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One of the core characteristics of the New England Patriots dynasty was their inevitability. You knew that when they lost a great player, another would step in. You knew that when your team had a superstar talent, they would have a sobering answer. You knew that when you stepped on the field, you were the…
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The first college basketball game I attended was a pretty epic one. The battle between the George Washington Colonels and the Charlotte 49ers on March 4, 2006, had tournament implications, culminated in a GW buzzer beater, and was celebrated by a court storm of rabid fans. Then a five-year-old preschooler, I recall a couple things:…
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The following is my final paper for my 398 Video Game Studies class, which explores the extent that mainstream sports-themed video games such as NBA 2K employ realism. “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game!” For years this phrase was the slogan of EA Sports’ video game franchises, an assurance that everything that…
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Every year, I update my list of my top 100 movies, the Riker Scale. On the list, I rate each movie from 1-100 (79 is the cutoff as of the 2020 edition) and include information such as rating, year and director. Maintaining the Riker Scale has been extremely fun over the years, and it serves…
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About an hour after the ultra-exciting Super Bowl LIV between the Chiefs and 49ers, I had the pleasure of joining my good friend Harrison Larner on his Slice of Sports podcast to recap the game and discuss some of the major storylines from the game. Harrison did a great job, and I’d highly recommend taking…
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Last year, the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams battled in one of the most riveting Super Bowls I can remember. No team had been able to stop Tom Brady and the Patriots’ juggernaut offense all year until the Rams did… and they still lost. The match pitted elite coaches and came down…
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I wasn’t a Kobe Bryant fan. Not at all. In the first-ever NBA game I watched in 2008, he was the villain leading the Lakers against my Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, and the Celtics won. The next year, he handily defeated my new favorite team (and the one I have called my team…
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In sports, the athlete is always moving: running, shooting, passing, swimming, catching. The same could be said about my own history as an athlete moving between different sports. Over a span of 19 years, I’ve participated in an organized league over 40 times, with no sport exceeding 12 of those seasons. Those sports represented an…
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Every NFL team has “burn the tape” games. The games where the only positive takeaway is that the game is over. But not every team has a “burn the tape” game in the playoffs. Not every team has a “burn the tape” game after winning 12 straight games and clinching the one-seed. Not every team…
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Patriots dynasty, you impressed me. Your dominance spanned two decades in the most competitive era in NFL history. The scores, records and highlights are a testament to greatness, and from your reign legends were made. But even you, New England, though you may be one of the best sports dynasties of all-time, nothing lasts forever.…
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