O, say, can you see...

Granted, this aint no "Star Spangled Banner" we're singing here, but we should certainly be treating it as such. And by "we" ,I mean we Oregonians.

The success of U of O football this season has made them competitiors on the national level. Everywhere you go, and everything you watch, they're there. Aside from all the national exposure , and from the mere fact that U of O is now the team to beat in all college football throughout the country, this is something Oregonians have waited for, for a very long time. Yes, U of O is quickly becoming a household name throughout the country. And yes, I'm sure people everywhere feel they know all about the Ducks now. And maybe to some degree they do, but not the way we do.

Now before I get too ahead of myself, let me clear the air on what I mean by "Oregonians". The term means ALL people who grew up and/or are living in Oregon. That being said, this obviously includes OSU fans as well. Although there is a deep, cold-blooded (so bloody, we call it "The Civil War") rivalry between the two universities, this is truly a victory for everyone. Oregon football (UofO & OSU) has always been heard, but not really seen. Obviously, schools have had on and off success in football since the schools' inceptions. Even so, neither school has really gone to the top and stayed there. Because of this, Oregon football, as a whole, has contantly been looked over. Even as OSU and UofO made bowl games, nobody really gave them a fighting chance in comparison to other teams in the nation.

U of O even made it to the Rose Bowl last year, having finished a very promising regular season, only to get dismantled by Ohio State. Now while the score didn't look all that terrible, you could see the obvious differences in overall competitiveness. Nonetheless, it was a step up from the typical M.O. of the Ducks. It's fair to speculate, at this point, that this recent success be attributed to the promotion of Head coach Chip Kelly.

Originally the offensive coordinator for the team, He became head coach when Mike Bellotti stepped down on March 30th, 2009. As much as the nation has quickly come to know the football team, they've quickly come to know this team's coach as well. Vocal. Passionate. Disciplined. This man knows what he wants, and he knows how he wants it. As a team that, in the past, would have almost fallen through the cracks by the end of the season, is now in charge of their own destiny. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages in having Kelly as the coach of this young team, is that he believes in playing "your game". Living and dying by the motto "Win the Day"; it's a reminder to all players and coaches to never forget what YOU learned, never forget how YOU play, and never forget YOUR style.

The idea of keeping a grip on your own style, is especially crucial in the Ducks' case. For example, I'm sure evryone has seen those call signs on the sideline with all kinds of random pictures plastered on it. Very confusing, and extremely frustrating for other teams to see and de-code, it's a simple stint of U of O's style. Most noteably, you've probably heard every single opposing team talk about "slowing this team down". These Ducks play fast, and they move very, very quickly. This is partly to throw teams off-guard, and partly to just make them really tired really fast.

Details aside, the University of Oregon is officially ranked #1 in the BCS.

.....

Let me repeat that: the University of Oregon is officially ranked #1 in the BCS.

It's been a long time since any of us Oregonian's have been able to hear those words for either of our football teams. I don't want anyone to jump on any badnwagon at all, because I think we've all been watching enough of that from the rest of the nation to be honest. All I'm saying is whether you're OSU Beaver fan, PSU Vikings fan, U of O Ducks fan, or a fan of "could care less either way", this time, this moment, is a victory for not just one school, but for one entire state.

Most of you know that I am a Ducks fan, so there's on obvious bias. Knowing that, you might be saying "It's easy for you to say Harguth, you already like the Ducks!". Point taken, however irrelevent. As a Duck fan, I can honestly say that I can appreciate what every other football team has done in this state. Admittedly, I was watching when OSU was hitting it big in the past couple years. You'd have to be kind of stupid to not be watching Jacquizz Rodgers. Mike Riley is an extremely underrated coach, and have the utmost respect for that man's coaching philosophies.

The point is, I have biases, you have biases, we all have biases. Especially when it comes to our sports teams, this is understandably very tough to get past. But the reality is that at the end of the day, it's football, and it's Oregon's football. This is a special treat for all of us to winess, and it's in our best interest to relish in it while it's here. As proud as weare of our Oregon football teams, we can all admit that this doesn't happen very often. When was the last time you heard ESPN actually highlighting an Oregon footbal team? So today I submit a temporary truse to all Oregon football team fans. This is now bigger than any Civil War game or any other bug matchup we may have had.

