C-Days after Snow Days

     It's morning-time on a school day.  You wake up, and it's snowing outside.  The wind is howling and thoughts of a snow day flash through your head.  You turn on the TV to check the weather/school announcements and as the schools flash by on the bottom line, you nervously anticipate the O's for Omaha Catholic Schools.  Finally, it appears at the bottom of the screen.  You are overjoyed!  Sleeping in, TV, video games, no homework...  Then you turn on the computer only to find a voice message left by Mr. Ryberg.  You hit play cautiously and about halfway through the announcement he mentions that the next day is going to be a C-Day!  Mutiny!  Your mind races, you can no longer sleep as you are sent into a fit of fury. You must start preparing for all of your classes the upcoming day.  The snow day is ruined!  You are too unhappy to play video games and too unfocused to watch TV... all you can think about is the upcoming C-Day.

And this is basically why I think that when we have a snow day on an A-Day, they should just give us the next day off too to balance out the schedule.

Head Injuries in the NFL (BEST one)

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/23/sport/nfl-seau-lawsuit/index.html?htp=us_mid

-Junior Seau is a former NFL linebacker who committed suicide last year.  When his family claimed that the reason behind this suicide was brain disease, he was examined and the cause was found to be chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).  This disease is caused by repeated blows to the head and its symptoms are depression, withdrawal, and forgetfullness.  In turn, Seau's family filed a lawsuit against the NFL and Riddell (helmet maker) who are "confident in the integrity of our products and our ability to successfully defend our products against challenges."
-As a football player, I find the fact that Seau's family filed a lawsuit on the NFL completely ridiculous.  I don't like the NFL (the business, not the games) and what they stand for: greed, but these players are taking a risk every single time that they step onto the field.  If they are truly concerned about themselves, then they should quit football.  As a linebacker, Seau made a choice every time he lowered his helmet and collided with the running back.  If he had a concussion or head injury in his career (which he said he didn't) then he could have sat out.  Junior got paid to do what he did and when he accepted that money, he accepted the consequences that came with it.  I DO believe though, that a) the NFL needs to start giving better medical insurance to retired players in the case of injury, and b) college and high school football players need to start receiving better education upon brain injuries and the risks that they are imposing upon themselves.
-What do you think?  Is the NFL wrong and do serious changes need to be made?  Or are the players at fault for playing football despite the risk that comes with it?

Manti Te'o: A Victim or a Liar?

Manti Te’o: A Victim or a Liar?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/19/sport/manti-teo-controversy/index.html?hpt=us_c2

            A Victim or a Liar? Everybody who has heard the story about the star Notre Dame linebacker’s supposed girlfriend who died in September of leukemia, only to have been found out to not exist, are asking themselves this very question.  For those who haven’t heard the story, here’s a quick background: Manti Te’o, a Heisman trophy finalist in college football, claims to have had an online relationship with a girl from Stanford. Then, on the same day his grandmother died, this girl also died from leukemia.  Shortly after Notre Dame lost the national championship game to Alabama, the story broke that this girlfriend never really existed and Te’o got scammed.  Since then, the biggest question, and really one of the last ones that remain: Is Manti Te’o a victim of some scam artists or was this whole scheme planned out and Te’o even one of the conspirators?

The article above is named “Manti Te'o denies he was part of girlfriend hoax.” Recently, Manti Te’o spoke publicly about the hoax for the first time and the answers and information that he gave is basically put together in this article.  The gist of his story is that he is completely innocent and that he had no idea of the hoax while it was occurring.

My opinion?  Te’o is a complete and utter liar and this whole hoax is nothing more than a sick publicity stunt.  Nothing in this story adds up and many facts seem very fishy.  The first one is the fact that this whole relationship was over the internet.  A scam artist would have to be very, very dedicated to have time to sit down and talk to Te’o over the phone every single night for six months.  On the other hand, if Te’o knew about the hoax then he could say they talked, or even met (which he did say, then admitted he lied about it).  Next is the timing of the events in the story.  The supposed death of the girlfriend was within a few hours of the death of Manti Teo’s grandmother’s.  Add this to the fact that there was no previous mention of her having leukemia and you either get a very ignorant Manti Te’o, or you get a conspirator.  The other timing issue is the timing of when the “non-existent girlfriend” story broke.  It was within a couple weeks after the end of the national championship game.  Coincidence?  Of course not, Te’o’s college career is over and waiting to make the story public was nothing more than another publicity stunt ending his senior year, and making his NFL draft stock that much more intriguing (Te’o first told the story to Notre Dame officials around Christmastime).  The last confusing part of this story is the lack of apparent motive by the perpetrators.  If Te’o truly is innocent, then why?  Why go to all this trouble just to mess with a college football player?

These questions and (lack of) answers have me convinced that this so-called hoax is nothing more than a publicity stunt, with Manti Te’o as a (co-)conspirator.  What do you think?  Is Te’o a Victim or a Liar?

About Me

My name is Alex McHugh.  I am 16 years old, a sophomore in high school, and live in Omaha, Nebraska.  I have three younger brothers: Grant, Jack, and Max, who are 12, 8, and 5.  My parents’ names are Keith and Gail.  I was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota on December 29, 1996.  Right before preschool my family and I moved to Monticello, Minnesota.  We stayed there for 4 years or so before we moved to St. Michael, Minnesota.  During my fifth grade year in St. Michael I moved to Carroll, Iowa, where I lived for three years.  Finally, right before eighth grade year, my family moved here to Omaha where we joined the Mary Our Queen parish.  I attended school there for my eighth grade year then decided to go to high school at Creighton Prep.  I really enjoy sports and at Prep, I play baseball and football. Outside of school though, I also play basketball and golf.