yankees out of any deal that means they can spend a ton of money. Anyway, congrats, I guess, to all you Yankees fans out there. But remember this, the Sox still have more championships this decade than you do and just ’cause you have spent all this money doesn’t mean you can beat out the Sox or even the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL East.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Do you think the Yankees will ever learn that they can’t just buy a championship? I’m not sure they ever will.

New England Patriots 16-0?

Bill — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:02:54 +0000

Living in New England, I’m obviously a huge Red Sox, Bruins, and Patriots fan (seeing the Celtics go 24-3 is cool, but I’ve never been a big basketball fan). Tonight, at 8:15 on the NFL network and tons of other stations now it seems, the Pats will go for the unprecedented record of 16-0 against the New York Football Giants.

I’m confident at 100% that they’ll do it. The Giants are no different than any other team in the NFL this year that the Pats have played, so I’m sure the Pats will secure #16. That means the ’72 Dolphins, still a great team, will have to step aside as the only undefeated team in league history. Stay tuned to see if history is made tonight!

UPDATE: Pats win 38-35! Probably one of the best games played all season. Congratulations to the New England Patriots for their historic season. Now its on to the playoffs and hopefully, the Super Bowl!

Bo Knows Best

Bill — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:19:25 +0000

I’ve been an avid baseball fan most of my life. Most mornings growing up involved me eating breakfast while reading the newspaper spouting off scores and how the Red Sox did as my mom listened patiently in the kitchen. My favorite ball player growing up was Bo Jackson. Just something about how he played sports resonated with me.

Image courtesy of ESPN.com

He was just plain exciting to watch. I even collected all of his baseball cards and football cards as part of my massive sports cards collection. When he was injured in the ’90s playing football, he was one of the most powerful names in sports and sports marketing.

ESPN.com has a cool article on Bo and how his playing career and subsequent injury have changed his life. Its interesting (and good for that matter) to see that the man he is has nothing to do with the persona Nike helped to build. If you’re a Bo fan, or just a fan of sports and sports heroes, check out the article. Its a good read.