Riker’s Block

  • Ravens selection of Lamar Jackson signals new, exciting era

    February 3rd, 2013 was one of the greatest days in the Baltimore Ravens’ history. The Ravens, in the Super Bowl for the first time in over a decade, held off a furious rally by Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers in an epic clash of two powerhouses. But the past five years haven’t been…

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  • Varsity Letter: Overcoming Nerves

    The following column was published in Wootton’s Common Sense newspaper.   Some things never go away. Take nerves, a sensation that every athlete knows and deals with regularly. After three years of running for the varsity cross country and track teams, I thought I would have grown impervious to pre-race nerves. I remember the half-hour…

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  • Varsity Letter: Best and Worst Parts of Being a Student-Athlete

    The following column was published in Wootton’s Common Sense newspaper.   “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens may not have been a high school student athlete, but his iconic words ring true in the fields and courts of our school’s sports teams. Being a student-athlete here is…

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  • NFL Draft Superlatives with Christian Clark

    Most Likely to Succeed: John’s Pick: Bradley Chubb, Defensive End, Denver Broncos Von Miller. Bradley Chubb. That duo rivals JJ Watt and Jadeveon Clowney in Houston as the best pass rusher duo in football and will strike fear into every AFC rival. Chubb could have gone as high as second to the Giants but slid…

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  • 2018 NFL Mock Draft 1.0 with Christian Clark

    I teamed up with my good buddy Christian from NFL Updates Express for a first round mock draft as well as a focus on draft targets for our favorite teams. I had the odd selections, starting with Cleveland, and Christian had evens. Each of us provided analysis for our own selections.   1. Cleveland Browns-…

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  • Method to the Madness: How We Arrived at our Maddest March Yet

    How We Arrived at our Maddest March Yet   Round of 64 Step 1: Loyola-Chicago Stuns Miami at the Buzzer Step 2: Arizona Upset by Buffalo Step 3: Wichita State Falls to Marshall Step 4: UMBC Becomes First 16 Seed to Advance Step 5: Play-in Syracuse Beats Reigning NIT Champ TCU The madness started when…

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  • Ready Player One adaptation takes Hollywood style

    NOTE: This is a spoiler-free review.   Ready Player One, based off a science fiction novel by Ernest Cline, was one of the movies at the top of my must-watch list for 2018. A couple years ago, I read Ready Player One and I was blown away, and today it’s probably one of my five…

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  • MLB Preview: Ten Storylines to Watch in 2018

    Baseball is back! The 2018 MLB season will make for an entertaining summer with intriguing storylines across the board, from the loaded Bronx Bombers on the East Coast to the Shohei Ohtani show on the West Coast. These are the storylines that will captivate baseball fans this summer and make it impossible to turn the…

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  • Oscar winner Get Out both scary and stirring

    It didn’t take long for Jordan Peele, one of the creators of the hilarious comedy show Key and Peele, to strike it big on the big screen. In his directorial debut, Peele crafted a masterpiece. Get Out, a horror-comedy that hit theaters last February, was a smash hit both in the box office and at…

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  • Cousins, Keenum prizes of loaded quarterback market

    Following a month mostly free of NFL news, the landscape of the league will change significantly in the coming weeks with the start of the new league year and free agency in mid-March. A couple weeks later, the NFL Draft (April 26) will channel brilliant young talent into the pro level. In most years, finding…

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