Riker’s Block

  • With trade, the memorable Joe Flacco era comes to end

    Joe Flacco has been the quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens for as long as I’ve been a fan of the team, an era with great victories and devastating defeats that is coming to an end with his recent trade to the Denver Broncos. Flacco fit in perfectly with the hard-nosed Ravens’ teams of the late…

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  • The Best and Worst of My 2018 Football Predictions

    Even with championship games that pitted the best teams in their respective sports, this football season has had its fair share of intrigue and unpredictability. While all of the new developments have been exciting in the NFL and NCAA, they’ve also torn apart many of my predictions. These are the best and worst of my…

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  • The best of the best in sports media

    As a major consumer of sports media, I’ve developed refined tastes preferences for a variety of different forms of sports media, from magazines to newspapers to books to websites to talk shows to broadcasts and everything in between. Each one can come with a different role or purpose, but regardless of its role a great…

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  • These five matchups will determine Super Bowl LIII, and my SB pick

    As far as Super Bowl matchups go, this Sunday’s Big Game between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams is as great a matchup us NFL fans could get. Though it was an upset victory over the favored Rams in the Super Bowl in 2002 that started a Patriots’ dynasty that still hasn’t died…

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  • Peter Boulware? Robbie Gould? Most appropriate NFL names of all-time

    Commentators often call player-team pairings as “matches made in heaven,” a statement especially true for the star-studded New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams heading into this Sunday’s Super Bowl LIII. But sometimes, it doesn’t take excellent plays on game tape to give us evidence of a perfect fit; sometimes, you can just hear it.…

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  • Varsity Letter: Rivalries add heat, hype

    Any spectator could tell that the ice hockey matchup between the Patriots and the Churchill Bulldogs was something more than just another hockey game. Whether it was the two traditional powerhouse squads aggressively battling it out on the ice or a packed arena with two sections of raucous fans, the Patriot-Bulldog battle was going to…

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  • First and Ten: 2018 NFL Regular Season

    The 2018 NFL regular season has been one of the more interesting in recent memory, with a plethora of potential Super Bowl teams, four or five viable MVP candidates, and emergences of young players such as the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Browns’ Baker Mayfield. Before the playoffs kick off, I am going to explore…

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  • 2018 highlighted by exciting firsts

    There seemed to be a first time for everything in 2018. Eagles winning a Super Bowl behind the arm of Nick Foles? Check. Capitals not only reaching the Stanley Cup Finals, but winning it? Check. A 16-seed routing one of the most dominant 1-seeds of the past couple years in March Madness? Check. U.S. Curling…

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  • Into the Spider-Verse welcomes audiences to new dimension of superhero movies

    Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse is the fourth Spiderman franchise to hit the big screen, and it seems to know it. The movie, produced primarily by Sony, both plays off the traditional backstory of the Peter Parker character as well as slips in references to the original movies. But Into the Spider-Verse’s acknowledgement of the movies…

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  • Ranking my best cross country races of high school

    Cross country races are awesome. Each one is unique, with different terrains, competitors, and challenges. They also maximize the team aspect of distance running and combine individual and team strategy as well as training and talent to make for incredible races. Sadly, I am now one month removed from my high school cross country career,…

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