This past Sunday, our youth minister got his opportunity at the big stage and gave the sermon. Which meant two things. First, the sermon would be shorter. Also, I had Third Day songs running in my head because he looks like a younger version of Mac Powell. (Yes, that's very inside. But the locals will get this one.) He started off with the question, "If you had the opportunity, would you rather watch sports or play in the game?" Without hesistation he followed up that question with this, "Wouldn't we obviously all play in the game if we had the opportunity?" He then went on with the rest of the sermon.

Unfortunately for me, I had that question stuck in my head for the next few minutes. Why did he just so easily assume that everyone would want to play? Maybe it's because he's about 23 years old and has a sweet jump shot. So sweet that he made me look like Sasha Vujacic covering Ray Allen in the NBA finals. (Although, that's not saying much. Most people do that to me.)

I love watching sports and I love playing them. But is that answer so cut and dry? Does everyone really want to play in the game? Here are some things to consider.

Getting in shape

I'm 33 years old and am in pretty good shape. But to stay in shape, I have to get up at 5:00 AM and workout or run. And guess what. I don't see many other people working out at that time. You know who else I do see working out when I'm up at that hour? When I run through the University of Alabama campus, I see several players going to the workout facility for an "offseason" workout. Did you catch that? Offseason. That's right, they aren't even playing and they working out. How many of you have the desire to do that? Cause you aren't going to bowl over Brian Urlacher with that body you've got right now.

Back seat drivers

It's so much easier to tell everyone how things should be done, rather than to do it themselves. That's why blogs are so popular. We can second guess everyone. Would you rather sit in the stands and complain that your QB doesn't look at his third option, or would you rather stare down that blitzing free safety and take the hit while executing a perfect pass? Or how would you like to block out a 6"10" 250 lb power forward so that you can get the rebound? It's so much easier to say how it should be done rather than doing it yourself.

Losing stinks!

Winning's the only reason we play right? Forget the "It's not how you play the game" stuff. Winning a championship (shout out to the 1984 Plum Orioles) is one of the sweetest things you'll ever experience. Losing just stinks. And it sure doesn't hurt near as bad when you're watching a team lose. I can get over a loss pretty quickly when my team losses. However, if I sacrificed all the time and energy and then lost, well, that takes some time to get over.

Let's face it, you're not as good as you think you are...

... otherwise, you would be playing. Most of us would rather keep the legend going. Very similar to the famous Seinfeld race episode. Don't remember that episode? Here's a recap..

George(To Jerry): Where's Lois?.

Jerry: She couldn't make it.

George: I can't believe you're really going out with a woman named Lois. (Jerry's a Superman fanatic.)

Jerry: I know finally. But George, guess who her boss is. Duncan Meyers.

George: Duncan Meyers?

Elaine: Who's he?

Jerry: Elaine, only one other person in the world knows what I am about to tell you and that's George.

(All of them sit on the couch, listening very closely.)

Jerry(Cont.): When we were in the ninth grade they had us all line up at one end of the school yard for this big race to see who was going to represent the school in this track meet.

Elaine: Uh huh.

Jerry: I was the last one on the end. George was next to me. And Mr. Bevilacqua, the gym . .

Elaine: What's that?

Jerry: Mr. Bevilacqua, the gym teacher.

Elaine: Oh, of course.

Jerry: He was down at the other end. So he yells out, "Ready, On your mark, Get set, " and I was so keyed up I just took off. By the time he said go I was ten yards ahead of everybody.

George: I looked up. I couldn't believe it.

Jerry: By the time the race was over I had won. I was shocked nobody had noticed the head start.

Elaine: Really?

Jerry: And I had won by so much a myth began to grow about my speed. Only Duncan suspected something was amiss. He's hated me ever since. Now he's back.

Elaine: Well what happened when you raced him again?

Jerry: I never did. In four years of high school I would never race anyone again. Not even to the end of the block to catch a bus. And so the legend grew. Everyone wanted me to race. They begged me. The track coach called my parents. Pleading. Telling them it was a sin to waste my God-given talent. But I answered him in the same way I answered everyone....(George extends his arm towards Jerry).....I chose not to run!!!