You say "Go Vikings!"
Dude across the way says "Go Beavers!"
Some random over there says "Go Bruins!"
Another guy says "Go Ducks!"

...I say "Go Oregon!"

Decisions, decisions...

...So what should we do?

We should go ahead and bypass the obvious today, because the fact of the matter is that if you're reading this right now, you already had an opinion before you even opened this. This is okay, because this particular post is specifically for you guys.

As much as we all may say we hate it, the drama of sports is half of sports. How boring would they be if there was no story, no hype? We all know full well that fans and analysts alike absolutely love adding fuel to the fire whenever possible. But these days, the athletes themselves, have become the ultimate fuel .

Personally, I absolutely love conflict. I love it because no matter what anyone says, everyone ALWAYS pays more attention when there is. Conflict creates motivation. Motivation in turn, creates stiffer competition. Stiffer competition ultimately brings out the best in all athletes. However, my love for conflict in sports ends when the conflict overwhelms the sport. And that, my Nosebleeders, is what we have here.

It's been a little over a week since LeBron and Nike aired their very blunt, and quite frankly very ballsy ad titled "What Should I do?" on national television. After airing "The Decision" in July, we all found it hard to believe that he could out-do himslef anymore. We were obviously mistaken.

I hate writers who take advantage of these situations just fill space in their columns. It's cheap writing, and it's cheap commentary. Writers like that, are what keep athletes like LeBron James famous. I'm not writing this post to add more fuel to fire, the way "King James" would like it; I speak about this now, because it has gotten to the point where we now need to question priorities. Question priorities not just of LeBron, but of ourselves as well. In order to do this analysis properly, I suppose it's only fair that we take a page out of the "Nike-LeBron Romance", and ask ourselves retorical questions...

Are we mad? Should we be mad? Is this a problem? Who's problem is it? How much is for show? How much is real? Who's playing who? Is it worth the attention? Is money talking more than a ring? Why do we watch? Why does he listen? Do we and LeBron look forward more to the press conferences more than the game?

You, personally, might of been able to answer those questions pretty quickly. They may of even seemed absured to you. But if most of us answered those honestly, I don't think it'd be so easy.

The ad was obviously straight-forward and possibly even offensive to some. But just days later, he publicly stated that he would of done "The Decision" differently. What do we make of that? Saying, not necessarily that the choice to leave Cleveland would be different, but how he went about making it. Does that mean he's excused? Apparantly not, because within days of the ad being launched, there were already spoofs going off right behind it. It started with ESPN's Michelle Beadle's light-hearted interpretation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksR2M0afC5c . Then Comedy Central's South Park just had to dip their hands in, using it as a platform to shoot at BP (quite a comparison) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xoLB1d47O0 . The clincher came earlier today when an actual "Cleveland Answer" was created in accordance with the ad. This one's not so light-hearted, and they actually respond to his questions. See for yourself... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8eFNcEFWSw .

While this is all entertaining, and honestly quite amusing, that's all it is anymore. This is nothing more than entertainment. To put it in perspective, I'm a fan of WWE wrestling. While they are athletes, they are primarily entertainers. LeBron James is turning the face of the NBA into entertainment. He no longer looks like the reigning MVP of the NBA, but more like the Don King of the NBA. I no longer think about basketball when I think about LeBron. He has now become better at hype and promotion than actual basketball. Everyone always questions my personal dislike for LeBron James, and this is precisely why. I'm absolutely tired of it. I understand business and I understand marketing, and advertsing as well. But when you go beyond publicly deciding to leave your hometown, to publicly calling out and antagonizing every critic and negative thought that's been made towards you, you dig your own grave.

I don't excuse Clevelands actions "post-decision", but this one is on LeBron, and I no longer have sympathy towards him in anyway whatsoever. He has now made it perfectly clear that he wants nothing more than to be the villain. Why? because we will all pay to watch the villain. Some actually swallowed the idea that he would do it differently now if he could go back; well that's cute, but it would mean a whole lot more if he hadn't already recieved his eight-digit check for doing the ad.

He wants to know what he should do?

...Shut up and play ball.