My name is Charles McLaughlin. I usually throw the "J." in between my first and last name, but this isn't necessarily a formal forum. Philadelphia-bred and groomed by the city itself, I am a recent graduate of Temple University and former football walk-on for the University.
Over the span of my life, I have grown accustom to the various monikers people have tried to give me. My parents use the humorous "Chuckles," although when I'm in trouble, my mother usually calls out the full name on my birth certificate. My best friend Sean Finley started the ever-so popular usage of the name "Chuck" which I usually prefer. My other best friend Rayannah Mitchell stole another girl's play name "Chuck-Chuck" and it stuck with me with her and her whole family. And lastly, my fellow brother in the defensive backfield, Delonne Wilbourn, dubbed me Chuckpac, which stuck with me from all my other teammates and fellow legendary walk-on "Slim" Jim McGill. As I tell most people, you may call me whatever you want (within reason of course) but I prefer Chuck if you're short on creativity.
My specific focus at Temple was sports. Sure, I went there to get my degree in journalism but I fell in love with sports some time ago and it is the only thing I want to do with my life's future. As a student, I was focused on sports journalism as my career path but as a dreamer, I thought professional athlete was a possibility. Some day, I'll tell more about those dreams but now, I want to focus on what I'm doing and why you're here.
I am creating this blog more so as an outlet of my ideas. I like to tell my reflection that I'm a writer and a pretty good one. I've scribbled poetry in my past and I loved writing papers at the last minute for my classes at Temple just for the rush. I am inspired by fellow blogger and sports enthusiast Bill Simmons, who writes for ESPN.com's Page 2 and ESPN The Magazine, for his offbeat, humorous and insightful articles in his various forums. I am sure I'll probably plagiarize a little bit of Bill's style just because the Sports' Guy grew on me after years of keeping up with his work.
Bill is lucky though because his sports city of Boston is kicking our ass in terms of parades. It has been almost 24 years since people gathered along Broad Street to celebrate a championship being brought to Philadelphia. Bill's New England Patriots have three trophies that any Philadelphia Sports fan/nut case would kill for, not to mention the Rocky-like story of Tom Brady who has went from late draft pick nobody to getting comparisons to Joe Montana (who is arguably the greatest QB of all time). Our baseball team is 15 wins away from 10,000...well, 15 wins for the opposition to give our Phillies 10,000 losses and officially anoint us as the losing-est franchise in the history of sports. I'm not big on hockey, so don't expect much commentary from me there, but I am a huge basketball fan. My Sixers are the last team to ride down Broad street with the likes of Dr. J, Moses Malone and current head coach Mo Cheeks. I punched in my Sixers fan ticket for last season after the departure of Allen Iverson and decided to watch college basketball and wait for the NBA draft, hoping we'd find another way out of the mess Ed Snider and company has put us in.
Besides the sad, miserable stories we hear in Philadelphia because we are dying for a winner and our teams are just simply dying, sports gives us much more to look forward to. This spring, the NBA playoffs took off. The Golden State Warriors, an unlikely underdog of a team whose franchise has not seen the light of the postseason since 1994, absolutely destroyed the defending Western Conference Champion Dallas Mavericks and made a great run in the playoffs. The two best teams in the NBA, the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs, had a great clash and inspired one of the most controversial decisions for league Commissioner, David Stern, with the suspension of two Phoenix Suns starters for leaving the bench area during an altercation that was started by a Robert Horry also known as Big Shot Bob and laid the biggest shot of the series when he body checked Suns star Steve Nash.
The most inspiring story came from Derek Fisher of the Utah Jazz. He helped the Utah Jazz climb into the second round of the playoffs and then had to miss the first game of the series to tend to what was being called a "family situation." Utah played rookie Dee Brown in his place, who showcased very well for the Jazz. However, in game 2, Brown suffered a serious neck injury in the first half. Without knowledge of the incident, Derek Fisher was said to be on his way to the arena for the game. He walks onto the floor in front of the faithful fans in the Delta Center and receives warm embraces from his teammates and even former teammate Baron Davis. Apparently everyone knew more than I did. So as I watched, Fisher went on to play a great game and despite not warming up or touching a basketball for several days, he plays inspired defense and hits a game-clinching three-pointer. What happens next is what gives us chills up our spines.
Fisher, being the star of the game, gets interviewed and goes on to discuss his situation.
Fisher's daughter had grew ill and was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer which is called retinoblastoma (don't ask me to try and pronounce that or spell it without the help of wikipedia). Fisher has to take his family to a specialist in New York so his daughter could receive an operation that ultimately saved her life. After returning to Utah from New York, Fisher begged his wife to go and help his teammates.
When you hear the story, you can't help but get caught up in the moment. When I told my Dad, he literally clutched his heart and said he could never understand how "someone could go through something like that" because it has to be weighing on their mind so much. Others gave their "oh my God" and "awww" responses. My Mother was unlike others and sort of blasted him. She said "his place is with his family!" As much as I wanted to argue with her for not seeing the positives of this story, she is right in some ways. I mean, is Derek Fisher wrong for leaving his daughter after this ordeal to just play in a game??
Thats when you need to take the perspective off of sports in that term. Sports are games to little leaguers and children in school yards. When you reach a certain level, sports are no longer a game to anyone who has a little bit of dedication to their team. Whether you are an athlete who plays with pride or a simple fan who dons his teams colors and cheers for them religiously for the rest of their life.
Could you say Derek Fisher should've stayed with his family that night? Sure...it was such a scary situation, who could leave their child after that. But Derek Fisher is a dedicated person, to his family through blood and the family he has that puts on that same uniform he does. People always say "Put the team first!" And Fisher did that to such a large extent. Its the reason a man goes out to make a living. People are depending on that man to support them. And Fisher's teammates needed him that night to continue making their run. The fans in Salt Lake City needed him to help continue this dream they have of an improbably championship run.
Derek put his team first and then, when given the chance, put everybody else first. During his interview immediately following the game, with all the sweat pouring off his face and a heavy heart hanging in his chest, Fisher told the world about this rare eye disease and urged parents everywhere to get their children's eyes checked.
You don't watch sports for the entertainment. You watch it for the passion. You know at least a few players names and you have some sort of following. Sports gives us an escape from reality and has often been referred to as "America's playground." Through sports, our children learn how to function physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. Its what gives us our dreams.
This is why I dreamed of playing sports.
Its why I still dream of being apart of sports one way or another in the future.
Our 42 of the Day
The number and jersey I wore during my days asa Defensive Back for the Temple Owls
2 comments:
Chuck, to give my honest opinion, you really write very well. Ever though of being a sports writer? You would be so good at it. You have a way of getting your point across while keeping the reader tuned in. Good Job and keep it up!
wow charles, pretty damn good. i wasn't aware of your outstanding writing or creative ability. u would be a great sports writer.
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