Elaine: So now Duncan is back?

Jerry: He's back. And I knew he would be someday. (drinks) Man, that's some tart cider!

I seriously doubt, anyone will look at me and think that I was ever an elite athlete. But I'll just let them think that. So I chose not to hit! I chose not to shoot! and I chose not to catch!

It's been a rough couple of days here at PIUR. After declaring my love for Sasha Vujacic during the playoffs, he and his agent threatened to go sign in Russia if he didn't get a better offer from LA.

Now look. I'm OK with Josh Childress signing with Greece. They need more players that are willing to rock the afro over in Greece anyways. But to lose Vujacic would have been devastating. As documented in the past, (and it can be verified by commenter 65TPT) I've got a knack for these things. I can spot a good foreign shooting guard when I see them. (Maybe I should get a job scouting players overseas.) Don't let his defensive performance in the Finals this year fool you.

News came out Monday that Sasha resigned with the Lakers.

And the best part. He wanted a "no haircut clause" as part of his contract. Awesome! Of all the things you could care about, that's what he wanted? In a couple of years, kids everywhere will be wearing one of those "nets" around their heads just trying to imitate Sasha.

I'm telling you. Jump on the Sasha bandwagon now. Believe me, there is plenty of room.

Back in January, I wrote about an investigative piece that the Seattle Times did on Jeremy Stevens. Derek Johnson, who's currently writing a book about one of the players who died from that the same team, has posted some interviews about the articles on his blog. Most of the players were outraged that the Times would paint the whole team as thugs, and would write about it 8 years later.

But there is one interesting quote. Check out what Hakim Akbar, a safety from that team, had to say about Stevens.

Don’t get me wrong, he was a good brother. But I’ve never seen anyone come with a reckless abandon like that man. I saw him clothesline (teammate) Matthias Wilson with one arm. This man was a beast. He would squat down before practice and piss all over himself and just get DIRTY. I’ve never seen a man who played in that kind of (psychological) place.

This is way worse than Moises Alou, who used to urinate on his hands to prevent callouses.

No wonder Stevens couldn't be tackled. No one wanted to.

I always get cracked up when I see before and after pictures for a product. This before and after is from P90x (which is a workout program my wife and I are undertaking right now).

When you really break the photo down, yes there is some change, but it's not as drastic as one would think. Suddenly, the guy has a better hairstyle, the lighting is better and he's flexing "extra" hard. If you think about most people you know (and that's directed at you if you're eating potato chips while reading this post) he's in pretty good shape in the "before" picture.

And that brings us to SEC media days. This has been discussed on this site before, but what are these guys really going to say.

"We're improved."

"We've been working hard in the offseason!"

"I believe with the new recruits coming in, we're going to be solid this year."

In reality, they're just changing their hairstyle, giving you different lighting or flexing a little harder. So enjoy reading all the stories over the next month about how "so and so" has worked hard over the offseason to improve. (News flash, everyone works hard in the offseason now. They're all getting better at the same rate.)

One thing to look out for. If your coach is trying to build up his program, that's usually not a good thing. (Side note, sorry Mississippi St, I heard some talk about the BCS this year) On the flip side, if your coach is tempering expectations (you'll see a lot of that from Coach Richt) then it will probably be a good year. Just something to look out for.

I had a conversation with commenter Drew Rosenhaus today during church. (For some reason every time I asked him something, he said "Next question!") We were sitting next to each other (yes the heterosexual seat was in between us) and discussing the fact that without football and basketball (the two main staples at PIUR), there really isn't much to talk about. So, I'm going to back off a little bit over the next few weeks.

If something is worth talking about, I'll post it here but I'll be back to posting nightly once football season gets closer. I know you're extremely disappointed.

By the way, did you know that Brett Favre might be coming back?

Inspired by a conversation on the Sports Guy's BS Report, I thought I would pull together a bunch of clips of sports injuries and post them on this site. Turns out someone has already put it together on one clip. There are several left out (Theisman's leg; Prothro's leg; Boston pitcher Flores hit in the face), but these are good enough.

