January 27, 2013

January 27, 2013

Two things on the blog today.  First, last night me and a few friends went to the Red Bull Crashed Ice event in St. Paul, only a 30 minute bus ride from our campus.  I was really excited to see a crazy new sport that I'd never heard of, and was not disappointed.  It's basically played on a luge sort of track, but instead of a sled the competitors simply skate, so its essentially downhill skating.  The course has various jumps, uphill climbs, and banked turns that do increase the difficulty immensely.  The initial drop is 48 feet high and at its steepest is a 45 degree angle!  There were quite a few Americans in the 64 man field so understandably they received the most cheers and had the support of the over 80,000 people in attendance.  Only one American, Cameron Naasz made it to the final round where he finished 3rd after being involved in a 3 man crash towards the finish line.  He's apparently one of the best the sport has to offer as he's currently in 2nd place in the season standings.  The winner was Kyle Croxall of Canada, who was last year's world champion as well.  The track was situated right underneath the St. Paul Cathedral and they worked very hard to incorporate the beautiful building into the event.  The cathedral was lit up throughout the night and had color changing lights that would bathe the building in several different brilliant colors, its was pretty awesome.  Overall, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in a new and exciting sport.

St. Paul Cathedral lit up for Crashed Ice

Second, today is the annual NFL Pro Bowl.  I just don't understand why there is so much negativity directed towards what is not an actual game.  If you have ever watched the Pro Bowl with the intention of watching a realistic, intense NFL game then you are delusional.  The Pro Bowl is meant to be a fun and ENTERTAINING gathering of the best the NFL has to offer, and to just let them go out and ball, basically to have fun.  This should above else be a chance for the best players in the NFL to essentially meet up to play a friendly game of football.  The Pro Bowl is usually high scoring as defenses are extremely limited so in this regard the game lives up to its entertainment value.  Moreover, the Pro Bowl is not an actual game it counts for NOTHING, there's no reason for the players to go out and risk their bodies and livelihoods for a game that is only for entertainment.  I don't understand why people want the game eliminated, what would you replace it with?  You then would leave a hideous gap between the conference championship round and the Super Bowl.  Once the Super Bowl is done the long cold summer of no football begins, so people should be appreciative of a last chance to see most of the stars of the game in one location.  And even in its so called "diluted" form the Pro Bowl still draws more viewers than any other major sports all-star game.