Somethings you just can’t get out of your blood and covering NAIA football in some shape or form is one of those things for me. I don’t have the time these days to follow every team in the NAIA like I used to back in the day but I still keep track of it enough to feel like I can make a few predictions heading into this weekend’s first round of the Championship Series. Continue reading
Author: jasondannelly
The NAIA Takes a Stand. . .or a Knee?
Yesterday it was announced that the NAIA has decided to move the NAIA DII Men’s Basketball Tournament from Branson, Mo. after 18 years. This comes after College of the Ozarks became upset that the national office wouldn’t require all student athletes to stand for the national anthem. (Full Story – pay no attention to my comment trolling in the section below the story, haha)
I’ll let you read the story for the full details. However, after 24 hours and seeing all the interactions I felt it was necessary to dust off my NAIA media credentials and comment. Continue reading
15 Stories for 15 Years of the Victory Sports Network by Jason Dannelly.
Early last summer I was approached by Rob Brandt of the Victory Sports Network. You see, Rob is the guy I sold VSN to (the second time) and he is the guy responsible for the site’s contents. He and Barry Fouts asked me to write something for the 15 year aniversary of VSN.
I said, “Sure.”
Admittedly I forgot about writing that piece until one night last month when I posted a few photos for nostalgia sake and said, “Crap, forgot to write that.”
But as nostalgia goes. . .it got me thinking. Why not write 15 brief stories that no one knows about the behind the scenes stuff that happened at VSN? There has probably been enough time and distance from these stories to not incriminate anyone, so why not.
So without a big long drawn out explanation, here are the 15 stories from the VSN years you never knew about, sorry mom and dad (again). Continue reading
“The Program” was Garbage. Time to Ruin Your Childhood.
“There’s no way this will sweat off.”
It’s been 25 years this fall since we were blessed with “The Program.” I remember going to the movie theater with my parents. At the time it was one of the most anticipated moments of my life. A real life college football movie! Tackles, YEAH! Touchdowns, YEAAHHH! Trash Talking, YEEEEAAHHHHHHHH! Face paint, FACE PAINT, YEAAHHHHHHHH.
The movie brought in 23 million dollars at the box office and nearly every person I played football with had a VHS tape of it. (Remember those?)
But let’s be honest, from a football perspective this movie is a steaming pile of garbage. I fully realize if 13 year old Jason was here right now he’d put a beat down on me. Partially due to the fact he’d be in much better shape and because I was obsessed with this movie so much I probably watched parts of it every week during my high school football career. Continue reading
Movie Review: The Founder
After a couple crazy week’s of travel I finally got home to enjoy a few hours of doing nothing this weekend and decided to pop on “The Founder” starring Michael Keaton. There’s a couple reasons why:
- I kinda like these “based on a true story” sorta kinda movies.
- Michael Keaton has been one of those guys I’ve always liked (“220. . .221. Whatever it takes”) and has had somewhat of a comeback in recent years.
- I’ve ate a lot of McDonald’s in my life.
My Kinda Annual Kansas City Royals Preview.
Duffy leads the Royals Rotation.
That’s right it’s baseball season! Sure March Madness is upon up and it seems like the Super Bowl just got over, but my brain is on summertime and Kauffman Stadium. So along with that it’s also time for for my kinda annual Royals preview. Mostly because there have been a lot of years I’ve wrote about the Royals but can’t remember all the years I’ve done it.
After achieving the ultimate accomplishment in 2015 the Royals clawed their way through the 2016 season to finish 81-81. To the casual baseball fan most would say the Royals lost their magic and 2015 was one of those lucky flukes or perfect storms.
Like most Royals fans I was disappointed in the overall record and finish of the Royals but wasn’t upset with the outcome. I think most true blue Royals fans would say it was almost a miracle to finish .500 after the dumpster fire that became the starting pitching rotation and the other injuries they encountered. It wasn’t mid 2000’s KC baseball but it wasn’t what we’ve become accustomed to either. Continue reading
37 Years
Age 30 – The New Yorker? Really?
Today I turn 37.
37. . .holy crap. I guess I didn’t pay attention the last couple of years because they have flown by pretty quickly. Admittedly, there were a few years that couldn’t get over or be forgotten about quick enough. But come on, I swear I was like 31 just a little while ago.
37 is also a horrific year in celebrity deaths. It’s not like there was any cool drug overdoses of legends or other ways that people were “taken way too young.” At age 37, some serious stuff when wrong.
- Lou Gehrig died of ALS.
- Vincent Van Gogh shot and killed himself.
- Christa McAuliffe died in the Challenger explosion.
Pardon me while I stare blank faced at my computer for 10 minutes thinking of the horrific ways I might die if I go this year. . . WOW. That was fun. Where’s my birthday party hat and candles? Continue reading
Book Review: Downtown Owl
Downtown Owl is a book by Chuck Klosterman set in the fictional town of Owl, N.D. When I moved to North Dakota last year my friend Brad said, “You need to read Downtown Owl.”
Months went by and I was back in Nebraska for a Saturday night when Brad reminded me again on one of our Omaha drives, “You need to read Downtown Owl.”
Of course I gave him the, “Oh yeah, you said that before. Yeah, I’ll definitely check it out man.”
On Friday, December 23rd I was back in Nebraska for the holidays. I had already finished up one Christmas the night before with the my brother and his girlfriend. Friday was my off day before getting back into the season of Christmas the next night at my Grandma Baker’s and the next day with my sister’s family. Brad was back “in the creek” so we decided to meet up and see how life had been going.
Like a couple of 90 year old men, we drove around looking at Christmas lights in small towns be mesmerized by the lack of lights or the overabundance of lights on any given block. There was also a lot of confusion as we crept past one house who had baby Jesus in a manger being overlooked by Santa Claus and Rudolph. (Go back and read that sentence one more time, and think about it for a second.) Continue reading
Kevin Donley: Caring More than Coaching.
Kevin Donley and the University of Saint Francis Cougars won the NAIA National Title tonight beating Baker University, 38-17. It’s the first championship for Donley at USF and I don’t know if I’ve mean more happy for a program or coach in all of my years of covering the NAIA.
One of the biggest reasons I covered the NAIA for as long as I have is because of the relationships I created with the coaches. After a few years and showing that I could be trusted many of them let me into their programs and into their personal lives outside of football.
My first real venture into meeting a lot of coaches began when I did “The Two-A-Day Tour”for my old web site. The concept was easy; go interview coaches and players all over the country during fall camp and add a bunch of content to the web site.
The execution was a little tougher. When I called to set up each of these stops I got met with a lot of resistance and questions. Who are you? Why do you want to do this? What’s the catch? Continue reading
Review: Running for His Life – The Lawrence Phillips Story
Phillips in 1996 vs. Florida.
Beautiful, tragic, heartbreaking and complicated. Those might be the best words to describe the life of former Husker Lawrence Phillips.
The story of LP to anyone from the state of Nebraska or the world of college football is anything but a mystery. If you followed the Cornhuskers at all in the 1990’s you know the ups and downs of the life of the most controversial runningback in the history of the program.
But what you probably don’t know are the details, reasons and the deep tragedy that was the man who asked Tom Osborne as a senior in high school “Who wears No. 1 for your team?”
Showtime captured the story of LP in 88 minutes better than anyone could have ever thought. Continue reading
Ramblings of Jason Dannelly 