Enjoy...

So Elton Brand spurned the Clippers and signed with Philly today. Another day in the life and times o fthe NBA, take the money and run. That's what I thought until I started seeing some of the stuff coming out of LA. They're treating him like he pulled a Carlos Boozer on them. Most fans in LA, and NBA fans around the nation, felt like the Clippers were going to take a step up this year, with the signing of Baron Davis. Now that won't happen and if you believe the folks in LA, it's Brand's fault. If you're not familiar with the story, here's a quick breakdown.

Last week, Brand opted out of his contract with the Clippers, but Los Angeles was expected to make a strong push to re-sign him. Instead, he spurned the Clippers and agreed to a five-year deal with Philadelphia worth a reported $82 million.

"My intention was to try and work something out with the Clippers," Brand said.

Agent David Falk said Brand was given a "take it or leave it" offer from the Clippers on June 30 at significantly less than what Brand signed for in Philadelphia. Falk also said the Golden State Warriors offered more total money -- about $90 million -- but that Brand felt the 76ers were a better fit.

But is Brand as evil as the folks in LA would make him out to be?

Didn't the Clippers just steal Davis away from Golden State two weeks ago, under the same scenario? Check out this paragraph from Fox Sports and see if it sounds familiar:

Davis had until Monday night to decide whether to turn down his $17.8 million contract for next season, the final year of a six-year deal. The Warriors didn't expect him to opt out of the deal despite little progress in the parties' long-term contract negotiation, but club spokesman Raymond Ridder said they received a letter from Davis' agent, Todd Ramasar, late Monday indicating his intentions. Davis still could return to Golden State as a free agent, but his opt-out clause was his only bit of leverage in forcing contract talks with the Warriors before next summer. The former All-Star also is now free to negotiate with other clubs, possibly facilitating a sign-and-trade deal with Golden State. Davis, a 29-year-old veteran, repeatedly has said he intended to return to Golden State, but he might be displeased by Warriors coach Don Nelson's recent declarations about giving more playing time to Golden State's young players, even at the expense of a few victories next season.

Clippers fans everywhere are upset that Brand opted out of his deal and then turned to the 76ers at the last minute. According to some reports, Brand opted out of his contract with LA so that he could free up cap space to bring in another high profile free agent. But didn't Baron Davis tell everyone that he planned to stay in Golden State? Doesn't every free agent say they intend to stay with their current team and then when another team offers them more money they contend that their current team just couldn't get it done?

So the question becomes, how can you be OK with the signing of Davis and then be upset with the Brand leaves your team under the same premise? And how are you shocked when Brand takes the deal?

Something else to consider. When did Baron Davis become a guy that will lead your franchise to the title? Has he lead any team to the championship? It could be another reason Brand left. Davis, who's had durabilty issues, hasn't exactly been the ultimate point guard in the NBA. He's more of a shot first, pass second point guard. Did Brand see the writing on the wall? We'll never know. And Davis was signed for five years. He hasn't had five healthy back to back seasons in his career. At some point that was going to hurt Brand.

One thing we do know, this was Brand's last shot and jumping to a contender. Sure, the Clippers could turn it around. And yes, the 76ers might stink again next year. But after spending years with the Clippers and knowing the inner workings of the franchise, maybe Brand figured this was his chance to get out while he had the chance.

And I think most people are forgetting what happened in the summer of 2003. Brand signed a free agent offer sheet with the Miami Heat for 6 years and $84.2 mil. The Clippers matched and thus Brand was forced to stay in LA. Looking back at some old articles, Brand said all the right things at the time and seemed ok with it. However, LA Times columnist Mark Heisler suggests otherwise:

You may remember Brand tried to get out of here before, in 2003 when he signed a Miami offer sheet. The Clippers had the right to match and although Brand reportedly begged Sterling not to match the offer, he did. Sentenced to five years here, Brand never uttered a word of complaint and, lo and behold, three years later, found himself in the playoffs with the Clippers.

