The snowy weekend in the New York area didn’t produce much from a sports perspective, but some winning and losing both in the United States (especially in college hoops) and in the U.K. with Eduardo de Silva's horrific leg break for Arsenal, certainly produced some interesting items, as well as how they were handled. Here's a look:
On the soccer pitch, the cultural importance of soccer in the U.S. and the rest of the world is in evidence again, as Eduardo's injury and the accompanying pictures (equally as dramatic and grotesque as the Redskins’ Joe Theisman's leg break in the ’80's) produced over 1,000 articles, virtually none in the U.S…over a 24 hour period.Arsene Wenger's immediate call for a lifetime ba. on Birmingham City's Martin Taylor for the foul, followed by Wenger's retraction of his emotional statement is a great example of how holding thought and getting away from the emotional can help diffuse a situation.International Herald Tribune has an interesting piece on Sky Sport's refusal to show the grotesque injury during the match live, also a counter to the overplay of such tragedy by the media in this 24/7 world.Bentley College break the longstanding record for consecutive Division II men's basketball regular season wins (53 in a row), a story that has disappointingly not received much play, while one that has a little more play was New Jersey Institute of Technology finishing an 0-29 season, the worst-ever in Division I.The Bergen Record had a solid piece on NJIT's struggles that ran this past Friday, and that type of access (which Bentley should offer up to someone) helps to humanize these struggling college athletes. Also, Tennessee defeating previously undefeated Memphis last night saw a host of great features, including one on the celebrity attraction to the game, which included Priscilla Presley turning Graceland's color's blue for a week in honor of the now once-beaten Tigers (would be great to see the colors now go Orange for the Vols, n.). Each of these cases comes down to a matter of access to tell the stories, no matter how big or small. The UT staff, with the cooperation of coach Bruce Pearl, the UM staff, with the media savvy John Calipari, and even the NJIT staff, “got” the opportunity and the schools will benefit from levels of exposure on a host of levels. Those that are not proactive, no matter how great the story, will miss out.
