Unbalanced
The Unbalanced explores the world of sports and the culture surrounding it; from basketball to baseball, football, hockey, wrestling, and more.
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Stories in Unbalanced that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
Lovin’ the PWHL
The inaugural season for professional women’s hockey is well underway and I, like many North American sports enthusiasts, have cottoned on to the excitement of the games and the fanfare. Most of the women playing are relatively well-known through previous media exposure during Olympic games, World Championships and Rivalry matches between Canada and the United States. Yesterday, March 8, being International Women’s Day, I decided that I would pay tribute to the women of the world in my own little sports-minded way, and watch a PWHL game between the teams from Toronto and Montreal. Casually observing the new teams since the start of the season, I had suspected that the Women’s league was somehow different from the NHL and other men’s hockey leagues around the world. Sometimes these differences don’t show up during the Olympic games or World Championships because of the media focus on winning gold medals and the like. However, during a regular season hockey game, be it a men’s game or a women’s game, one gets a chance to really notice what the respective games are all about. I would therefore like to weigh in on what have formerly been suspicions but now are being seen as true differences between men’s and women’s professional hockey.
John Oliver SmithPublished 2 months ago in UnbalancedA Spirit That Fears Nothing
There are many sound reasons to repudiate professional sport in general and NHL hockey in particular. After all, the game has been as utterly defiled by cynical, avaricious late-stage capitalism as every other aspect of contemporary existence. The ordinary fan is incessantly encouraged by marketers and advertisers to gamble, guzzle alcoholic beverages and devour kilograms of fast food, which is a bald oxymoron if you contemplate it for a moment. Salaries are stratospherically inflated, as are ticket prices, and what passes for discourse generated by the participants in, and commentators upon, the game is so full of cliches and verbal false limbs that Orwell’s ghost will never stop screaming.
D. J. ReddallPublished 3 months ago in UnbalancedThe History of the Adams Division
I've followed the NHL in some form for 30 years, but I'm still learning about the league I enjoy watching. A long time ago, I did learn about the old divisions: Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe. These divisions predated the geographical ones that we've known for the last 30 years, and the rivalries were immensely intense during that period. This will be the first of four stories focusing on those classic divisions, and I'll start geographically, even though the names had nothing to do with location. First off, the Adams Division.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 4 months ago in UnbalancedA Look Ahead to Week 18 of the 2023 NFL Season
Week 17 kicks off tonight, but I want to take a look ahead to Week 18, the final week of the regular season. We all love the final week, don't we? We've really loved it since they changed the final week's schedule back in 2010. The final week always completes the league's playoff puzzle, it's do or die for a lot of teams looking to get in and even clinch divisions. However, a lot of games lacked a lot of drama, and even saw teams not give their all when they know that they can't move up in the standings. So in 2010, the NFL decided to make all of the final week's games divisional, because regardless of where a team is in the standings, that team wants to give their all to defeat a division rival.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 4 months ago in Unbalanced63 Strikes, You're Out!
They did it, folks. They finally did it. The Los Angeles Chargers actually fired Brandon Staley as their head coach, with the firing coming after the Chargers suffered a very embarrassing loss on national television. The Chargers were on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders, and it was a game that saw the Raiders absolutely pour it on. 63 points. Nine touchdowns--seven of them by the offense. The 63 points fell just 10 short of the long-standing record set by the Chicago Bears, who scored 73 points in the 1940 NFL Championship Game over Washington. However, the Raiders' 63 points are the most in team history, and marked the second time this season that a team scored 60+ points--the Miami Dolphins scored 70 points in Week 3.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 5 months ago in UnbalancedNFL Week 9 Recap: Nine Months
January 2, 2023. We all remember that Monday evening. The Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals faced each other in what was the final Monday night game of the season. Regarding the game and the storyline, it was two teams jockeying for position in the AFC, as they were both in position to possibly take the AFC's #1 seed. This was an important game for both teams, but before the 1st quarter ended, there was suddenly something much, much more important than the game of football.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 6 months ago in UnbalancedFantasy Football is BACK!
Despite being English, I have found myself becoming more and more enamoured with the sport that the Americans call “football”. Watching American Football in the UK used to be a most difficult proposition, aside from the Superbowl the only way to watch any action was a highlights show at 1am on a Wednesday morning. During the nineties and early 2000’s I was school aged, but after that coverage started to improve. In recent years Sky Sports have added the Thursday and Monday night games, as well as three Sunday matches. Even then, the absolutely baffling decision to host games only on nights when most people have work confuse me no end. But as my interest has grown, I’ve put additional effort into trying to keep up with the games when I can. My wife has since joined me in this interest, but unlike me she is a reasonable person, who goes to bed at a sensible time rather than staying up into the night watching foreign sports and typing up nonsense for strangers to read (4th wall break! Hi, thanks for reading).
