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Former Arizona Cardinal Tight End Oscar McBride has joined the Sportscity.com team. Throughout each week, McBride will be providing opinions, thought provoking subject matter and edgy, "in your face" point of views. McBride will also give weekly analysis of big game match ups, blow-outs and upsets. Stay tuned, this is one blog site you don't want to overlook.

New Year’s Resolutions in Sports

Written by Oscar McBride on January, 2nd 2008

It’s that time of year again. The time of year when we all sit around and talk about how much different the new year is going to be... or how many mistakes we made this past year that will be erased by our “growth” in the upcoming year. With these thoughts in mind, I thought I would suggest a few New Year’s Resolutions to some of our beloved sports teams and heroes.

1. Miami Dolphins – First thing first, congratulations on securing Bill Parcells to run your front office. Maybe he can help straighten out the mess that has been brewing since Nick Saban’s departure. If I’m the Dolphins and Parcells my New Year’s Resolution is to find a quarterback. Probably not a rookie quarterback since my offensive line is exactly that... OFFENSIVE but rather a crafty veteran who’s a proven winner to supply some direction and leadership to the injured and bruised ego of my franchise. It’s great to have drafted speed burner Ted Ginn, Jr. on the outside to vertically stretch defenses, but wouldn’t it be great to have a quarterback capable of getting him the ball... can anyone say Donovan McNabb?

2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish – This is a particular sensitive subject for me and I know I speak for all of my teammates from the era of the early 90’s when I say, “This just isn’t acceptable!” The obvious resolution for Weis and The Irish is discipline. Let’s go back to basics. Notre Dame plays with pride and never, ever... ever... ever gives up until the last second ticks off the game clock. Believe that you are going to win. Believe that you will find a way to win no matter what the circumstances. Weis needs to find a way to motivate his players and change the losing mindset that has permeated throughout the locker-room this season. If you can’t play with pride, passion and discipline wearing “ND” on your jersey and the Golden Dome on your head... maybe you should consider the chess club. Then again, I don’t think they accept mediocrity either.

3. Michael Vick – Simply, when keeping it real goes really bad. Resolution: move on... ‘Nuf said.

4. Kobe Bryant – A “no brainer” for the NBA mega-star in moving forward with his career...a resolution to SHUT UP AND PLAY! A wise man once told me that it is far greater to be thought a fool by everyone than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt. Kobe is the premier player in the NBA with an unstoppable offensive game and suffocating defensive skills too. The likelihood of another NBA championship in LA is highly unrealistic (he made sure of that 3 years ago with his behind the scenes antics). Now is the time to work on making those around him better and securing his place in NBA history. Here’s a thought... challenge yourself to be the first Kobe... not the next Jordan. There will only ever be one.

5. Major League Baseball – The Mitchell report has successfully put a negative spotlight on America’s favorite past time. The question that most people I know have is, “Why did the investigation start/stop at only a decade?” Did performance enhancing drugs only recently surface during the 1997 season? Here is my suggestion. Since the MLB has already desecrated the home run champion and his amazing feat and is now allowing the allegations of Mitchell’s report to go after other high profile athletes such as Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi and Eric Gagne and their asterisked accomplishments, it would seem that the only fitting resolution would be to get a grip. Performance enhancing drugs although illegal, have been used for many years in most, if not all professional sports. Baseball is NOT the exception. In my opinion, the integrity of the game was compromised not only by the players who used these drugs, but by those who were looking to defame and ridicule. Life is full of decisions. No one can say that they have made all of the correct ones... this includes league Commissioner Bud Selig and the most high Senator George Mitchell. It would seem that the MLB would want to correct the problem and help those players involved with as little fanfare and media exploitation as possible. Instead it seems that the impetus has been placed on exposing and crippling those involved. At the end of the day anyone with common sense knows, that if the league had wanted to catch those who were using they would have. Ultimately pro baseball a business.... and every business is about production... production means money...money means power and authority... power and authority when used incorrectly usually means demise. Hmmmm...I guess baseball is truly America’s game.

Take from this article what you want... these are truly my personal observations. Hopefully someone will be enlightened.

Happy New Year!

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