Rhianna Dozier Sports Broadcasting Blog

 By: Rhianna Dozier  This topic really irritates me. Should college athletes be paid? I’m rolling my eyes as I type these words. No, absolutely not. There are a million reasons why college athletes should not be paid, but I will only share a few points that I stand with strongly.   First, imagine if all college athletes were paid. There would be so much controversy in the NCAA. You would have to take into account how much money they would be paid. Would certain sports be paid more? Would men and women be paid equally? Where would all this money come from?   Colleges would become more and more expensive in order to come up with the money to pay its athletes. The debate about gender in sports would be brought up over and over again. Some would argue that men risk their loves more than women and should be paid more. However, Title Nine and the NCAA states otherwise. Men and women need to be treated equally in sports. The college athletes are already on scholarships. The...

 By: Rhianna Dozier  Absolutely no one blows a lead like Atlanta. For the second time in a row, the Atlanta Falcons have blown a double-digit lead and lost. First, the Falcons got their asses whooped against the Seahawks on September 13th. The Seahawks scored 14 points in the first quarter holding the Falcons to only one field goal. After the half in the third quarter, the Seahawks managed to scrape by with 14 more points holding the Falcons to zero. By the end of the game, the Seahawks beat the Falcons 38-25. However, everyone knows that game 1 of the new season does not determine the whole season. Yet, the Falcons kept blowing their chances.   In week two, the Falcons blew a 19-point lead to the Cowboys when they were going to win the game if they just fell on an onside kick. Then ion week three, the Flacons seemed like they were going to redeem themselves. They were winning by three points at the half. They scored 10 points in the third quarter and kept the Chicago Bea...

 By: Rhianna Dozier  Don’t you just love it when your once unstoppable team starts dreading downhill at full speed? Yea, I really love to see it. I saw the fate of my team this past Sunday when the Patriots lost to the Bills. I won’t sugar coat it. The Patriots are not very good this year. However, they still had a chance up until this game.   The Bills have just shut the curtain on a 19-year run that included 17 playoff appearances, nine Super Bowls, and six Lombardi Trophies. Before Sunday, the Patriots were still on a path to the playoffs. A win against the Bills would have allowed the Patriots to be 3-4 with an easy win against the Jets in the following week making them 4-4. However, that was not the case.   Why? Because the Patriots have forgotten how to play.   The Bills have given the Patriots a 2-5 record and four straight losses for the first time since Belichick arrived to the franchise at the beginning of the first year of the 21st century. We were 19...

 By: Rhianna Dozier  What people consider a “sport” now-a-days is quite interesting. Whoever said cheerleading wasn’t a sport is seriously disturbed.   Let’s get real for a second. Who considers cheerleading a sport?   If you are thinking to yourself “no way” or “absolutely not,” I love to be the one to tell you that you are wrong.   A sport is said to be an activity that involves physical exertion through using skills and knowledge in which individuals or teams compete against one another for an audience’s amusement. So, by definition, cheerleading is a sport.  There are no “but’s.”   Cheerleaders spend countless hours trying to perfect jumps, cheers, chants, dances, kicks, and stunts. Each movement must be sharp and in unison with everyone else. A cheerleader’s day starts early in the morning with extreme cardio workouts. The afternoon is filled with strength and conditioning to tone the muscles that they will use in the evening. The evening is consu...

 By: Rhianna Dozier  Women are starting to seriously make a break in the sports industry. In 2017, Katie Sowers became the first female coach to coach an NFL team. She works with the 49ers’ and was the first female members of an NFL staff to coach in the Super Bowl. Melanie Newman made history in becoming the first female broadcaster in franchise history to call play-by-play for a regular-season MLB game. She also became the fourth woman to handle play-by-play duties for a Major League Baseball game.  Now, Kim Ng has become the first female general manager in MLB history. On Friday, the Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng as their new general manager. In addition to being the first female, Kim Ng is also the first Asian-American general manager in baseball history.  Kim Ng started her career as an intern with the White Sox back in 1990. In 1991, she was hired by the team to work full-time and was named assistant director of baseball. In 1996, Ng left Chicago to oversee transa...