Keeping all of these thoughts in mind, are we really surprised that Brand signed with Philly? And keeping in mind that the Clippers would drop Brand in a heartbeat if he wasn't performing, why would Brand be loyal to the Clippers? He actually was the one who resurrected the franchise and he really doesn't owe the Clippers anything.

And the bright side for the Clippers, this might be a good thing. In the long run, are you really sure you want to tie up 5 years and $82 mil on a guy that played only six games due to injury last year?

Over time, you can watch a sporting event and see something that many bloggers will pick up on immediately. Billy Packer telling everyone that the championship game is "Ovah!". Erin Andrews getting hugged by Bruce Pearl during the UT - Memphis game. Those are just a few of the examples that come to mind off the top of my head.

Maybe I haven't read enough today, however I haven't seen this anywhere. I guess everyone is OK with John McEnroe hugging Roger Federer at the end of an interview? What is this, Oprah?

If you haven't seen the hug, check it out here.

Ahmad Rashad has been criticized for years for his friendship with Michael Jordan. Yet, I don't remember him ever hugging MJ. Women are criticized for just being on TV for their looks. And you can be sure that Jim Gray would have never given someone a hug. Maybe no one saw the interview, or maybe everyone was perplexed by the fact that Federer wore that sweater right after an epic match. Or maybe no one cares about tennis, I'm not sure.

I guess next year McEnroe can just pull up a couch and they can have an hour long chat, Oprah style. Is this compassionate, sensative guy the same guy that we all remember on the court? (Who doesn't love the Long Island accent here?)

And now he's hugging men in sweaters. Amazing....

I'm not going to lie and tell you I watched all 6 hours of the coverage. To be honest, I saw a small part of the 3rd set while I was at lunch and then forgot about it. I was scrolling through the channels waiting for Track and Field to come on and saw that it was still on in the 5th set and decided that I'd give it a try. Apparently, the two best tennis players in the world were battling for the Wimbledon championship. Excuse me, I mean the Gentleman's championship.

(Yes, I realize that this post about tennis will lead to comments from Michael Chang, Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendel. Bring it.)

It was actually compelling to watch. I'm no tennis expert, but you just had this feel that Nadal had control of the match. Except every time he seemed to take the lead, Federer would just draw back and serve an ace and tell everyone, in his own way, to quiet down. In case you didn't watch it, Nadal took the champion down in an epic 4 hour 45 minute battle.

Nadal is a physical stud.

They were battling for over 6 hours (if you include rain delays) and Nadal never slowed down. He's built like a freak. Although, he did have to use a towel in between each point. It makes me wonder if the towel was laced with "The Cream" or "The Clear" to give him some extra "juice", if you know what I mean.

The ball boys were studs too.

Seriously, they would go from zero to sixty in two seconds and get right back out of the way. How did they keep that much energy? Do they rotate them out? And it doesn't help that all I could think about was Kramer when he was a ball boy at the US Open on Seinfeld.

Wimbledon has a Masters feel to it.

Everything is green. Nothing has the modern look to it. Really the court looks like something straight out of the eighties. Which is the same feel you get when you walk around Augusta National. Every fan you see in the stands is white and old.

Seriously, no lights?

The match was about 15 minutes from being suspended until tomorrow. How terrible would that have been? All momentum would have been lost and the guys would have been fresh. Doesn't it rain in England every day? At some point, isn't the championship going to be delayed until night time? Why not have some lights so that the match could have continued. Oh right, the stupid tennis tradition.

Let's hold off with the "Greatest Match Ever" comments.

Come on John McEnroe. It was already awkward enough when you hugged Roger Federar after interviewing him at the end of the match. Even Ahmad Rashad didn't go that far with Michael Jordan back in the day. If it was the greatest match ever, then it will stand the test of time. Sometimes we witness a great event and we immediately label it the best ever. With all of the matches that have ever been played, that's a pretty bold statement.

Getting second place at Wimbledon stinks.

Can you imagine losing an epic battle and then having to stand around and hold up that stupid plate? The whole time, I just imaged Federar going back to his hotel room and dumping the 2nd place plate in the trash can.