Luke FosterPublished 8 months ago in UnbalancedNFL Week 1 Recap: A New York Minute
The NFL is back, and this fan was ever so eager for the season to start. My reasons were simple. One, I had a good feeling about Fantasy Football this year, and two, I'm a Yankees fan who wants to forget about this disaster of a season. With every new NFL season comes new storylines and new questions, and one of the biggest new storylines of the debuting 2023 NFL season had to be Aaron Rodgers making his New York Jets debut on Monday Night Football.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 8 months ago in Unbalanced
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Most recently published stories in Unbalanced.
Somers Track Laces Up Versus Hen Hud
Please see tip, pledge and subscribe options below On Monday April 8, with the moon crossing the sun, Somers kept their heads down and laced up for a dual meet versus Hen Hud. Several multiple winners for the Tuskers, Haylie Donovan might have hit the trifecta, but the timing just wasn’t right. “My main race is the 400. I felt a little sick before, so I couldn’t run it,” she lamented, but the unsettling didn’t derail the rest of her day.
Rich MonettiPublished about 4 hours ago in UnbalancedControl Your Temper(Anger):
Introduction Image by AI Once upon a time, in a small village nestled in the mountains, there lived a young man named Akio. Akio was known throughout the village for his quick temper and short fuse. He would often get into arguments and fights with the villagers over the smallest of things, like a misplaced tool or a misunderstood comment.
Muhammad Ali RazaPublished about 8 hours ago in UnbalancedHalle Woodard: The Woman Behind NFL Sensation Ezekiel Elliott's Heart
In the glitzy world of professional sports, the spotlight often shines brightest on the athletes themselves. Their on-field exploits, accolades, and controversies dominate headlines and fuel discussions among fans worldwide. Yet, behind every successful athlete, there's often a steady pillar of support, a source of strength, and a partner who stands by their side through thick and thin. For NFL sensation Ezekiel Elliott, that steadfast companion is none other than Halle Woodard, a woman whose presence in his life extends far beyond the football field.
Sangita NandiPublished about 11 hours ago in UnbalancedWhat Went Wrong: Lightning's Last Stand?
Is this really the end for the Tampa Bay Lightning? If it is, it was a hell of a run for this team. To think, this all started when they got embarrassed, humiliated, and punched in the mouth by, of all teams, the Tampa Bay Lightning. We all remember that year. 62-win season, award finalists at every turn, and many experts handing them the Cup. The Blue Jackets were a Wild Card who hadn't won a playoff series in their entire history, yet not only did they defeat the Lightning, they swept them!
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished about 16 hours ago in UnbalancedKamille is All Elite: A Look at the Possibilities
There were many months of speculation and rumors, but it's finally official: Kamille is All Elite! This news pleases me to no end. Kamille is basically one of the top reasons why I watched NWA programming on YouTube. In fact, it was because of NWA that I learned about Kamille. When I first saw her, she was portraying that silent but deadly bodyguard role--similar to the late, great Chyna until became vocal in the Attitude Era's progression. Kamille was the villainous enforcer for then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis, who is currently serving as SmackDown's General Manager, and she would later become the lone female member of NWA's super-villainous faction, Strictly Business, which was led by Aldis and also consisted of Kamille's real-life husband, Thomas Latimer.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished about 20 hours ago in UnbalancedWhat Went Wrong: Last One In, First One Out
It's really funny how things work in sports. Those who have had a regular 9-to-5 are familiar with the following phrase: "Last one hired, first one fired." A lot of companies swear by that, especially when it comes time for layoffs. In some crazy cases, the playoffs are no exception. We have seen instances where the last team to get into the playoffs sometimes ends up being the first team eliminated, though last year, the last team to get in ended up three wins short of winning the Stanley Cup.
Clyde E. DawkinsPublished a day ago in UnbalancedJohn Jay Gets Easy 10-0 Win Over Saunders
Please see tip, pledge and subscribe buttons below. Thank you. On Friday April 5, after opening the lacrosse season with a 3-1 victory over Lakeland High School, John Jay faced the Saunders Blue Devils at Contest Field in Cross River and sent a rookie to the pitcher's mound. So in walking the first batter on four pitches and falling behind to the second Devil, Jack Garneau admitted he might not have been locked in enough at the outset of the early evening game. But he turned the house key, struck out the side and the rest was easy pickings for the hungry Wolves.
Rich MonettiPublished 2 days ago in UnbalancedSomers Rebounds with Two Straight Victories
No matter what the record says, Coach Deb Daly has her own standard for measuring success. “We always want to see progression,” she said. So despite an 0-3, she still felt her girls were on point, but now, the bottom line is catching up.
Rich MonettiPublished 3 days ago in Unbalanced
Creators We’re Loving
The creative faces behind your favorite stories.
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Lamar Wiggins
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Stephanie J. Bradberry
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Michael Kinnaly
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David Wyld
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Joshua Charles Heflebower
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Michael Reynoso
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