Youth Sports: Gambling on Youth Football - Outside the Lines

It is still hard to believe that anyone would even think to try and gamble on youth sports.  How can someone possibly rely on 7 and 8 year olds to consistently make plays and win them money.  However, it is still a problem, especially in the south.    Not only are people gambling and winning thousands of dollars, but players and parents are getting involved as well.  Some players are accepting money to make big plays.  Running a kick off back for a touchdown can earn an 8 year old a hundred dollar bill.  Even parents are getting involved.  Parents are getting offered couples of thousands of dollars to have their kids change teams.

These acts are not only extremely illegal, but extremely immoral.  No kids no matter what age should be witnessing this environment.  It is hard to believe that parents and coaches have let it come this far.  The people betting on these games are not the type of people that you want to have your kids around.  They are setting an example for them.  During these youth football games there is fights, violence, drugs, and weapons.  People are constantly getting jumped, mugged, and into fights.  Games played in the NFL aren't even this bad.  More light has to be shed on this problem before it grows even bigger.

Gambling on Youth Football - Outside the Lines

Comments4kids

Comments4kids is an organization dedicated to getting people to comment on kids blogs.  These blogs made by kids are not professional blogs.  Most get little to no feed back on their post.  Because of comments4kids, these young bloggers can get helpful tips and supporting comments from experts and other dedicated bloggers.  Blogging is a lot more fun if there is a community supporting you.  It can make a kids day if he gets a nice comment on a blog.  I think that comments4kids is a great organization for giving young writers tips and confidence.  It is very beneficial to bloggers at all levels and can keep kids into blogging.

CBS/ESPN dealing with Daily Fantasy Sports?

Although it is still to be determined if there was any inside trading between Draft Kings and Fan Duel, it is still unethical for the two companies to be dealing with each other.  It is just plain wrong.  Draft Kings has pulled its ads from ESPN until the whole situation is done with.  Draft Kings has no evidence that any of there employees had violated any rules and used the vital information to win big bucks.  Draft Kings and Fan Duel had both announced that there employees are no longer allowed to play on each others rival sights.

Apart from all the controversy, stations such as CBS and ESPN should still work with Daily Fantasy Sports.  The companies have taken the steps to preventing this from happening again.  Daily Fantasy Sports is growing and can lead to major profit for both CBS and ESPN.  It is in everyone best interest for CBS and ESPN to continue working with Daily Fantasy Sports and forget about this whole ordeal.

Breast Cancer Awareness

As you know by now, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Throughout the month you will see pink attire being worn by influential figures.  The purpose of this attire being worn is to promote breast cancer donation foundations.  These foundations sell pink items and take a little bit of the profit and donate it to a cancer foundation.  One of these foundations is called the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  They try to save lives through education and promoting inspections.  They encourage those going through treatment to live their lives to the fullest.

Some people may argue that selling these pink items and giving a little bit of the funds towards these cancer foundations is wrong.  They claim that people are "using breast Cancer to promote business and make money".  This however, is false.  Any which way that someone is raising money towards a donation, whether its 5% of the profit or 75% of the profit, they are helping to make a difference.  It does not matter if the 10% or 20% of the $20 scarf you just bought goes towards the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  All that matters is that you are helping the cause and ultimately saving lives.

I personally believe that Breast Cancer Awareness month, including the Pink October Foundation ran by the NFL is a good thing.  Yes they are using cancer to make money but they are raising awareness and education on Breast Cancer.  Although they could possibly donate more of the funds they make, they are still doing a good deed raising money and spreading the awareness of Breast Cancer.

NFL Pink October Scam?

As we are now halfway through October, we all know by now that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Famous figures along with your average american are helping support the cause by wearing pink.  Although wearing pink does help spread awareness of Breast Cancer, the majority of the profit being made on the some of these pink items are not going towards cancer research.  Some organizations may even be viewed as a scam, such as the NFL's Pink October.

The NFL's Pink October does not support breast cancer like you'd think it would.  Not a single penny of the money being raised goes towards Breast Cancer Research.  The money that is being raised goes towards Breast Cancer Education.  By giving the money to Breast Cancer Education, they can easily make a profit off of the money because the money needed for Breast Cancer Awareness is no where near the money needed for Breast Cancer Education.  Out of all the revenue that the NFL makes from raising the awareness of Breast Cancer, about 12 percent actually goes towards breast cancer education, which is again, not the same as breast cancer research.

Fantasy Sports Controversy

On October 6th, 2015, Ethan Haskell, Draft Kings employee, had won 350,000 thousand dollars on his rival sight Fan Duel.  Because Haskell is a Draft Kings employee, he can have access to vital and unfair information that can help him win.  Draft Kings claims that Hasekell did not have access to this information when he had submitted his lineup.  If Hasekell did use the information that he obtained from Draft Kings to win, he and the company could get into serious trouble.



Whether or not Haskell had used the information to gain an unfair advantage on the rival sight Fan Duel, employees of the sites should not be allowed to play.  It is to easy to check the lineups and win big cash.  The competition is destroyed to the everyday players once people are putting big bills on the line and racking up the cash.

Utleys Illegal Slide

Chase Utley, the Dodgers second basemen, committed what appears to be an illegal slide in game 2 of a series against the New York Mets.  Chase Utley deliberately flung himself into the shortstop Ruben Tejada and broke his leg.  Chase Utley is now suffering from a 2 game suspension and will be missing game 3 and 4 of the series.  Utley is appealing the suspension.

I rule Chase Utley's slide as illegal.  He was not aiming for the base and intentionally slid into Tejada. Although his intentions were to break up a double play and not to hurt Tejada the slide should still be ruled illegal.  I believe that if Tejada were to have gotten up from the play and had not been injured the play would not be getting this attention.  I think baseball umpires should do a better job protecting the fielders before someone seriously gets hurt.  A serious leg injury could ruin a young players career.

"Hand of God"

There has been many "Hand of God" instances in soccer.  The most famous Hand of God goal was Maradona's against England in the 1986 world cup.  One of the most notorious and controversial ones was Luis Suarez "Hand of God" save against Ghana in the 2010 world cup semi finals.  The Uruguayan striker stood in the net while the goalie was out and deliberately slapped away the last minute head ball attempt by a Ghana player.  Ghana then won the penalty and Suarez was sent out.  Asamoah Gyan stepped up to take the penalty to try and secure Ghana going to the world cup semi finals.  Ghana would have been the first African team to ever advance to a world cup semi final if Gyans attempt did not drill the cross bar.  Uruguay then went on to win the game in penalties and advance to the Semi finals, without Suarez because he had been penalized with a 1 game suspension, where they lost to the Netherlands 3-2.  The controversy is, was Luis Suarez actions cheating and does he deserve more than a 1 game suspension?

Luis Suarez's Handball against Ghana was in fact cheating, but it is part of the game.  It is like in basketball when you have to foul someone to keep them from a breakaway or stopping the clock.  Although he had prevented Ghana from going to the semi finals through a last minute head ball goal, it is Ghana's job to convert the penalty.  Its hard to make a case that Ghana should have won that game if they missed a penalty.  I think that Suarez's past of biting, flopping, and racism made the situation worse, but the fact is, if it was another, lower class striker, this topic would not be controversial.  At a neutral point of view, I think Suarez made the right play, if I was in his shoes, I would of made the same play.  The Uruguayans thanked Suarez for the risk and contribution he took to send Uruguay to the world cup semi finals.  The matter of it all is that he did it for his country.  You cannot make the punishment worse just because it is in the world cup.  A foul in the world cup is a foul and should not be treated any differently than if it was a league game.