Last year, I trained with several friends to run the Chicago Marathon. We spent almost six months getting in peak shape, including several hot 20 mile runs on Saturday mornings in the summer. The work was hard, but the reward was going to be the ability to run and complete the race.

On the drive to the starting line of the race from our hotel in Chicago, a wife of one of the my friends (who had run a marathon before), started talking about how she wished she could run in the marathon too. My friend quickly reminded her about all of those Saturday mornings she was in bed while he was up at 4:30 AM to run with us. And running the race was a reward for completing all of the workouts.

And now, look who's in the news. There are rumors that Brett Favre might want to come back and play next year. Is anyone really shocked? I don't think so.

After hearing it talked about endlessly on sports talk radio and on the internet (I mean really this time of year is so slow it might make someone blog about track or women's basketball), I'm shocked that I haven't heard the angle that I'm about to take.

Instead, everyone is talking about his need to be on center stage, or his need for competition, or the fact that he's a selfish teammate.

When he retired, didn't he say that he could still play the games, but he couldn't put his body through the offseason workouts required to get in shape to play the games?

Guess what, the intense workout time is almost over. Oh, sure, he's probably continued to go to the gym and workout, but do you think he's worked out as hard as he would in previous seasons? And if he hasn't, even he said that he wouldn't be able to compete on a high level if he didn't train at 100%.

And check out his quotes from an April 25th article:

"First of all, I won't keep myself in shape. I'm sure after training camp is over and all that hard work is done, it might be 'OK, now.' It might be nice to dream about it, but no."

So sure he wants to come back now. Just like my friends wife, who wouldn't want to come back and compete without having put in all of the hard work to get there?

And if you don't think the offseason work is important, check out Jamal Lewis's stats the year after he spent several months in jail during the offseason.

Oh, and one other small reason you don't want him to come back, he's going to be on the cover of Madden '09.......

OK, so some of you aren't to fired up about all of the Olympic talk. What else should I talk about?

Does anyone care that the Clippers have agreed to a 5 year $65 million contract with Baron Davis? A contract that's probably 4 years too long.

I should probably talk about how "my boy" Hank Steinbrenner said the Yankees should worry less about Madonna and more about hitting. Well, I'm paraphrasing a little, but isn't that what he's saying?

Or I could write some sarcastic post about how the Cubs, Bears or Bulls stink in some form or fashion to get one of my friends fired up.

But no, I will press on with another post about the Olympic Trials. Much to a couple of the readers dismay.

(And believe me, once the 800 meter final is posted somewhere on You Tube, that will get it's own post. You just wait...)

Much has been made about Becky Hammon, the South Dakota native that will be playing basketball for the Russian national team this summer. If you're not familiar with the story (and for 99.9% of the stories relating to women's basketball, I'm not), here's a rundown...

Basketball player Becky Hammon grew up in Rapid City, S.D., and has no Russian ancestry, but she will be playing for the Russian national team in the 2008 Olympics. Hammon obtained Russian citizenship last year to secure a lucrative off-season playing contract from club team CSKA Moscow. When it appeared that she had little chance of making the U.S. Olympic team, she decided to play for the Russians. Many, including U.S. coach Anne Donovan, have labeled the WNBA star a traitor, but Hammon says her loyalties have not changed. “Will I be playing for Russia? Yes. But I’m absolutely 100 percent still an American,” Hammon said. “I love our country. I love what we stand for. This is an opportunity to fulfill my dream of playing in the Olympics.”

Like the US coach, many Americans are outraged They've wanted her flogged. They've cried out to the masses phrases like "If she doesn't love the U.S., then why doesn't she just leave." I love my country and had some of the same thoughts. How can she play for the Russians? For some reason, woman can make a lot more money playing over in Russia than they can playing for the WNBA. Especially if they have Russian citizenship. I'm sure the Russian professional team lured her over and asked her to play for the national team as part of the deal. It should be pointed out that she has obtained Russian citizenship, so everything's above board.

But still, something doesn't sit right with the story. It's so un-American, right?