 By: Rhianna Dozier  As the basketball season approaches, Ivy League schools have just announced that they will not be participating in any winter sports for the 2020-21 season. This includes college basketball and hockey. They Ivy League made this decision official on Thursday stating that they will cancel the seasons instead of postponing them.  The Ivy League is the first Division 1 conference to completely cancel its winter sports seasons. In addition, the Ivy League was also the first league to completely cancel fall sports as well. The league’s president and commissioners have decided that the safety of the students is more important than letting their athletes play to win. The Ivy League had actually decided back in the summer that is was not going to allow any of its scholarship sports to play prior to the end of the winter semester. Now that March Madness and college hockey nationals are canceled, the Ivy League sees no point in hosting a season.  Coaches an...

 By: Rhianna Dozier  With the fall semester vastly closing, many sports teams are starting to have practice again in an effort to prepare for their season in the spring. Practices are outside were social distancing allows the athletes to still follow COVID-19 protocol. Teams have set schedules to ensure that the field or core is not being shared by more than one team at a time. Masks are still being worn and players are being tested weekly.  Schools are limiting the number of fans being allowed in arenas in stadiums. Players will have to be tested before traveling to the other schools and upon arrival to the school. Masks must be worn at all times unless during physical activity. Universities have their work cut out for them in the spring with fall and spring sports happening at the same time.  In addition, with the holiday season coming up, many foreign athletes will not be able to travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cities are starting to see a spike in COVID-19...

By: Rhianna Dozier  Football thought it could prevail. Teams and players thought that they were invincible. However, it was only a matter of time before the pandemic caught up to college football teams as well as NFL teams.  The SEC has had it worst of all with the number of games being postponed and canceled continuing to grow week by week.  Entering week 11, the college football slate has been hit the hardest by COVID-19 cases and protocols in the 2020 season. Saturday’s slate of games will have been affected the most thus far with 15 games being canceled or postponed so far as the numbers continue to rise around the country. Games for sure canceled our Air Force at Wyoming, Ohio State at Maryland, North Texas at UAB, Gardner Webb at Charlotte, in Utah at UCLA. Other games like Auburn at Mississippi State, Texas A&M at Tennessee, Missouri at Georgia, Pitt at Georgia Tech, and Louisiana Monroe at Arkansas State have all been moved to December 12.  This weeks num...

 By: Rhianna Dozier  The nation was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief once sports started again. Hockey resumed, football began, and the MLB and NBA picked up right where they left off. We were able to witness three championships: the NBA finals, the World Series, and the Stanley Cup finals. However, it is questionable if we will make it to the Super Bowl in 2021.  With football players constantly touching each other as they tackle one another to the ground, it's hard to keep Covid protocols in check. The players can't wear masks under the helmets because then they can't breathe. So, to keep an eye on the teams, the NFL tests players for Covid every single day. Every day. My God, what a waste of so many tests.  Even with all the testing, teams are still getting caught for not following protocol. In Week 5, three teams had to postpone games twice because players continued to be diagnosed with the coronavirus. But why is this happening? Because the teams are sti...

By: Rhianna Dozier  Last season, the Patriots were 12-4, and now at week 6 of the 2020 season, they are 2-4. So, what the hell happened?  If you ask anyone outside of New England, they will tell you it's because Tom Brady left the team. No, just no. I refuse to believe that Tom Brady was the entire Patriots team. It's just not right. However, if you ask anyone from New England, they will tell you that our offensive line can't hold the other team's defense back, and our quarterbacks seem to have trouble with their hand-eye-coordination.  Again, what does this mean?  Well, when the Patriots bring their 2-4 to Buffalo next Sunday, there might be a cold change in the atmosphere: defeat. Now, I'm not talking about New England's defeat against Buffalo that may or may not happen. I'm talking about the sense of "giving up" on the season, something the Patriots have never done before under the coaching of Bill Belichick.   Think about it: depending on how t...