And then I started watching the U.S. Olympic trials. And this dude named Bernard Lagat is tearing up the track in the men's 5,000 meters. Here's a little background on Lagat:

Growing up on a family farm in Kapsabet, Kenya, Lagat ran a mile and a half to school each day, then home for lunch, back to school, and home again at dismissal. For all that, he was little more than a mediocre runner by his midteens. As his faster peers turned pro, Lagat entered Jomo Kenyatta University near Nairobi in 1996. After a coach there spotted Lagat's talent and contacted several American schools, Washington State took a chance. Within a year, Lagat was winning Pac-10 meets en route to a title-filled NCAA career.

Shortly after arriving at WSU, Lagat started talking with coach James Li about bigger goals, such as making Kenya's 2000 Olympic team. Over the next three years Lagat improved, but Athens still looked like a long shot by the summer of 1999, when he turned pro, forfeiting his final year of eligibility. Agent James Templeton signed him not for his speed on the track but for help supervising a group of young Kenyans who were racing on the European circuit. "He thought I'd be a good influence," says Lagat, whose best 1,500 was a less than-world-class 3:34. "But to be honest, he didn't think I was any good."

And then Lagat broke out, running 3:30.56 at a meet in Zurich that summer.

So wait, a Kenyan will be running on the US Olympic team? Where's the outrage? Where is the cry for Americans and Americans only to be on the team? Isn't this the same scenario in reverse?

Again, it should be pointed out the Lagat, who has run for the Kenyan Olympic team in 2000, has obtained US citizenship. And it should also be pointed out that he's good too. He'll probably medal in the 1500 and 5000 meter races.

Let's face it. Free Agency has hit the Olympics. If you want to train with another country, or you just want to have to opportunity to go to the Olympics, you can do what you need to do to get there. These aren't the only examples. Nick Calathes, a guard for Florida, will play on the Greece national team. He apparently has some family that is from there. And there certainly are others.

So calm down with your patriotic outrage against Becky Hammon. Besides, she wasn't going to make the US team anyway....

We've entered a really slow time in sports. Basketball is over, football still seems too far away and baseball is, well, it's baseball. However, I'm intrigued with the US Olympic trials that are currently taken place in Eugene right now.

I realize most of you aren't, but that's why I'm here. Since I'm a runner, I care a lot more than you guys ever will. However, most of you will probably tune into the Olympics next month. And I want you guys to be ready and well informed. (Oh yea, and there is nothing else going on in sports) So, I'll give you guys a few intriguing stories to follow once the Olympics get here.

Before we start, please spare me "track is tainted because they are all on the juice" comments. I'm sure some of the guys are cheating. At this point you can make that argument for any sport. Take a look:

College Sports - Paying players, illegal recruiting, fixing grades
Basketball - the games are fixed
Football - Spygate, gambling issues,
Baseball - Well, let's not even go there.

So, if you're going to make that argument about track, you have to remember that the perception is out there for every sport. And I HATE it! I digress...

Most of you have seen or heard that Tyson Gay ran the 100m finals in a time of 9.68. It won't go down in the record books because there was too much wind for it to count. It was headline news on Sunday night and Monday. Here's video of it if you haven't seen it.

But what you probably haven't heard is that he came close to not even running the race. To get to the finals, you have to run a qualifying round, quarterfinal and semi-final race. In each of those races you have to finish in the top four. For a guy like Gay, those races are a mere formality. In most races, he'll take an early lead and then back off a little bit at the end to conserve energy.

For Gay, he wasn't almost a little too careless in his qualifying race. Check out this video...

Gay throttled down at the wrong line. He speeds up enough to recover and make the next race. However, he was just a step away from not making the next race, or the finals, or the team or posting the 9.68.

And there are no special exemptions in track and field. He would have been out of luck and out of the Olympics. And he would have been the poster boy for making a mental mistake in sports.

Instead, you will see him as the poster boy for the US in the Olympics. He'll be this year's Carl Lewis. But know you know the whole story and you'll remember that he came "oh so close" to not being there.